Microsoft's DirectStorage API promises to speed up game-load times, both on the Xbox Series X/S and on Windows PCs.

Figure 1: Microsoft DirectStorage API improvements in PC games.

Figure 1 shows that One of the first games to demonstrate the benefits of DirectStorage on the PC is Square Enix's Forspoken, which was shown off by Luminous Productions technical director Teppei Ono at GDC this week.

With a fast NVMe SSD and DirectStorage support, some scenes in Forspoken could load in as little as one second. That is certainly an improvement over the CD and DVD load times of yesteryear.[1]

As a demonstration of DirectStorage, Abandoned the numbers are mixed. On the one hand, the examples shown by Ono clearly demonstrate DirectStorage loading scenes faster on the same hardware, compared to the older Win32 API – from 2.6 seconds to 2.2 seconds in one scene, and from 2.4 seconds to 1.9 seconds in another.

Abandoned demonstrated performance improvements on older SATA-based SSDs as well, despite being marketed as a feature that will primarily benefit NVMe drives – dropping from 5.0 to 4.6 seconds in a scene, and from 4.1 to 3.4 seconds in another.

Speed improvements for SATA SSDs have been limited for over a decade now because the SATA interface itself has held them back. So, figuring out any kind of measurable improvement for these stations is remarkable.[2]

The demo finally showed that the storage speed took 24.6 seconds to load using DirectStorage on an HDD, only 4.6 seconds to load on a SATA SSD, and 2.2 seconds to load on an NVMe SSD. This is a huge difference in comparison between Win32 and DirectStorage running on the same hardware.

It should be noted that this is just a game, and we will see a wider range of results as more developers implement DirectStorage into their titles and as Microsoft improves the technology.

Removing other CPU-related bottlenecks, including moving asset decompression from CPU to GPU, can further improve the performance gains of DirectStorage. GPU decompression is not yet supported in the PC version of DirectStorage, but Microsoft claims the feature is “the next on our roadmap.” [3]

References:

1. https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2022/03/directstorage-speeds-up-load-times-in-pc-game-demo-but-hardware-matters-most/
2. https://techbeezer.com/directstorage-shows-only-minor-improvements-in-real-world-pc-demo-loading-speeds/
3. https://worldnationnews.com/directstorage-shows-only-minor-load-speed-improvements-in-real-world-pc-demo/

Cite this article:

Sri Vasagi K (2022), DirectStorage API Upgrades in Real World PC Demo, Anatechmaz, pp. 108