HUGE DirectX 12 Update For PC & Xbox - New Shader Model & DX12 SDK Improvements | 4K Switch Pro Leak

HUGE DirectX 12 Update For PC & Xbox - New Shader Model & DX12 SDK Improvements | 4K Switch Pro Leak

A HUGE update for DX12 is incoming, which will mean some major improvements for both PC gaming and Xbox Series X. Among other things, there are significant improvements to the DirectX 12 SDK and it also brings a new shader model to the table. When discussing their plans for the Xbox Game Stack event, Microsoft reveals changes to the DirectX 12 agility SDK and much more. Among the other things we can expect at Xbox Game Stack 2021, is of course Xbox Game Pass.

So what does this HUGE directX 12 update mean for both PC and Xbox Series X / S? The DirectX 12 agility SDK, as well as the new shader models, could bring about some significant ripple effects in the gaming industry.

We also discuss the Nintendo Switch Pro, as yet more evidence of the Super Switch not only existing but being 4K capable has surfaced. Rumours of the Nintendo Switch Pro supporting 4K have been flying for some time, so will we see an Nvidia Lovelace GPU or Xavier GPU amongst the specs, and when can we expect an official reveal?

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SOCIAL MEDIA

0:00 Start
0:07 Xbox Game Stack
3:57 Nintendo Switch Pro
6:22 Kojima & Microsoft

[twosawyers]

One of the reasons for the upgrade DX12 ultimate is needed for Flight Simulator 2020 on Xbox to make a playable experience.

[SP]

DirectStorage is the Pandora's box of the videogames; once that thing starts, games will never look the same.

[guruvelu]

Sampler feedback and mesh shading is the future of gaming

[ZenTrippin]

I played through Snatcher on the Sega CD back in the 90's and loved it. I can't go back and play it without nostalgia-tinted glasses, so I couldn't say objectively whether or not it holds up today. If you enjoyed 2064: Read Only Memories you will likely enjoy Snatcher.

[mr.rigormortis]

I played Snatcher as a kid on the Sega CD. It was my second exposure to the Cyberpunk genre in videogames, behind Shadowrun. I loved it. It was toned down for the American release but still great. It was one of the few titles on Sega CD that didn't make me regret getting a Sega CD 🤣

[brucethen]

World of warcraft has already reached a point where it is painful to play on HDD

[kaseyboles]

Wouldn't be surprised to see some way to speed moving data from system ram and especially pcie ssds to video cards added into amd's chipsets and or cpu's soon. They had a head start with their work this gen's consoles.

[AleksandreMzhavia]

Man, I would Loove Snatcher Remake or even an HD port!

[GrahamTriggsUK]

Yes, loading times could be an issue, but generally speaking I would rather put more memory in my PC than rely on access to fast storage. For those of us that like to switch between multiple games (particularly non-narrative titles) the limited storage - and requirement to run next gen titles off of the internal drive even when they don't really need to stream assets - is a bit of an achilles heel of the new consoles.

And no matter how detailed the game, they almost certainly don't need fast access to all of the assets, all of the time. Direct storage probably should have been implemented as a mixed-mode on the consoles - if a game is located on the internal drive, just access it from there, but if it is external copy necessary parts to a cache on the SSD (at the expense of loading times). Although it does bring the added complication of ensuring there is enough cache space before being able to launch a title, the convenience of not having to manually shift things between SSD and external, and at any one time having large amounts of internal storage used by assets that you don't need at that time will outweigh the cost of loading times for many people.

If Flight Simulator - the ultimate "open world" environment - can provide that experience with a relatively small rolling cache over petabytes of remote data, then a similar approach over slow and fast storage can work for most game worlds. Not only that, if they went down that route, you can generalise the approach to having a cache of assets that you need immediate access to, and virtual file system access to the full range of assets - where that virtual file system could be over slower external storage, or remote data providers like Azure.

Now imagine a world where not only are you not limited by the amount of games that you can store in their entirety on the internal storage, but where you don't even need to download all 100s GBs for a game. We've sort of got that now with being able to start a game when only part of it has downloaded, but it's still downloading the rest of it at that time, rather than filling in as it goes.

Making this a generic feature that all games can easily build on to reduce initial download times, as well as alleviate manual shifting of storage locations, could be a huge win for the platform that does it.

[mikefergus]

I played snatcher loved it even the annoying robot sidekick lol

[iLLusiveMan]

Shader model 6.6 sound creepy like MS has some secret plan to eliminate Sony lol
Phil Spencer be like: execute order 66

[TheSilviux]

This phenomenon is overblown, the consoles will always load faster no matter what PC configuration. How much better, it doesn't matter, unless someone is having fun only with loading games and not playing them.

[djnorth]

Having an amazing day, TGIF. I have been following the tech news with interest but I'm really in a good place with two working PC 's and GameCube (haha yes I know). The amount of games that do not require 2-3 times overpriced hardware is crazy. I've always gone with mid range or a step down from the top gear, but I see no reason to upgrade when it means paying insane premium. But naturally I'm worried about the prices rising and staying up.

[bodasactra]

Paul, do you think a PC NVMe using a portion of system RAM as a cache buffer is a viable solution to match consoles direct ssd? I use Primocache and get 20GB sec read/write with 6GB system RAM used for buffer cache.

[alb]

Good job on breaking this tech down Paul. It might be boring to most, for a techhead like myself, this is interesting stuff. Bottom line is, future games will take advantage of these tools and will look and play better. Also excited for Kojima-san's next game, definitely another win for Microsoft if they can close this deal. Microsoft's PR team is definitely working some OT this generation.

[ZackSNetwork]

It’s not gonna be the out of date Volta SOC which only has DLS 1.0 support. It’s gonna either be Ampere or Lovelace. Why make a new chipset that doesn’t support DX12 Ultimate, Mesh shaders, VRR, RTX IO, DLSS2.1, big graphics leap to persuade consumers to upgrade and efficiency.

[doc]

I have an all ssd build now though it is still a bit too expensive.

[SFAJmz]

So I wonder if the timing of the release of RTX 3080/3070 ti cards are at the very least being timed to launch when direct storage goes live; as I have thought they would since the launch of Ampere? With all of the crazy and rumor that goes rampant when Nvidia does anything, I found it interesting that RTX IO has basically not been discussed almost entirely by the tech tube space. All of these people, excluding Paul with incredibly fair and exquisite reporting, claim to know the full range of the card's performance potential, yet they have mostly left no room at all, in my opinion, for potentially the most effective performance boosting tech of Nvidia's stack of features. It will be interesting to see what happens when this goes live at the end of the month. I think many tubers are going to have a lot of work re-benching the complete Ampere line-up and also spend tons of time back stepping to correct the record.

[Mrree]

Always a pleasure when Paul shows his mug!

[captainthunderbolt]

I am having an amazing day, how did you know?