Tuesday, July 20th 2021
Microsoft DirectStorage Not a Windows 11 Exclusive
Microsoft DirectStorage API, a game-changing technology that seeks to lower game load times and improve performance, will not be a Windows 11 exclusive, but make it to Windows 10. Shortly following the Windows 11 announcement, it was learned that Microsoft might wall off DirectStorage to Windows 11, which no longer appears to be the case. The DirectStorage Developer Preview is now available, and it works on Windows 10 version 1909 (or later), letting game developers begin exploring the technology and consider integrating it with their current or ongoing game development.
DirectStorage lets a GPU directly stream compressed game assets from an NVMe SSD, where they are uncompressed using compute shaders; cutting out a significant amount of back-and-forth with the CPU, freeing up its hardware resources, resulting in a net gain from reduced game-loading times. This would give gamers on Windows 10 one more reason to remain on the OS until Windows 11 matures. The new OS, however, could have an advantage over Windows 10 on machines with hybrid CPU cores, such as the upcoming "Alder Lake" processors, as its scheduler purportedly has greater awareness of hybrid core topologies.
Source:
HotHardware
DirectStorage lets a GPU directly stream compressed game assets from an NVMe SSD, where they are uncompressed using compute shaders; cutting out a significant amount of back-and-forth with the CPU, freeing up its hardware resources, resulting in a net gain from reduced game-loading times. This would give gamers on Windows 10 one more reason to remain on the OS until Windows 11 matures. The new OS, however, could have an advantage over Windows 10 on machines with hybrid CPU cores, such as the upcoming "Alder Lake" processors, as its scheduler purportedly has greater awareness of hybrid core topologies.
13 Comments on Microsoft DirectStorage Not a Windows 11 Exclusive
Maybe the only thing left is the 12th gen Intel CPUs now.
Microsoft have clearly changed their tune. Was it the enormous quantity of rightly-cynical and critical internet backlash or was it developers who kicked up enough fuss for Microsoft to change their minds?
devblogs.microsoft.com/directx/directstorage-developer-preview-now-available/
1-Outside of people like us who are aware of this feature, most would think that the fault would reside in their hardware being old or the game being too demanding.
2-We don't know anything about DirectStorage's real-world impact. Until we don't see reviews of it, its performance impact is unknown.
3-Microsoft has done this before, limiting DX10 and 11 to Windows Vista or newer (with DX10 being the most relevant to this, since it launched with Vista) and DX12 to Windows 10. Aside from a couple whines here and there, there wasn't much complaint for an arguably larger group of important features.
4-Exactly how many people are using Windows to play games? This is a very important piece of data to even start to make a guess on whether there would be a critical amount of people complaining about DirectStorage not being available on Windows 10.
I'd argue that if you want an actual act of stupidity, look at Windows 11 being far more strict with minimum system requirements. And even then, Microsoft's reasons for it don't seem completely unreasonable, regardless of whether we like them or not.