DirectStorage 1.2 Available NOW, no excuses

[Lince_SPAIN]

https://devblogs.microsoft.com/directx/directstorage-1-2-available-now/

This performs better than the hardware solution on the PS5, barely 1% CPU usage and instant texture streaming and decompression. Microsoft (along with Nvidia and AMD) just made this available for all devs so please no more ridiculous CPU usage, laughable framerate drops while streaming assets and / or VRAM mismanagement.

[TimmyP]

potato a écrit :

dlss is an established tech that's sponsored and shilled by nvidia to sell their cards

it's actively pushed by nvidia to be put in games

DLSS is "hardware accelerated TAAU," which is also a future technology and is incorporated into UE5 at engine level.

Who is the more foolish? The company that didn't see any of this? Or the company pushing acceleration of future rendering tech?

[C1REX]

potato a écrit :

C1REX-PL a écrit :

We should ask devs directly on some podcast via superchat or dedicated forums why they don't do that. I mean any devs of any pc game.

I don't expect an answer like" Mhmmm, we didn't think of it. What a great idea".

they do that for big mmos and live service games

no one does it for one-and-done ports

I was looking for the answer for weeks as I also couldn't believe why Direct Storage isn't used in every new game.
Not even mmos and other best earning free to play games use it.
Forspoken is currently the only one and it's not full blown Direct Storage like on consoles as far as I know.
For real DirectStorage you need DirectX12 Ultimate compatible PC and whole game engine built around it. No optional switch for older hardware.

I've asked ChatGPT about it:

ChatGPT a écrit :

DirectStorage is a new technology introduced in Windows 11 that allows for faster access to data on solid-state drives (SSDs) by bypassing the CPU and accessing data directly from the drive. To take full advantage of DirectStorage, it is recommended that your PC meets the following minimum requirements:

Windows 11: DirectStorage is only available on Windows 11, so you'll need to upgrade your operating system to take advantage of it.

NVMe SSD: DirectStorage is designed to work with NVMe SSDs, which are faster than traditional SATA SSDs. Therefore, it is recommended that you have an NVMe SSD installed on your PC.

PCIe 4.0: If possible, it is recommended that you have a PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD, as this will provide even faster data transfer speeds.

DirectX 12 Ultimate GPU: DirectStorage is designed to work with DirectX 12 Ultimate GPUs, which support hardware-accelerated ray tracing and other advanced graphics features.

Compatible CPU: Your CPU must support certain instructions such as AVX2 and SHA256, which are required for DirectStorage to work. Most modern CPUs will support these instructions, but you should check with your CPU manufacturer to make sure.

It's important to note that while these are the recommended specs for DirectStorage, you can still use the technology on a system that doesn't meet all of these requirements. However, you may not see the same level of performance benefits as you would on a system that meets all of these specifications.

what is the source of that data?

The recommended specifications for DirectStorage that I provided are based on the official Microsoft documentation for the technology. Microsoft has released a set of requirements for hardware and software to take full advantage of DirectStorage, and these requirements are available on their website. The information I provided is based on those official recommendations.

can you give me a link, please?
Sure! You can find the official Microsoft documentation on DirectStorage at the following link:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/directstorage/directstorage-overview

This page provides an overview of the technology, as well as information on the hardware and software requirements needed to take full advantage of it.

The link doesn't work. Not sure if just outdated or if AI is trained to be better at lying, manipulating and taking over the world.

It's also hard to tell what happens if your specs is not fast enough. You turn around and there are not textures for a second? Every time you turn around?

On one or two podcasts I've heard you don't really need DirectStorage on PC. More VRAM is an easier and cheaper solution.

[potato]

don't matter, dlss is marketed and sponsored, directstorage is not

[kgkong]

Oh Direct Storage needs some hefty AVX2 and SHA256 feature sets. I was wondering what CPU limitations actually were. It's so far out, I never bothered to look at the full requirements for it.

Yea... I mean, a lot of CPUs have AVX2 now, but they don't all include SHA256. So that limits what is actually supported down to a small pool of CPUs.

[TimmyP]

"More VRAM is an easier and cheaper solution."

Id probably stop listening to those podcasts.

[C1REX]

TimmyP a écrit :

"More VRAM is an easier and cheaper solution."

Id probably stop listening to those podcasts.

Doesn't matter the podcasts but what guests said that- they were game devs and an nvidia engineer.

[Lince_SPAIN]

so you guys saying devs need incentives to implement game-enhancing features?? what about 60 - 70 bucks price tags for PC ports?

Seeing how some of you (not all) are so conditioned to accept low standards makes me sad. I guess this is why we have people upgrading from a 3090 Ti to a 4090 and from a 5800X3D to a 7800X3D just because games are no longer optimized so they need to brute force them. Let's ignore software features that improve performance and let's keep buying the latest overpriced tech so we can run 90% emulated games on PC.

Publishers are there to make money, why shouldn't they actually work for it?

[TimmyP]

C1REX-PL a écrit :

TimmyP a écrit :

"More VRAM is an easier and cheaper solution."

Id probably stop listening to those podcasts.

Doesn't matter the podcasts but what guests said that- they were game devs and an nvidia engineer.

