Wednesday, May 11th 2016
Microsoft Adds New Game-centric Features to Universal Windows Platform
Microsoft added two new features to its Universal Windows Platform (UWP), the company's non-Win32 application environment built around the Windows Store and modern UI. With the latest update to Windows 10, Microsoft updated UWP to support adaptive-sync technologies such as NVIDIA G-SYNC and AMD FreeSync; and removed frame-rate limits. Games built on UWP (such as "Quantum Break") suffered from frame-rate caps.
UWP continues to be criticized for taking a "walled-garden" approach to third-party apps, restricting them to Microsoft APIs such as DirectX. The platform continues to suffer from several limitations for games, such as support for APIs such as OpenGL and Vulkan; and proprietary multi-GPU technologies such as SLI and CrossFire; or support for game-mods.
Source:
DirectX Blog
UWP continues to be criticized for taking a "walled-garden" approach to third-party apps, restricting them to Microsoft APIs such as DirectX. The platform continues to suffer from several limitations for games, such as support for APIs such as OpenGL and Vulkan; and proprietary multi-GPU technologies such as SLI and CrossFire; or support for game-mods.
55 Comments on Microsoft Adds New Game-centric Features to Universal Windows Platform
I Think this is going to be the feature of AAA games I am ok about it.
A big plus of windows 10 store each game you buy can be installed on 10 devices.
I don't get just immediate dislike for things which are good because you dislike other facets of a company.
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UWP as an API set is clearly a positive thing; it's more secure, less bloated and in some ways probably also better performing than the ancient Win32. Like has been brought up already, UWP as a platform isn't tied to the Windows Store; it's just a more modern and secure platform for running applications. Microsoft actually doesn't have a better option than UWP when it comes to security. Thanks to iOS and Android tablets, Macs and Chromebooks where pretty much everything is already using a UWP-like sandboxed and secure platform, 99% of users (non-power users) are expecting the same from Windows. If these users don't get security in the platform (which actually "blows up in their face" quite rarely) but have to handle it themselves, these people will think that Windows is an inferior platform and will move away from Windows. So, with UWP and sandboxing Microsoft is actually late to the party and they're more or less forced to move into that direction or risk Windows being seen as an insecure platform -> which'd lead to market share loss.
MS could try to improve the security of Win32, but it'd lead to lots of broken legacy apps and angry users - see what effect even a "relatively simple" change like UAC had. (UAC was just a way to force programs to run with non-admin priveleges unless they really needed the admin priveleges) And I'm a developer too, and I like the approach MS has taken with UWP, and will likely make UWP apps in the future (with the assumptions that MS keeps UWP apps installable / "side-load-able" without getting them from the Store, and that Windows 10 market share keeps on growing rapidly). Just like all companies and institutions, those "bad guys" don't have endless resources. Forcing them to spend more effort, time and money on defeating security mechanisms means less profit for them. Which means that for many of those bad guys, making malware will end up being unprofitable / not worth it and they'll give up.
I just began my hunt for an alternative every day OS for general tasks aside from gaming. You should know that many times when an idea is sold, only the best aspects about the initiative are mentioned and that potential downsides are obscured or played down. It is in Microsoft's best interest to not reveal how they intend to hoard more power over the market. With that said, MS has a horrible track record...
There's also that Windows is an open platform; currently even UWP is an open plaftorm (you can install apps without getting them from the Store). Even if MS locked UWP to their store, Win32 wouldn't go anywhere and so Windows would remain an open platform. Win32 isn't going anywhere for decades.
If Microsoft keeps UWP as an open platform, it can be a great replacement for Win32. Currently I see people bashing Microsoft for even attempting to make something new and more secure to replace the two-decade old and insecure Win32, which is silly.
Try to look outside the scope of games, please.
Literally the same app fricking works on PC, phone, Xbox and future devices (Hololens), is faster, eats less battery power, uninstalls 100% cleanly, etc.
And aren't things famously terrible in gaming now anyway? All day long all I see is bitching about ports, and that is a valod thing to bitch about because they can indeed be famously terrible, but I don't know what people think. What exactly would be the optimal path forward? Linux, diverging things even more, or what?
