Microsoft Preps DirectStorage 1.1 With GPU Decompression For Faster Game Loads (arstechnica.com) 16
An anonymous reader shares a report: One of the newer Xbox features that Microsoft has been working to bring to Windows is DirectStorage, a collection of features that allows fast PCI Express-based NVMe SSDs to communicate directly with your GPU. For DirectStorage 1.0, the main benefit was faster load times -- up to 40 percent faster, according to Microsoft. This week Microsoft announced that it's readying DirectStorage 1.1 for release later this year, which will allow game assets to be decompressed on the GPU instead of the CPU, speeding up decompression operations and freeing up your processor to do other things.
Normally, compressed game assets are loaded into system memory and decompressed by the CPU before being sent to the GPU. This circuitous route adds to game load times and can contribute to "pop-in" in games with big open worlds -- that effect where you see a bland, less-detailed version of an object for a brief instant before more detailed textures and models have time to load in. DirectStorage's GPU-based decompression works with a new GPU-optimized compression format called "GDeflate," originally created by Nvidia. Microsoft's sample image comparing GPU decompression with GDeflate and CPU decompression using Zlib showed much faster load times (0.8 second on the GPU, compared to 2.36 seconds on the CPU) along with much lower CPU usage, though Microsoft says that the exact results will vary based on your hardware and the game you're loading.
Normally, compressed game assets are loaded into system memory and decompressed by the CPU before being sent to the GPU. This circuitous route adds to game load times and can contribute to "pop-in" in games with big open worlds -- that effect where you see a bland, less-detailed version of an object for a brief instant before more detailed textures and models have time to load in. DirectStorage's GPU-based decompression works with a new GPU-optimized compression format called "GDeflate," originally created by Nvidia. Microsoft's sample image comparing GPU decompression with GDeflate and CPU decompression using Zlib showed much faster load times (0.8 second on the GPU, compared to 2.36 seconds on the CPU) along with much lower CPU usage, though Microsoft says that the exact results will vary based on your hardware and the game you're loading.
Re:Next up....DirectAntivirus. (Score:5, Informative)
Do you understand what is going on here at all? The data here is already on disk. There is no place to hide and the CPU is not sitting there doing antivirus checking on your textures now as the CPU is loading them to your GPU's RAM.
Re:Next up....DirectAntivirus. (Score:4, Funny)
I heard that if you map some of these textures to MIDI notes and play them backwards, it sounds like the devil. (Or something. :-) )
Re: (Score:1)
The data here is already on disk.
So is the malware you got from last night's browsing session. Doesn't mean you should leave it there.
There is no place to hide
Based on what? The fact that the data is on the disk already? So if someone manages to place malware on your disk without your knowledge, it's suddenly not malware in your book?
CPU is not sitting there doing antivirus checking on your textures now
Sounds like a good place to start hiding things then.
as the CPU is loading them to your GPU's RAM.
That's called an on-access scan. Granted most gamers disable antivirus on their machines and run their games, read: ring0 rootkits, with admin privileges. Worse some of them exc
Re: (Score:2)
So is the malware you got from last night's browsing session. Doesn't mean you should leave it there.
No one said leave it there. The point is that loading into GPU at the moment doesn't result in a virus scan. No change. You want to scan for viruses, then do so. It's a good idea even, and one completely unimpacted by this change.
Based on what? The fact that the data is on the disk already? So if someone manages to place malware on your disk without your knowledge, it's suddenly not malware in your book?
Yes. It's on the disk and can be scanned or it's not. DirectStorage has zero impact on your ability to scan for malware. And I have to point out that second sentence is retarded, accusative, off topic, not related to what I said and is attempting to change the discussion. Don't do
Meanwhile (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
"Scorn Won’t be the First Game to Support PC DirectStorage After All Say Devs"
https://wccftech.com/scorn-not... [wccftech.com]
Curious to see other compression format speeds (Score:4, Informative)
Zlib speeds are nice to see but it would be better if they included other compression formats and actual GB/s instead of a nebulous time.
For example, I know the PS5 has hardware decompression using Rad Games Tools' Oodle Kraken [radgametools.com] format. The PS5 also has a 12-channel memory controller with speeds up to 9 GB/sec. XBox has around ~5 GB/sec.
It will be interesting to see how this this compares to a "normal" NVMe PCIe 3.0 and PCIe 4.0.
I have 4x Rocket Sabrent NVMe drives on a Asus Hyper Quad M.2 Card using x4x4x4x4 bifurcation mode with a Win10 Striped Volume and I'm getting ~ 12,000 MB/s for read/write speeds. A normal NVMe SSD is getting around ~ 3,000 MB/sec, whereas a SATA SSD is getting around ~500 MB/s. (That's megabytes, not megabits, incase anyone was wondering if that was a typo.)
DirectStorage 1.0 was available back in March but have any games shipped with it?
A solution looking for a problem? (Score:2)
Lots of ram, SSD technology, and I even use PrimoCache for my spinning platter drive so as to cache reads of my games on a partition of an extra NVMe SSD that I have. Once a level is loaded to that it reads back extremely quickly. Not all my games are on a SSD.
My games load plenty fast enough for me, it's the unskippable intro bits that are biggest hindrance.
On the other hand, maybe in the future we'll see games with the issue of texture pop in that Rage had when it first came out. Are there games that stil
Re: (Score:2)
Sadly, texture popping is still an issue even in modern AAA games.
Maybe it is just me but it seems less prevalent in UE4 based games?
No Longer Your GPU (Score:2)