Microsoft’s DirectStorage 1.1 Promises to Reduce Game Load Times by 3X

We’re still waiting for game developers to incorporate DirectStorage 1.0, Microsoft’s effort to reduce PC game load times. But that isn’t stopping the company from preparing a new version of DirectStorage that promises to cut down load times even more. 

On Thursday, Microsoft introduced(Opens in a new window) DirectStorage 1.1, which will tap the PC’s GPU to further streamline the game-loading process. “This is one of our most highly requested features,” Microsoft program manager Cassie Hoef wrote in the announcement. 

The new approach can load game scenes nearly three times faster over existing data compression methods, according to Hoef, citing a demo of the technology in action. 

(Credit: Microsoft)

DirectStorage 1.1 addresses how PC games are downloaded and installed in compressed data formats. The computer’s CPU will then decompress the game assets so that the GPU can run them as in-game graphics. “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,” Hoef said. 

DirectStorage 1.0 is able to streamline the game loading by tapping faster NVME SSD storage drives to load multiple game data requests in parallel, instead of one by one. This can amount to a 40% reduction in load times, according to Hoef. 

DirectStorage 1.1, on the other hand, streamlines the data loading even further by removing the CPU from the data-decompression process. Instead, the data decompression is offloaded to the GPU, freeing up the CPU to handle other tasks.  

“Graphics cards are extremely efficient at performing repeatable tasks in parallel, and we can utilize that capability along with the bandwidth of a high-speed NVMe drive to do more work at once,” Hoef added. “As a result, the amount of time it takes for an asset to load decreases, reducing level load times and improving open world streaming.”

Hoef then referenced a screenshot that shows a PC running the DirectStorage GPU decompression versus the CPU decompression. The results show the PC loading a 5.6GB game scene in 0.8 seconds with the GPU decompression over the 2.36 seconds with the CPU decompression. 

DirectStorage 1.1 will also work on both Windows 10 and Windows 11, although the performance will be better on the latter. “Any DirectX 12 capable GPU that supports Shader Model 6.0 will be able to take advantage of the new feature,” Hoef added. (DirectX 12 launched in 2015.)

The company plans on releasing DirectStorage 1.1 to software developers by the end of this year. This includes releasing a new data-compression format Microsoft created with the help of Nvidia called GDeflate. “Microsoft is working with key partners like AMD, Intel, and Nvidia to provide drivers tailored for this format,” the company added.

However, it’ll be up to game creators to adopt the technology. So far, only one upcoming PC game, the action RPG title Forspoken, has publicly announced it’ll adopt DirectStorage 1.0. The game was originally supposed to release this month, but it’s been delayed to January.