Home Gaming DirectX 12 unlikely to help Witcher 3 resolution on Xbox One

DirectX 12 unlikely to help Witcher 3 resolution on Xbox One

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The Witcher 3 is so close that I can almost taste it now, and not in the twisted sorted of way your brain probably interpreted that. The game will follow in the console footsteps of many before it, delivering a better visual experience (at least in terms of resolution) on the PS4. But wait, isn’t there DirectX 12 to possibly beef it up in the future on Xbox One? According to CD Projekt RED, it isn’t going to help much.

The Xbox One version of The Witcher 3 will run at the now standard resolution of 900p. Some fans are eager to know if DirectX 12, the new graphics API that is supposed to be somewhat of a silver bullet for the Xbox One, will have a direct effect on the game, and possibly help with a resolution bump. Responding to these types of questions via Twitter, senior game designer Damien Monnier ruled out this possibility.

That doesn’t, of course, mean they won’t try. DirectX 12 is going to give developers much greater access to the hardware they work with, and CD Projekt RED is hoping to improve the game post-launch as much as they can. They’re just not making promises they can’t keep.

And this is essentially what everyone has to understand about DirectX 12. Yes, the Xbox One is going to benefit heavily from it, but it’s not as simple as “here one day, 1080p tomorrow”. For all we know in our limited understanding of how the API actually operates, games could benefit in other departments other than resolution. Filtering effects could get better, while some of the extra power could also be put towards anti-aliasing tech instead. It’s all up to the developers and how they choose to use it – and not the instant upgrade SDK that it’s sometimes believed to be.

That said, I do expect DirectX 12 to marginally close the gap on the PS4 in regards to multiplatform titles – but there’s only so much software can do at the end of the day.

Last Updated: March 31, 2015

87 Comments

  1. Just another month and a half to get through.

    Don’t Support DRM. The Witcher 3 is coming. I don’t think you should lick the packaging.

    Reply

    • Hammersteyn

      March 31, 2015 at 09:19

      What will you do after the game releases? Comment wise?

      Reply

      • Ryanza

        March 31, 2015 at 09:21

        First see if the game is any good. 2 months after release there will be free DLC each week. And then…

        Don’t Support Cyberpunk 2077 is coming.

        or just, Don’t Support DRM.

        Reply

        • Greylingad

          March 31, 2015 at 09:23

          Oh Lord….

          Reply

          • Pariah

            March 31, 2015 at 09:26

            You called?

          • Greylingad

            March 31, 2015 at 09:28

            Ok…that deserves an upvote…

          • Hammersteyn

            March 31, 2015 at 09:33

            He said Lord not Master (Race)

          • Lord Chaos

            March 31, 2015 at 09:34

            Say what?

          • Ryanza

            March 31, 2015 at 09:26

          • Greylingad

            March 31, 2015 at 09:30

            Are those Dragon Scale Ultra 5000 shades? I believe those might have been the last ones made in the Raid Ban factory… ever….

          • Jessie Dixon

            April 1, 2015 at 05:51

            Thats the way. Kick a dragon’s scaly butt with shades and looking cool at the same damn time!

        • Hammersteyn

          March 31, 2015 at 09:31

          XD

          Reply

        • Lord Chaos

          March 31, 2015 at 09:31

          Meh.If people don’t support some form of DRM, the industry will close

          Reply

          • Hammersteyn

            March 31, 2015 at 09:31

            GOG seems to be doing okay without DRM

          • Timmy_The_Good_Troll

            March 31, 2015 at 09:33

            Started playing PoE last night, Very good, tried to get the wife to play, but she battled just to find a simple berry bush. But the game looks really amazing so far.

          • Lord Chaos

            March 31, 2015 at 09:33

            True, but most of those games had DRM at one stage

          • Hammersteyn

            March 31, 2015 at 09:34

            Very true.

          • Ryanza

            March 31, 2015 at 09:49

            Console games are released at retailed without DRM and console games sell really well.

            If they DRM console games, do you think that sales will increase.

            and GOG.com is doing ok. GOG Galaxy should help.

          • Lord Chaos

            March 31, 2015 at 09:57

            Mostly because pirate console games can’t be played online.

            And as stated below, most GOG games had DRM at one stage.
            But I personally don’t actually think of Steam as DRM.

