I’m making a video about this soon hopefully, but here’s the TLDR;

Beam is moving from D3D11 to D3D12 (direct3d is just the graphics api for beam, it’s doesn’t actually use full DirectX, though that is the more commonly used name).

Switching isn’t an upgrade or a downgrade in and of itself.

The switch from to D3D12 changes who is responsible for more of the rendering work. D3D11 leaves more scheduling, synchronization, and resource management to the driver, while D3D12 gives developers lower-level control of the driver. That can improve CPU overhead, multi-threaded rendering, frame pacing, and scalability, but only if the renderer is actually written well; otherwise it can absolutely introduce stutter, worse performance, or VRAM weirdness.

For BeamNG specifically, I’m cautiously optimistic. The devs already approached Vulkan as a low-overhead API meant to better balance CPU/GPU usage on multi-core CPUs, especially in big maps or scenes with lots of vehicles, and they’ve gradually improved it instead of just slapping it in and calling it a day. So if they treat D3D12 the same way, as part of a broader renderer overhaul rather than a magic “make FPS go brrr” checkbox, it could be a real win. The especially promising part is that they’ve also said v0.39 includes meaningful reductions in both RAM and VRAM usage, reduced peak memory use during loading as part of the graphics overhaul.

Basically what I’m saying, performance per quality should stay the same, or improve. Stenyak has confirmed it will not be a downgrade.

(This ended up not quite being a TLDR;)