Microsoft has released DirectStorage V1.1 for PC to all developers. According to the team, this new version of DirectStorage contains everything a developer needs to get started with GPU decompression.
In theory, GPU decompression will improve overall performance on a variety of PC systems. By doing so, developers can also decrease overall CPU usage, and minimize PC stutters.
As Microsoft noted:
“DirectStorage creates a compute queue and two copy queues. The decompression takes place on the compute queue – either by executing the decompression metacommand if available, or by dispatching the DirectCompute fallback implementation. If the GPU/driver is unable to use the DirectCompute fallback, then DirectStorage will decompress on the CPU. The first copy queue is used to copy the compressed stream from system memory to the GPU. The second copy queue is used to copy the decompressed stream to the final resource.
The amount of GPU decompression work given to the GPU can be controlled by the number of requests being made. This is like the way that games currently scale level of detail for rendering on different hardware configurations.”
From what we know so far, Forspoken will be the first game to use DirectStorage on PC. Therefore, it will be interesting to see whether Square Enix’s game will run better than most other modern-day open-world games.
Stay tuned for more!
John is the founder and Editor in Chief at DSOGaming. He is a PC gaming fan and highly supports the modding and indie communities. Before creating DSOGaming, John worked on numerous gaming websites. While he is a die-hard PC gamer, his gaming roots can be found on consoles. John loved – and still does – the 16-bit consoles, and considers SNES to be one of the best consoles. Still, the PC platform won him over consoles. That was mainly due to 3DFX and its iconic dedicated 3D accelerator graphics card, Voodoo 2. John has also written a higher degree thesis on the “The Evolution of PC graphics cards.”
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