That Microsoft has been working for some time to adapt its Windows operating system as best as possible when it comes to playing, is beyond any doubt. For this, from time to time, it develops and integrates new functions focused on improving the game experience, as is the case.
Specifically, in these lines we are going to talk about a new feature that has been available for a long time on the firm’s console, Xbox , and now it comes to Windows. It should be noted that the main objective of this is none other than to speed up the execution and operation of your favorite games. We tell you all this because Microsoft has released its API called DirectStorage to be useful to PC developers.
As a curiosity we will tell you that this technology was already launched at the time as part of the Xbox Velocity architecture for the Xbox Series X and S. Well, all this at the moment is also wanted to reach the PC platform. In this way the API responsible for all this will be available in Windows 10 and 11 . What’s more, the Redmond company had long ago announced that said API would come to Windows. When Windows 11 was introduced, the company touted DirectStorage as one of its best features.
But at that time it was not available yet as the API was not stable for implementation. However, a few months later it seems that developers can already make their games compatible with this new API. Once we know all this we will tell you that Microsoft will formally present it next week.
What does DirectStorage do in Windows when gaming
The importance of all this is given because this is a storage API for DirectX 12 libraries . Thus, the technology can offer much faster loading times in our games. It actually makes the graphics do the heavy lifting, i.e. asset loading, thus reducing the CPU workload . Keep in mind that most games don’t load their entire interface, or world, at once.
Thus, once it has been rendered, we can explore the world of the title freely and without more loading screens, even if its start is slower. Others are based on area maps that are rendered by location. In other words, the interface loads as we explore the world within the game, which slows down the gameplay. But DirectStorage could change this, as it avoids loading screens and makes games load zones during gameplay much faster . At the same time, more complex worlds and better animations will be rendered .
All of this will be compatible with both Windows 10 and 11, although the API will work better on the latest version of the system. The reason is that the storage stack optimizations here are improved. Mind you, there are some hardware limitations to DirectStorage. Requires a PCIe 3.0 or 4.0 NVMe SSD , plus a graphics card that supports DirectX 12 with Shader Model 6.0 for optimizations. In turn, the games as such must be compatible with the API, hence the importance of the role of developers.