During an ESO Live Forum Q&A, a player asked about a possible DirectX 12 update for the game, due to the fact that DirectX 12 will assist with heavy CPU intensive tasks such as Draw Calls. ESO Developer commented that they are indeed working on an update for the game so that it runs the latest API from Microsoft.
@Hyade – Is a DX12 upgrade a possibility in the future? ESO runs pretty darn well, except when there are many things requiring animation on screen at once. My slight understanding of this is that there are too many “draw calls” going out in such situations, and that DX12 handles them drastically better. Right now I run my game on lower settings specifically because of the lower framerate I get in cities, and it sounds like DX12 could improve the situation.
Yes, we are planning on a DX12 upgrade and expect that this will give us a number of graphics performance improvements. We cannot provide an ETA at this time, but it is something we’re working towards.
It’s unknown at this point what the DirectX 12 API is capable of, but developers of the upcoming Fable Legends game have stated that the API does have great improvements in store for both the Xbox One and PC versions of games.
It remains to be seen how great those improvements are, but until then we just have to wait until Microsoft or any of their partners release substantial evidence in support of the API. We might see more later this year when Microsoft and Square Enix have a discussion during GDC about DirectX 12 running in Hitman.
