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OnionPowder

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
9,323
Orlando, FL
Did you steal my screenshot from 2016 when I had the same issues with Forza horizon 3, gears 4 and quantum break? Sad this storefront is still a thing.

It's actually embarrassing how shit their gaming apps all have been, for well over a DECADE at this point.

I remember all the people telling me that there's no way they'd launch a supbar app again, this time it was going to be right. Sure. Not a damn thing learned since GFWL outside of releasing it on Steam for a properly functioning version of the game.

It's all been downhill since the launch of Vista!
 
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flyinj

flyinj

Member
Oct 25, 2017
10,940
Weekly update:

Myst finally received its patch on Gamepass, six weeks after submitting it to MS Cert. It doesn't however bring it up to the same patch level as other storefronts, as it is still missing the photo feature the other versions have.

And on a positive note, Sable is getting patches on Gamepass on the exact same day they are appearing on other storefronts.

Which kind of adds to the mystery of why some developers submit patches to MS cert which get stuck there for weeks while others are pushed day and seemingly hour of submission.
 

vixolus

Prophet of Truth
Member
Sep 22, 2020
54,276
Weekly update:

Myst finally received its patch on Gamepass, six weeks after submitting it to MS Cert. It doesn't however bring it up to the same patch level as other storefronts, as it is still missing the photo feature the other versions have.

And on a positive note, Sable is getting patches on Gamepass on the exact same day they are appearing on other storefronts.

Which kind of adds to the mystery of why some developers submit patches to MS cert which get stuck there for weeks while others are pushed day and seemingly hour of submission.
QA must've been stuck on some puzzles
 

Snefer

Creative Director at Neon Giant
Verified
Oct 30, 2017
339
Weekly update:

Myst finally received its patch on Gamepass, six weeks after submitting it to MS Cert. It doesn't however bring it up to the same patch level as other storefronts, as it is still missing the photo feature the other versions have.

And on a positive note, Sable is getting patches on Gamepass on the exact same day they are appearing on other storefronts.

Which kind of adds to the mystery of why some developers submit patches to MS cert which get stuck there for weeks while others are pushed day and seemingly hour of submission.

Because they hold back the patches on other platforms instead. It's not hard to launch patches at the same time on all platforms, you just need to wait for the slowest ones. It's more of a PR/community management thing than anything else. Do you want patches for as many playes as quickly as possible, or all at the same time, but slower?
 
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flyinj

flyinj

Member
Oct 25, 2017
10,940
Because they hold back the patches on other platforms instead. It's not hard to launch patches at the same time on all platforms, you just need to wait for the slowest ones. It's more of a PR/community management thing than anything else. Do you want patches for as many playes as quickly as possible, or all at the same time, but slower?

That was brought up before, but it just doesn't make any sense with many of these patch releases.

Why is it that Sable gets updated immediately on all platforms including Gamepass (first patch was three days after release, second was a week and half), but with Myst the developer said they submitted the first patch to MS certifcation six weeks ago and in the following weeks released five patches on all other storefronts. Finally the first patch came out six weeks later for the Gamepass version, while the other storefronts have four newer patches?

Another example is Psychonauts. The developer released the first patch for all storefronts two days after release, and said they submitted the same patch to MS certification on the same day for the Gamepass version. A week later they released another patch on all other storefronts, then four weeks later the first patch finally came out for the Gamepass version.

Something is really weird about about how MS is handling some of these patches.
 

Snefer

Creative Director at Neon Giant
Verified
Oct 30, 2017
339
That was brought up before, but it just doesn't make any sense with many of these patch releases.

Why is it that Sable gets updated immediately on all platforms including Gamepass (first patch was three days after release, second was a week and half), but with Myst the developer said they submitted the first patch to MS certifcation six weeks ago and in the following weeks released five patches on all other storefronts. Finally the first patch came out six weeks later for the Gamepass version, while the other storefronts have four newer patches?

Another example is Psychonauts. The developer released the first patch for all storefronts two days after release, and said they submitted the same patch to MS certification on the same day for the Gamepass version. A week later they released another patch on all other storefronts, then four weeks later the first patch finally came out for the Gamepass version.

