Battlefield 4 To Include 64-bit Binaries, DirectX 11.1 Renderer with Fallbacks

[btarunr]

At its spot in AMD's GPU'14 tech day, EA-DICE confirmed to major technical features of Battlefield 4, one of the hottest online multiplayer shooters of the season. To begin with, the game will include 64-bit binaries that let the game take advantage of vast amounts of system- and video-memory. 8 GB of system- and 3 GB of video-memory are part of the game's recommended system requirements list. The next big feature is a DirectX 11.1 renderer, which takes advantage of shader tracing, and seamless switching between various DirectX feature levels. DirectX 11.1 is exclusive to Windows 8 (and above), and isn't fully implemented on GeForce GTX 600 series GPUs.

DICE did announce that there are fallbacks to both. Out of data pulled by Origin, DICE claims that 91 percent of Battlefield 3 players run 64-bit operating systems, which encouraged their 64-bit move, but the game should also include fallbacks to 32-bit for the remaining 9 percent. The percentage of gamers running DirectX 11.1-ready GPUs and Windows 8 (and above) will no doubt be a small percentage, and for them not much should be lost. Battlefield 4 should launch on October 29. In December, the studio plans to roll out a major update that includes support for a new 3D graphics API built by DICE, codenamed "Mantle."

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[Wrigleyvillain]

I am not the 9 Percent.

Bring it on!

 

[TheMailMan78]

This is supposedly a quote from NVIDIA,

The GTX 680 supports DirectX 11.1 with hardware feature level 11_0, including all optional features. This includes a number of features useful for game developers such as:
•Partial constant buffer updates
•Logic operations in the Output Merger
•16bpp rendering
•UAV-only rendering
•Partial clears
•Large constant buffers

We did not enable four non-gaming features in Hardware in Kepler (for 11_1):
•Target-Independent Rasterization (2D rendering only)
•16xMSAA Rasterization (2D rendering only)
•Orthogonal Line Rendering Mode
•UAV in non-pixel-shader stages

So basically, we do support 11.1 features with 11_0 feature level through the DirectX 11.1 API. We do not support feature level 11_1. This is a bit confusing, due to Microsoft naming. So we do support 11.1 from a feature level for gaming related features.

Source:
http://www.brightsideofnews.com/new...directx-111-with-kepler-gpus2c-bute280a6.aspx

So I'm not to sure if this applies to the 670 and below.

 

[Exceededgoku]

This is supposedly a quote from NVIDIA,



Source:
http://www.brightsideofnews.com/new...directx-111-with-kepler-gpus2c-bute280a6.aspx

So I'm not to sure if this applies to the 670 and below.

So to be clear the HD7000 series and new R series will support DX11.1 with 11_1 support? Or is 11_1 support reserved for R series?

Very confusing!

 

[TheOne]

This is supposedly a quote from NVIDIA,



Source:
http://www.brightsideofnews.com/new...directx-111-with-kepler-gpus2c-bute280a6.aspx

So I'm not to sure if this applies to the 670 and below.

NVIDIA claims that Fermi and Kepler support a number of features available in DirectX 11.1.

One of the main benefits of the DX11.1 API is that it exposes a lot of capabilities that have existed in our GeForce GPUs since Fermi but were not available in the first revision of DX11.

http://nvidia.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/3196/~/fermi-and-kepler-directx-api-support
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GeForce_600_Series#Microsoft_Direct3D_Support

 

[Solidstate89]

Every game these days needs to be 64-bit. Even if they're not class-leading graphic whores like Crysis or BF4. I can't tell you the numbers of performance problems I get in Sins of a Solar Empire in late game where there's literally thousands of ships on screen at once. My system can handle the engine fine, but the game is starved of RAM at those levels due to only being 32-bit.

 

[TheoneandonlyMrK]

In December, the studio plans to roll out a major update that includes support for a new 3D graphics API built by DICE, codenamed "Mantle."

built WITH dice by Amd not by dice, and dice are not the only co-ops in the makeing of it

Is this your expose on Mantle or is that forthcoming because this is not enough

 

[Hilux SSRG]

Will BF4 run as a 64bit program by default or will Dice provide a 64bit executable in Origin?

I don't see Nvidia sitting on their hands and not releasing a driver update to possibly enable some of the DX11.1/11_1 features in some capacity. Especially because its BF4.

 

[ChristTheGreat]

Will it be the time for 16gb of ram? I'd like to see that, can't wait to the BETA!

 

[FordGT90Concept]

Will BF4 run as a 64bit program by default or will Dice provide a 64bit executable in Origin?

Origin doesn't do anything that warrants being 64-bit.

Will it be the time for 16gb of ram? I'd like to see that, can't wait to the BETA!

