Microsoft rumored to be buying...... [2020-04, 2020-07, 2020-11]

I am actually curious, how games are able to support Vulkan and DirectX at the same time?

 

Just another rendering path. The rendering system in a game is separate from the gameplay (logic, etc.) of the game.

Regards,
SB

 

Basically any game released on Windows requires some sort of DirectX support at this time. I get that you are only talking about rendering, but Direct X handles sound, input, and tons of little under the hood things that DX is needed for, and this isn't something new. Old id software games that were OpenGL still needed Direct X support for sound also.

For rendering, I think Crysis Remastered actually uses Vulkan for ray tracing (in software!) and DX11 for rendering everything else.

 

I'm guessing moving forward, something like id tech would be done with Direct X. No more running future Doom (or any id titles) easily on Linux through Proton. Will MS allow their own games to have Vulkan path? will MS allow a 3rd party to do the porting like CP2077 on Stadia? Probably the answer is, at least in the long run, no. They probably would point those that want to play their games on other than MS based platform (that is Xbox and Windows... not all PC is running Windows) to xCloud. Right now they are still selling their games on Steam, but if Xbox/Gamepass hit it big, I really doubt MS will still be releasing games on Steam. Either not releasing on Steam or you probably get it earlier on MS store/with bonus.

 

But for example when games are running on Stadia. I presume they don't use DirectX at all? Because Linux doesn't support that no?
So if the game is running on Stadia means it doesn't use DirectX. And if the game is available on Windows it was rewritten to support Vulkan and remove all DirectX related stuff or it was written in Vulkan since the very beginning.

I am curious then what place UE has then - I mean when you use it, you don't need to know Vulkan no?

I do believe that MS will eventually retire Windows Store. Also can't MS provide support of DirectX for Linux?

 

They use Vulkan or they have two code path like when someone do an Xbox and Playstation games, this is not too different.

 

Never understood how game development for Xbox and Playstation works. I understand that they share the assets - like textures, music etc. - but regarding codebase no.

 

It's easier to explain this orally with use of some pictures and references to LEGO Building Blocks than it is to type it out into text.

 

With Epics acquisition of RAD tools and the myriad of other middleware companies that it has been snapping up, I wonder if microsoft might make some acquisitions in this space to bolster playfab? Or even just as a defensive move. If Epic locks all these middleware tools to unreal engine it makes essentially all other 3rd party engines untenable. If you cant use all these tools with unity for example you wouldnt bother using it even if it made sense for other reasons.

 

I don't think it will lock anything, but does Playfab has anything to do with RAD tools? I thought it was mostly network related stuff like statistics, servers, multiplayer etc.

 

microsoft already own simplygon and havok so its not just strictly networking stuff

 

No, but I mean Playfab is positioned as online services

 

True, I shouldnt have framed it as making acquisitions to boost playfab, but I still think that they might acquire some companies in the middle ware space

 

Why would they retire the Windows Store? I can see rebranding it under the Xbox umbrella, but it's essentially the same store as the Xbox store in terms of media (movies, music, ect) and many games. Hell, there are games I bought on Windows Phone that got released on Xbox and the license updated to include that version as well.

And yeah, MS can release DX on anything they please. If they want to is another question.

 

Microsoft have proposed patches for Linux for their WSL2 system that pass through certain DirectX code through Linux into Windows. The Linux devs were not interested, they wanted an open source DirectX 12 implementation.

 

But what are the benefits of that?

 

it would make it much easier for someone to run any game that runs on windows on other operating systems, including Linux and Mac os, so you can see why that's not an option for microsoft

 

The Windows Store isn't just about PC games and software. It's also the Xbox games store and is just a part of their overall online store which includes hardware sales. It's also the foundation for Game Pass.

So, it's highly unlikely that it will be going away anytime soon.

It's probable that DirectX includes licensed IP from other companies, which would mean it's not possible for them to release it as open source.

Regards,
SB

 

Microsoft store isn't going anywhere. They are redesigning it yes but it wont go anywhere. DX is also not moving to linux

 

Brad Sams seems to think somethings afoot

Brad Sams on Twitter: " " / Twitter
Brad Sams on Twitter: "There's a lot of money flowing around gaming companies right now, several getting multiple bids - not sure when or if any of these will close but gaming IP valuations are soaring" / Twitter


Quoting his tweet

"There's a lot of money flowing around gaming companies right now, several getting multiple bids - not sure when or if any of these will close but gaming IP valuations are soaring"

Maybe WB is back on the table still? I know eastmen (irrc) mentioned that there are still talks going on around WB with AT&T.

If Microsoft got WB then amazon and google don't have a chance of having a true console competitor with a significant first party especially in western markets compared to xbox/sony/nintendo, and would be limited to just being a platform provider, I wonder how much locking amazon and google out is worth to ms, 7-10B maybe?

They wouldn't even need to be exclusive