Microsoft announced that DirectX 11.3 Win9 version DX 12 has not been announced yet

Just as many people are eagerly awaiting the arrival of DX12, Microsoft suddenly announced that there will be a transitional version of 11.3&mdash between DX11 and DX12; — specifically, Direct3D 11.3.

Since DX12 is coming, what is the significance of doing a DX11.3 at this time?

In fact, it makes sense. DX12 is a low-level API, very powerful, but difficult to control, and dangerous in the hands of the birth. The development model of DX12 is aimed at a very small number of programming experts. They write new engines and renderers, and others develop on this basis. In other words, the underlying API is not for everyone.

DX11 is a high-level API that naturally has its value. It hides the complex underlying hardware, is more friendly to programmers, and is easier to develop naturally. Therefore, DX11 and DX12 will coexist for a long time in the future, serving high and low, serving different people.

In terms of features, DX11.3 and DX12 will be common, and a large number of new technologies will be added at the same time. Because they are more complicated (especially for ordinary people), and Microsoft is the first public release, everything is still being further studied and defined, so we will try to give you a detailed analysis later.

In addition, Microsoft is also developing a new Feature Level for DX11.3 and DX12. Speaking of this feature level, it is a bit of a love and hate. It was born with DX11, and the original intention is very good, so that programmers can use the same API to program different levels of hardware without having to write code once for each generation.

For example, you can use the DX11 API to program, but the program can be applied to DX9, DX10, DX11 level hardware at the same time, but on the lower hardware, the function will be limited, DX9.0c The top is FL9_3.

But for ordinary users, the promotion of the manufacturer can be blundering. For example, a graphics card is said to be compatible with DX12, but it does not fully support all the features of DX12. The feature level may only be FL11_2. It is precisely because of this, coupled with the deliberate vagueness of the manufacturers, the current support for the DX12 graphics card is still shrouded in a fog, can only wait until the end of the next DX12 really born.

Anyway, the new generation of GM204's second-generation Maxwell architecture GTX 980, 970 has been fully claimed to support DX12, AMD also said that GCN architecture cards support DX12. Therefore, DX11 and DX12 will coexist for a long time in the future, and they will serve different game developers and developers.