The promise of DirectStorage is not just faster loading times but improvements to other technical elements like draw distance and texture variety.
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Microsoft’s DirectStorage, the game-related feature, won’t become available in Windows 10 as part of a system update. This feature is exclusive to Windows 11.
First announced as part of Microsoft’s Xbox Series X/S consoles, the API streamlines I/O calls for 3D assets between your SSD and GPU, Engadget reported.
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As ArsTechnica notes, the promise of DirectStorage is not just faster loading times but improvements to other technical elements like draw distance and texture variety.
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The API also allows games to instantly introduce assets, enabling developers to get away from the tricks they’ve used for decades to hide loading times in their creations.
Outside of Windows 11, there will be a couple of other requirements you’ll need to take advantage of DirectStorage on your computer.
On Thursday, some reports suggested that the API would require an NVMe SSD with at least 1TB of storage, but that doesn’t seem to be the case; the system requirements for Windows 11 don’t mention a capacity requirement at the moment.
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