Microsoft unveils DirectSR to unify super resolution technologies

3 months ago 34

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Microsoft has announced the preview release of DirectSR, a new API designed to standardise super resolution (SR) support in Direct3D 12 titles. The company has collaborated with AMD, Intel, and NVIDIA to build this API, enabling developers to seamlessly leverage their in-market upscaling technologies through a common set of inputs and outputs.

DirectSR aims to simplify the integration of SR by providing a single code path to exercise DLSS Super Resolution, FidelityFX Super Resolution, and XeSS. By exposing these technologies under one interface, SR integration becomes more straightforward and scalable, allowing developers to implement once-and-ship SR across a broad range of Windows devices.

GPU vendor support and built-in variants

Native support for DirectSR is provided in GPU drivers, where vendors tune their SR implementation for optimal hardware performance. Additionally, DirectSR includes built-in support for GPU-agnostic variants – which are available at the application level – making them accessible across hardware configurations.

Currently, DirectSR ships with built-in support for AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution (FSR) 2.2, along with driver-level support for both Intel XeSS and NVIDIA DLSS Super Resolution. This flexibility ensures DirectSR supports diverse hardware environments while providing the optionality and quality that gamers expect.

“It was a pleasure to collaborate with Microsoft on the design and development of DirectSR as a way to unify developer access to super resolution technologies across all platforms,” said Andrej Zdravkovic, SVP of GPU Technologies and Engineering Software, and Chief Software Officer at AMD.

“We are excited to have AMD FSR 2.2 delivered as a built-in implementation in DirectSR as part of this preview release.”

Alexander Kharlamov, Senior Director, Intel GPU Rendering, commented: “Intel strongly endorses Microsoft’s DirectSR specification, and the collaborative efforts involved in its creation – it simplifies the lives of game developers and ensures more gamers will experience Intel’s XeSS up-scaling technology on Intel GPUs.”

Jason Paul, VP of GeForce Platform Marketing at NVIDIA, added: “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.”

Runtime selection and standalone solution

One of the most exciting features of DirectSR is that it allows users to select between available upscalers at runtime, depending on their underlying hardware. This means that gamers can choose the best SR solution for their system, enhancing their overall gaming experience.

Moreover, DirectSR is a standalone solution, removing the need for developers to integrate vendor-specific SDKs or package vendor-specific libraries with their titles. This simplifies the integration process and makes multi-vendor SR support more accessible.

Developers can get started with DirectSR today, available via the Agility SDK 1.714.0-preview release. Intel drivers supporting XeSS via DirectSR are available on integrated GPUs starting from 11th Gen Intel Core processors and discrete Intel Arc Graphics GPUs. NVIDIA display drivers starting with version 560.38 have embedded DLSS Super Resolution available through DirectSR, supported on all NVIDIA GeForce RTX 20-Series GPUs and newer.

Additionally, PIX (Performance Tuning and Debugging Tool) support for DirectSR is available from day one with PIX version 2405.15.

With DirectSR, Microsoft and its industry partners have taken a significant step toward simplifying SR integration for developers—ultimately benefiting gamers with a consistent and high-quality upscaling experience across multiple hardware platforms.

(Photo by Ehap Ashraf)

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Tags: amd, api, development, directsr, dlss, fidelityfx, game development, gaming, intel, intel xess, microsoft, nvidia, super resolution