{"id":97203,"date":"2022-10-14T19:27:54","date_gmt":"2022-10-14T19:27:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/microsoft-preps-directstorage-1-1-with-gpu-decompression-for-faster-game-loads\/"},"modified":"2022-10-14T19:27:54","modified_gmt":"2022-10-14T19:27:54","slug":"microsoft-preps-directstorage-1-1-with-gpu-decompression-for-faster-game-loads","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/microsoft-preps-directstorage-1-1-with-gpu-decompression-for-faster-game-loads\/","title":{"rendered":"Microsoft preps DirectStorage 1.1 with GPU decompression for faster game loads"},"content":{"rendered":"<div itemprop=\"articleBody\">\n<figure class=\"intro-image intro-left\">\n  <figcaption class=\"caption\">\n<div class=\"caption-text\">enlarge <span class=\"sep\">\/<\/span> DirectStorage facilitates direct communication between your GPU and speedy modern SSDs, which can reduce game load times and speed up asset streaming.<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<aside id=\"social-left\" class=\"social-left\" aria-label=\"Read the comments or share this article\">\n<\/aside>\n<p><!-- cache miss 1263:single\/related:21b098cb8d22528bb861fdb73d804479 --><!-- empty --><\/p>\n<p>One of the newer Xbox features that Microsoft has been working to bring to Windows is DirectStorage, a collection of features that allows fast PCI Express-based NVMe SSDs to communicate directly with your GPU.  For DirectStorage 1.0, the main benefit was faster load times\u2014up to 40 percent faster, according to Microsoft.  This week Microsoft announced that it&#8217;s readying DirectStorage 1.1 for release later this year, which will allow game assets to be decompressed on the GPU instead of the CPU, speeding up decompression operations and freeing up your processor to do other things.<\/p>\n<p>Normally, compressed game assets are loaded into system memory and decompressed by the CPU before being sent to the GPU.  This circuitous route adds to game load times and can contribute to &#8220;pop-in&#8221; in games with big open worlds\u2014that effect where you see a bland, less-detailed version of an object for a brief instant before more detailed textures and models have time to load in.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"image shortcode-img full full-width\" style=\"width:800px\"><img loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"A sample image showing the benefits of GPU-based decompression (left) vs CPU decompression (right).  Note the much lower load time and the significantly lowered CPU usage.\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/cdn.arstechnica.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/BlogAvocados1.jpg?resize=800%2C450&#038;ssl=1\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><figcaption class=\"caption\">\n<p>A sample image showing the benefits of GPU-based decompression (left) vs CPU decompression (right).  Note the much lower load time and the significantly lowered CPU usage.<\/p>\n<p>Microsoft<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>DirectStorage&#8217;s GPU-based decompression works with a new GPU-optimized compression format called &#8220;GDeflate,&#8221; originally created by Nvidia.  Microsoft&#8217;s sample image comparing GPU decompression with GDeflate and CPU decompression using Zlib showed much faster load times (0.8 second on the GPU, compared to 2.36 seconds on the CPU) along with much lower CPU usage, though Microsoft says that the exact results will vary based on on your hardware and the game you&#8217;re loading.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad_wrapper\" aria-label=\"In Content advertisement\">\n    <span class=\"ad_notice\">Advertisement <\/span>    <\/p>\n<\/aside>\n<p>Using a new decompression format means that games won&#8217;t see any of these DirectStorage benefits for &#8220;free&#8221;\u2014game developers will need to work to implement them.  But despite being contributed by Nvidia, GDeflate will work just as well on AMD and Intel GPUs.  Microsoft says it&#8217;s working with all three companies to make sure their drivers support GDeflate and DirectStorage 1.1.<\/p>\n<p>DirectStorage 1.1&#8217;s system requirements are pretty loose.  Microsoft says the feature will work on Windows 10 or 11, doesn&#8217;t absolutely require a particular type of storage, and will run on any DirectX 12-capable GPU that supports Shader Model 6, which should cover the vast majority of Nvidia, AMD, and Intel GPUs launched within the last four or five years.  But for the best results, the company recommends Windows 11, an NVMe SSD, and a newer DirectX 12 Ultimate GPU (of those, the speed of your SSD will make the biggest difference).<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>enlarge \/ DirectStorage facilitates direct communication between your GPU and speedy modern SSDs, which can reduce game load times and speed up asset streaming. One of the newer Xbox features that Microsoft has been working to bring to Windows is DirectStorage, a collection of features that allows fast PCI Express-based NVMe SSDs to communicate directly &hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"> <a class=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/microsoft-preps-directstorage-1-1-with-gpu-decompression-for-faster-game-loads\/\"> <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Microsoft preps DirectStorage 1.1 with GPU decompression for faster game loads<\/span> Read More &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":98120,"url":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/directstorage-1-1-with-gpu-decompression-finally-on-its-way\/","url_meta":{"origin":97203,"position":0},"title":"DirectStorage 