Microsoft opens DirectX 12 support for Windows 7 to Developers

#5705045 Posted on: 08/28/2019 02:19 PM

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What?!!! Someone get a doctor Microsoft is vey very sick this is the only logical explanation !

#5705056 Posted on: 08/28/2019 02:50 PM

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Windows 10 has a huge adoption rate, but there are still the die hards on Windows 7 that refuse to move or their system works fine with Windows 7.

#5705058 Posted on: 08/28/2019 02:50 PM

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I'm all for this move, but it doesn't make any sense now with Win7 going EOL in January.
I don't imagine many outside of corporate/enterprise paying the extra fee for continued support through 2023.

#5705060 Posted on: 08/28/2019 02:55 PM

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Well, who's surprised at this point? Since they already released WOW on dx12 / win7 iirc, I mean.

#5705062 Posted on: 08/28/2019 02:57 PM

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I'm all for this move, but it doesn't make any sense now with Win7 going EOL in January.
I don't imagine many outside of corporate/enterprise paying the extra fee for continued support through 2023.

It's 100% china.

#5705071 Posted on: 08/28/2019 03:10 PM

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I'm all for this move, but it doesn't make any sense now with Win7 going EOL in January.
I don't imagine many outside of corporate/enterprise paying the extra fee for continued support through 2023.

This is what´s puzzling me too, it doesn´t make sense. Unless they are planning to extend support for a few more years...


It's 100% china.

That makes some sense because China is an huge market but still the end of support is still the same as the rest of the world no??? Not to mention that apparently almost everyone is using a pirated version of W7 in China... So MS should have no interest in this move unless game developers convinced (paid) them to do this.

#5705072 Posted on: 08/28/2019 03:10 PM

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its all as if Windows 8.1 doesnt exist.

Its newer than windows 7, yet it has no DX12 support that Win7 has.

#5705075 Posted on: 08/28/2019 03:15 PM

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even joke its not cool dude, racist joke = NG

https://gs.statcounter.com/windows-version-market-share/desktop/united-states-of-america
win7 +20% strong in usa

well based various OS survey, win7 worldwide share still ~30%
by 2023 probably going less than ~20%?

btw my secondary rig also still in windows7

OOT speaking reliability, u guys loving windows10 lately patch quality ?
win7 since release rarely have issue with patch/update, well in my system/experience, i think i can count when i get some issues, but i lost count with win10 update-issue-news/report
also many people forced too or moving out just because "free" upgrade

#5705077 Posted on: 08/28/2019 03:20 PM

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even joke its not cool dude, racist joke = NG

https://gs.statcounter.com/windows-version-market-share/desktop/united-states-of-america
win7 +20% strong in usa

well based various OS survey, win7 worldwide share still ~30%
by 2023 probably going less than ~20%?

btw my secondary rig also still in windows7

OOT speaking reliability, u guys loving windows10 lately patch quality ?
win7 since release rarely have issue with patch/update, well in my system/experience, i think i can count when i get some issues, but i lost count with win10 update-issue-news/report
also many people forced too or moving out just because "free" upgrade

How is it racist? 50% of China is still on Windows 7 - it was only 3-4 years ago that Windows 7 even broke XP share over there. Blizzard specifically wanted DX12 for WoW on Windows 7 because of size of the chinese market for them. What about any of this is racist?

That makes some sense because China is an huge market but still the end of support is still the same as the rest of the world no??? Not to mention that apparently almost everyone is using a pirated version of W7 in China... So MS should have no interest in this move unless game developers convinced (paid) them to do this.

The Chinese market used XP way beyond the EOL. 50% of China is still on W7. It's going to be at least another 5-6 years before it dwindles.

Keep in mind - China has 800m non-mobile internet users, 50% of which are still using Windows 7. US has 275m non-mobile internet users, 20% of which are using Windows 7. ~400m vs ~55m

#5705079 Posted on: 08/28/2019 03:24 PM

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Yeah...I'm gonna say that definitely was not a racist comment...So all good.

#5705087 Posted on: 08/28/2019 03:39 PM

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I was thinking something very similar. Though the part that doesn't really make sense to me is that W10 was, for a while, a free upgrade, even if you didn't have a legal version of W7. So... why haven't they moved on yet?

Anyway, I have a hard time believing China has much to do with this, or even Blizzard. None of this is adding up:
* MS themselves aren't going to see much profit from 3rd party games sold in China. W7 Chinese users are a big market, but Blizzard would have to pay MS quite a bit to convince them to port DX12 to a population who isn't invested in MS's ecosystem.
* China's government is doing whatever they can to get rid of video games. They may be a large source of revenue now, but it's a bit of a gamble to say they will remain that way. I don't see how any game-related software developer would want to spend money on such a high risk market.
* As far as I'm concerned, DX12 is not a necessity to play WoW. Blizzard would still make plenty of money from W7 users.
* W7's EOL is next year. Even if people pressure them to extend it another 1 or 2 years, it doesn't make sense why they'd port DX12 now, where it will likely remain un-maintained.

