Project CARS Head Of Studio Bigs Up DirectX 12 Performance Gains

Ian Bell, the head of studio over at Project CARS creator Slightly Mad Games, has been talking up the prospects of DirectX 12, claiming it will offer up some significant performance gains for its simulation racer.

Taking to the official forums to answer fan concerns about frame rate issues in the Xbox One version of Project CARS, Bell said frame rates will improve on both Xbox One and PC, once Microsoft's graphics API hits.

Defending the occasional frame rate drops during certain conditions, Bell argued “We never said we'd run 30 cars at night in the rain at 60. We said the game runs at 60FPS, which it does. So Gran Turismo, but it drops to 20's under heavy action in the wet at night.

“For the most part we remain well above 40 during heavy action. And as I've said, this will only improve as DX12 comes online and we keep tweaking.”

As for those performance gains, Bell seemed optimistic. “Oh yes. said Bell. “Our engine loves [DX12] also. With DX12 the Xbox will perform extremely well for us. With the upcoming imminent patches it's already much better. We'll need to do some work of course but the way our engine is structured lends itself to the main benefits of DX12.”

DirectX 12 will be coming alongside Windows 10 when it arrives this summer, and it’s sounding increasingly likely it will have a significant performance impact for both PC and Xbox One gamers, particularly in CPU-limited situations. It'll be interesting to see just how significant the changes are for the Xbox One, particularly if Microsoft can flip the tables and outpower Sony's PlayStation 4.