Microsoft Unlocks Framerates For Smoother Gameplay On Windows 10 (pcper.com)

An anonymous user writes: Back in March, Microsoft's Phil Spencer addressed some of the concerns over the Unified Windows Platform and PC gaming. He noted that Microsoft would "plan to open up VSync off, FreeSync, and G-Sync in May" and the company would "allow modding and overlays in UWP applications" sometime further into the future. Well, it appears that Microsoft is on point with the May UWP update. According to the MS DirectX Developer Blog, a Windows 10 update being pushed out today will enable UWP to support unlocked frame rates and variable refresh rate monitors in both G-Sync and FreeSync varieties. Today's update won't automatically enable these features in UWP games like Gears of War or Quantum Break, they will still need to be updated individually by the developer. Microsoft states that Gears of War and Forza will be the first to see these changes, but there is no mention of Quantum Break here, which is a game that could DEFINITELY benefit from the love of variable refresh rate monitors.PCWorld has more details.

Comments

UWP is not the right solution for every problem

[Anonymous Coward]

I get where Microsoft is going with UWP - It's replacing the legacy overall application framework that's been cobbled together since DOS/3.11. Every windows desktop application has a bit of baggage that's a holdover from DOS, and can in theory interact and work with legacy DOS systems (USB floppy drive? and sneakernet? Add an old DOS hard drive via a USB cable?)

UWP is a different beast. Sandboxed applications that come through a managed app store - Yeah it's tablet like but it's easy and safe for users. Bad applications can't root your system and getting new ones, updating them is easy as hell.

Of course, conveniently, Microsoft gets a piece of the pie or has their hand in every UWP application in some manner or another.

Trouble is UWP is tied to the shitfest that was windows 8 "Metro" and got an astoundingly bad start. It's also got serious issues. Ask any developer that wants to code something more complicated than an online photo browser or "App" that that replaces a web page for some simple service.

Huge pain in the ass straight jacket that makes porting legacy applications near impossible.. Limited access to system resources. Interface issues that make it a complete nonstarter for any serious productivity application. And as we see now, really really really poor and forced choices for games that make it useless for anything that's not a port of a tablet/mobile game.

Playing catch up with a walled garden

[HalAtWork]

UWP is getting built up as fast as possible to match Win32, and when parity is achieved, UWP will have all the new API updates and Win32 will stagnate. Eventually MS will say it's not worth supporting Win32 as a development platform and will leave it to a virtual machine for compatibility. It will be deemed too insecure and out of date. UWP will be supported on more devices. Through MS's store, UWP applications have DRM containers and the Windows PC won't be as open as it used to be, allowing for community fixes and game updates like texture packs and mods. Anyway that's what it seems like.