          • Ryanza

            March 31, 2015 at 10:03

            If I can recall there were a lot of pirates playing online with the xbox 360. Like once or twice a year a lot of people would just disapear/banned.

            GOG started off by taking old games and making them work on newer OS.

          • Lord Chaos

            March 31, 2015 at 10:04

            Exactly, Perma ban is a real threat.

            Honestly, the only type of DRM I can get behind 100% is where they make graphics sub par, or put an unbeatable monster 20 minutes into the game.

        • z1n

          March 31, 2015 at 13:04

          It never ends 🙁

          Reply

        • z1n

          March 31, 2015 at 13:22

          Oh no. Does that mean “Don’t Support DRM” until 2077?

          Reply

      • Admiral Chief

        March 31, 2015 at 09:30

        Implode

        Reply

        • Greylingad

          March 31, 2015 at 09:31

          Wouldn’t that cause a miniature black hole?

          Reply

          • Admiral Chief

            March 31, 2015 at 09:31

            I have a containment unit standing by

          • Greylingad

            March 31, 2015 at 09:32

            Good good, let the experiments commence… we need more data…

    • Blood Emperor Trevor

      March 31, 2015 at 09:53

      I will lick it if I want to. You can’t stop me!

      Reply

      • Ryanza

        March 31, 2015 at 09:59

        It’s my copy and I’ll lick it if i want to. Lick it if i want to. You would lick it too if… you bought your copy of The Witcher 3 at retail.

        Reply

        • Timmy_The_Good_Troll

          March 31, 2015 at 10:01

          Dude I think you need to post a youtube video of you unboxing your collectors edition. Could be the gaming event of the year!

          Reply

  2. Greylingad

    March 31, 2015 at 09:22

    I still believe that producing 900p on a console is impressive, keeping in mind that it costs about half of the price of a PC that could maintain 1080p with high settings etc. So my hat is off to these guys, even if they release a DirectX 12 version, the game still looks bloody impressive, it can only get better….

    Reply

    • Timmy_The_Good_Troll

      March 31, 2015 at 09:31

      Not on a new gen console surely? 1080p is old hat by now.

      Reply

      • Greylingad

        March 31, 2015 at 09:35

        That is true, but look at the general market, for instance, if they developed the game for 4k only pcs, how many people would be able to play it? The demographic is 1080p, but the hardware is still a little pricey, if that makes sense…

        Reply

        • Timmy_The_Good_Troll

          March 31, 2015 at 09:37

          It does, but 1080p to me should be available on all Xbox One games, I think it is a huge failing of the console, and is why its sales are bad. I really believe this is th reason, not the always online crap, not the exclusives, but the failure of a new gen console to consistently perform at 1080p and 60fps.

          Reply

          • Greylingad

            March 31, 2015 at 09:44

            You are 100% correct, the perfect solution would have been for both manufacturers to have waited, for something like the Radeon R9 series to be implemented, instead of the ancient 7700 series type APUs, but they failed so far because of trying to play catch up… Needless to say then that Microsoft is in trouble…

        • RustedFaith

          March 31, 2015 at 09:43

          Its quite funny how they are still selling the consoles as 1080p next gen gaming machines. BAck at the ranch there is probably a handfull of games that can actually make 1080p 30fps.

          Reply

          • Greylingad

            March 31, 2015 at 09:49

            Exactly! It is quite shameful actually, but then again, better hardware costs more and you get what you pay for, imagine for a second that the consoles cost the same price as a GTX 780 or 960, or, you had the ability to upgrade the GPU side of things modularly, then this wouldn’t be an issue… but because the hardware isn’t modular we will have the PS4 vs XBone war until they are replaced with the next “locked Hardware” console….

          • Timmy_The_Good_Troll

            March 31, 2015 at 09:51

            I think you also need to take into account that PC’s are used for much more than gaming, so the price difference is not as bad as you think.

          • Greylingad

            March 31, 2015 at 09:56

            Yep! A PC is exactly that, a multi purpose device, whereas a console is a dedicated gaming device(or at least I try to tell myself this,with all of the twitch nonsense and social media integrations etc…) and that’s why it’s marginally cheaper…

    • Hammersteyn

      March 31, 2015 at 09:32

      The graphics improved quite a bit from PS3 to PS4. One can really see the difference.

