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PC games can now use DirectStorage, a DirectX 12 Ultimate API that Microsoft announced in 2020. The feature should deliver faster loading times and improved textures and drawing spacing.
The Xbox Series X/S already uses DirectStorage, and in June Microsoft said it would bring the feature to Windows 11. The storage acceleration API should improve gameplay by enabling instant asset release and more vibrant virtual landscapes. It works by sending data directly from an NVMe SSD to the graphics card, bypassing the CPU and using PCIe 3.0 or PCIe 4.0 speeds depending on the system.
In a developer blog post today, Microsoft said it is pulling DirectStorage from the developer preview and making it available through a public SDK.
Microsoft initially said that Windows 10 would not support DirectStorage, but later came back. In today’s post, Microsoft tried to steer PC gamers to Windows 11, saying the operating system “has the latest storage optimizations built in” and is the “company’s recommended path for gaming.”
There are no games that support DirectStorage on PC yet, but AMD and game developer Luminous Productions recently demonstrated it pronounced use the function. The game is expected will be published on October 11. Microsoft’s blog said the company would have more to say “in the future” about PC games that support DirectStorage.
We can expect more games to implement the feature. Sony has already promoted what a fast NVMe SSD can do for gaming by hopping the fast-loading universe into the PlayStation 5s Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart† However, not all PC gamers have moved from SATA to NVMe PCIe 3.0 or newer SSDs. Microsoft previously said NVMe was necessary because such SSDs “can have multiple queues, and each queue can hold many requests at once, making [them] a good fit for today’s gaming workloads that tend to be parallel and batch-wise.”
DirectStorage also requires an Nvidia RTX 2000 or AMD RX 6000 series graphics card or higher.
