Microsoft Aims to Advance Neural Rendering Through DirectX

Exciting developments are on the horizon for the world of PC gaming.

Recently, Microsoft shared some insights through a blog post about their collaboration with NVIDIA to enhance the performance of neural rendering. They’re planning to integrate something called cooperative vectors into DirectX. In simpler terms, this means that NVIDIA’s neural shaders will work more efficiently on RTX Tensor Cores when developers implement them using DirectX.

Bryan Langley, a key figure in Microsoft’s silicon, media, and graphics team, expressed the company’s enthusiasm: “We’re thrilled to join forces with NVIDIA to drive the next wave of graphics programming, bringing broad support for neural shading technology to the industry. With DirectX soon supporting Cooperative Vectors, game creators will be able to fully tap into the potential of Tensor Cores on NVIDIA’s GeForce RTX hardware, powering neural shaders on Windows to great effect.”

While the blog post didn’t dive deeply into details beyond cooperative vectors, there’s more brewing behind the scenes. Sources have hinted to Windows Central that Microsoft’s commitment to advancing neural rendering research is strong, with aims to boost game development even more than what’s been publicly shared.

So, what exactly is neural rendering? Essentially, it’s a suite of methods leveraging artificial intelligence to enhance software development. This includes technologies like neural shaders, which allow developers to train data in multiple ways. NVIDIA’s current efforts focus on these neural shaders, extending support to adaptable shaders. This opens doors to a slew of new technologies for developers to play with, one of the most exciting being improved texture compression. This could offer significant benefits not just for developers, but also for gamers.

Imagine the possibility of drastically reducing the amount of VRAM or system memory a game demands. NVIDIA claims that textures compressed using neural methods could require up to seven times less space compared to typical compression approaches.

This advancement is particularly promising given the rising VRAM requirements we’ve seen over the last year, which have pushed players toward high-end hardware to enjoy games at their peak settings. Questions have been raised about NVIDIA’s more affordable GPU options, such as the RTX 4060, which have been criticized for not offering enough VRAM for their price when handling the latest titles like Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. The outcome will ultimately depend on how this technology is implemented, but it’s certainly worth watching for future progress from Microsoft.

The plan is for NVIDIA to make neural shaders available to developers through its NVIDIA RTX kit by the end of January. With the anticipated release of the 50-series graphics cards, the future of PC gaming looks bright. More titles are embracing cutting-edge technologies, and we’re expecting to see advancements like path tracing feature in games like DOOM: The Dark Ages. Indeed, these are exciting times for PC gaming enthusiasts.