      Reply

      • Greylingad

        March 31, 2015 at 09:36

        Hehehe, that is true! especially considering that not one game on the PS4 has fallen under the 1080p target…

        Reply

        • Hammersteyn

          March 31, 2015 at 09:37

          I think there’s quite a few. The first to games I played on PS4 was Killzone and Tomb Raider. Was really pretty to look at

          Reply

          • Lord Chaos

            March 31, 2015 at 09:37

            *two

          • Hammersteyn

            March 31, 2015 at 09:47

            Nazi 😛

          • Lord Chaos

            March 31, 2015 at 09:58

            Just standing in for the Admiral. 😛

          • Hammersteyn

            March 31, 2015 at 10:05

            XD

          • Admiral Chief

            March 31, 2015 at 10:13

            Tx, silly “work” keeping me away

          • Lord Chaos

            March 31, 2015 at 09:37

            *were

          • Hammersteyn

            March 31, 2015 at 09:47

            Grammar

          • Greylingad

            March 31, 2015 at 09:40

            The funny thing about it though is that those are beautiful games, even if they were at a lower resolution, they’d still look amazing

          • Admiral Chief

            March 31, 2015 at 10:10

            *two

  3. K1FF J1MB0B (sizzle edition)

    March 31, 2015 at 09:38

    Quest for 1080p: The Story of Xbox One.

    Reply

    • RustedFaith

      March 31, 2015 at 09:43

      and PS4

      Reply

      • K1FF J1MB0B (sizzle edition)

        March 31, 2015 at 09:45

        Haha.. PS4 has been consistently getting 1080p games, bud.

        Reply

        • RustedFaith

          March 31, 2015 at 09:56

          only 20% of ps4 games run at 1080p.

          Master race out

          Reply

          • K1FF J1MB0B (sizzle edition)

            March 31, 2015 at 10:03

            Dude, that is rubbish. Out of every game released on PS4 only Battlefield 4 + Hardline and AC Unity have been sub-1080p.. probably more like 95% hitting it. Prove me wrong.

          • WitWolfy

            March 31, 2015 at 10:22

            LOL did you just use EA’s infamous non optimized FB 3 engine as an example for not reaching 1080P???

            GTFO!

          • RustedFaith

            March 31, 2015 at 12:33

            Not that I am a fan of frostbite, but just so that you dont sound like a idiot in the future. The frostbyte engine is the most optimized engine in the world currently, it was shit when it got released but the constant CTE testing turned it into the most optimized engine to date.

            Its better optimized than the Unreal Engine, yes that engine that last gen consoles ran on for their lifespan. The second in line is the Cryengine 3 and third will be ID tech 5 then Unreal Engine 4.

          • WitWolfy

            March 31, 2015 at 13:32

            LOL sure it is… Keep telling yourself that dude… Keep telling yourself that. Source that isnt full of EA propaganda bullshit? Cause many other gamers will def disagree with you.

          • RustedFaith

            March 31, 2015 at 15:07

            I cant care lss what uninformed gamers opinions is, I work only with technical facts.

            You are a prime example of a gamer that thinks he know what his talking about but have absolutely no technical knowledge.

            My friend jack also agrees and because we are more than you however clueless we are right cause that’s how it works rofl!!!!

            BTW well formed argument with all the facts that you presented to prove me wrong it convinced everyone.

            PS. you are not a kid on the school grounds any more maybe stop arguing like one…. just a thought.

          • WitWolfy

            April 1, 2015 at 08:19

            Well anyways… Good luck with your failing console and all. Toodles.

        • Pieter Kruger

          March 31, 2015 at 10:05

          Ehhhhhh NO! you are dead wrong, unless off course you’re a fan of “cinematic view” & 30fps!

          Reply

          • K1FF J1MB0B (sizzle edition)

            March 31, 2015 at 10:08

            How about back that up with some facts, which games besides the 3 I mentioned have not been 1080p? I’m just stating well known facts, bud.

          • Pieter Kruger

            March 31, 2015 at 10:21

            It always comes at a cost though, even PS first party games needs to be watered down via FPA or using “cinematic view” etc. Sony dug this 1080 hole and posts like yours will keep them in there!

