Caffeine & Ashes of the Singularity Developers “Fight” Over Which Game Is The First DX12 Title


Now here is an interesting story. Ashes of the Singularity’s Early Access phase has just been launched and Stardock has been promoting its title as the first game supporting Microsoft’s API. This, however, was something that caught Dylan Browne’s attention – developer of Caffeine – who was also claiming that Caffeine was the first DX12 game to date.

In a somehow “calm-before-the-storm” tweet war, Brad Wardell and Dylan Browne discussed which game was actually the first one that took advantage of Microsoft’s new API.

When a fan brought together Brad and Dylan, Brad claimed that Ashes of the Singularity was the first game to support DX12 as it has been available for download since last May.

https://twitter.com/draginol/status/657358548029087744

https://twitter.com/draginol/status/657358949520416768

Brad Wardell then added that Stardock has developed its own engine, and that Ashes of the Singularity is a proper DX12 instead of a game merely supporting this new API.

https://twitter.com/draginol/status/657363498264109056

https://twitter.com/draginol/status/657364320117006336

https://twitter.com/draginol/status/657367262580617216

On the other hand, Dylan claimed that “developing your own engine does not automatically make you more mighty then everyone” and questioned whether checking a “checkbox to make a game DX12 it makes my game somehow invalid.

https://twitter.com/DylserX/status/657365054627581952

https://twitter.com/DylserX/status/657369664012570624

Truth be told, Brad Wardell has a point here. Instead of simply enabling the DX12 path in an engine (in which case that path is not even optimized due to its implementation) Stardock has created a “proper” DX12 game that takes advantage of this API.

Brad Wardell concluded that Ashes of the Singularity is the first DX12 game (although it has not been released yet) and Dylan Browne concluded that Caffeine is the first released DX12 game.

https://twitter.com/draginol/status/657367474388783104

https://twitter.com/DylserX/status/657379526805213184

Caffeine’s first episode is now available on Steam, while Ashes of the Singularity’s early access phase has just been launched!

Ashes of the Singularity - Dev Video - Early Access