pcworld Microsoft releases DirectStorage, the future of fast-loading PC games

[ENTERPRISE]

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Microsoft said Monday that it is finally making its DirectStorage API available to game developers, promising to bring one of the best features of the Xbox Series X game console, Quick Resume, to the PC.

 

Microsoft originally announced that DirectStorage would be coming to Windows in 2020. Microsoft issued a DirectStorage preview in July 2021, and said today that the API would be made available to all developers. However, the company has yet to say which games will be supported by the new DirectStorage API.

 

Put simply, DirectStorage drastically speeds up load times on a PC, tapping into how the GPU interacts with the SSD to dramatically increase data transfers. In the Xbox Series X, AMD’s integrated GPU interacts with the SSD, allowing “Quick Resume,” which essentially saves the state of games that allow it. Instead of loading the application and then the game, Quick Resume simply resumes the game, much like Netflix picks up a show that’s been previously paused and exited.

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Been looking forward to this one!

[Sir Beregond]

Agreed. Definitely an interesting feature that tackled what really is the biggest bottleneck to any modern system in terms of gaming performance. Will be interesting to see how this takes off.

 

I'm still ok with the fact I went with Gen 3 drives over Gen 4 drives. The cost difference was too much for two 2TB drives to justify it today. Will be interesting to see how long it takes for this to become a mainstream feature game developers utilize.

Edited March 15, 2022 by Sir Beregond