18 months in the past, Microsoft revealed that probably the most vital developments in its new Xbox Series X console can be coming to PC — the power to stream large quantities of knowledge from a blazing quick NVMe strong state drive to your GPU, as an alternative of relying in your pesky CPU to decompress it first. The so-called “DirectStorage API” would let video games load extra detailed worlds, and cargo them extra shortly than earlier than.

Now, Microsoft says the DirectStorage API has arrived. “Starting today, Windows games can ship with DirectStorage. This public SDK release begins a new era of fast load times and detailed worlds in PC games by allowing developers to more fully utilize the speed of the latest storage devices,” reads the company’s blog post.

Image: Microsoft

More excellent news: it’ll work with Windows 10, not simply Windows 11, regardless that Microsoft says that 11 is “our recommended path for gaming.”

Before you rush out to discover a recreation to lastly take full benefit of that speedy NVMe 4.0 stick drive and appropriate motherboard, although, you must know the video games aren’t accessible but. While builders have been able to preview the tech since July, at present’s only a beginning gun for a lot of who may dig in. In reality, the actual beginning gun may not be till March 23rd at the Game Developers Conference, when AMD and developer Luminous Productions will clarify how they introduced DirectStorage to Forspoken, one of many first showcase video games for the tech. It’ll be October eleventh earlier than you’ll be able to attempt Forspoken, by the best way, since that recreation got delayed just last week.

You may additionally have some comprehensible doubts that builders will actually take full benefit of NVMe storage all that shortly, contemplating that many PC players nonetheless haven’t moved to quick NVMe SSDs, and since video games that talked up SSD like Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart on the PS5 had been discovered to be taking considerably lower than full benefit of their capabilities. (Heck, the Steam Deck signifies that some video games builders will nonetheless want to focus on UHS-I microSD playing cards that may learn at underneath 100MB/sec, quite than the 4,000-7,000MB/sec of a PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD.)

Still, if Windows video games can theoretically pull the identical SSD methods because the PS5 and Xbox Series X, meaning there’s one much less piece of the PC dragging down the potential of next-gen gaming — and we’re anticipating that largely unrealized potential to lastly be fulfilled.

Here’s the newest gameplay trailer for Forspoken, as it’d run on a Sony PS5, but in addition on a Windows PC and the Xbox Series X utilizing quick SSD methods:

You like to see the rising tide increase all of the boats.