What is hardware abstraction? Well, it’s at the root of what makes an API useful. This is down to Direct3D offering a lower-level of hardware abstraction and a reconfiguration of how the graphics pipeline is managed when compared to DirectX 11 and previous. The single biggest new feature of DirectX 12 is a change to the 3D graphics portion – called Direct3D – that will greatly increase the opportunity for developers to optimise their games for specific hardware. Watch – A quick guide to what’s new in Windows 10ĭirectX 12 vs DirectX 11– Low-level hardware abstraction So let’s take a look at what DirectX 12 brings to the table. It also has some new effects tools and functions for making games look better than ever.

Microsoft talks up the amazing new capabilities for every new release of DirectX, but with DirectX 12 it really does have some key new features, at least when it comes to improving performance.

Both offer very similar key functions, but it’s DirectX that tends to be at the heart of most bigger games. The other major gaming API is OpenGL, which as its name suggests is an open source API. Windows 10 has arrived and, along with integrated Cortana, Xbox One game streaming and a fancy new web browser, one of its key features is DirectX 12, the latest version of the operating system’s gaming API.Ī software layer that sits between the hardware that powers our computers and the software that runs on them, DirectX is at the heart of the vast majority of games that run on Windows. DirectX 12 vs DirectX 11 – Why does it matter?

Direct x 11