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Forums - Gaming Discussion - DX12 Adoption For Xbox One Is A Risk For Large Scale Production, Cross Support With PS4 Is A Factor

daredevil.shark on 19 March 2015

DX12 Adoption For Xbox One Is A Risk For Large Scale Production, Cross Support With PS4 Is A Factor

If a developer pursues DX12 they’re making a calculated decision to not release their game on the PS4, says Aaron Pollack from Circle 5 Studios.


Microsoft’s next iteration of its proprietary graphics API, DirectX 12 has been vastly praised for the improvements it will bring to PC and possibly Xbox One games development. But there is some uncertainty whether developers will adopt it for mass scale production for Xbox One games.

Aaron Pollack from Circle 5 Studios, who is currently working on Primal Carnage: Extinction has shared his thoughts on the potential of DirectX 12 with GamingBolt. He believes that the new iteration is exciting but the big question is whether developers will develop games using it, and while doing so will it mean that they need to take a calculated risk of not launching their game on the PS4, a console that has already sold over 20 million units?

“DirectX is always improving and it’s exciting to see how far it’s come. The biggest catch with it right now is the support fragmentation with PS4. There are around 20 million PS4s on the market right now and if a developer pursues DX they’re making a calculated decision to not release to that user base. Sure, there’s a lot of crossover in the userbase but it’s still a pretty big risk for a large scale production,” he said to GamingBolt.

He then goes to explain the benefits of the new API. “I think the new versions will bring a pretty good benefit provided that the companies like Epic and Unity take advantage of them and developers are willing to either split their visual pipelines or develop with exclusivity in mind. Of course, this issue isn’t just tied to Direct X. This is an issue for developing for a specific set piece of hardware too. If you look at the Uncharted series in the previous generation you can see just how much developers were able to squeeze out of the hardware.”

Pollack’s statements makes a lot of sense. Games development isn’t exactly cheaper and for a multiplatform game, it would require more work to support DX12 for the Xbox One version as well a different code structure for the PS4 version. This may give rise to cross platform code compatibility issues and other nuisances that come along with multiplatform games development. Whether it’s worth is something we cannot comment at the moment since Microsoft hasn’t revealed any Xbox One/DX12 benchmarks yet.

But we will know soon enough as DX12 is scheduled for a launch later this year.


 

Source: http://gamingbolt.com/dx12-adoption-for-xbox-one-is-a-risk-for-large-scale-production-cross-support-with-ps4-is-a-factor



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1337 Gamer on 19 March 2015

PS4 holding back Xbone development confirmed??!!!



I mostly play RTS and Moba style games now adays as well as ALOT of benchmarking. I do play other games however such as the witcher 3 and Crysis 3, and recently Ashes of the Singularity. I love gaming on the cutting edge and refuse to accept any compromises. Proud member of the Glorious PC Gaming Master Race. Long Live SHIO!!!! 

daredevil.shark on 19 March 2015
shikamaru317 said:

There's nothing stopping devs from having a DX12 build of a game for PC and Xbox One, and a separate build for PS4 that uses it's graphics API. Of course there's risk, but there's also the risk of Xbox One users ignoring your game if you don't support DirectX 12.


You are correct. But the article is based on the developers concern. His concern was more install base and easy to develop facilities of PS4 which is hard to resist.



potato_hamster on 19 March 2015

Well, there is something stoping devs from doing exactly that. Two things actually: Money and time. If X1 sales don't pick up globally, this is precisely the type of thing that starts convincing publishers to drop platforms.



Azerth on 19 March 2015

so put the game out on two maybe three platforms using dx12 since its supposed to be easy to port crom pc to xbox. then work on the ps4 version while making money



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daredevil.shark on 19 March 2015
potato_hamster said:

Well, there is something stoping devs from doing exactly that. Two things actually: Money and time. If X1 sales don't pick up globally, this is precisely the type of thing that starts convincing publishers to drop platforms.


PS2 did that quite flawlessly.



Captain_Tom on 19 March 2015

The thing is that Vulkan/OpenCL runs on PS4 AND Xbox One just fine. No reason to use DX12 (Except on PC) considering they can also use it with Mac and linux/steam OS.



BreedinBull on 19 March 2015
Azerth said:
so put the game out on two maybe three platforms using dx12 since its supposed to be easy to port crom pc to xbox. then work on the ps4 version while making money

The only way that happens is if micro pays a dev to do that.



Thanks jlmurph!

Zekkyou on 19 March 2015
shikamaru317 said:

There's nothing stopping devs from having a DX12 build of a game for PC and Xbox One, and a separate build for PS4 that uses it's graphics API. Of course there's risk because having a seperate PS4 build adds to a game's budget, but there's also the risk of Xbox One users ignoring your game if you don't support DirectX 12. People want the most out of their console, ignoring that is a mistake imo. AAA devs ultimately can afford seperate PC/Xbox One and PS4 builds, I only see this being an issue for the smaller indie devs, and most indie games don't have good enough graphics to need DX12 on Xbox One anyway.

I doubt there's any real risk of that happening. It's true that people like to see their console being fully utilized (and will moan when it isn't), but developers frequently ignoring the PS4's hardware advantage over the X1 doesn't seem to have had any major effect on game sales. I don't see how DX12 would either. Doubly so since its effect on the X1 is likely to be modest at most.



BreedinBull on 19 March 2015
shikamaru317 said:

There's nothing stopping devs from having a DX12 build of a game for PC and Xbox One, and a separate build for PS4 that uses it's graphics API. Of course there's risk because having a seperate PS4 build adds to a game's budget, but there's also the risk of Xbox One users ignoring your game if you don't support DirectX 12. People want the most out of their console, ignoring that is a mistake imo. AAA devs and most AA devs ultimately can afford seperate PC/Xbox One and PS4 builds, I only see this being an issue for the smaller indie devs, and most indie games don't have good enough graphics to need DX12's benefits on Xbox One anyway.

Those fans are not exactly in a position to make this stand. They are on an install base about to fall to half that of PS4. PS4 fans will always take priority unless microsoft pays for otherwise. And if not using DX12 is better for the bigger fanbase, anything short of micro money isn't going to stop that from happening.



Thanks jlmurph!