Blizzard deprecates WoW 32 Bit and D3D9

[xalcon]

There is currently a build on the PTR that has some warning strings which indicates that the 32 Bit Client as well as the D3D9 Graphics API are deprecated and will not work in the future. I assume they will do the switch with BfA. Since there are a lot of people around here that still use 32 Bit for their tools and bots as well as the D3D9 Graphics hook: you might want to look into switching to D3D11 and the 64 Bit Client

Wouldnt surprise me if there is a small uproar from people with FPS issues when using the D3D11 API and/or the 64 Bit Client but I dont think blizzard will change their mind about this. There are already problems with the D3D9 Pipeline (i.e. some ground effects are not rendered properly or dont show at all)

Source: Patch 7.3.5 PTR - Build 25826 - MMO-Champion

[advanta]

There is currently a build on the PTR that has some warning strings which indicates that the 32 Bit Client as well as the D3D9 Graphics API are deprecated and will not work in the future. I assume they will do the switch with BfA. Since there are a lot of people around here that still use 32 Bit for their tools and bots as well as the D3D9 Graphics hook: you might want to look into switching to D3D11 and the 64 Bit Client

Wouldnt surprise me if there is a small uproar from people with FPS issues when using the D3D11 API and/or the 64 Bit Client but I dont think blizzard will change their mind about this. There are already problems with the D3D9 Pipeline (i.e. some ground effects are not rendered properly or dont show at all)

Source: Patch 7.3.5 PTR - Build 25826 - MMO-Champion

Sad. A lot of us got into wow back in BC when you could stream it on literally any piece of crap.

Like most tech companies they have all these people working for them that don't understand millions of people don't have state of the art hardware. No one seems to understand how much that damages the core numbers of subscribers.

[doityourself]

Finally! I was waiting for it a long time <3

[xalcon]

Sad. A lot of us got into wow back in BC when you could stream it on literally any piece of crap.

Like most tech companies they have all these people working for them that don't understand millions of people don't have state of the art hardware. No one seems to understand how much that damages the core numbers of subscribers.

On the other hand, supporting multiple OS'es, architectures and APIs for long amounts of time is also really expensive. Deprecating something will always affect someone, but it seems the amount of affected people is low enough for Blizzard to make this move. Computers that dont support 64 Bit or D3D11 are most likely 7 years old (Dx11 was released in early 2011), so I dont expect it to be that bad.

[ioctl]

On the other hand, supporting multiple OS'es, architectures and APIs for long amounts of time is also really expensive. Deprecating something will always affect someone, but it seems the amount of affected people is low enough for Blizzard to make this move. Computers that dont support 64 Bit or D3D11 are most likely 7 years old (Dx11 was released in early 2011), so I dont expect it to be that bad.

For comparison: when BC came out, it required Windows XP, which was six years old at the time, and Direct3d 9, which was five years old.

[xalcon]

The support for the 32 bit client will end on the first of july this year. Wouldnt surprise me if we see the bfa prepatch a few days later.

Support Ending for World of Warcraft 32-Bit Client This Summer - WoW

[alexh1tman]

What do you mean "later", 6 weeks until release is late enough to be exact prepatch day.

[Patt_French]

Sad. A lot of us got into wow back in BC when you could stream it on literally any piece of crap.

Like most tech companies they have all these people working for them that don't understand millions of people don't have state of the art hardware. No one seems to understand how much that damages the core numbers of subscribers.

Yup it's bad.
I don't think it will really damage the "core numbers of subscribers" but the worse part is that it will affect mostly 'poor' people.


"You have a shitty life and can't wait for playing wow everynight on your 10yo computer? fuck you it's 64bits now" -Blizzard

But then again, blizz is a company, not a public service

[xalcon]

What do you mean "later", 2 weeks until release is late enough to be exact prepatch day.

The 1st of july is a sunday. If they want to phase out the 32 bit client as soon as possible, they would release a patch on the next maintanance day - 3th of july. 4 Weeks until prepatch doesnt sound too far off, but we dont have one on the PTR yet... but we will see. Legion prepatch was released on july 19, 2018 while legion release was on august 30, 2016. I cant find data for the other expansions but 6 weeks before release sounds about right.