Microsoft showed off a new DirectX 12 graphics demos today during Build 2015 that showed how the new graphics API that's included in Windows 10 could be used to increase frame rates in games. Another demo showed how it can be used by a graphics engine to make a human look like she is crying realistically.
The demo showed a boost in game frame rates used Epic Games' Unreal Engine 4 with a new and experimental feature called heterogeneous multiadapter, which allows a PC running the engine with DirectX 12 to split the rendering workload between an NVIDIA graphics card and Intel's integrated graphics chip.
Microsoft says:
"We recognized that most mixed GPU systems in the world were not making the most out of the hardware they had. So in our quest to maximize performance, we set out to enable separable and contiguous workloads to be executed in parallel on separate GPUs. One such example of separable workloads is postprocessing.""Virtually every game out there makes use of postprocessing to make your favorite games visually impressive; but that postprocessing work doesn't come free. By offloading some of the postprocessing work to a second GPU, the first GPU is freed up to start on the next frame before it would have otherwise been able to improving your overall framerate."
You can check out the brief video demo on the Channel 9 website (note: our app does not allow for the embedded video to be shown).
Additionally, NVIDIA and game publisher Square Enix teamed up during today's Build 2015 keynote address to see how DirectX 12 is used in a game graphics engine demo called "WITCH CHAPTER 0 [cry]". The in-engine visuals show a woman crying with some amazing detail. NVIDIA stated:
"Bringing more reality and depth to character expressions will better immerse players in stories during game-play, and deepen their connection to characters.""GeForce GTX graphics were among the next-generation technologies Square Enix put to use with help from our NVIDIA GameWorks Effects Studio. Square Enix also conducted extensive research on real-time CG technology using DirectX 12. The results will be incorporated into Square Enix's Luminous Studio engine."
