TL;DR: PC gamers have likely noticed frequent stuttering or lengthy shader-compilation loading screens in many titles over the past few years. Microsoft unveiled a potential solution to the problem last year, and it is set to expand across the Windows ecosystem with support from Nvidia, AMD, and Intel.
Nvidia announced its support for Microsoft's new Advanced Shader Delivery technology during a presentation at the Game Developers Conference this week. The feature, designed to address shader-compilation stutter in PC games, will arrive on RTX graphics cards later this year. AMD has also confirmed support, though it has not provided additional details.
In many titles with complex 3D graphics, shader compilation can cause seemingly inexplicable hitching and drops in average frame rates. More recently, some games have attempted to mitigate the issue by compiling shaders at startup, a process that can take several minutes and must often be repeated when users install new drivers.
Must read: Shader Compilation and Why It Causes Stuttering, Explained
Shader compilation occurs because when game developers create shaders – essentially small programs that render graphics – they must be converted into a format that the graphics chip can understand. Developers can easily perform this task for console games because systems such as PlayStation, Xbox, and Switch have known, fixed hardware configurations.
However, because developers cannot compile shaders for the near-infinite variety of PC hardware configurations, users often have to compile them locally. Valve can collect and distribute pre-compiled shaders for the Steam Deck because, like a console, its hardware configuration is fixed.
Microsoft aims to circumvent this problem on PC by rethinking how developers catalog, store, and distribute shaders. The State Object Database introduces a new format for storing shaders, which are then compiled using Intel's offline compiler and delivered through the Precompiled Shader Database. When users install games or drivers, the Xbox app downloads the appropriate shaders from the PSDB.
ASD debuted on the Asus ROG Xbox Ally and Ally X last year, where Microsoft said the feature reduced initial load times in Avowed by 80%. At GDC, Microsoft announced an SDK update that will allow developers to begin testing ASD on other Windows 11 devices.
Microsoft is also working with Nvidia, AMD, Intel, and Qualcomm to further integrate machine learning tasks such as upscaling, denoising, and texture compression into DirectX. Additionally, Intel, AMD, and Microsoft announced an update to DirectStorage that will help developers reduce load times on SSDs by introducing Zstandard compression. Meanwhile, Microsoft's PIX tool will streamline debugging.
Nvidia, AMD, and Intel back Microsoft's plan to fix shader compilation stutter