#5705098 Posted on: 08/28/2019 04:04 PM

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I was thinking something very similar. Though the part that doesn't really make sense to me is that W10 was, for a while, a free upgrade, even if you didn't have a legal version of W7. So... why haven't they moved on yet?

Anyway, I have a hard time believing China has much to do with this, or even Blizzard. None of this is adding up:
* MS themselves aren't going to see much profit from 3rd party games sold in China. W7 Chinese users are a big market, but Blizzard would have to pay MS quite a bit to convince them to port DX12 to a population who isn't invested in MS's ecosystem.
* China's government is doing whatever they can to get rid of video games. They may be a large source of revenue now, but it's a bit of a gamble to say they will remain that way. I don't see how any game-related software developer would want to spend money on such a high risk market.
* As far as I'm concerned, DX12 is not a necessity to play WoW. Blizzard would still make plenty of money from W7 users.
* W7's EOL is next year. Even if people pressure them to extend it another 1 or 2 years, it doesn't make sense why they'd port DX12 now, where it will likely remain un-maintained.

Microsoft announced months ago they were working with Blizzard, among other companies, to bring DX12 to Windows 7. On the same day Blizzard released a statement that they were bringing DX12 to Windows 7 in World of Warcraft because it brings a large performance improvement to older/lower specced machines. World of Warcraft and all previous Warcraft properties (including the movie) do extremely well in China - a country where 400M people are still on Windows 7 and based on steam survey results are all running mid to low end systems in PC Cafes and such.

The whole EOL argument is irrelevant - 49% of computers in China ran Windows XP when it exited support in 2014 - they don't seem to really care about support.

Also Microsoft has been giving free copies of Windows 10 to all users, including pirated versions, since 2015 and they still haven't topped Windows 7 marketshare in the country.

#5705101 Posted on: 08/28/2019 04:12 PM

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Ive chosen to go back to w7 on Coffee Lake. Its my choice, my money and because i can.

#5705112 Posted on: 08/28/2019 04:22 PM

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This is what´s puzzling me too, it doesn´t make sense. Unless they are planning to extend support for a few more years...




That makes some sense because China is an huge market but still the end of support is still the same as the rest of the world no??? Not to mention that apparently almost everyone is using a pirated version of W7 in China... So MS should have no interest in this move unless game developers convinced (paid) them to do this.

Miscrosoft was always turning the blind eye on pirated windows their security was trivial at best ...but in early years i believe it was a tactic the piracy is what gave em the dominant position on gaming and every day pc users and the wide adoption, and version after version their check about authenticity got more relaxed hell latest windows 10 are practically free you can very much so download the iso from microsoft and install and never insert a cd-key and they work just fine indefinitely, so there is a turn on microsoft they are not really interested to sell 1 time deals operating systems but rather they prefer to to go full on services office 360 , ms store ...etc etc

all i am saying is that in the past and right now they could have been really aggressive locking down windows to piracy and certainly they have the money to hammer every new pirated version comes out there very fast and make it a pain in the butt to sustain pirated windows.

#5705115 Posted on: 08/28/2019 04:30 PM

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Well then... I stand corrected. Sounds like a stupid business decision for MS, but, so was their idea to artificially exclude DX12 support for W7 in the first place.
Side note - wasn't it MS who said W10 was supposed to be leaner than W7? So much for that claim (not that I ever believed it in the first place - W10 was noticeably heavier the first day I tried it).

It's not irrelevant due to the latter part of your sentence: they don't care about the support. So, if they don't care, why should MS have any incentive to add DX12 support to W7? Again: WoW doesn't need DX12 to be played. And if what you said about older hardware is true, that implies most of such hardware isn't DX12 compatible in the first place.

I know; I acknowledged that in my last post. That's what further adds confusion to me: if these people want DX12 support, have a PC capable of DX12, and can get W10 for free, what incentive does MS have to support DX12 for W7? They're basically spoonfeeding people an opportunity if they want DX12, and so far, 400M of them have turned it down. Is there something I'm not getting here, because I really don't see how MS has any incentive whatsoever to add DX12 support to W7.

TL;DR:
If China is the reason for this, MS is basically adding DX12 support for an OS that is comprised of only 400M people (in one country) of which:

The VAST majority were not actively seeking DX12 support
I'm sure most do not play WoW, or any DX12-compatible games
I doubt most have a PC compatible with DX12
Of the ones seeking DX12 support, they actively decided against a free opportunity to get it
Many were not paying customers of MS
They do not care that the OS is nearing EOL

Furthermore, to my knowledge, there is not a single PC game that requires nothing but DX12.

So, I'm having a really hard time understanding what MS is getting out of all of this. They're not a charity and they have clung to their principles for so long, so, why backtrack now?