Something is really weird about about how MS is handling some of these patches.

Because Sable could for example have submitted their patch ahead of release, but in reality the patch could have been day1 on steam, for example. A patch can fail and be held up too, which is another calculated risk.
 
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flyinj

flyinj

Member
Oct 25, 2017
10,940
Because Sable could for example have submitted their patch ahead of release, but in reality the patch could have been day1 on steam, for example. A patch can fail and be held up too, which is another calculated risk.

Ah! So Microsoft does fail patches in certification then? That's a big piece to the puzzle. Many people were saying that MS doesn't QA PC patches in certification like they do with console patches, whereas I was saying it really seems like they do.

So Microsoft certification handles PC patches the same way they handle console patches?

(Also the developer for Sable said they submitted the patch to MS cert the same day it was released in both instances, so the patch definitely wasn't submitted before release)
 

wellpapp

Member
Aug 21, 2018
467
Gothenburg
Bumped to say that Psychonauts 2 recieved a patch on GP - I'd guess it's the same that released on Steam (Update 1088619) today? So maybe the cert process is faster now? Hopefully fixes some issues still on the MS Store version.
 

pswii60

Member
Oct 27, 2017
26,657
The Milky Way
Bumped to say that Psychonauts 2 recieved a patch on GP - I'd guess it's the same that released on Steam (Update 1088619) today? So maybe the cert process is faster now? Hopefully fixes some issues still on the MS Store version.
Still no fix for the shader compilation stutter! They promised this would be fixed quickly back in the launch week. I guess they're just hoping everyone will forget.
 

Kudo

Member
Oct 25, 2017
3,868
Has there been improvements to the Game Pass app itself on PC? Is there still risk of losing space or does it uninstall games properly now?
 

SixelAlexiS

Member
Oct 27, 2017
7,719
Italy
Still no fix for the shader compilation stutter! They promised this would be fixed quickly back in the launch week. I guess they're just hoping everyone will forget.
I confirm that you get stutters for shader compilation even with the new latest patch (15GB!), at least on Game Pass.
People tend to think that it's "fixed" due to the fact that once compiled they will stay like that until the next video driver change, and I just changed those some days again and now I get stutter at anything I "break" in-game or interact to.

Double Fine claimed to have fixed the issue but was a bunch of lies... even DF Aaron said it was fixed back in september but this was never the case ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
 

pswii60

Member
Oct 27, 2017
26,657
The Milky Way
I confirm that you get stutters for shader compilation even with the new latest patch (15GB!), at least on Game Pass.
People tend to think that it's "fixed" due to the fact that once compiled they will stay like that until the next video driver change, and I just changed those some days again and now I get stutter at anything I "break" in-game or interact to.

Double Fine claimed to have fixed the issue but was a bunch of lies... even DF Aaron said it was fixed back in september but this was never the case ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Yeah there's a huge thread in the game's Steam forum about it too, definitely not fixed. Shocking really.
 

Dmax3901

Member
Oct 25, 2017
7,865
That Flynn game still doesn't have achievements activated on PC gamepass, despite the developers saying they sent the patch to Microsoft shortly after launch.
 

SixelAlexiS

Member
Oct 27, 2017
7,719
Italy
Yeah there's a huge thread in the game's Steam forum about it too, definitely not fixed. Shocking really.
Btw Sea Of Thieves have the same crap, the game is a stutter fest even without a cache but as soon as you change video drivers is absurd how many you get for the same reasons. Modern PC gaming is like a freaking emulator, just insane...

p.s. well, both are Unreal Engine... actually same stuff is on Black 4 Blood too, that do just a partial pre-cache (like for act 1).
I guess UE really have to do something to makes this whole thing more easier for developers since every stuttering game I think of is UE at this point.
 
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flyinj

flyinj

Member
Oct 25, 2017
10,940
Welcome back to the "On release day Gamepass gets a beta version while every other storefront gets the release version" show!

This time on the show we have -

Archvale!

That's right, the hot new Humble Games twin stick RPG just released on every major PC storefront as version 1.0 gets an inferior and unpolished beta on the Gamepass service!

