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Hello legends! With Season 15, we are introducing an opt-in beta feature: support for DirectX 12 on PC.
We need your help to gather data and feedback for our initial DX12 implementation. You may not see a difference yet, but we wanted to get it in your hands to try as many different hardware, software and streaming configurations as we can before rolling out to the whole community.
Though this initial beta release may not have noticeable changes for most players, it's an important step that lays the groundwork for future improvements.
Without further ado, here’s some notes from our dev team on what you can expect!
What is DirectX 12
DirectX (DX) is the API we use to communicate between your computer’s main processor (the CPU) and its graphics processor (the GPU), which makes it a key part of the graphics rendering system. Apex Legends has been using DX11 since launch, and this new evolution to an updated API brings many exciting opportunities for the future of Apex Legends.
This is a beta
Since this is a beta, some bugs and glitches are expected. The DX11 version of the game is still the main version we expect most players to use for now. If you experience any issues with DX12 please return to DX11 by removing the commands outlined below.
How to try DX12
A graphics card with a minimum DirectX Feature Level of 12_0 is required to launch the game with DX12. To determine your Feature Levels, open the Run dialog (Windows Key+R) and type “dxdiag”. Feature Levels are listed in the Drivers section of the Display tab.
EA App:
- From “My Collection”, click on the three dots in the upper right corner of the Apex Legends tile and select “View Properties”.
- Add "-eac_launcher_settings SettingsDX12.json" in the text box under “Advanced Launch Options”.
- Click “Save” and launch the game normally.
Origin:
- From “My Game Library”, right click Apex Legends -> Game Properties -> Advanced Launch Options
- Add "-eac_launcher_settings SettingsDX12.json" to Command line arguments
- Click “Save” and launch the game normally
Steam
- From your library, right click Apex Legends, and select Properties.
- Add "-eac_launcher_settings SettingsDX12.json" to “Launch Options”
- Close the properties window and launch the game normally
Benefits
Beta performance will vary depending on hardware and drivers, but we hope the game will feel and play like the Apex experience you already know. There shouldn’t be a significant difference between DX12 and DX11 at this point, but there may be some FPS drops in certain circumstances that we will continue to investigate.
Once our DX12 version of Apex Legends is battle-tested and we complete the full switch over from DX11, we’ll be able to implement exciting new features, such as:
- More parallelism. DX12 is designed to allow games to distribute CPU graphics code across multiple cores, which will result in a higher framerate
- More and higher fidelity visuals. Apex Legends has a lot of great art and stunning graphics, DX12 will give us more headroom to add even more amazing content from our artists
- New tech. We have plans for a bunch of new visual features and optimizations that are only possible with the power of DX12. More info to come in the future!
- Unified code. DX12 is similar to other platforms' modern graphics APIs, while DX11 is quite different. Having more similar code across all platforms will speed up development and lead to fewer bugs.
Feedback
We want to hear your feedback! For those who decide to try it out please let us know if you experience any problems like visual glitches or framerate issues. We’re listening and we want to make our DX12 version of the game the best that it can be.
Share your feedback in the comments below or reach out to us via our usual social media platforms.
Known Issues
As we test out DX12, here are some issues we’re aware players might run into:
- Shader compilation - the first time you load the game, it may take you a few minutes on the Title Screen to process and compile shaders.
- Memory - Our DX12 beta uses more GPU memory than our DX11 version. We’re working hard on optimizing and improving this.
- Current workaround: if you experience slowdowns, please try lowering your Texture Streaming Budget, Spot Shadow Detail, and Model Detail video settings.
- Recording and streaming - Some desktop recording software, including Open Broadcaster Software (OBS) and NVIDIA GeForce Experience, can encounter issues capturing the game window when running DX12.
- Current workaround: if you have problems trying to record or stream, try switching your source in OBS from "Window Capture" to "Game Capture" or "Display Capture", or select "Enabled Full Desktop Capture" in GeForce Experience.
For future updates, follow the Respawn Twitter account for the latest info or check out the Apex Tracker Trello for bugs or concerns we’re continuing to investigate. For our full Eclipse patch notes, click here.
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