Yeah Ive seen that one too. Where the dev said an nvidia rep said they would love to have 64gb buffer on cards. Thats because they could sell more. It was cherry picked bs.

This is totally overlooking the fact that the PS5 has 16gb ram... total. The advantage is that its unified and there is no need for a pipe to transfer from ram to vram or vice versa.

If the hardware in *a modern PC cannot overcome the benefits brought by ram\vram unification there are TWO outcomes: PC gets some form of unified memory architecture and we continue, or pc gaming ends because games will have proven the need for dedicated hardware.

[C1REX]

TimmyP a écrit :

If the hardware in *a modern PC cannot overcome the benefits brought by ram\vram unification there are TWO outcomes: PC gets some form of unified memory architecture and we continue, or pc gaming ends because games will have proven the need for dedicated hardware.

AMD was working on such project (integrated CPU, GPU and memory like on consoles) but it was cancelled from what I know.
Microsoft is planning to give CPU access to VRAM on PC - GPU Upload Heaps.
If adding more VRAM would solve many of the problems then I see nvidia's strategy to be the problem. We've got conditioned that VRAM is extremely expensive when it can potentially be the cheapest way to improve performance.

[TimmyP]

C1REX-PL a écrit :

TimmyP a écrit :

If the hardware in *a modern PC cannot overcome the benefits brought by ram\vram unification there are TWO outcomes: PC gets some form of unified memory architecture and we continue, or pc gaming ends because games will have proven the need for dedicated hardware.

AMD was working on such project (integrated CPU, GPU and memory like on consoles) but it was cancelled from what I know.
Microsoft is planning to give CPU access to VRAM on PC - GPU Upload Heaps.
If adding more VRAM would solve many of the problems then I see nvidia's strategy to be the problem. We've got conditioned that VRAM is extremely expensive when it can potentially be the cheapest way to improve performance.

Vram is not ram though. Thats the distinction and the advantage consoles have. On console they are the same thing literally, as in they dont require a pipeline to transfer between like PC in its current form (this includes any software MS develops. It cant be overcome.).

This might prove to be a physical advantage that separates the productivity machines from the gaming ones.

[Mexicola9302]

The problem is that the game uses waaaaay too much polygons, that is not needed the devs were too lazy to just optimize their stuff for PC. On console v-ram and ram is one and the same thing, that isn't the case on PC. Because of that most ppl including me get stutters, they were too lazy to reduce the polygons to a level that is somewhat effective. They just didn't give a damn about it because it's one and the same "storage" their v-ram and ram.

While on console there is no back and forth loading we on PC have that happening from hardware piece to hardware piece on consoles it's on the same hardware piece.

[C1REX]

TimmyP a écrit :

Vram is not ram though. Thats the distinction and the advantage consoles have. On console they are the same thing literally, as in they dont require a pipeline to transfer between like PC in its current form.

This might prove to be a physical advantage that separates the productivity machines from the gaming ones.

Maybe there will be some kind of hardware revolution at some point? Who knows?
I prefer PC gaming but I can easily adjust. I'm not a fanboy of any brand and can switch to consoles if needed. I don't think it will happen but I don't limit my moves and can chose whatever is better for me.

[kgkong]

TimmyP a écrit :

C1REX-PL a écrit :

AMD was working on such project (integrated CPU, GPU and memory like on consoles) but it was cancelled from what I know.
Microsoft is planning to give CPU access to VRAM on PC - GPU Upload Heaps.
If adding more VRAM would solve many of the problems then I see nvidia's strategy to be the problem. We've got conditioned that VRAM is extremely expensive when it can potentially be the cheapest way to improve performance.

Vram is not ram though. Thats the distinction and the advantage consoles have. On console they are the same thing literally, as in they dont require a pipeline to transfer between like PC in its current form (this includes any software MS develops. It cant be overcome.).

This might prove to be a physical advantage that separates the productivity machines from the gaming ones.

The only difference between system RAM and video RAM is what system is using it, ie CPU or GPU.
In the case of integrated architeceture and APUs, they have what is effectively total RAM and then what's specified for GPU processing, but it's all the same modules. And they use GDDR6.

Eventually GDDR6 will come to the regular system platform for memory. It's just been for computing, system memory tasks didn't need the speed that video memory tasks can benefit from. And for the most part, system memory tasks still won't benefit from that much uplift in memory performance so there's no need to go anything more than DDR5 on current hardware for system memory for the time being.

[C1REX]

KingGorillaKong a écrit :

Eventually GDDR6 will come to the regular system platform for memory. It's just been for computing, system memory tasks didn't need the speed that video memory tasks can benefit from. And for the most part, system memory tasks still won't benefit from that much uplift in memory performance so there's no need to go anything more than DDR5 on current hardware for system memory for the time being.

That would solve lots of problems. AMD could focus on console like APUs so no need for dedicated GPUs that are expensive, power hungry and at the end inefficient anyway.
Such shared GDDR6 would probably debut on powerful laptops and mac mini like machines.

[TimmyP]

"The only difference between system RAM and video RAM is what system is using it, ie CPU or GPU."

That's missing the point. There is no difference on console. On console its a giant pool and the advantage is in moving, accessing etc where on pc it needs to run through a pipeline, causing latency. This does not happen on console. That is the advantage.