It’s no secret that the next Mass Effect and Battlefield will be using the popular EA game engine called Frostbite when they launch late 2016, but according to EA developers the engine have been modified and updated to support Physical Based Rendering and is pushing for DirectX 12 to become mandatory for their holiday 2016 games line-up.
Physically-Based Rendering is a popular technique being used now by developers to make objects more photo realistic/natural-looking. Instead of using multiple diffuse textures/specular maps for objects to represent different conditions in the game, developers can use PBR to create one texture for each part of the object.
EA developers confirmed that games like Star Wars Battlefront already use this new technique in game, however due to the Xbox One not supporting DirectX 12 until the new Xbox One Windows 10 update rolls out, Battlefront will only use PBR and not DirectX 12.
The full benefit of DirectX 12 is still unknown, as several developers who talked about it have been quite polarised on the subject with none of them actually agreeing. Microsoft did state that there will be improvements, but it’s anyone’s guess as to how much the Xbox One will benefit. Windows 10 on PC have already shown improvement of up to 1600% in some cases.
It’s great to see companies like EA push the technologies Microsoft is developing, and we’re looking forward to see how gaming will be improved by the great work Microsoft is doing.
Mass Effect: Andromeda and Battlefield 5 is expected to launch on Xbox One in 2016, however no official dates have been confirmed. Star Wars Battlefront is available for Pre-order on Xbox Live right now.
