A few months ago, developer Treyarch and publisher Activision announced that the PC version of Call of Duty: Black Ops II would support DirectX 11 graphics. It is the first time that DirectX 11 graphical features will be in a Call of Duty game.
Now the other shoe has dropped. The game"s official website has posted up the hardware requirements for the PC port and it reveals that Call of Duty Black Ops II won"t support Windows XP.
In a statement, Activision says, "Since we upgraded the engine to use DirectX 11, Windows XP is no longer supported. It requires Windows Vista or later." The minimal hardware for a PC rig to run the game includes:
- 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
- Video Card: Nvidia GeForce 8800GT 512 MB or ATI Radeon HD 3870 512 MB
The page also says that the PC port will include extra graphical features that won"t be in the console versions, such as " ... 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."
While dumping Windows XP support will certainly allow Call of Duty Black Ops II to look better than previous games in the series, the fact remains that there are still a lot of PCs around the world that still have Windows XP installed.
Source: Call of Duty website | Image via Activision