Why does this happen? Well folks, no one really has a fucking clue!

How long will it be until the Gamepass version gets fixed? And how many patches will every other storefront get before the Gamepass version is fixed?

Tune in next time!

steamcommunity.com

Archvale GamePass on PC -- NOW UP TO DATE! :: Archvale General Discussions

Hello everyone! The build going live on Xbox GamePass for PC is lacking a layer of polish and shine which will make the gamplay experience a lot more enjoyable. The patch is going live within the next few days. All other platforms beyond the windows store (GamePass PC) are unaffected! Thank you...
 

SixelAlexiS

Member
Oct 27, 2017
7,719
Italy
Welcome back to the "On release day Gamepass gets a beta version while every other storefront gets the release version" show!

This time on the show we have -

Archvale!

That's right, the hot new Humble Games twin stick RPG just released on every major PC storefront as version 1.0 gets an inferior and unpolished beta on the Gamepass service!

Why does this happen? Well folks, no one really has a fucking clue!

How long will it be until the Gamepass version gets fixed? And how many patches will every other storefront get before the Gamepass version is fixed?

Tune in next time!

steamcommunity.com

Archvale GamePass on PC -- NOW UP TO DATE! :: Archvale General Discussions

Hello everyone! The build going live on Xbox GamePass for PC is lacking a layer of polish and shine which will make the gamplay experience a lot more enjoyable. The patch is going live within the next few days. All other platforms beyond the windows store (GamePass PC) are unaffected! Thank you...
And the fact the developers communicate this type of stuff on Steam forum is always hilarious.
 

tokkun

Member
Oct 27, 2017
5,399
Why does this happen? Well folks, no one really has a fucking clue!

The reasons seem pretty clear.

1. Microsoft requires certification for patches on PC and other storefronts don't. This adds a delay into the process of releasing patches on the Windows Store.
2. Many developers don't want to artificially delay the patch on other storefronts just so it lands at the same time as the Windows Store patch.

I am not particularly surprised by #2. Steam is by far the biggest storefront on PC. Artificially delaying patches there will damage reviews and word-of-mouth about the game, and hurt sales. Windows Store is not a big enough player on PC for Microsoft to strongarm devs into doing it.

The only thing that really surprises me about the situation is that it also happens with Microsoft Studios games. I'd expect if it causes enough bad PR for the WIndows Store that eventually a mandate will come down from their corporate overlords to force them to delay Steam patches so they release at the same time.
 
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flyinj

flyinj

Member
Oct 25, 2017
10,940
The reasons seem pretty clear.

1. Microsoft requires certification for patches on PC and other storefronts don't. This adds a delay into the process of releasing patches on the Windows Store.
2. Many developers don't want to artificially delay the patch on other storefronts just so it lands at the same time as the Windows Store patch.

I am not particularly surprised by #2. Steam is by far the biggest storefront on PC. Artificially delaying patches there will damage reviews and word-of-mouth about the game, and hurt sales. Windows Store is not a big enough player on PC for Microsoft to strongarm devs into doing it.

The only thing that really surprises me about the situation is that it also happens with Microsoft Studios games. I'd expect if it causes enough bad PR for the WIndows Store that eventually a mandate will come down from their corporate overlords to force them to delay Steam patches so they release at the same time.

Yeah, that was meant as a rhetorical "who the fuck knows".

We know exactly why it happens, it's in the title of the thread
 

Smash Kirby

One Winged Slayer
Member
Nov 7, 2017
4,066
Dishonored 1 PC was finally updated and now has Achievement support, now I have to replay the parts of the game to get the achievements I missed.
 
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flyinj

flyinj

Member
Oct 25, 2017
10,940
As an update-

Archvale got the patch today.

Happy with the fast turnaround, but still- inferior/older builds of games should never be released on Gamepass when every other storefront gets the latest version on the same day.
 

Dmax3901

Member
Oct 25, 2017
7,865
As an update-

Archvale got the patch today.

Happy with the fast turnaround, but still- inferior/older builds of games should never be released on Gamepass when every other storefront gets the latest version on the same day.
It still doesn't have working achievements though, like Flynn.
 

