Guild Wars 2

Well its been a while since the game was released and I would like to ask if there will be a future implementation of DirectX 11 or/and the new AMD Mantle interface next year or the coming future.
This would enhance the performance on many pcs and the game will look even more amazing.

Any plans for that?

Would be nice, the game hasn’t gotten a single performance improvement since it came out, it still lags as much as it did on day 1. I gatta tell you I’m feeling no love from the developers at all, even blizzard added dx11 to their 9 year old game after cataclysm came out and its been running smooth as butter since then.

never …going …to happen.

just saying :P

Right after they add the Asura moonbase.

Any significant work on the render to add support for either of these APIs to get optimal performance will take a lot of time, devs and commitment on ANet’s part. Simply slapping a couple of new graphic APIs at the back end aren’t going to help if all the setup to call the APIs aren’t working as well as they do in other game engines.

We’ve all seen Dx9 in game engines run faster so it’s not the API but the rest of the renderer that needs TLC first.

out of all the millions of games out there…there is only like 60 or 70 that are dx11.

There is probably a sick license fee that goes along with creating games with dx11.

I cant see it being worth it.

What do you want DX11 for? What do you think adding support for DX11 will do for the game?

doesn’t need mantle or dx11 in my opinion.

TinkTinkPOOF.9201:

What do you want DX11 for? What do you think adding support for DX11 will do for the game?

Well DX11 is capable of more fps while still producing the same graphics. By changing to DX 11 you get a significant performance boost. Also it allows you to add realtime tessellation which means cloth behaves like real life. It allows for better multi threading and also allows shaders to be used for non graphical tasks(helping to clear up cpu bottlenecks by allowing more cores to work and using gpu to help cpu). GW2 could benefit from a greater degree of multi threading as by all reports it doesn’t even load up all the I-7 core much less the new AMD 8 cores. Basically with my old WoW comp I saw a 20 fps performance boost in capital cities from switching to DX11 over DX9.

Mantle would benefit GW2 more than DX11 on a performance-level, but DX11 would be more compatible (and probably not offer any benefit unless other aspects are addressed).

I vote for Mantle; but I expect DX11 to have higher priority. If I understand right too, GW2 and NVIDIA have a thing, so Mantle is probably even less likely :/

Pops.1904:

TinkTinkPOOF.9201:

What do you want DX11 for? What do you think adding support for DX11 will do for the game?

Well DX11 is capable of more fps while still producing the same graphics. By changing to DX 11 you get a significant performance boost. Also it allows you to add realtime tessellation which means cloth behaves like real life. It allows for better multi threading and also allows shaders to be used for non graphical tasks(helping to clear up cpu bottlenecks by allowing more cores to work and using gpu to help cpu). GW2 could benefit from a greater degree of multi threading as by all reports it doesn’t even load up all the I-7 core much less the new AMD 8 cores. Basically with my old WoW comp I saw a 20 fps performance boost in capital cities from switching to DX11 over DX9.

DX11 it self does non of this. This can be seen in the many games that added DX11 support after the fact and have far, far worse performance on DX11 than DX9. The game has to be made to make use of the resources on hand, and just adding DX11 support will not make the game look better without again coding and changing the game for it, which is why DX11 games that had DX11 as an after thought (most console ports come to mind) take a performance hit rather than gain for the same eye candy. So watch out what you wish for, GW2 is not a eye candy rich game, MMO wise sure it’s not bad looking, but it is by no means an example of what a DX11 game can look like, nor will it ever be, MMO’s never go for looks, one of the main reasons being that most people who play are going to have older less powerful computers that just cant keep up, or support the newer abilities, I think it would be interesting if someone from anet could give us a bit of data on how many of its user base has a computer/hardware that can even support DX11, and that would really give you an idea of it ever happening or not. DX11 support was talked about before launch, but if it gets added, I see it only happening with an expansion pack, I don’t see them adding it on its own because of the work involved.

Before any of this Mantle or Direct X 11 is considered for guild wars 2, the game’s current renderer and platform needs a bit of TLC.

TinkTinkPOOF.9201:

Pops.1904:

TinkTinkPOOF.9201:

What do you want DX11 for? What do you think adding support for DX11 will do for the game?

