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Microsoft's improvement will accelerate game loading speed. (Image: Microsoft)Microsoft is set to soon introduce GPU decompression feature into Windows PC games. After the launch of DirectStorage earlier this year, GPU decompression promises to be the next step in Microsoft's relentless effort to improve game loading times on PC.
GPU decompression works by offloading the workload required to decompress game content onto the graphics card instead of the CPU. Games consist of a large amount of content such as characters, landscapes, and objects, all of which are compressed to reduce overall size.
Microsoft's GPU decompression feature (Image: Microsoft)
“Typically, decompression work is done on the CPU because compression formats to date have been optimized for CPU. We're providing an alternative approach in DirectStorage 1.1, by offloading that decompression work onto the GPU, known as GPU decompression', Cassie Hoef, Microsoft's senior program director, explained.
This approach could significantly reduce game loading times, even in areas where you're transitioning between worlds. Microsoft claims game loading times could be three times faster, freeing up the CPU to handle other tasks.
GPU with GDeflate (left) loads in 0.8 seconds compared to CPU with Zlib (right) in 2.36 seconds. (Image: Microsoft)Director Hoef also added, “With the release of DirectStorage 1.1, it will kickstart a new journey for game developers to maximize gaming hardware and accelerate loading times for PC games in the coming years'.
These upcoming enhancements are aimed at developers and will be available on both Windows 10 and Windows 11. Microsoft has also included optimizations in the available IO stack for Windows 11 users, making it the best choice for GPU decompression and DirectStorage in general.
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 graphics card (Image: TechSpot)GPU manufacturers like NVIDIA and AMD will also need to release DirectStorage 1.1 compatible drivers prior to Microsoft's final release later this year. While DirectStorage promises blazing fast loading times as we've seen on the Xbox Series X, there aren't many PC games applying this technology yet. Forspoken is purportedly the first major game to support DirectStorage, but this title has been delayed until January 2023.
Are you looking forward to Microsoft's new enhancements?
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Source: The Verge
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