1.1 with GPU Decompression Finally on Its Way","date":"October 15, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"As part of this week's Microsoft Ignite developers conference, Microsoft's DirectX team has published a few blog posts offering updates on the state of various game development-related projects. The biggest and most interesting of these is an update on DirectStorage, Microsoft's API for enabling faster game asset loading. In short,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Technology&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7856,"url":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/forspoken-the-first-pc-game-to-use-microsoft-directstorage-has-been-delayed-to-january-2023\/","url_meta":{"origin":97203,"position":1},"title":"Forspoken the first PC game to use Microsoft DirectStorage has been delayed to January 2023","date":"July 8, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Forspoken launch date moved to January 2023Square Enix and Luminous Productions announce Forspoken launch delay.Forspoken is the first PC game that was demoed with Microsoft DirectStorage technology in March this year. The publishers of the game decided to move the launch date to the next year without stating a clear\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Technology&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/cdn.videocardz.com\/1\/2022\/03\/Forspoken-DirectStorage-1-768x432.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":97056,"url":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/microsofts-directstorage-1-1-will-soon-boost-pc-game-load-times-with-gpu-decompression\/","url_meta":{"origin":97203,"position":2},"title":"Microsoft&#8217;s DirectStorage 1.1 will soon boost PC game load times with GPU decompression","date":"October 14, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Microsoft is bringing GPU decompression to Windows PC games soon. After launching DirectStorage earlier this year, GPU decompression promises to be the next step in the ongoing effort to improve game load times on PCs. Microsoft says it's \u201cone of our most highly requested features\u201d from game developers.GPU decompression works\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Technology&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":97097,"url":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/directstorage-1-1-out-soon-with-gpu-decompression-powered-by-nvidias-gdeflate-format\/","url_meta":{"origin":97203,"position":3},"title":"DirectStorage 1.1 Out Soon with GPU Decompression Powered by NVIDIA&#8217;s GDeflate Format","date":"October 14, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Microsoft announced the imminent availability of DirectStorage 1.1, which is set to introduce the highly awaited GPU decompression feature to the API. While the first release of DirectStorage on PC focused on enhancing the data transfer so that the API could take advantage of the much higher bandwidth of NVMe\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Technology&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/cdn.wccftech.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/BlogAvocados1-HD-scaled.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":95848,"url":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/scorn-wont-be-the-first-game-to-support-pc-directstorage-after-all-say-devs\/","url_meta":{"origin":97203,"position":4},"title":"Scorn Won&#8217;t be the First Game to Support PC DirectStorage After All Say Devs","date":"October 13, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Earlier this year Microsoft released the DirectStorage API for PC, potentially allowing developers to stream more efficiently from SSDs and reduce CPU overhead. Unfortunately, no game has actually made use of the technology on PC yet. Recently, the developers of the PC and Xbox Series X\/S console-exclusive horror game Scorn\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Technology&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":44360,"url":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/samsung-990-pro-pcie-gen-5-m-2-ssds-confirmed-once-again-blazing-fast-consumer-storage-speeds-imminent\/","url_meta":{"origin":97203,"position":5},"title":"Samsung 990 PRO PCIe Gen 5 M.2 SSDs Confirmed Once Again, Blazing Fast Consumer Storage Speeds Imminent","date":"August 13, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Samsung's next-generation 990 PRO SSDs featuring the PCIe Gen 5.0 M.2 protocol have once again been confirmed, this time by PCI-SIG. Samsung's Next-Gen 990 PRO PCIe Gen 5.0 M.2 SSDs Confirmed, Microsoft DirectStorage API Compliant & Pushing Storage Speeds To The Next Level The Samsung 990 PRO Gen 5 M.2\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Technology&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"Samsung's next-gen 990 PRO PCIe Gen 5.0 SSDs have been confirmed by PCI-SIG.  (Image Credits: PCI-SIG)","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/cdn.wccftech.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Samsung-990-PRO-1-TB-2-TB-PCIe-Gen-5.0-M.2-SSDs-Confirmed-by-PCI-SIG-740x263.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cdn.arstechnica.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/Heatsink4-760x380.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97203"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=97203"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97203\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97203"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97203"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97203"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}