How to use Di­rect­Stor­age in Windows 11

From Xbox to Windows – Di­rect­Stor­age is an API interface and gaming tech­nol­o­gy that ac­cel­er­ates the load times of com­pu­ta­tion­al­ly intensive games and supports demanding graphics. Pre­req­ui­sites are hardware with NVMe-SSD and a graphics card with Di­rect­Stor­age support.

Di­rect­Stor­age is a tech­nol­o­gy known from the Xbox console series X and S. It’s also supported by PlaySta­tion 5. Di­rect­Stor­age API lets game de­vel­op­ers integrate the function into games to speed up load times and display detail-rich game worlds. Because PC games are a major area of gaming and now that Windows 11 is the best Windows for gamers thanks to special gaming features, Di­rect­Stor­age is now fully supported by Windows 11.

The advantage is that the pro­gram­ming interface reduces processor overhead when rendering complex game worlds. Graphics data is trans­ferred at a faster speed between SSD and graphics card thanks to Di­rect­Stor­age, without com­pressed data needing to be de­com­pressed by the CPU. Gamers enjoy a better gaming ex­pe­ri­ence with detailed textures, large worlds and lots of action. From the per­spec­tive of game de­vel­op­ers, the API means they no longer have to adapt the graphics quality to hardware lim­i­ta­tions and can use so­phis­ti­cat­ed graphics tech­nolo­gies such as ray­trac­ing. However, one pre­req­ui­site is that games are pro­grammed using an in­te­grat­ed Di­rect­Stor­age feature and PC gamers use Windows 11 as well as the hardware to support Di­rect­Stor­age.

The function of Di­rect­Stor­age is closely connected to rendering of game graphics. Tra­di­tion­al­ly, com­pressed graphics data is de­com­pressed via detours. Game data stored on a SSD is trans­ferred to the main memory (RAM). To conserve memory the data is com­pressed. When you start a game, the API (Ap­pli­ca­tion Pro­gram­ming Interface) retrieves the data from the SSD to RAM memory. This passes them to the CPU processor for de­com­pres­sion. Once de­com­pressed, they’re passed back to the RAM and from there to the video memory (VRAM) of the GPU for rendering.

Di­rect­Stor­age is a low-level API that elim­i­nates the need for time-consuming de­com­pres­sion via the CPU. Com­pressed graphics data is trans­ferred directly from the SSD via RAM to the graphics card. De­com­pres­sion happens in the VRAM of the GPU in this way, saving time for pro­cess­ing and trans­fer­ring game data. YouTubers from Linus Tech Tips have tested just how much time is saved when rendering with and without Di­rect­Stor­age. They rendered a 52.4 MB game scene which took 0.33 seconds to load without Di­rect­Stor­age and just 0.08 seconds with it.

Now for the “but”. While Di­rect­Stor­age comes pre-installed on Windows 11, its usage is only optimal if games were pro­grammed using Di­rect­Stor­age and gamers own the necessary hardware such as SSDs with NVMe. The pre­req­ui­sites are:

• a NVMe SSD with at least 64 GB storage size
• a graphics card with support for DirectX 12 and Shader model 6.0.

Hardware was also the main reason why Di­rect­Stor­age was available on Xbox consoles in 2020, while PC users had to wait longer. Consoles have a uniform hardware, but PCs come with different hardware com­po­nents, graphics cards, SSD vs. HDD, proces­sors, and RAM which make im­ple­men­ta­tion of Di­rect­Stor­age a greater challenge. Until now, because with Windows 11 that’s changed.

Di­rect­Stor­age moves com­pressed graphics data from the hard disk to the graphics card’s VRAM without a detour via the CPU. Since the graphics card de­com­press­es data much faster, the load on the processor is reduced by 20 to 40 percent and game per­for­mance is ac­cel­er­at­ed. Game de­vel­op­ers using Di­rect­Stor­age can offer sharper, more detailed textures and larger game worlds that can be rendered without judder, dropouts or glitches with the ap­pro­pri­ate hardware.

In­te­grat­ed Di­rect­Stor­age also means that game de­vel­op­ers can add more elements, such as NPCs, or create open worlds like those in Final Fantasy XIV. Faster rendering means objects don’t suddenly appear but are com­po­nents of the visible game world. One of the first PC games to offer support for Di­rect­Stor­age is the fantasy action role-playing game Fore­spo­ken from renowned developer Square Enix. If gamers are to really benefit from the faster tech­nol­o­gy, de­com­pres­sion and transfer of data needs to be con­sid­ered as early as the game de­vel­op­ment stage. Because without games with Di­rect­Stor­age func­tion­al­i­ty, any hardware ad­van­tages aren’t going to speed up load times all that much.

Generally, Di­rect­Stor­age works on Windows 10, albeit with a few short­com­ings since the storage stack op­ti­miza­tions cannot be used. You’ll need to install Windows 11 to enjoy all the ad­van­tages of Di­rect­Stor­age. Nev­er­the­less, gaming per­for­mance should be somewhat better on Windows 10, at least to a certain extent.

Windows 11 users benefit from in­te­grat­ed Di­rect­Stor­age func­tion­al­i­ty. As long as you’ve got the matching hardware such as a NVMe SSD and com­pat­i­ble graphics card, you can use Di­rect­Stor­age for relevant games.