Treyarch have upgraded the DirectX 9 Black Ops engine to a "leaner" DirectX 11 edition that promises "significant improvements" for us PC players. The updated engine should make more efficient use of GPU power, and will have "more quality vs. performance options than ever before." The upgrade means that it won't run on Windows XP, however.
"Performance has been a top priority for Black Ops II PC from day one" say Treyarch in a post on the Black Ops 2 site , spotted by Eurogamer . "Black Ops II PC features enhanced lighting, shadows, antialiasing, bloom, depth of field, ambient occlusion, and other enhanced effects that are still in the works. And the game can run at higher resolutions and higher framerates on the PC."
There's no frame rate limit either, so we'll be able to cram even more Call of Duty into our eyeballs every second than ever before. Treyarch also released some minimum system requirements so you can plan an upgrade if you need one:
Black Ops 2 PC system requirements
- OS: Windows Vista SP2 or Windows 7
- CPU: Intel Core2 Duo E8200 2.66 GHz or AMD Phenom X3 8750 2.4 GHz
- Memory: 2GB for 32-bit OS or 4GB for 64-bit OS
- Gnomes: Four hardened micro-gnomes with front line combat experience
- Video Card: Nvidia GeForce 8800GT 512 MB or ATI Radeon HD 3870 512 MB
The extra polish should help to sell Black Ops 2's future setting a little better on PC but with Warface, Battlefield 3 and Planetside 2 kicking around, it'll be going up against some big engines this winter. If only there was a way to put them all in some sort of thunderdome and make them fight for our love.
