About a month ago, the Game Developers Conference 2024 schedule unveiled a new technology called Microsoft DirectSR. As one could easily guess from its name (Direct SuperResolution), it's an attempt to make the implementation of upscalers easier, and it was built in collaboration with all of the main CPU and GPU vendors (NVIDIA, AMD, and Intel).
Shawn Hargreaves, Dev Manager at Microsoft's Direct3D division, took the stage on Thursday, March 21, in Room 2009 of Moscone Center's West Hall to introduce Microsoft DirectSR. Hargreaves noted that PC games nowadays are expected to support multiple upscaling techniques right away (just think of the controversies when AMD FSR or NVIDIA DLSS are missing in a game, like with Starfield), and platforms want to apply newer, improved techniques to existing games. These are precisely the kind of problems that DirectX was always meant to solve on behalf of developers.
Hence, there was a need for Microsoft DirectSR, which was described as a new DirectX API that abstracts multiple upscaling techniques with a standard interface. Built-in variants will ship as part of Direct SuperResolution and will be used across all hardware, while other variants will be specific to particular GPU/NPU hardware. All the available techniques will be enumerated, allowing the developer to pick which one they want. Microsoft DirectSR will submit for execution on an app-provided compute queue, with UI rendered over the top and then presented as normal.
Since AMD Fidelity FX Super Resolution 2 was originally written as a general-purpose shader program and works on any graphics cards that support Compute Shader 6.2, Microsoft has integrated the core processing of AMD FSR2 into the DirectSR runtime. As such, as long as developers prepare the required preprocessing and parameters, their game will be able to run seamlessly without writing specific FSR2 code.
However, NVIDIA DLSS Super Resolution should be as easy to enable as long as the developers provide a list of common inputs for the algorithm:
- Source color image
- Source depth
- Source image region (optional)
- Motion vectors
- Motion vectors scale
- Camera jitter
- Expore and Pre-Exposure
- Exposure scale texture
- Ignore history mask
- Reactive mask
- Sharpness
- Image regions
Indeed, the GDC 2024 talk featured AMD's Fellow Software Engineer Rob Martin and NVIDIA's Principal Engineer of Developer Technology Wessam Bahnassi alongside Microsoft's Hargreaves.
Jason Paul, VP of GeForce Platform Marketing at NVIDIA, stated:
NVIDIA DLSS Super Resolution is available in over 400 titles and has become a standard feature for gamers. We are excited to give developers even more ways to bring DLSS to the next generation of games.
The DirectX State of the Union talk also discussed the Work Graphs, which have now been released out of preview. However, Microsoft DirectSR will take more time to arrive. There's no word yet on when it will be available, but a public preview should be available soon via the Agility SDK.
News Source: 4Gamer.net
