Microsoft DirectStorage 1.1 with GPU-accelerated Game Asset Decompression Released

Microsoft formally released the DirectStorage 1.1 API to game developers on Monday, allowing them to take advantage of GPU-accelerated game asset decompression, to help minimize game loading times. DirectStorage establishes a path for GPUs to directly access storage devices on a system. With version 1.1, the API introduces a way by which the PC can use the GPU to decompress game assets. Microsoft is also promoting GDeflate, a new file compression format developed by NVIDIA, which is optimized for highly parallelized decompression techniques, making it suitable for GPUs. NVIDIA, Intel, and AMD, have each responded positively to this development, and rolled out early drivers with DirectStorage 1.1 support, which can be used by game developers or students. The three will add official DirectStorage 1.1 support to their regular driver update channels later.

DOWNLOAD: DirectStorage 1.1 early-support (not official) drivers for NVIDIA GeForce | AMD Radeon | Intel Arc