Microsoft has just unveiled the new edition of its DirectStorage technology, which is now in version 1.1. If the API still promises to reduce access times in video games, a new optimization makes it possible to further reduce this loading time. Why is that ? Because data decompression will now be entrusted to the GPU rather than the CPU.
Unveiled in September 2020, DirectStorage technology for PC helps reduce game loading times. This Direct X family API prides itself on getting the most out of NVMe drives, among other things. At the time, Microsoft explained that access times to games are too limited, in particular because of the bandwidth allocated to loading the sets that make up a scene, its textures, etc. Prior to DirectStorage, games could only load 50MB/s of data, assuming 64k block sizes as a model.
With the appearance of DirectStorage, this data flow speed has increased to 2.4 GB / s (taking as reference SSD that of the Xbox Series X). According to Microsoft, it takes more than 35,000 Input/Output requests before the data processing becomes saturated. What to see coming and allow reduce loading times of video games.
Microsoft also specifies that DirectStorage makes it possible to take advantage of significantly more detailed games. But it was only the beginning, because Microsoft is working on another type of optimization, still related to DirectStorage.
Games will take less time to load thanks to decompression via the GPU
Today, a new step has been taken with DirectStorage 1.1. This time, the API will allow to decompress data via GPU rather than using CPU. Cassie Hoef, one of Microsoft’s DirectStorage development managers, explains that “the work of decompression has always been done via the CPU, because the compression formats have only been optimized for these same processors.”
Cassie Hoef adds that Microsoft offers an “alternative method in DirectStorage 1.1, by leaving data decompression to the GPU”. This improvement concerns both Windows 10 and Windows 11, although some optimizations are reserved for the latter. What drastically boost the access times to the elements of a video game. So, according to Microsoft, loading a game can be 3 times faster.
The final version of DirectStorage 1.1 will be released by the end of the year. On the graphics card side, manufacturers will have to update their drivers to support Microsoft’s technology. See you early next year to see the effectiveness of DirectStorage 1.1. The first game to really take advantage of this will be Forspoken, which is scheduled for release in January 2023.
Source: Microsoft