Let me drive something home: I have NOTHING against UWP when it allows me to use non-walledgarden libraries like OpenGL, and such. Right now, it's trying to replace all that with microsoft-only solutions, many of which cost money. Fuck that. No.
In Triple A gaming maybe.
Wanting UWP to die - even though it's a far more modern, and far more secure API for EVERY application that's built for it - just because it isn't literally perfect this very moment (even though we're already seeing more gaming focused functionality added to it to make it better) is beyond stupid and short sighted. This is what MS is betting on finally being able to replace Win32 for the vast majority of applications and programs in existence. Something that in its default state is far more secure than anything you could make with Win32. Damning it to oblivion because of one imperfect aspect at this point in time is just unbelievably ignorant. They've already even announced about making it even easier to install third party UWP apps for the Anniversary Update. SLI/Crossfire support is already functional if the developer wants to code for it (remember, in DirectX 12, due to the low level nature, this kind of thing is up to the developer, it doesn't leave a lot of room for driver optimizations). The biggest thing that's still missing in terms of functionality is modding equivalent to that available on something like the Nexus Forums.
Even then though, they already announced at BUILD 2016 that they would be allowing developer mod solutions like Steam's Workshop model to work in UWP games. UWP is by no means a mature API platform yet. Don't judge it as one.
This isn't just limiting consumer options in mods. It's limiting developer flexibility itself.
My opposition is because of the walled garden, that MS has deliberately put gaming into. I don't know how aware you are of MS's history of claiming to support PC gaming countless times, and then either shown apathy or actively worked against it.
Like the boy who cried wolf and was not believed, MS could tell me the sky is blue, and I would need independant verification. You and I disagree, but I respect your well explained position. I figure I will leave it at that.
This not a specific gaming feature to any of it beyond the fact that you can also make games. Your comparisons to GFWL are completely off for this one simple reason because you're focusing on just a small subset of what UWP entails and blowing it up and comparing it to something it most certainly isn't. Again, for the umpteenth time; the Windows Store is not UWP and UWP is not the Windows Store. The Windows Store is a walled garden, UWP is an API to make modern, sandboxed applications in. You can make and release a UWP app independent of the Store.
This is an honest question. I've never tried developing a UWP app and am going by the article above.
PS: I couldn't care less about Windows store. I'm more concerned about resource access for modding and developer freedom. I don't know, I haven't been wrong yet so it's hard to say. ;)
Sarcasm, naturally (I've actually been wrong a lot). And I know it wasn't for me but I had to bite.
I really could care less about the sandbox and its security. MS has built an OS that works very well today but they keep trying to push their market strategy within that OS and UWP is the worst iteration of it to date. They get more and more devious about it and it is scary as fuck. At the same time, they have been building on an OS that has very specific perks such as its configurable nature, both in hard- and software, and UWP is the one thing that will destroy all those perks in one strike. And all that, only to cater to a silly market strategy that does nothing to further the PC environment, but everything to cater to tablets and mobile devices. As always, security is used as the cover for pushing more control over the customer and the user, just like governments use terrorism and child pornography to reduce or remove civil rights.
UWP is of the same caliber as the dreaded Windows 8 Metro UI release, it's just a different tool for the same purpose. One Windows. One MS Store. One race to the bottom. They really do love taking one step forward and two steps back, just when you think they saw the light with Windows 10, they launch UWP and they do it with a level of arrogance that we know all too well. If this was really 'for its users' then it would not be enforced, it would be offered. Right now, this is just MS changing the rules of the game when the majority of its players have already entered it. The timing of UWP's launch and the state it got launched in, says enough. In the meantime, actual products that actual users paid actual money for, work like crap on it.
Now what they *should* do, if they want what people in this thread state UWP is for, is keep improving and keep monitoring Win32 and its security. That is all, and it means doing some work for nothing more than the continuation of a near-monopoly on Operating Systems. Apparently for MS, this is not enough or too much work. UWP is a solution for an imaginary problem and a vehicle for pushing a market strategy.