Codemasters Releases DirectX 12 Beta for F1 2018

[W1zzard]

Adoption rate of DirectX 12 has slowed a lot in recent months, with some titles like Hitman 2 even backtracking and offering only DirectX 11 support, even though the previous game supported both DX12 and DX11. Codemaster, developers of the Formula One game series have now announced their plans for DirectX 12 support in their game engine.

After enabling the "Beta" option in Steam, and entering passcode "244EwzNFQkfnqf4Xc6GTmgsPtT6LAbYn", you'll be able to download the DirectX 12 branch, which is identical to the regular public version in every regard, with the exception of running in DirectX 12. Your existing savegames will continue to work and you can still play online, with players using DX11 and/or DX12 - there are no limitations.

Codemasters requests feedback in this forum thread, to improve their engine, and a few issues are already known. For example SLI and CrossFire support is "not yet implemented", and some other minor issues.

To install the DX12 beta branch, please do the following:

Open up Steam library and "Right Click" on F1 2018
Select Properties
Select the "BETAS" tab
Enter the Branch Password into the box
Press the "CHECK CODE" button
Select Branch Name from the drop down box
Close the properties window
Click the "INSTALL" button in the Steam Client
Once the game has been downloaded the button will now display as "PLAY"
Click "PLAY" to launch the game

Branch Name: f1_dx12_beta

Branch Password: 244EwzNFQkfnqf4Xc6GTmgsPtT6LAbYn

To revert to the standard game at any point, please re-enter the betas tab and select "none" as the branch to use.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[darkangel0504]

waiting for W1zzard's Benchmark.

 

[Vayra86]

I have some problems understanding why you'd waste time on DX12 API when the DX11 build runs well. Its not exactly a magic bullet

 

[W1zzard]

waiting for W1zzard's Benchmark.

No plans at this time

 

[qubit]

Adoption rate of DirectX 12 has slowed a lot in recent months, with some titles like Hitman 2 even backtracking and offering only DirectX 11 support, even though the previous game supported both DX12 and DX11.

Any idea why adoption has slowed?

Seems puzzling to me, since there are a lot of DX12 cards out there now and it offers tangible efficiency improvements over DX11.

 

[bug]

Any idea why adoption has slowed?

Seems puzzling to me, since there are a lot of DX12 cards out there now and it offers tangible efficiency improvements over DX11.

You can't go full-out DX12 because of the Win7 users. And DX12 on top of DX11 is just wasted effort, as several titles have proven.

 

[Mysteoa]

Any idea why adoption has slowed?

Seems puzzling to me, since there are a lot of DX12 cards out there now and it offers tangible efficiency improvements over DX11.

The short answer is it take time and money for the developers to learn how to work with DX12. It gives them more freedom, but that comes with the need to manged the GPU on deeper level, that wasn't done in the driver up to DX11. Some developers have said its much easier to make DX11 game than DX12.

 

[Deleted member 158293]

I'm curious on input lag, DX12 & Vulkan generally can cut input lag noticeably on games which use it natively & not just a wrapper.

 

[Casecutter]

Some developers have said its much easier to make DX11 game than DX12.

As to still holding to Win7 as a gamer who is buying the newest titles, sorry why?
As to developers that want "easy" money... they won't get mine anytime soon...

 

[bug]

As to still holding to Win7 as a gamer who is buying the newest titles, sorry why?

Because Win7 is over a third of installed Windows base. And Windows is installed on almost 80% of the desktops of the world. See: http://gs.statcounter.com/os-version-market-share/windows/desktop/worldwide

As to developers that want "easy" money... they won't get mine anytime soon...

For the millionth time, "easy money" is not the issue here.

 

[eidairaman1]

Any idea why adoption has slowed?

Seems puzzling to me, since there are a lot of DX12 cards out there now and it offers tangible efficiency improvements over DX11.

Truth, gaming companies being bribed to not support the latest API

The short answer is it take time and money for the developers to learn how to work with DX12. It gives them more freedom, but that comes with the need to manged the GPU on deeper level, that wasn't done in the driver up to DX11. Some developers have said its much easier to make DX11 game than DX12.

Typical laziness

 

[Vya Domus]

I have some problems understanding why you'd waste time on DX12 API when the DX11 build runs well.

"Runs well" is a relative term, it can always run better.

The short answer is it take time and money for the developers to learn how to work with DX12.

Most do actually, the DirectX version used for Xbox shares many of the same features.

 

[bug]

"Runs well" is a relative term, it can always run better.

So can pretty much every program you run everyday, if it was written in C or ASM. Why do you think that doesn't happen?

 

[Tomorrow]

You can't go full-out DX12 because of the Win7 users. And DX12 on top of DX11 is just wasted effort, as several titles have proven.

Then go full Vulkan. It supports most know OS versions and has the same advantages/disadvantages that DX12 has whit the exception of OS compability. Oh right - because MS promotes DX we can't have open market competition. Until MS backports DX12 to Win7 the adoption will stagnate as it has now. And don't say it's not possible. It is. DX11 was backported to Vista tho it launched with DX10.

Realisticly tho most gamers don't care about DX12, most developers lack the know-how to use low level API and MS will never backport any features to Win7 anymore.
Thankfullly there is project Proton that has massively helped Linux game compatibility. Granted - it will never run as well as natively under Windows but then again Windows itself is not free from compatibility hurdles either when it comes to older games.

 

[qubit]

Truth, gaming companies being bribed to not support the latest API

Why? Who would bribe them?

 

[bug]

Then go full Vulkan. It supports most know OS versions and has the same advantages/disadvantages that DX12 has whit the exception of OS compability. Oh right - because MS promotes DX we can't have open market competition. Until MS backports DX12 to Win7 the adoption will stagnate as it has now. And don't say it's not possible. It is. DX11 was backported to Vista tho it launched with DX10.

Realisticly tho most gamers don't care about DX12, most developers lack the know-how to use low level API and MS will never backport any features to Win7 anymore.
Thankfullly there is project Proton that has massively helped Linux game compatibility. Granted - it will never run as well as natively under Windows but then again Windows itself is not free from compatibility hurdles either when it comes to older games.

It's not the lack of know how. It's just that in programming, when you go one layer closer to ASM, programs tend to get 10x as big. On top of that, after you do all that work, you still can't sell the finished product for a penny more.

I would also love to see more devs migrating to Vulkan, but that still doesn't solve the problem with consoles. With DX you develop once, you get PC and Xbox pretty much in one shot. It's just not as simple as devs vs API, there are more parties involved, the process is complicated and the rewards are just not there.