Blizzard’s Heroes of the Storm MOBA was released back on June 2, 2015 after a lengthy beta period, in a time when DirectX9 was in widespread use due to the various versions of Windows still running. Fast forward to 2018 and not only are DirectX11 and DirectX12 the “norm,” so are 64-bit Windows 10 computers. As a result, Blizzard is ending DirectX9 and 32-bit support for Heroes of the Storm in July.
In the coming months, we’re planning to end support for DirectX9 and the 32-bit version of the Heroes of the Storm client. DirectX has had several major releases since DX9, and the vast majority of players in the Heroes community are now running the 64-bit version of the game, along with DirectX11 or higher.
DirectX12, or DX12, was released back in 2015 as well but is only supported on Windows 10. DX11, on the other hand, runs on Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 so Blizzard should still have most of their current Heroes player base covered.
Once support ends, Heroes of the Storm will no longer run for players who are attempting to use the 32-bit game client or DirectX9. Please also note that while the 64-bit Heroes client might still be playable on some machines using DirectX10, this may not be the case for all configurations, which is why we recommend that all our players upgrade to at least DirectX11.
We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. If you‘re not already using the 64-bit Heroes of the Storm client and DX11 or higher, we encourage you to consider making the switch prior to July of this year, which is when we aim to go live with the planned changes.
To see what version of DirectX you are currently using, right click Start, select Run, type dxdiag, and hit enter. Select Yes to verify your dxdiag drivers and after a few seconds, a box should appear letting you know what version of DirectX you are using. You can also type dxdiag in the Cortana search box to launch the DirectX Diagnostic Tool directly.
What do you think about Blizzard’s decision to drop DX9 and 32-bit support for their MOBA? What version of DirectX do you run on your gaming system? Let us know in the comments below or on Google+, Twitter, or Facebook.
[button link=”https://us.battle.net/forums/en/heroes/topic/20762156720″ icon=”fa-external-link” side=”left” target=”blank” color=”285b5e” textcolor=”ffffff”]Source: Blizzard[/button]
