The next version of DirectX will be revealed at the Game Developers Conference (GDC) in San Francisco, which starts on 20th March. A few days ago rumours started to bubble up about the existence of a new version of Microsoft's collection of APIs, which enable developers to directly access your PC hardware and thus make games more fluid and responsive than they would be otherwise. Now Microsoft has 'confirmed' that DirectX 12 is real and teased its introduction at the GDC event at 10am on 20th March.
A few days ago before Microsoft let the official cat out of the bag AMD's Roy Taylor Tweeted in response to the rumours; "AMD loves open standards and fair competition. DX, OpenGL, Mantle; if it's good for gamers it's good for all". Microsoft introducing a new version of DirectX is big news for PC gamers, its last major revision was when Windows 7 was released in October 2009. Microsoft's DirectX 12 teaser includes the logos (and therefore support) of AMD, Intel, Nvidia, and Qualcomm.
The GDC2014 Session Scheduler for that day reveals a bit more about what will be going on. Anuj Gosalia, Development Manager, Windows Graphics, will present on behalf of Microsoft a talk about "DirectX: Evolving Microsoft's Graphics Platform". During the hour long session the following will be discussed:
For nearly 20 years, DirectX has been the platform used by game developers to create the fastest, most visually impressive games on the planet.
However, you asked us to do more. You asked us to bring you even closer to the metal and to do so on an unparalleled assortment of hardware. You also asked us for better tools so that you can squeeze every last drop of performance out of your PC, tablet, phone and console.
Come learn our plans to deliver.
Polygon also notes that there will be another session by Windows Graphics development lead Max McMullen, which focuses on Direct3D Futures. In this hour, between 4 and 5pm on the same day it is promised that attendees will learn "how future changes to Direct3D will enable next generation games to run faster than ever before!" Furthermore developers are promised "an unprecedented level of hardware control and reduced CPU rendering overhead across a broad ecosystem of hardware," using the new Direct3D.
With major new versions of DirectX usually launched with new versions of Windows it is expected that DirectX 12 will probably be part of Windows 9 when that OS is released.
