Direct X12 – Advantages and Disadvantages
PC gamers have been looking forward to the launch of Microsoft Direct X12, an application programming interface that plays the important role of connecting the operating system and software with the graphics hardware. This version is widely believed to be an improvement over the ones that preceded it; even so, it is important to find out more about this new API, considering that there are quite a few good ones in the marketplace offered by rival companies.
The advantages of Microsoft Direct X12 are numerous and immediately apparent to the user. For one, this API offers far improved performance than before. It produces highly detailed images at 1080p resolution with far more triangles than before on the GPU. Various algorithms used to create visuals are made highly efficient. As a result, the scenes that are created are very rich and attractive. It also offers multi-platform support. While lots of gamers still prefer to use PCs, there is increasing preference to use smartphones and tablets to play video games. This has been quite a problem until now but Microsoft’s new graphics API seeks to address the issue of portability.
Another big advantage of this new API is that CPU load can be reduced drastically since applications will be permitted to have access to hardware at lower levels than before. While this varies according to the particulars of each device, the power consumed by the system can even come down by a whopping 50 per cent whilst ensuring that complex and detailed images appear on the screen. Video game developers are expected to make good use of Microsoft’s new API since they will now have the ability to use the CPU to its greatest ability.
It has to be admitted that Microsoft DirectX 12 also has a few disadvantages. Graphics cards designed to use other APIs, DirectX 11 for instance, will not be able to function efficiently and the system can get heated up tremendously. Another disadvantage is that while it creates a high resolution image there are quite a few problems with visual fidelity; spaces between lines are not filled in properly and so there will be problems with the image. In fact, the push to 1080p can result in images that are not as clean as expected. Potential users of DirectX 12 have to weigh all of its advantages and disadvantages before making the final decision of spending money on it.