Loading Games Will Soon Be 40% Faster Thanks To DirectStorage 1.1

Previously, DirectStorage 1.0 didn’t show much improvements regarding loading times in video games, but now that version 1.1 is on its way, Microsoft said that loading should be 40% faster, hold your horses gamers!

Microsoft has just announced that the new version of DirectStorage is now heading its way to Windows computers.

According to the previously announced roadmap, Microsoft will allow GPU decompression on Windows PCs with this release. The key advantage of GPU Decompression is its ability to reduce loading speed by up to 40% depending on the game and the PC's performance capabilities. It also shifts the processing of graphical assets away from the CPU and onto the GPU, which is capable of huge parallel processing and decompression duties.

DirectStorage 1.0 was released earlier this year for both Windows 10 and 11. The API was meant to add optimizations for bandwidth, latency, and speed to the Windows storage subsystem, which will also scale with storage performance. As a result, speedier storage, such as the latest NVMe Solid-state drives (SSD), offers better advantages.

According to Microsoft's DirectX Developer Blog, modern video games usually require huge amounts of data to create and render the huge maps we explore. This could indicate loading big amounts of gigabytes of compressed data to run storage-consuming AAA titles.

'When a game is run, the assets are transferred to system memory, where the CPU decompresses the data before it is finally copied into GPU memory to be used as needed,' explains Cassie Hoef, Senior Microsoft Program Manager. 'The transfer and decompression of these assets on gaming devices contributes heavily to load times and limits how much detail can be included in open world scenes.'

Before Microsoft allowed DirectStorage API to be utilized in Windows 10 gaming, it was first defined to be exclusive to Windows 11. There remains additional optimizations in the IO stack currently offered to Windows 11 users, as with the past 1.0 version. A DirectX 12 powered GPU that's capable of supporting Shader Model 6.0 is required, and users ought to have their game data on a high-speed SSD for ideal performances.

At last, for Microsoft's target audience, which are developers, this week's statement is intended to encourage them to start preparing for the updated API's launch later this year. The tech giant isn't really planning on releasing API documentation or tools just yet, however they are inviting developers to just get started with the previous version of DirectStorage so they can move onto the new version later this year.