New World plans to bring DX12 support and other performance improvements

Amazon Game Studios is stepping up its communication game with the launch of New World's first Happenings from Aeternum community newsletter. The inaugural newsletter rounds up some of the latest developer videos and lays out Amazon's plans for performance improvements for open-world MMORPGs, including DirectX 12 support.

AZoth Engine team lead Mike Boccieri said that they are currently working on integrating DirectX 12 so that players and developers alike can benefit. He did note, however, that DX12 is not a "magic bullet" that will immediately eliminate performance and optimization issues, despite popular belief. He further clarified that most optimization problems are CPU-bound rather than GPU-specific. Having said that, he stated that the team is looking at ways to make the game better and making sure the DX12 transition is comfortable for them.

These planned improvements include major changes to client-side streaming technology, integration of DLSS support in conjunction with DX12, and fixes to hook frames. The latter will be deployed as part of Update 2.0.2 at 4PM PT today.

He also warned the community not to oversimplify the impact of API updates on the game's performance, as the team felt more improvements were needed regardless of whether New World ran on DX11 or DX12.