San Francisco, California – Microsoft has revealed its latest advancements in graphics technology at the Game Developers Conference, introducing DirectX Raytracing (DXR) 1.2 and Neural Rendering support for NVIDIA, Intel, and AMD hardware. These updates are poised to revolutionize visual fidelity in the gaming industry and boost performance across a range of devices.
The updated DXR 1.2 brings forth significant improvements, such as the introduction of Opacity Micromaps (OMM) and Shader Execution Reordering (SER), aimed at enhancing performance in path-traced games. OMM optimizes alpha-tested geometry, leading to a notable 2.3x performance increase, while SER improves rendering efficiency by intelligently grouping shader execution, resulting in up to 2x faster performance in certain scenarios.
During a demonstration of Remedy’s game Alan Wake 2 at the conference, Microsoft showcased a 40% increase in performance during complex scenes, demonstrating the capabilities of DXR 1.2 in delivering detailed raytraced visuals. The company has also collaborated with hardware giants like NVIDIA, AMD, Intel, and Qualcomm to ensure broad support for these cutting-edge features.
Moreover, Microsoft is introducing cooperative vectors as a new programming feature in Shader Model 6.9, enabling developers to leverage hardware acceleration engines for vector and matrix operations. This advancement will allow for the integration of neural rendering techniques directly within the graphics pipeline, enhancing the overall gaming experience for users.
In addition, Microsoft will be updating Windows’ Advanced Rasterization Platform (WARP), a CPU-based software renderer for DirectX, to include support for the latest features like raytracing, mesh shaders, and work graphs. This update will provide enhanced capabilities and performance improvements to WARP, making it ideal for systems without compatible GPUs for diagnostics.
Furthermore, the company will offer day-one support for DXR 1.2 within their DirectX debugger and profile known as PIX on Windows. These technologies, including Cooperative Vectors and Neural Rendering, will be available in the preview Agility SDK launching in late April 2025. This demonstrates Microsoft’s commitment to pushing the boundaries of graphics technology and delivering a seamless experience for gamers worldwide.