When Microsoft announced its next-generation flagship console, the Xbox Series X, it did so by showcasing a series of new technologies called Xbox Velocity Architecture designed to take full advantage of the potential of the new cutting-edge hardware they brought us.
Within these technologies there is one in particular called DirectStorage that allows video games to take advantage of the console’s ultra-fast SSD to reduce loading times like never before. That technology was promised to come sooner or later to Windows 10 and also to Windows 11, and that promise is finally a reality.
Why do you care that Windows already supports DirectStorage?
Simple: because it works. DirecStorage on Xbox Series X and Series S is truly phenomenal. The technology enables fast loading of games not only when starting for the first time, but also when returning from a sleep state. It is especially relevant in some of the most modern and demanding games that have to load a lot of data.
Microsoft has just released the DirectStorage API for PC. This means that It is already possible that any video game for Windows supports DirectStorage. Obviously for this, developers will need to implement support, but given the similarity between this technology on Xbox and Windows, and the advantages it represents, we may see it sooner rather than later in many games.
This is a technology that will benefit not only those who have NVMe SSDs, as benefits will be seen on any type of storage device. However, only these types of ultra-fast disks will be able to take full advantage of all the optimizations that DirectStorage performs.
How Direct Storage works
If you’ve tasted the difference in speed of Windows 10 itself when installed on an SSD instead of a hard drive, you know we’re talking about a change almost like that of day and night. DirectStorage goes even further.
Thanks to recent advances in both PCIe and NVMe SSD technologies, gaming PCs can handle much higher bandwidths than years ago, the problem today is that the way in which that data is loaded is not optimized to take full advantage of the speed of the disks.
Instead of tens of megabytes per second, DirectStorage can take advantage of the latest generation NVMe SSDs to transfer several gigabytes per second
DirectStorage is an API to manage all the data requests that are made and at the same time load the resources of the games managing the memory in the most efficient way. It is a solution for don’t waste bandwidth on modern drives, and eliminate the bottleneck that we currently have. Instead of tens of megabytes per second, DirectStorage can take advantage of the latest generation NVMe SSDs to transfer several gigabytes per second.
DirectStorage works hand in hand with DirectX 12 Ultimate to take gaming to a new level, taking better advantage of new SSDs and other components like NVIDIA 30-series GPUs. Microsoft is already making this API available to all of its partners to implement in their games.
Microsoft says the benefits of DirectStorage will be greater in Windows 11 than in Windows 10
While DirectStorage is supported on Windows 10, Microsoft explains that “Windows 11 has the latest storage optimizations built in and is their recommended system for gaming.”
This version of DirectStorage gives developers everything they need to move to a new IO model for their games, and we’re working on more ways to decrease CPU workload. GPU decompression is next on our roadmap, a feature that will give developers more control over resources and hardware utilization. In addition, we will continue to optimize and improve the existing runtime implementation.