The GTX 7000 series was released shortly before Star Citizen became playable thanks to the Hangar Module, the first playable part of the game. Since then the game has grown a lot and huge amounts of changes have been made, especially to its engine. Currently, the transition to the Gen12 graphics engine is being worked on, which will be based on the Vulcan API.
Say goodbye to Windows 7 operating system and NVIDIA GTX 700 Series graphics
The Windows 7 operating system is no longer supported by Microsoft. It’s not really strange that CIG decided to stop supporting him in his Star Citizen game. The loss of support is due to DirectX 11.1 not compatible with Windows 7, no more no less. A upgrade to Windows 8 or any later version of Microsoft’s operating system will be required.
The same thing happens with the NVIDIA GTX 700 series graphics cards. These graphics cards do not support DirectX 11.1 and will therefore no longer be usable. We will now need GTX 900 Series or later graphics cards.
The changes that have come about because the Star Citizen Alpha 3.17 will start using Gen12 features. Those who don’t upgrade will still be able to use the game on Windows 7 and “old” hardware.
Interestingly, Windows 7 support may return in the near future with the move to the Vulkan API. CIG’s idea is to abandon Microsoft’s DirectX for Vulkan, which is open source. But that’s not so much because of Windows 7, but because this API is much more user-friendly. Linux operating systems.
Significant Changes to Star Citizen’s Graphics Engine
New Gen12 graphics engine (which has nothing to do with DirectX 12 or Intel processors) brings a new rendering process. Star Citizen’s graphics engine is expected to be more performance-oriented.
CIG, during a game event, explained that Gen12 will be a more independent rendering architecture. Objects are allowed to communicate directly. What this allows for is rendering with multiple channels and for different tasks to be rendered on their own.
Currently, a universal system is used through which all tasks and objects that need to be rendered pass. This creates a big bottleneck, because the work has to be done synchronously or step by step.
Remember that initially Star Citizen used the CryEngine graphics engine from CryTek which served as the basis for the Crysis video games. In 2015, the transition to Amazon Lumberyard began, in order to take advantage of Amazon’s web services and the advanced network functions of this graphics engine.
A collection of changes and improvements focused on improving the performance of a gigantic game. Moving this game is not easy on a technical level, because thousands of things are happening at the same time. In addition, there are a large number of objects (such as rocks or asteroids) that must be rendered in real time, as well as ships and any other events that may occur.
