DirectStorage

[Bad 💀 Motha]

Win10/11 users; read here to get the latest info about DirectStorage; how it works and what the requirements are.

https://devblogs.microsoft.com/directx/directstorage-api-available-on-pc

[Cathulhu]

And before you celebrate, the game dev has to implement it into their game to actually use it.
So it won't automatically make all games load faster, sadly.

[Omega]

Overhyped. It is just a hack which tries to make up for the limitations of NTFS and Windows in general.

A proper solution would have been to create a new SSD focused file system. Then the entire system would have benefited and not just games, but no, that is no good as it hurts backwards compatibility with software which assumes all Windows drives to be NTFS or FAT.

DirectStorage is a cheap incomplete solution to a big problem, it is only a thing because Microsoft isn't willing to invest the resources to build a proper solution to their system not being SSD focused.

On top of that, more vendor lock-in. Another Windows API you are tied to as a developer.

This is the problem with these proprietary systems. Feature creep, they keep adding bloat on top of legacy systems instead of improving existing functionality.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

Why do the games via ssd load so much better on XBX/PS5 ?

Those are using amd hardware and a custom Linux OS. So what are they doing right?

[MoonC A T]

I could be wrong but with consoles, you don't have the background processes running that slows down PCs.

[Omega]

Bad 💀 Motha の投稿を引用：

Why do the games via ssd load so much better on XBX/PS5 ?

Those are using amd hardware and a custom Linux OS. So what are they doing right?

PS5;
A custom filesystem optimized to make ideal usage of SSDs, aggressive disk compression optimized for game binaries, a cache drive with extremely high bandwidth and room for an optional PCI-e 4.0 SSD.

The PS5 usually gets compared to PCs with PCI-e 3.0 SSDs, of course the PCs get blown out of the water by new PCI-e 4.0 SSDs in raw bandwidth.


The Xbox;
Custom filesystem, a LOT of aggressive disk compression optimized for game binaries. PCI-e 4.0 SSD.

Xbox claimed a 50% bandwidth improvement when pushing compressed data. They are sending less data but sending it in a smarter manner.


The compressed data has to be de-compressed again. This could be done on the main processor or on a secondary co-processor as to not put any load on the system.


The Xbox runs a Windows-based OS. The Playstation runs a FreeBSD-based OS. No Linux here, these companies dislike copy-left licenses.


Try comparing the storage PS4 games take on both the PS4 and PS5 when installed. This is the primary trick these consoles use. Quoting an article on twistedvoxel.com:
"When Subnautica launched for the PS4, it had a file size of just 6-7 GB... and the final file size (after updates) was calculated at 14 GB... The file size on PS5 is just 3.5 GB."

In this example the game has been compressed down to less than 30% of its original size.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

MoonC A T の投稿を引用：

I could be wrong but with consoles, you don't have the background processes running that slows down PCs.

If this happens to you then you need to learn how to configure a PC better suited towards Gaming. Nothing really running at the same time or in background on your PC should impact game performance to a point of where closing some apps greatly improves your game performance. If so then you have too much junk to begin with or perhaps your specs are on the low end side.

[Carlsberg]

I would think given current pc climate not many people have DS capable pc's as yet. Game producers want to sell in volume and may not want to code for a storage system that is not widely used. Unless the same game can be used by non DS users and DS users alike it may not happen.

Even if it does happen it may be quite some time yet before we see any games that are coded to take advantage of DS. Look at how long it took for RT to take hold.

[PopinFRESH]

Carlsberg の投稿を引用：

I would think given current pc climate not many people have DS capable pc's as yet. Game producers want to sell in volume and may not want to code for a storage system that is not widely used. Unless the same game can be used by non DS users and DS users alike it may not happen.

Even if it does happen it may be quite some time yet before we see any games that are coded to take advantage of DS. Look at how long it took for RT to take hold.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1680880/Forspoken/

Will be out in October '22. The Witcher 3 next gen remake was announced as using it also.

Microsoft has plenty of developers which will obviously be implementing it, and 3rd parties will also certainly use it when porting games from Xbox Series X|S.

