I wanted to post this on the 'Ask the Dev' section of the forums, but I guess it is closed off or I don't have the proper permission to post there. Well anyways, my question is whether Star Citizen will support DirectX 12? With Citizen finally being a true PC game in and out by pushing our platform to the limits, we need to squeeze out as much power from our hardware as possible, and DirectX 12 simply allows that.

For those who don't know, DirectX 12 is the biggest change in the game development API since it's initial inception. Instead of just adding fancy graphical effects and be done with it, it adds a host of new features and improvements that can have a huge impact on a game which is CPU bound, like Star Citizen. What DirectX 12 will do is basically drastically improve the path between the CPU and the GPU. Right now, in order to communicate with the GPU, a game needs to go through the CPU to the GPU - which slows down the process because of this extra hurdle. With DirectX 12, the path between the game and the GPU is much more direct. CPU can do it's thing without having to be bothered by the game calling for the GPU to work. The more complex the game is - it uses a lot more CPU - like Star Citizen with it's numerous subsystems working together to operate this massive universe. With DirectX 12, the CPU can save a lot of the CPU cycles (processing time) for not being bothered by the GPU and simply process the game systems. Finally the GPU can directly interact with the game without having to wait for the CPU - which means much more performance in terms of fps as well as frame variance (think frame output lag). Not to mention DirectX 12 will be a huge boon for users for having paired a lesser class of CPU compared to their GPU. Finally the best news is, even if your GPU is two generations old or has support for DirectX 11, you already have the hardware support for DirectX 12. DirectX 12 is for Windows 10 only, but Microsoft announced that any user running Windows 7 and 8/8.1 will get this upgrade for free.

Far more in-depth information on DirectX 12 as well as performance benefits, check out this fantastic article from Anandtech

Note: I posted this on the 'Game Ideas' thread as well with the poll in case it is not something which is confirmed.