The mega-popular MOBA launched eight years ago, and Valve said it’s time to leave older tech behind. So, in the coming months, Dota 2 players will need to have a 64-bit machine and operating system to run the game. “As Dota has grown and expanded over the years, so has the technology that powers it - both hardware and software,” Valve said in a blog post. “In order to keep the game and the Source 2 engine fresh, we’re planning on removing support for some older systems and configurations.” Moving Dota 2’s technology forward involves a raft of other changes, also set for the coming months:
Remove support for macOS versions below 10.14. Remove support for DirectX 9. Customers using DirectX 9 will instead switch to DirectX 11. Remove support for OpenGL. Customers using OpenGL will instead switch to Vulkan. Remove support for XAudio (-xaudio) and switch to using SDL Audio (-sdlaudio).
Valve said that for most players, nothing will change. “Most machines already support any of the newer technologies necessary,” Valve added. “In fact, most players are already benefiting from the newer technologies, whether it’s via larger content sizes, higher frame-rates, better graphical fidelity, or cleaner sounding audio. “Removing these older technologies will let us streamline our development efforts as well as use the newer features of these APIs to provide an even better Dota experience.”
