Elite: Dangerous 2.2 Enters Beta – 32-Bit and DX10 Support Under Threat

The 2.2 update for Frontier’s massive space sim Elite: Dangerous has entered beta access as of today (20^th September). The new update – dubbed The Guardians – introduces dual flying, ship-launched fighters, and a mysterious alien race. Elite: Dangerous players who have access to the Horizons season of updates or existing beta access will be able to download The Guardians now.

Update 2.3 – The Commanders – is expected before the end of the year, and will bring with it player avatars, customisable pilots, multi-crew ships, and buddy flying:

One thing that could be absent in future updates, though, is 32-bit and DirectX 10 support. Frontier admits that it is considering dropping Win32 and DX10 from Elite: Dangerous in order to improve the game’s high-end experience.

“As you know we spend a good deal of time planning for the future, and one issue (and opportunity) we are considering is the effect of supporting Win32 and DX10, and the benefits we would get if we were to drop them,” Frontier’s David Braben writes on the Elite: Dangerous forums. “As you know, we support leading edge technology like 4K, 8K, VR, and with things like compute shaders in Horizons we really push the boundaries overall, but there are restrictions with Win32 – particularly the amount of memory we can address at one time – and with DX10 in terms of requiring an alternative rendering solution in our code. Dropping these two would help us support high end effects with a better result – to make the game better.”

“About 0.5% of players that have installed Elite Dangerous have used their game on Win32 at some time. Some of these machines are capable of running Win64 (ie the hardware would support it),” Braben adds. “With DX10 (fewer than 2% of players) it is more tricky as you may need to upgrade the graphics card on such machines.”