Insomniac

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,065
Very light Exo One spoilers ahead:

So I played Exo One recently and it was a fantastic time, with the exception of one level in particular: On Coronides, you need to escape the gravitational pull of smaller asteroids by building up speed and launching off them. I found it exceedingly frustrating. It took far and away more time to get through than any other level. After wrapping up the game, I went to the Exo One Steam page and noticed there had been a patch on November 22nd. At the bottom of the patch notes:

Coronides, adjusted vents on main rock, added vents on final small rock, made level slightly easier as many players finding incredibly difficult

There are no vents in the Game Pass version, at least not on PC. This patch went live on Steam on November 22nd. There was a second patch the next day, November 23rd. Three weeks later and the Game Pass version has not received a single update. When asked about it on the Steam forums, the developer responded that "we've been delayed". Based on everything we've seen from other games, I'll take this to mean that Microsoft's certification process has slowed things down considerably.
 

Fawz

Member
Oct 28, 2017
3,657
Montreal
Releasing games, and patches/dlc, requires nearly the same amount of lead time as Xbox consoles and that will always be slower than other storefronts (Except for maybe GOG) so it's expected that you'll see fewer/slower patch releases there and as a result a more buggy product. Add in the complexity of GDK, the Xbox App/WinStore and it makes for a nasty combination. For all the ways MSFT expresses they're serious about PC Gaming, they're sorely behind other store fronts in this regard (Though I don't think it's that major of an issue when they have exclusives and GamePass/Cross-Buy value offerings)
 

Judge

Vault-Tec Seal of Approval
Moderator
Oct 25, 2017
5,136
One of the dumber things is releasing a title with achievements for content that isn't in your game. Spellforce 3 has an achievement related to the Halloween content on steam that doesn't exist in the windows store version lol. They can't even be bothered to remove achievements for their cut back versions

It still doesn't have working achievements though, like Flynn.
None of the Humble games have achievements on PC, despite sharing marketplace pages with their console versions
 

Insomniac

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,065
None of the Humble games have achievements on PC, despite sharing marketplace pages with their console versions

Some do (Unpacking, Carto, Dodgeball Academia at least to name a few). The Archvale dev said on Steam that it's some sort of issue between GameMaker titles and the Microsoft store. But then VA-11 Hall-A is apparently GameMaker and it has achievements on the store so who knows.
 

Yibby

Member
Nov 10, 2017
1,777
Maybe this gets better with Win11 and the new store. I think they want to go more into the "normal" way of game installs like steam does and remove UWP. Hopefully we get the same games as on Steam then?
 

SoneaB

Member
Oct 18, 2020
1,106
UK
Even Halo seem to run better on Stean than Gamepass and i have no idea why. They need to fix this, every other game i try on PC Gamepass has issues.
 

Cels

Member
Oct 26, 2017
6,772
The "new" store doesn't get rid of this, and they have not announced any intention to get rid of it.

yeah until they change this and other problems, win10 versions are often going to be inferior to the respective steam versions. even if they might have other perks like playanywhere or the xbox achievement system.

years later it all seems cobbled together with no attempt at trying to beat or even match steam at providing the best user experience. it works most of the time, but that isn't good enough. 95% of my PC games library is on steam, but over the last year probably 90% of the issues i've run into while PC gaming are due to microsoft's bullshittery, not steam.

no uniform cloud saves - and sometimes, uninstalling the game will delete your saves altogether, with no option to save them if you want to play the game in the future. even microsoft's own games, like minecraft dungeons, do this. why no cloud saves or user autonomy over saves? who knows?
often different save game formats between win10 and steam - makes transferring progress a pain, if not impossible
no parity with patches on other PC storefronts due to certification delays
no uniform achievement requirement - compare to xbox, where every game has to have achievements.
often no options for exclusive fullscreen - borderless windowed is good enough in most cases, but sometimes it isn't.
i could go on with these complaints.

then there's just the everyday experience of downloading and launching a game, which you'd think is simple, but sometimes they can't even get that right. their flagship title, halo infinite, didn't even launch on PC for me when i tried to play the campaign. instead it opened the store in the "gaming services" store page -- something that a fair amount of other people experienced. fortunately the fix is simple, but users shouldn't have to deal with this crap just because they're trying to launch a game.
 