NVMe SSDs have been out for quite a while, since z97, and there are plenty of people with capable systems.

Bad 💀 Motha の投稿を引用：

Why do the games via ssd load so much better on XBX/PS5 ?

Those are using amd hardware and a custom Linux OS. So what are they doing right?

Neither console use Linux. Xbox uses the Windows kernel and PS5 looks to be an iteration on Orbis which is a fork of BSD.

Both of them use similar technology to Direct Storage (with the Xbox Velocity architecture the same thing). Both of these have two aspects that help accelerate loading assets to GPU memory.
1) they allow the GPU to access the storage directly without making a call to the CPU
2) they leverage compression/decompression directly on the GPU to effectively allow for much higher throughput.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

I know how it all works; thank you very much.
That Forspoken game looks dumb AF. The story is very cheesy just from reading what little they have on it so far. Can't they make any good games these days. It's like Hollywood is making all the games too.

[PopinFRESH]

Bad 💀 Motha の投稿を引用：

I know how it all works; thank you very much.
That Forspoken game looks dumb AF. The story is very cheesy just from reading what little they have on it so far. Can't they make any good games these days. It's like Hollywood is making all the games too.

I mean, you did ask

Bad 💀 Motha の投稿を引用：

...
Why do the games via ssd load so much better on XBX/PS5 ?...

It didn't seem rhetorical to me but I guess you were intending it to be. I wasn't linking Forspoken as an example of a good game. I was responding to Carlsberg with an example of when games would start using Direct Storage on PC.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

Fair enough.

I just wish "Windows" would F'ing get there already. Pretty soon X86 PCs will be all dead. Like how many years before any good OS comes out, seriously. Everything should just be able to utilize your CPU and SSDs; it shouldn't have to be coded some special, magical way to make it use those properly. But whatever.

And if another person suggest Linux; go jump in a lake. It's not a gaming OS. Gaming on it is a complete joke.

[Dr.Shadowds 🐉]

I want to see actual test with this, and another test to use Sata SSD to see what actually the limit, and what would happen.

Bad 💀 Motha の投稿を引用：

Why do the games via ssd load so much better on XBX/PS5 ?

Those are using amd hardware and a custom Linux OS. So what are they doing right?

Custom hardware, and heavily cater OS to using shared memory between RAM, and GPU, custom filesystem, or can say file format method that being handle.

There methods where compress data, and decompress on the fly once it reach it target which is the share RAM.

[Lord Flashheart]

Bad 💀 Motha の投稿を引用：

Win10/11 users; read here to get the latest info about DirectStorage; how it works and what the requirements are.

https://devblogs.microsoft.com/directx/directstorage-api-available-on-pc

Please show a list of games that support it.
Also any independent benchmark tests comparing it on and off.
That would be great thanks.

[Lord Flashheart]

Omega の投稿を引用：

Overhyped. It is just a hack which tries to make up for the limitations of NTFS and Windows in general.

A proper solution would have been to create a new SSD focused file system. Then the entire system would have benefited and not just games, but no, that is no good as it hurts backwards compatibility with software which assumes all Windows drives to be NTFS or FAT.

DirectStorage is a cheap incomplete solution to a big problem, it is only a thing because Microsoft isn't willing to invest the resources to build a proper solution to their system not being SSD focused.

On top of that, more vendor lock-in. Another Windows API you are tied to as a developer.

This is the problem with these proprietary systems. Feature creep, they keep adding bloat on top of legacy systems instead of improving existing functionality.

Interesting.
I hope that gaming can at some point be played on linux without issue.
There you could maybe use ext4, or zfs.
Both are vastly superior to the very dates ntfs as I understand it.

[Dr.Shadowds 🐉]

Dr StrangeGlove の投稿を引用：

Bad 💀 Motha の投稿を引用：

Win10/11 users; read here to get the latest info about DirectStorage; how it works and what the requirements are.

https://devblogs.microsoft.com/directx/directstorage-api-available-on-pc

Please show a list of games that support it.
Also any independent benchmark tests comparing it on and off.
That would be great thanks.

AFAIK none atm.