DirectStorage 1.1 will soon bring GPU decompression to PC games

Microsoft has announced that DirectStorage is getting its first major update later this year with DirectStorage 1.1, and it will bring a major new addition in the form of GPU decompression. The goal is to reduce load times even further by offloading asset decompression to the GPU instead of using the CPU for it.

DirectStorage first showed up on the Xbox Series X|S  consoles, but the API rolled out to PC game developers earlier this year. However, the initial release didn’t have all the changes promised. Microsoft first focused on improvements to the storage stack, reducing overhead when reading data from NVMe SSDs and enabling parallel I/O requests so that more data can be transferred to the CPU or GPU at once. By allowing various requests to be handled, fast NVMe drives can make use of their maximum bandwidth, instead of keeping users waiting for each request to complete before the next one starts. By itself, these changes already could reduce load times by as much as 40%.

But GPU decompression is a big deal, too. When you install a game, the assets – such as textures –  are usually compressed to save space on your drive. However, when loading and running the game, those assets naturally have to be decompressed on the fly in order to be used, and that’s usually handled by the CPU, which then sends the uncompressed assets to the GPU so they can be accessed as needed. In the past, compression formats were mostly optimized for CPUs, so this made sense. But, as Microsoft explains, GPUs are great for handling decompression tasks like this, so offloading that work to the GPU means assets are decompressed even more quickly. If assets are optimized for GPU decompression, you can get much higher speeds.

In the example below, Microsoft shows how 5.65GB of assets load nearly three times faster using GPU decompression when they’re properly optimized. You also see that CPU usage is much lower during this process, so it saves resources for other tasks.

To help bring this together, Microsoft worked with Nvidia to create GDeflate, a new compression format that’s optimized for GPU decompression, ready to take advantage of DirectStorage 1.1. In addition to faster speeds, the new format should help you save disk space and it also saves on interconnect bandwidth. While Nvidia contributed the format, any GPU maker can take advantage of it, and Microsoft is working with Intel and AMD to enable their drivers to take advantage of it, too.

Of course, there are some hardware and software requirements fully use DirectStorage. Windows 10 and 11 are both supported, but the latter has certain optimizations for the storage stack that make it even more efficient. You’ll also need a computer with an NVMe SSD and your GPU needs to support DirectX 12 and Shader Model 6.0, though Microsoft also recommends DirectX 12 Ultimate support. Additionally, keep in mind that DirectStorage 1.11 is a tool for developers, so you’ll need to wait for games to actually use it once it releases, so it won’t just be a magical upgrade to every existing game. Microsoft says it will release the upgraded API by the end of 2022.

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Source: Microsoft

The post DirectStorage 1.1 will soon bring GPU decompression to PC games appeared first on XDA.

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