From now on, the DirectStorage programming interface in conjunction with NVMe SSD ensures shorter loading times from games under Windows 10* and Windows 11. DirectStorage is a key feature of the Xbox Series X|S (Review).

DirectStorage is now also available on PC

After Microsoft published the DirectStorage Developer Preview, which is primarily aimed at developers and experienced users, in July 2021, the final version of the Xbox Series X|S File I/O API has now been released for PC as well. Windows 10 and Windows 11 are officially supported, but that’s only half the story.

*On the other hand, users with Windows 10 will have to live with the limitations from the start, as Microsoft already emphasized in the first developer preview:

• Windows 10 will not be able to use the full scope of so-called storage stack optimization, which should only enable the full potential of DirectStorage under Windows 11, which was also developed with a view to the new API.
• Even so, the game should already benefit from Windows 10 “from a new programming model and GPU decompression technology.”

On the other hand, Xbox Series X under Windows 11 | Comparable results can be expected on S.

API ensures shorter loading times in games

DirectStorage is a new programming interface for data input and output, known as the File I/O API. he is part of the so-called Velocity Architecture Of the two Microsoft game consoles released in November 2020.

games can start

Along with the presentation of the final version of DirectStorage, Microsoft also releases the corresponding dev kit for the API and allows game developers to implement the API.

This release of DirectStorage gives developers everything they need to move to a new model of IO for their games, and we’re working on even more ways to offload the work from the CPU.

GPU decompression is next on our roadmap, a feature that will give developers more control over resources and how the hardware is leveraged.

Microsoft

It is not yet possible to say with certainty whether the first patches for previously released games or the new titles already adapted for release on DirectStorage can be expected.

As already pointed out by Andrew Yeung in September 2020 Microsoft Developer Blog As written, the DirectStorage API for Windows is officially seen as a feature of DirectX 12.

Nvidia RTX IO Uses DirectStorage

Since, thanks to DirectStorage, graphics cards have to be fed more efficiently with game data from mass storage devices, it also brings GPU manufacturers into the scene. Nvidia includes GeForce RTX 3090, 3080 and 3070 as part of presentation nvidia rtx io Already presented its interface for using DirectStorage. AMD will probably choose the open approach and get by without the proprietary solution. It is said to use APIs from the Nvidia GeForce RTX 2000 series.

Microsoft has all the information about DirectStorage in a 30 minute video on the official YouTube channel”microsoft gamestack“In short.