Microsoft officially released the DirectStorage 1.1 version earlier this month, which can greatly improve the loading time of PC games. The new version also brings improvements in many aspects, including transferring some game decompression tasks from the CPU to the GPU, reducing the burden on the CPU and speeding up the gaming experience.
DirectStorage 1.1 did not adjust the hardware requirements introduced by DirectStorage 1.0: a fast NVMe disk, a GPU that supports DirectX 12 and Shader Model 6.0 is required.
After Microsoft released the DirectStorage 1.1 version, AMD, Intel, and Nvidia quickly followed up. These optimizations are also called metacommands. Intel this week released a new driver for its ARC GPU family that introduces “optimized Microsoft DirectStorage* 1.1” and supports “GPU-accelerated decompression” for developer integration tools.
AMD has not yet released a public driver with metacommands, but the company has provided partners with “graphics driver versions that support metacommands.” Nvidia has released driver 526.98, officially supporting DirectStorage 1.1.
In addition to the follow-up of Intel, AMD and Nvidia, another important aspect is game manufacturers. While Windows 11 and graphics cards already support DirectStorage, it doesn’t mean much if no game implements the API. At this stage, no game has supported DirectStorage 1.1.
The first game to announce support for DirectStorage is Forspoken, which will launch on January 24, 2023. The other game is The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, which CD Project Red plans to release on December 14, 2022.
