Unity: DirectX 12 support ‘only logical’

Unity has shared more insight into why it is adding DirectX 12 support, following a slew of Microsoft announcements earlier this week.

DirectX 12 itself was announced at GDC 2014, but Xbox boss Phil Spencer revealed that Unity would add support for this architecture during the Windows 10 media briefing on Wednesday.

Over at Unity’s official blog, the company’s Tomas Jakubauskas has insisted this is "only logical" given the enhanced capabilities of DirectX 12. The new graphics API promises reduced driver overhead and better use of multi-core systems, putting it on par with Apple’s Metal API.

"Direct3D 12 is expected to run on all Microsoft devices: mobiles, laptops, desktops and Xbox One, all of which Unity already supports," Jakubauskas wrote. "It is only logical for us to adopt the new universal API.

"However, a significant amount of work is required to reap all the benefits this architectural switch can provide and that is why we have started early. Only the past several months we have worked closely with Microsoft to bring Unity to DirectX 12 and our initial port is now passing over 95 per cent of our graphics tests."

The Unity rep added that the firm is working with both Nvidia and Intel to ensure Unity code runs on both families of hardware: "All of our demos are behaving well on Direct3D 12. This makes us very confident that your games will, too."

Unity plans to release DirectX 12 support shortly after Unity 5, targeting Windows 10 and Windows Store Apps first. Windows Phone and Xbox One support will follow.