          • K1FF J1MB0B (sizzle edition)

            March 31, 2015 at 10:25

            You say it comes at a cost yet Digital Foundry says the PS4 version wins just about every showdown because of it.. lulz keep trying, dude. Living in denial.

          • WitWolfy

            March 31, 2015 at 10:23

            Let him be… Dont feed the troll.

          • K1FF J1MB0B (sizzle edition)

            March 31, 2015 at 10:27

            Ya good point, dude.

      • Ryanza

        March 31, 2015 at 09:51

        I might be wrong.

        30fps games seems to be hitting the 1080p on PS4. 60fps is when some games go below 1080p on PS4.

        Depending on type of game.

        Reply

        • Pieter Kruger

          March 31, 2015 at 10:06

          We can agree on something!!!! ????????????

          Reply

  4. Jonah Cash

    March 31, 2015 at 09:47

    I activated my free code for the game last night… Now I wait like the rest of you… Still don’t know if I will like this game!! But I would try anything if it is free 🙂

    Reply

    • Ryanza

      March 31, 2015 at 09:54

      Typically if you spent money on it, you will push yourself to like it. If it’s free you can bitch about it.

      You might not like The Witcher 3 but you sure will love that gtx 970.

      Reply

      • Jonah Cash

        March 31, 2015 at 11:14

        Well the only thing my gtx 970 has done so far is make Mass Effect run on everything it has to offer… so yeah I want something to push it a bit!!

        Reply

    • Spathi

      March 31, 2015 at 10:00

      Why take the chance? I’ll be willing to take your copy and definitely like it! 😛

      Reply

      • Jonah Cash

        March 31, 2015 at 11:13

        Hahahaha!! I think I will take the chance this time 🙂
        Also never played Mass Effect and is currently playing 1 and I love it so maybe I just missed out on the Witcher games!!??

        Reply

  5. Tbone187

    March 31, 2015 at 09:51

    If I gave you 900 p and told you it was 1080 p, you’d never know the difference really HOWEVER, 1080 p should be a standard for new gen consoles.It was one of the promises they made prior to launch and really would give the console a decent lifespan.

    Reply

    • RustedFaith

      March 31, 2015 at 10:00

      You can try the test on me, I will instantly be able to tell.

      Reply

      • Spathi

        March 31, 2015 at 10:01

        Just had to! (Refresh)

        Reply

        • RustedFaith

          March 31, 2015 at 10:16

          ROFL so true

          Reply

        • WitWolfy

          March 31, 2015 at 10:24

          That made my day.

          Reply

      • Tbone187

        March 31, 2015 at 10:24

        The human eye cannot tell the difference of 180 pixels once it goes passed a particular point. Don’t agree?? That’s your choice but don’t throw the tech aspect at me as I don’t know bout it.And no, you won’t be able to tell the difference of 180 pixels as much as you’ve convinced yourself you can!

        Reply

        • Greylingad

          March 31, 2015 at 10:34

          I’m sorry, I don’t mean to interrupt, but the difference isn’t just 180 pixels, it’s 320 x 180 pixels. The problem isn’t with the difference in resolution though, it is with people convincing themselves that they’re being deprived of an experience while only playing at a lower resolution….

          Reply

          • Lord Chaos

            March 31, 2015 at 10:40

            As the perfect example. The Fallout games or even Skyrim aren’t these beautiful masterpieces, but still some of the best games ever.

    • Timmy_The_Good_Troll

      March 31, 2015 at 10:03

      I can just smell the foul stench of sub 1080p a mile away!

      Reply

  6. Greylingad

    March 31, 2015 at 10:08

    Unleash The Resolution Debate!!

    Reply

  7. WitWolfy

    March 31, 2015 at 10:19

    I dotn think Dx 12 will really help out the Xbone that much TBH.. I think it was more aimed at the PC users IMO.

    Reply

  8. Daviejams

    March 31, 2015 at 18:08

    it will help future titles but won’t be any changes in older games

    Reply

  9. Kevin Maginnis

    March 31, 2015 at 20:49

    If I’m being completely honest I don’t think DirectX 12 will benefit consoles that much. DirectX 12 looks like it’ll be a huge boost to pc gaming. The CEO of Stardock Games did an interesting post on DirectX 12 if anyone wants to check it out.

    Reply

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