Microsoft Brings DirectX 12 to Windows 7

[Regeneration]

Lastest patch of World of Warcraft (WoW) introduced support for DirectX 12 on Windows 7.

https://us.forums.blizzard.com/en/wow/t/world-of-warcraft-supports-directx-12-on-windows-7/121409

Microsoft said it has ported the user mode D3D12 runtime to Windows 7.

https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/di...arcraft-uses-directx-12-running-on-windows-7/

More games are expected to support DirectX 12 on Windows 7.

 

[rtwjunkie]

It’s interesting that they are limiting the port of this DX12 function over as part of the game only, and not generally apply DX12 to the whole OS.

It sounds like this will be a self contained patch put out by Blizzard (and future game devs) from MS, and not directly to the consumers from Microsoft.

 

[eidairaman1]

Perhaps MS sees Win 7 userbase larger still.

 

[mad1394]

Can't say I understand the windows 7 love....but by all means : Enjoy!

 

[eidairaman1]

Can't say I understand the windows 7 love....but by all means : Enjoy!

Because it doesnt get broken with updates...

 

[Final_Fighter]

Can't say I understand the windows 7 love....but by all means : Enjoy!

it also looks better for some. plus the control panel is more convenient becasue everything you need in regards to os settings is in there. windows 10 os settings are in multiple places and its really annoying.

 

[FordGT90Concept]

This is very weird because the Microsoft source is...extremely vague for being a developer blog. Even Blizzard's wording is weird: "We are pleased to announce that with today’s content update, World of Warcraft will now support DirectX 12 on Windows 7." The announcement isn't "Windows 7 supports DirectX 12." My guess is Blizzard paid Microsoft to package a DirectX 12 runtime for them and licensed them to distribute it. A few other Blizzard games might get DirectX 12 support but I doubt this arrangement extends beyond Blizzard.

Ehm, I suspect when you run WoW selecting DirectX 12, DirectX Diagnostics still shows the version as 11, not 12.

 

[Lightning]

Knew it was some bs limitation by the devs and not an actual, technical one.

 

[Toothless]

Knew it was some bs limitation by the devs and not an actual, technical one.

Microsoft also blocked the API from being used on Win7. Pretty sure Blizzard worked some magic to get it to work.

 

[Lightning]

Gamers've asking for it since the start. Blizzard uses its "magic" and gets it. I'm sure that 12.99/month has nothing to do with it.

 

[Regeneration]

Blizzard just told Microsoft something like "Hey, 50 percent of our customers still run Windows 7, we want our game support DirectX 12 on that OS too."

Nvidia, AMD, Intel and other game developers could have said it too.

 

[Deleted member 24505]

money talks, paupers walk

 

[Voluman]

Can't say I understand the windows 7 love....but by all means : Enjoy!

Because probably works, if you wanna set things up, you know where to find, dont have to manually disable half of the os to just works as you expect (sarcasm on) Yes its age are present, but the 10 isnt for everyone in my opinion.

 

[delshay]

I for one is still on Windows 7. The most interesting thing here is, can someone run the same DX12 game on both windows 7 & 10 (on the same hardware) & compare benchmark.

someone please conduct this test.

 

[Shambles1980]

the timing of this is confusing to me..
they are gearing up to end support for windows 7, and the only reall insentive windows 10 had to draw windows 7 users in was dx12. (which they proceeded to do nothing with other than kill off vulkan)
so i dont see how ms will benifit from this at all. Still if it helps the lil guys then its good. i just dont understand the game plan which i dont like.

 

[rtwjunkie]

Blizzard has a huge user base, with a large percentage of them still on and likely staying on W7. Blizzard, because of the size of their WoW population was likely to have approached MS with a proposition they would even have a team work with MS employees, lessening the amount of effort MS had to put into it. MS doesn’t lose much by this, since it’s a per-game basis, and are likely not doing all the work.

 

[FordGT90Concept]

But why did Blizzard put in the effort too? Blizzard knew as well as Microsoft that Windows 7's days are numbered. It is people's own damn fault for not taking advantage of the free upgrade offer to Windows 10. I have yet to find a Windows 7 or newer machine that couldn't handle it.

