Microsoft officially launched the DirectStorage API in March 2021, allowing PC's NVMe SSD to bypass CPU and memory and directly transmit data to video memory, which can greatly reduce the time for game loading and solve some material loading problems. In theory, games that use this technology can achieve seamless scene connection. However, compared with the game console version, the "asset decompression" function is missing.
As game developers gradually become cold in attitude towards DirectStorage 1.0, Microsoft announced that the DirectStorage API will usher in an update, introducing the "asset decompression" function in DirectStorage 1.1. This allows players' GPU to directly obtain relevant resources for game materials from the storage device, including various data for building the game, including textures, 3D model files, sound effects, etc., and then decompress and then place them in video memory, which will directly affect the loading time of the game.
The decompression process in the past was done by CPU, and the new alternative method is to use GPU. This is a compute-heavy workload, and the GPU is more efficient in performing repeatable parallel tasks, which is obviously more suitable than the CPU. During the game running, the decompressed data is placed in the system memory and then copied to video memory for use. The new method can reduce the time for data transmission and decompression, thereby increasing the speed of game loading.
Microsoft also showed a highly optimized example, showing the effect of decompressing the GPU on DirectStorage 1.1, showing that the loading speed of 3D scenes was shortened from the original 2.36 seconds to 0.8 seconds. Microsoft plans to start sending DirectStorage 1.1 to game developers by the end of 2022, and the first batch of applied games will appear in 2023.
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