Starting today, Windows games can ship with DirectStorage. This public SDK release begins a new era of fast load times and detailed worlds in PC games by allowing developers to more fully utilize the speed of the latest storage devices. In September 2020, we announced DirectStorage would be coming to Windows, and after collecting feedback throughout our developer preview, we are making this API available to all of our partners to ship with their games. Check out the announcement blog for an in-depth exploration of the inspiration for DirectStorage and how it will benefit Windows games.
Getting Started – Developers
For all the necessary resources to get started, please check out aka.ms/directstorage. This includes the NuGet repository with the redistributable package, the GitHub repo with samples and documentation, as well as links to PIX for Windows.
We will be presenting an introduction to DirectStorage at GDC– along with some tips and tricks to get started– on March 22. If you’re unable to watch it live, check back here for a link to the on-demand video of the session after the 22. We also recommend that you check out the GDC talk presented by Luminous about their integration of DirectStorage in Forspoken.
Getting Started – Gamers
If you want to get your PC ready to take advantage of DirectStorage games, we have a few suggestions. DirectStorage is compatible with Windows 10 devices, but Windows 11 has the latest storage optimizations built in and is our recommended path for gaming. While you may see benefits on any kind of storage device, installing games to an NVMe SSD will maximize your IO performance and help you more fully experience the benefits of DirectStorage. Stay tuned to learn about games that will be shipping with DirectStorage in the future!
What’s Next?
This release of DirectStorage provides developers everything they need to move to a new model of IO for their games, and we’re working on even more ways to offload work from the CPU. GPU decompression is next on our roadmap, a feature that will give developers more control over resources and how hardware is leveraged. Additionally, we will continue optimizing, integrating feedback, and improving on the existing runtime implementation.
