2021 has come to an end and it’s time to reflect on what the Graphics team has been busy with in the last quarter of the year – we’ll brief you on hiring, DirectX in Gaming, new graphics features, as well as graphics industry news.

On this blog post we talk about:

• Hiring
• DirectX in Gaming
• New graphics features
• Graphics Industry News

We’re hiring!

We have a lot of Program Manager (PM) and Software Engineer (SWE) roles open for several teams in Graphics! Check out aka.ms/graphicsjobs for a full list of our open jobs – we look at every application that we get! Have any questions about any of the roles? Please get hold of us at discord.gg/DirectX

DirectX in Gaming

We have a new preview Agility SDK out!

On 12/7, we released our first preview Agility SDK, with support for Enhanced Barriers and Video Encode. We also released another SDK right after, containing a bugfix for a raytracing issue.  As always, please let us know if you have any questions and/or feedback on the DirectX Discord server.

New graphics features

Kotaku describes new HDR shortcuts as “a blessing”

The new HDR keyboard shortcut and HDR options in Game Bar are getting noticed – recently Kotaku published an article where they said “Windows 11’s New HDR Shortcuts Are A Blessing”, “Such a tiny change has made such a huge difference”. This feature directly addresses a top request from users who wanted an easy way to toggle HDR on/off without having to go through the Display settings.

To try out the HDR keyboard shortcut, press Win + Alt + Beautiful. You’ll be able to use it if you have Xbox Game Bar app version 5.7121.0 and newer installed on your PC.

Xbox Becomes First Platform to Support Dolby Vision for Gaming

On 9/28, we released support for Dolby Vision on Xbox Series S|X for all HDR and AutoHDR titles in the Xbox catalog (including backcompat) providing an enhanced and more tightly uniform visual experience without any performance impact, becoming the first platform to offer this functionality.

Graphics industry news

2021 holiday titles are looking great on Xbox

Check out Digital Foundry’s recent videos on some great games on Series X and S including Forza Horizon 5, Halo Infinite, and Far Cry 6. Series S had an awesome holiday as well with a particularly great showing on Call of Duty Vanguard.

Epic The Matrix Awakens demo

Months of collaboration with Epic has turned into an awesome Matrix Awaken demo on Xbox Series X|S. The public is loving what the demo has showcased. “Welcome to the real world… or the closest we’ve seen yet in real-time rendering! Yes, The Matrix Awakens is brilliant.” — Digital Foundry