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flyinj

flyinj

Member
Oct 25, 2017
10,940
Today on Gamepass gets a broken version of a game that works fine on all other storefronts we have-

Record of Lodoss War!

In the Gamepass version, whenever a tutorial popup appears on screen the frame rate drops to about 5 fps. This drop also happens randomly in other parts of the game. We're talking trying to fight enemies on a screen that will not go above 1-5 fps.

This bug does not exist on other storefronts

No response from the developer in spite of several topics on the game's Steam forum since its release two weeks ago.
 
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SixelAlexiS

Member
Oct 27, 2017
7,719
Italy
Today on Gamepass gets a broken version of a game that works fine on all other storefronts we have-

Record of Lodoss War!

In the Gamepass version, whenever a tutorial popup appears on screen the frame rate drops to about 5 fps. This drop also happens randomly in other parts of the game. This bug does not exist on other storefronts

No response from the developer in spite of several topics on the game's Steam forum since its release two weeks ago.
yep, can confirm this, downloaded the game 2 weeks ago and it's a mess, even the button config doesn't work at all.
The developers keeps getting those juicy deals from MS and not bothering with fixes, GG.
 

LycanXIII

The Fallen
Oct 26, 2017
9,982
One of the dumber things is releasing a title with achievements for content that isn't in your game. Spellforce 3 has an achievement related to the Halloween content on steam that doesn't exist in the windows store version lol. They can't even be bothered to remove achievements for their cut back versions


None of the Humble games have achievements on PC, despite sharing marketplace pages with their console versions
I mean, even Halo Infinite has achievements for game modes not even in the game yet. But that's a different situation from the game not including an update that every other version has.
 

Hella

Member
Oct 27, 2017
23,396
Today on Gamepass gets a broken version of a game that works fine on all other storefronts we have-

Record of Lodoss War!

In the Gamepass version, whenever a tutorial popup appears on screen the frame rate drops to about 5 fps. This drop also happens randomly in other parts of the game. We're talking trying to fight enemies on a screen that will not go above 1-5 fps.

This bug does not exist on other storefronts

No response from the developer in spite of several topics on the game's Steam forum since its release two weeks ago.
Oh geez I thought that was a stylistic choice, that makes so much more sense. Dang.

No wonder it felt so strange.
 

SixelAlexiS

Member
Oct 27, 2017
7,719
Italy
Today on Gamepass gets a broken version of a game that works fine on all other storefronts we have-

!

In the Gamepass version, whenever a tutorial popup appears on screen the frame rate drops to about 5 fps. This drop also happens randomly in other parts of the game. We're talking trying to fight enemies on a screen that will not go above 1-5 fps.

This bug does not exist on other storefronts

No response from the developer in spite of several topics on the game's Steam forum since its release two weeks ago.
Just want to say that they FINALLY released a patch for the PC version of Record of Lodoss War (along an Xbox version patch that fix some achievement issues) and now the low fps issues during tutorial are fixed!

Sadly still no button prompt for gamepad... so I solved it by putting keyboard letters to match my Xbox pad buttons like this:

Screenshot-3937.png


it's "hacky" but better then nothing, at least now I know what to press during tutorials :'D
 

Neki

Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,793
They finally fixed Lodoss? I've been wanting to play it for months but the wonky framerate on Gamepass was terrible. I'll check it because it was definitely still broken yesterday.
 

SixelAlexiS

Member
Oct 27, 2017
7,719
Italy
They finally fixed Lodoss? I've been wanting to play it for months but the wonky framerate on Gamepass was terrible. I'll check it because it was definitely still broken yesterday.
Did you downloaded the "1.0.3.2" patch? I got it today, once in-game it will show 1.0.3.0 but yeah, it's fixed for me, at least the framerate issues.

image.png

I'll deal with no button prompt with the thing I did in the other post.
 

MCD

Honest Work
Member
Oct 27, 2017
14,751
Just want to say that they FINALLY released a patch for the PC version of Record of Lodoss War (along an Xbox version patch that fix some achievement issues) and now the low fps issues during tutorial are fixed!

