Dark and Darker: DX11 vs. DX12 Differences Explained

The merciless dungeon-crawler Dark and Darker has recently allowed players to run it with DirectX 11 instead of the usual DirectX 12. Available on Steam as a free demo with no release date set, you can enjoy this PvPvE experience in its Alpha test for free, now with your favorite graphics option.

This feature was added thanks to feedback from players having issues with running the game with the more modern DirectX 12. The older but always reliable DirectX 11 can still deliver a solid performance on PCs. Here you’ll find the differences between them and learn which one you should be using for a smooth dungeon exploration (without randomly dying to strangers, hopefully).

All Dark and Darker DX11 and DX12 Differences

Following recent updates, Dark and Darker will now ask you if you’d like to run it normally with DirectX 12 or using the DirectX 11 option. Both are basically the same and have no real impact on your gameplay, but can delivery slightly different performances depending on your specs.

You see, older versions of Windows may not be as compatible with DirectX 12 as they are with DX11, so going with the older version grants you a smoother experience with fewer performance issues while in-game. Remember that, either way, Dark and Darker is still on free Alpha testing, which means that bugs and performance issues are to be expected.

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With that said, the DX11 option is possibly another way for IRONMACE to test which option works better for their game. We’re technically all being used for their game experiment, running around those dungeons and killing each other for loot, anyway.

The game is set by default to ask you which option you want to use before launching, but you can change this by right-clicking at Dark and Darker in your Library > Proprieties > General > Launch options and changing “Ask when starting game” to your desired setting.

So in summary, both options are ok. DX12 promises better graphics while DX11 can fix stuttering problems and similar issues if you’ve been experiencing them, at the cost of slightly (almost imperceptible) worse graphics. When in doubt, just run it with DX11 to get the best running experience.