New Windows 10 Update Includes Gaming-Related Features

Those of you who are gaming on Windows 10 should know that Microsoft has just announced a brand new update for its operating system, an update that addresses certain gaming-related issues such as unlocked framerates in Universal Windows Platform games and applications. Furthermore, it looks like the update will also enable support for both Freesync and G-sync, which is definitely good news as these technologies can enable smooth and stutter-free gaming experiences. It is worth pointing out that developers will need to release their own patches in order to allow games to take advantage of these two features, and it’s likely that Forza Motorsport 6: APEX and Gears of War: UE will be the first titles to receive some attention. As for the lack of exclusive full-screen support in DirectX 12 games, Microsoft has issued the following statement:

“Full screen exclusive mode was created back in the original release of DirectDraw to provide games with enhanced performance when using the entire screen. The downside of full screen exclusive mode is that it makes the experience for gamers who wish to do other things on their system, such as alt-tab to another application or run the Windows GameDVR, more clunky with excessive flicker and transition time. We thought it would be cool if gamers could have the versatility of gaming in a window with the performance of full screen exclusive.

So, with Windows 10, DirectX 12 games which take up the entire screen perform just as well as the old full screen exclusive mode without any of the full screen exclusive mode disadvantages. This is true for both Win32 and UWP games which use DirectX 12.   All of these games can seamlessly alt-tab, run GameDVR, and exhibit normal functionality of a window without any perf degradation vs full screen exclusive.”

Apparently, adding a fullscreen mode is not exactly a priority for Microsoft just yet, but maybe adding multi-GPU support for DX12 games is higher on the list. We can only hope.