Yeah, as more and more games switch to 64-bit, there's more and more incentive to put more than ~8 GiB in computers.

 

[Disruptor4]

Yeah, as more and more games switch to 64-bit, there's more and more incentive to put more than ~8 GiB in computers.

I only just went to 8GB a year or two ago!!!!!
All for upgrades though Gives me an excuse!!!

 

[xBruce88x]

I only just went to 8GB a year or two ago!!!!!
All for upgrades though Gives me an excuse!!!

damn i'm still at 4gb... and ddr2 no less... i did have 6 but some of it died.

 

[erixx]

I can't count the years that "amazing new" features of DXnn.nn or whatever API's successive releases stopped to bother me. Biggest "cosmic event" was going from Voodoo to DirectX, from there on it was more bleeh every year. Just let things flow, bro!

BF4 will be great on any card that plays BF3.

 

[Prima.Vera]

I can't count the years that "amazing new" features of DXnn.nn or whatever API's successive releases stopped to bother me. Biggest "cosmic event" was going from Voodoo to DirectX, from there on it was more bleeh every year. Just let things flow, bro!

BF4 will be great on any card that plays BF3.

Neeh. The biggest cosmic event was when 3dfx introduced GLide for DOS and WinGLide for Windows, that changed forever how the games were played. For me was a shocker when I first played Quake on 800x600 with VooDoo2 compared to mega pixelated software rendered Quake on 400x300 Good times, good times indeed.

 

[erixx]

Neeh. The biggest cosmic event was when 3dfx introduced GLide for DOS and WinGLide for Windows, that changed forever how the games were played. For me was a shocker when I first played Quake on 800x600 with VooDoo2 compared to mega pixelated software rendered Quake on 400x300 Good times, good times indeed.

http://static.techspot.com/articles-info/650/images/glquake.jpg

Of course, yes! I meant "after that". 3dfx-glide was and still is the biggest step of (gaming) mankind!

 

[NC37]

Why even make for the 9%? Just dumb when you have a game like BF4 which is going to cause more of that small 9% to upgrade. Wasted resources and time spent on making it possible.

Wonder if BF4 is gonna be a flopper. The marketing for BF4 is nothing like BF3. For BF3 EA was running loads of deals and marketing the crap out of it. Just about every month leading up they ran a free game deal with BF3 but so far BF4 has had none of that.

BF4 just seems like they aren't trying. Plus with it working on last gen consoles too it just makes me suspect it is not a step up from BF3, just more of the same with slight improvements.

Come on EA, you gotta do more than boat combat and DX11.2 to get me to bite again. That and after seeing how EA handled BF3, I might as well wait for them to release all those kit packs. Then buy the game + premium + kits on discount and avoid leveling up all over again.

Worst idea ever giving those unlocks for a price. Just completely devalued the time and effort people put in and hurt future sales. Hope it was worth it.

 

[Wrigleyvillain]

Yep I still remember when I got my first Voodoo2 on my Mac G3 (lol) and first saw "multitexturing". I walked right up to a wall in Quake 2 and it wasn't pixelated at all. My jaw dropped.

 

[CrAsHnBuRnXp]

It's about time a game company takes advantage of 64 bit properly. 32 bit needs to die off and anyone still running it NEEDS to upgrade. There is no reason to keep such a legacy technology around any longer.

 

[RejZoR]

64bit games are nothing new. I've played Far Cry and Chronicles of Riddick Butcher Bay using 64bit binaries several years ago...

 

[Prima.Vera]

64bit games are nothing new. I've played Far Cry and Chronicles of Riddick Butcher Bay using 64bit binaries several years ago...

Yeah, but neither of those 2 games needed more than 4GB of RAM or VRAM.

 

[TheMailMan78]

Yeah, but neither of those 2 games needed more than 4GB of RAM or VRAM.

I might be wrong but I don't think BF4 will need more than 2GB of video ram for a normal 1080P setup. Guess we will know in a month.

 

[CrAsHnBuRnXp]

64bit games are nothing new. I've played Far Cry and Chronicles of Riddick Butcher Bay using 64bit binaries several years ago...

its not that its something new its just something that game companies need to start taking advantage of.32 bit just needs to go the way of the dinosaurs

 

[Prima.Vera]

I might be wrong but I don't think BF4 will need more than 2GB of video ram for a normal 1080P setup. Guess we will know in a month.

Agree. I don't think anyone uses more than 8xFSAA + SMAA on this resolution anyways...

 

[Wrigleyvillain]

its not that its something new

Yet still there are hundreds of posts everywhere of people asking why their damn AfterBurner/Precision/WTF OSD is not working. Because Unwinder does not and will not support 64-bit apps!

Not news (other than the fact that he had to reconfirm yet again he won't be doing it cause of all the people crying about BF4 at G3D).