Sadly still no button prompt for gamepad... so I solved it by putting keyboard letters to match my Xbox pad buttons like this:

Screenshot-3937.png


it's "hacky" but better then nothing, at least now I know what to press during tutorials :'D

Did you downloaded the "1.0.3.2" patch? I got it today, once in-game it will show 1.0.3.0 but yeah, it's fixed for me, at least the framerate issues.

image.png

I'll deal with no button prompt with the thing I did in the other post.

Good news. Sorry it took so long but happy to see the situation on PC is getting a bit better.
 
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flyinj

flyinj

Member
Oct 25, 2017
10,940
Just started playing Life is Strange True Colors on Gamepass

After a few hours of debugging and googling, it turns out the Gamepass version has no way to enable HDR. Other storefronts had this patched in months ago.

Also, there is no way to adjust the resolution of the game above 1080p if you have desktop scaling enabled. It is unclear if this bug exists in the versions on other storefronts.
 

Dinjoralo

Member
Oct 25, 2017
9,135
Apparently the PC Gamepass version of Bugsnax is also shit, very specifically because of the need for cross-compatibility.

Are you playing the Microsoft Store PC version? That had to use a different graphics pipeline to conform with cross platform compatibility with Xbox, so it is a bit behind on some of the potential optimizations compared to the Steam version.
[...]
For that port we had to use BGFX graphics library to translate our game into DX12 calls, but we did not really have enough time yet to really investigate areas of inefficiency there. I would imagine that the CPU usage for submitting draw calls is perhaps not as efficient as the optimizations we've made on our own end for DX9/DX11.

I'm asuming the Steam version can use more than one CPU thread and doesn't have the framerate tank when there's more than a few NPCs on screen.
 
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flyinj

flyinj

Member
Oct 25, 2017
10,940
Apparently the PC Gamepass version of Bugsnax is also shit, very specifically because of the need for cross-compatibility.



I'm asuming the Steam version can use more than one CPU thread and doesn't have the framerate tank when there's more than a few NPCs on screen.

I'm not really sure why a different graphics pipeline had to be used for "cross platform compatibility with Xbox".

There is no multiplayer, so it seems the only "cross platform" communication is through cloud saves. Which has nothing to do with the graphics pipeline.
 

vixolus

Prophet of Truth
Member
Sep 22, 2020
54,276
I'm not really sure why a different graphics pipeline had to be used for "cross platform compatibility with Xbox".

There is no multiplayer, so it seems the only "cross platform" communication is through cloud saves. Which has nothing to do with the graphics pipeline.
Probably because of the GDK and requirements for publishing on game pass/Xbox store on pc and console.
 

Dinjoralo

Member
Oct 25, 2017
9,135
I'm not really sure why a different graphics pipeline had to be used for "cross platform compatibility with Xbox".

There is no multiplayer, so it seems the only "cross platform" communication is through cloud saves. Which has nothing to do with the graphics pipeline.
It doesn't really make sense to me either, since the PC gamepass version is in DX11, not 12. But buying the Steam version to check, it absolutely does not have the same performance issues. Even in the intro, the Steam version doesn't skip a beat at points where the Gamepass version will start slowing down.
 
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flyinj

flyinj

Member
Oct 25, 2017
10,940
My guess is that MS arbitrarily requires a bunch of "compliance" stuff for certification on the Windows store so the developer needed to create a separate branch when porting.

They most likely worked mainly on the non-Windows store branch. They have to propagate changes and take time to implement them correctly on the Windows store branch, so that branch is always behind compared to the branch used for every other storefront.

I imagine this is why so many games release on Gamepass that are several versions behind the the version released at the same time on every other storefront.
 

Dinjoralo

Member
Oct 25, 2017
9,135
That can't be right. There's no requirement for using DX12 on PC for the GDK. We're running Quake with Vulkan fine on PC.
I don't get it either. Though TBH, it would not surprise me if Microsoft's requirements weren't well defined.
Also, quick curious question, is Quake on Vulkan on Xbox, too?