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Microsoft outlines progress and plans for Windows 10 and DX12

by Mark Tyson on 18 March 2016, 11:31

Tags: Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), Windows 10

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Microsoft held a panel at the Game Developers Conference 2016 in San Francisco and discussed many aspects of gaming on Windows, Xbox One and other devices. Naturally a lot of focus was on Windows 10, Xbox One and DirectX 12. From the talk it seems like a lot of the current concerns about Windows 10 and UWP implementation will be addressed in the coming months.

The Microsoft panel started by reminding us how successful Windows and the Xbox One are. Likely an important statistic for Microsoft was that, across its devices, paid transactions doubled and revenue per device went up 4.5 times. Microsoft stressed that the Universal Windows Platform (UWP) has been devised to "make it easier for developers to make their games where their players want to play". Furthermore, with an eye on the industry, Microsoft said it was committed to making UWP the "greatest platform for game developers". It will continue to listen to feedback about the direction of UWP.

The capabilities of UWP will continue to grow and, impressively, it will even support devices that are yet to be released. In the near future writing a UWP app on Windows 10 will mean it is almost guaranteed to work on Xbox One, HoloLens and so on. Another development which could be impactful is the merging of the Xbox and Windows stores later this year.

Looking at the current state of UWP, Microsoft is aware of its shortcomings. With regard to the inability to disable V-Sync currently, Microsoft says users will be able to toggle V-Sync later this year and also be able to take advantage of technologies such as G-Sync and FreeSync in UWP apps. Those with multi-GPU setups will also be sated by full support on the way for SLI and Crossfire setups plus the flexibility of multi-vendor multi-GPU setups.

An important enhancement headed to Windows 10 and Xbox One users via DirectX 12 is HDR support. High Dynamic Range improves the gamut of colours displayable and can make scenes much more vivid and natural – or unnatural if you wish. Monitors supporting HDR, thanks to the use of displays leveraging Quantum Dots, are expected to arrive in strength from summer onwards.

All the above Microsoft GDC 2016 presentation slides were sourced from games site DualShockers. The site has further slides and coverage should you want to read more, especially concerning the Xbox One side of things.



HEXUS Forums :: 16 Comments

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One thing that isn't bound to change, however, is the necessity to buy UWP applications in the Windows/Xbox Store. I'm not a fan of that, but only time will truly tell, if that will be an issue. While games on Steam have a lot of discounts often the price will still be higher than boxed copies …or at 3rd party key stores such as GMG, G2A etc. Talking of Steam and keys, I wonder if Microsoft will add the possibility of redeeming keys purchased elsewhere?
“An important enhancement headed to Windows 10 and Xbox One users via DirectX 12 is HDR support.”

The xbone is only equipped with hdmi 1.4, so how will HDR be supported?
I've got too much traction with steam now (941 games and counting). It would take something exceptional for me to move now. I've tried other stores like GMG but always come back to steam. This just seems way to late for me.
azrael-
One thing that isn't bound to change, however, is the necessity to buy UWP applications in the Windows/Xbox Store.

Well, they list RotTR as a UWP application, yet I have it via steam. Obviously, going forward Microsoft may (will) try to make exclusivity deals……
They've tried to push their store for a while now if I'm not mistaken, let's see if exclusives will get it to take off…..my guess is they'll cave in eventually and let stuff onto other platforms.