Microsoft announces DirectX 12 Ultimate with improved ray tracing

Microsoft has announced DirectX 12 Ultimate, an api for ray tracing improvements, among other things, that AMD RDNA 2 and Nvidia Geforce RTX GPUs can use. Microsoft wants to align the Xbox Series X and gaming PCs as far as API is concerned.

In announcing DirectX 12 Ultimate, Microsoft emphasizes the benefits of a common platform for both PC and Xbox Series X. “When the Xbox Series X comes out, there will already be millions of DX12 Ultimate graphics cards with the same feature set, making a rapid adoption of new features.”

AMD responds to this with its announcement that its RDNA 2 architecture for GPUs offers support for DirectX 12 Ultimate and that both companies have worked together on the techniques. The Xbox Series X has a GPU based on RDNA 2. Nvidia emphasizes that its RTX cards already support DirectX 12 Ultimate. Cards from the RTX 2060 can therefore already handle the api. Both AMD and Nvidia publish videos to show the ray tracing capabilities in particular.

DX12 Ultimate makes four techniques part of the api: DXR 1.1 , Variable Rate Shading, Mesh Shader and Sampler Feedback. DirectX Raytracing 1.1 allows engines to load ray tracing shaders more efficiently when needed, and there is support for inline ray tracing, which can be useful in scenarios with minimal shading complexity. Variable Rate Shading gives developers certain options to enable more GPU computing power in parts of a game for better visuals.

Mesh Shaders gives developers more flexibility when programming for GPUs, offering simpler models, and Sampler Feedback gives developers detailed information about scenes, allowing them to determine when textures need to be loaded. According to Microsoft, this enables improved visual quality, shorter loading times and less stuttering of the image.

DirectX 12 Ultimate is part of the upcoming version of Windows 10, or version 2004, which is also known as 20H1. Trial versions of this Windows 10 version are already available to participants in Microsoft’s Windows Insider Program. Until now, extensions of DirectX 12 have been divided into feature levels, with 12_1 being the highest level and hardware that supports it provides all the functionality.