 

[eidairaman1]

the timing of this is confusing to me..
they are gearing up to end support for windows 7, and the only reall insentive windows 10 had to draw windows 7 users in was dx12. (which they proceeded to do nothing with other than kill off vulkan)
so i dont see how ms will benifit from this at all. Still if it helps the lil guys then its good. i just dont understand the game plan which i dont like.

This isn't from ms but game devs, bulk of their gamers are still on 7. Ms screwed up with 10...

 

[R-T-B]

This isn't from ms but game devs, bulk of their gamers are still on 7. Ms screwed up with 10...

The usermode DX12 still could not have been done without MS. So yeah, it is from MS who chose to cooperate with a game developer.

 

[FordGT90Concept]

I finally read this which contains a quote from presumably the Microsoft lead on this subject ("Max McMullen"). Of most significance to me:

Why D3D12 on Win7? We’re at the next stage for D3D12 and low-level APIs in the technology adoption curve by developers and publishers. The next order of magnitude in the title & engine population are now designing first, or *only* for low-level APIs.

The prevalence of Windows 7 and the need to support it to maximize market exposure is prohibiting the adoption of D3D12. The low-level framework of D3D12 is not backwards compatible with Windows 7 which is stuck on D3D11...

This makes me think that Blizzard only pursued creating a D3D12 renderer because they got assurance from Microsoft that it will benefit Windows 7 gamers too.

...so yeah...look at games like The Division where it claims to be DirectX 12 but there's no performance benefit really to speak of. That's what Microsoft wants to stop. Everyone should be targeting low level APIs (be it D3D12 or Vulkan) so this move is Microsoft trying to make that happen.

Microsoft wants to retire D3D11 and older just as bad as they want to retire Windows 7 but they can't do that when so many people refuse to upgrade to Windows 10 so game developers are put in an awkward position of balancing priorities:

There’s a measurable population of gamers in some markets that likely won’t get off of Windows 7 in time for this next wave of titles and engines on low-level APIs. D3D12 on Windows 7 is what my team did to assist developers & publishers with the engineering cost and addressable market tradeoffs they were making.

...expect more D3D12 exclusives soon that will run on Windows 7 and Windows 10.

 

[rtwjunkie]

But why did Blizzard put in the effort too? Blizzard knew as well as Microsoft that Windows 7's days are numbered. It is people's own damn fault for not taking advantage of the free upgrade offer to Windows 10. I have yet to find a Windows 7 or newer machine that couldn't handle it.

That is a good question. I can only surmise that Blizzard and MS know a large part of the Blizzard userbase is taying on 7. It's the only thing that makes sense.

Microsoft wants to retire D3D11 and older just as bad as they want to retire Windows 7

They can't truly retire DX11 without ridding the entire world of everyone's DX11 games and every copy of those API's on the web. Hell I've got DX9 and some DX10 games I will never part with. And a whole bunch of DX11 games I will not get rid of. If need be, they can all reside on my W8.1 machine which would be disconnected from the internet just so they couldn't patch out my DX11.

The best they can do is hope to encourage all devs throughout the world to only produce games in DX12 and Vulkan. Yeah, I don't see that happening anytime soon. It won't be retired any time soon.

 

[theFOoL]

Wasn't back in windows 98/xp those DirectX updates like 9.0C or whatever just a semi upgrade or an actual upgrade? If so then surely they can make a downloadable DirectX 12 for 7

 

[biffzinker]

If need be, they can all resode on my W8.1 machine which would be disconnected from the internet just so they couldn't patch out my DX11.

DirectX 11 isn't going anywhere since 12 is built on top of 11.

 

[rtwjunkie]

Wasn't back in windows 98/xp those DirectX updates like 9.0C or whatever just a semi upgrade or an actual upgrade? If so then surely they can make a downloadable DirectX 12 for 7

You still can download DX9 and 10 from MS. I’ve got multiple copies, so those won’t disappear any time soon.

 

[theFOoL]

I was just referring to IF Ms will offer a Full update or rather to some certain games