Well DX11 is capable of more fps while still producing the same graphics. By changing to DX 11 you get a significant performance boost. Also it allows you to add realtime tessellation which means cloth behaves like real life. It allows for better multi threading and also allows shaders to be used for non graphical tasks(helping to clear up cpu bottlenecks by allowing more cores to work and using gpu to help cpu). GW2 could benefit from a greater degree of multi threading as by all reports it doesn’t even load up all the I-7 core much less the new AMD 8 cores. Basically with my old WoW comp I saw a 20 fps performance boost in capital cities from switching to DX11 over DX9.

DX11 it self does non of this. This can be seen in the many games that added DX11 support after the fact and have far, far worse performance on DX11 than DX9. The game has to be made to make use of the resources on hand, and just adding DX11 support will not make the game look better without again coding and changing the game for it, which is why DX11 games that had DX11 as an after thought (most console ports come to mind) take a performance hit rather than gain for the same eye candy. So watch out what you wish for, GW2 is not a eye candy rich game, MMO wise sure it’s not bad looking, but it is by no means an example of what a DX11 game can look like, nor will it ever be, MMO’s never go for looks, one of the main reasons being that most people who play are going to have older less powerful computers that just cant keep up, or support the newer abilities, I think it would be interesting if someone from anet could give us a bit of data on how many of its user base has a computer/hardware that can even support DX11, and that would really give you an idea of it ever happening or not. DX11 support was talked about before launch, but if it gets added, I see it only happening with an expansion pack, I don’t see them adding it on its own because of the work involved.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/world-of-warcraft-cataclysm-directx-11-performance,2793-7.html

People ask for dx11 because of that, it benefited wow greatly. But gw2 has other problems. The first thing they would need to do is rewrite the engine to be multi threaded. None of these things are happening though.

I don’t feel they will ever optimize the game client side because they probably do not have the resources or man power to do so.

Aza.2105:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/world-of-warcraft-cataclysm-directx-11-performance,2793-7.html

People ask for dx11 because of that, it benefited wow greatly. But gw2 has other problems. The first thing they would need to do is rewrite the engine to be multi threaded. None of these things are happening though.

I don’t feel they will ever optimize the game client side because they probably do not have the resources or man power to do so.

Those are beta features for an expansion that was made with it in mind. WoW also has a good bit more man power and money to dump into building a new system like that. They also showed that it made use of extra processing power, while systems already maxed had almost no impact, showing the system is not more “optimized” but opened up to make use of the extra power of high end systems. And the people who need to see gains the most are people probably running hardware that does not support DX11 in the first place. Don’t get me wrong here though, I would love to see DX11 support added, even if only for performance gains on highend stuff, I would love to see my processor and GPU go over 60-70% usage. I just don’t see it happening, or at least not in the way people seem to think just adding DX11 support will.

About the only thing Direct x 11.1/2 does better then an older direct x is “tiling” and any of the new low level API’s being thrown around can do the same and mantle does. Making this game direct X 11 or .1/.2 wouldn’t help anyone who is already having performance problems. There is nothing magical about Windows 8 and direct x. It is just M$ selling snake oil and forcing you to buy their new vista.

Core optimization can be done but it is just a big project. See Planetside 2 and project o:mfg. The thing to remember with Planetside 2 is they would not have bothered if the game wasn’t coming to notebook AMD 8 core chips on the console. Computer players of the game are basically beta testing the console version. What does Anet gain from spending a ton on this project? Would they possibly optimize it when they release an expansion (more money)? Possibly. The direct x means jack as far as that.

Now a mantle or low level API? That would be a big performance increase to Guild Wars 2, but again they would have to rewrite everything to use the cores, so again it is a big project. Who would it make WvW playable for? AMD users and older Q Quads, I7-920’s. People with newer I7’s would be getting insane fps in games (which I would love on my 4770k).

Direct X though? Is garbage and has always been garbage. The reason is that it’s a high level API. It has to be compatible with everything out there. This is why you have needed overkill on a comptuer to get console like performance/efficiency/draw calls.

Anyone truly wanting a performance increase should be hoping direct x simply dies and that Nvidia makes their own mantle or signs on. People with integrated GPU’s can’t really run modern games anyways and all the gamers are suffering for it.

The caveat? You will have to buy a newer GPU, because a low level api can’t be a low level api if it has support for other graphics cards/tech. I would much rather but a 200 dollar video card that can max 1080p then a 400 dollar one though…In the end it comes down to money. What will the game companies make the most money catering to. What will the video card makers make the most money catering to.

The only silver lining is that all the console ports will be 8 core optimized. Computer games like mmo’s? Anyones guess. Everquest next uses the planetside 2 engine though, which most likely means 8 cores are going to be rocking in it.