Microsoft says the DirectStorage 1.1 API is coming to Windows PCs soon.in this release (opens in new tab)Microsoft will enable GPU decompression on PCs following a previously shared roadmap. (opens in new tab)The main benefit of GPU decompression is that it can reduce load times by as much as 40% for PC gamers depending on the game and PC hardware configuration.
DirectStorage 1.0 was introduced for Windows (10 and 11) in March 2022. It is designed to bring speed, bandwidth and latency optimizations to Windows storage subsystems and scales with storage performance. Fast storage, like the latest NVMe SSDs, therefore increases the overall benefits. Version 1.1 of the API builds on this promise with GPU Decompression, which reduces CPU-intensive processing of graphics assets and moves this workload to the GPU. GPUs are great at massively parallel processing and decompression tasks.
On their DirectX developer blog, Microsoft explains that modern games typically require a lot of data to build and render the immersive worlds we navigate. This can mean hundreds of gigabytes of compressed data loaded to run a modern AAA title. “As the game runs, the assets are transferred to system memory. The CPU decompresses the data before finally copying it to her GPU memory for use as needed,” said Senior Microsoft. program manager she said Cassie Hoef. “Transferring and decompressing these assets on your gaming device significantly impacts load times and limits the amount of detail you can include in your open world scenes.”
DirectStorage 1.1 has an optimized GPU-driven decompression algorithm that brings up to 40% load performance advantage to your PC gaming experience. To back up that claim, Microsoft built an optimized demo that loads scenes up to 3x faster and uses significantly less CPU load. Above we can see that the GPU with GDeflate (left) loads the scene in 0.8 seconds, while the CPU with Zlib (right) takes 2.36 seconds.
DirectStorage was originally described as a Windows 11-only technology before Microsoft abandoned and promoted its use in the Windows 10 gaming experience. Similar to his previous 1.0 version of the API, it is said that there are still “additional optimizations to his IO stack available to Windows 11 users.” A DirectX 12 capable GPU with Shader Model 6.0 support is required and users should store game data on a fast NVMe SSD for optimal gains.
It will be interesting to see this technology applied to modern games. A lot of titles on my mainstream his 2022 built PC usually max out the GPU rather than the CPU.
Developers will be able to play with DirectStorage 1.1 later this year, and expect GPU driver updates from all major players once it hits the mainstream. However, we haven’t seen a single AAA game supporting DirectStorage 1.0 released on Windows yet, so don’t hold your breath. Forspoken by Square Enix was set to spearhead DirectStorage on Windows this month, but has been rescheduled for late January 2023.
