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Does anyone know exactly which features you don't get access to unless going through their distribution? Cause anything short of not getting the latest drivers
by endergen 11y ago
Does anyone know exactly which features you don't get access to unless going through their distribution?
Cause anything short of not getting the latest drivers or something or anything that affects performance or existing feature sets isn't the worst thing ever. Ok it's lame to try to close a system that's been open forever. But this is exactly what Apple is doing with their App Store, minus I believe preventing any serious Platform APIs from being called.
- ramy_d 11y agoUWP apps are subject to a host of limitations, including not being able to turn off V-sync, (currently) no SLI or Crossfire support, no .exe file for use with Steam, and no custom mouse and keyboard bindings. Game files are also locked down, which prevents modding.
- leddt 11y agoThose are things that you can't do with a UWP app. The GP is asking about what you can't do without a UWP app.
- ramy_d 11y agorighto - read too quickly. Answer: DX12.
- lostmsu 11y agoSource? AFAIK most DX12 samples in SDK are not UWP.
- Blaaguuu 11y agoI don't think that's correct either. My understanding is that the issue with DirectX 12 is that it is limited to Windows 10 - So people still on Windows 7/8 can't play DX12 games. AFAIK, you can use DX12 in non-UWP applications.
- ramy_d 11y agoYou're right, however as I understand it the UWP push is to move all games through that one platform.
- scholia 11y agoWho says so?
- henrikschroder 11y agoMicrosfot could make UWP mandatory for DirectX 12. Or 13. It's a plausible scenario for pushing UWP adoption.
- scholia 11y agoMicrosoft could do a million things, but speculation doesn't get you very far. In general, it's better to have some actual facts to go on. One of the actual facts in this case is that Microsoft makes the vast majority of its income from Win32 programs, including Office 2016, not UWP apps. Another actual fact is that Apple, Adobe, Google, IBM, Oracle and other large software companies also make their money from Win32 programs, not UWP apps. Another actual fact is that all these leading companies are quite happy to launch lawsuits and/or to approach the US DoJ with accusations that Microsoft has done something anti-competitive. All of this means that Microsoft cannot possibly close off access to the Win32 API, and even limiting DirectX could be a big risk. It also seems to me that the PC games industry could quite easily be delusional about its significance in today's software industry, and that it's not aware of the full picture ;-)
- endergen 11y agoPhew, if that was a thing. That would be huge.
- Blaaguuu 11y agoI don't know for sure, but my assumption would be that it currently isn't anything particularly interesting... Maybe things like sending updates to Windows 10's 'notification' drawer?
- lostmsu 11y agoAFAIK, there are no such features. Desktop app can use any UWP component maybe minus UI controls (but there's WPF)
- endergen 11y agoThat's my impression without Tim Sweeney getting specific. He's more making sure Microsoft doesn't take over distribution and charge a 30% cut or something and do other forms of competitive hampering of other distribution channels like direct to gamers, or alternatives like Steam which MS is super jealous of.
- henrikschroder 11y agoI can easily imagine Microsoft restricting the next version of DirectX to UWP, that would bring about the scenario the article is arguing against.