DirectX Raytracing 1.2: Boost your gameplay up to 2.3x faster! ⚡🎮
This week, Microsoft advertisement Its new application programming interface, DirectX Raytracing (DXR) 1.2, brings significant improvements in visual quality and rendering performance—up to 2.3 times faster! Companies like AMD, Intel, Nvidia, and Qualcomm, along with game developers like Remedy, are already working to integrate these DXR 1.2 technologies into the gaming hardware and software of the future. 🎮✨
The DirectX Raytracing 1.2 update incorporates two technologies: Opacity Micromaps (OMM) and Shader Execution Reordering (SER), which optimize performance in ray-traced games, increasing efficiency from 2x (SER) to 2.3x (OMM). It's critical to implement these technologies in games or game engines to take advantage of the performance benefits. 🔧⚡️
2X – 2.3X performance increase
One of the main challenges with alpha-proven geometry (such as foliage, fences, and hair) in ray tracing is the additional calculations needed to determine whether light hits a surface or passes through it. Opacity Micromaps (OMM) They improve the processing of this geometry by applying a texture with an alpha channel to a flat surface and removing pixels below a certain transparency threshold. This reduces the number of times shaders are needed, resulting in increased performance and efficiency. 🚀
At best, Microsoft claims a 2.3x improvement is achievable. However, it's important to consider that not all games and scenes include many elements like foliage and fences. For example, while S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 It has a large amount of grass, leaves, and fences in virtually all of its scenes, Cyberpunk 2077 It has hardly any foliage. 🌿🚧
The Shader Execution Reordering (SER) It's presented as a more universal feature, as it reorganizes how shaders run to prevent divergence. Divergence occurs when nearby pixels require shaders to perform different tasks, a common situation in scenes with complex ray tracing effects, such as realistic lighting, detailed shadows, and accurate reflections. 🌈✨
GPUs process shaders in parallel threads organized into groups called warps or wavefronts. Ideally, all threads within a group execute identical instructions simultaneously, maximizing GPU efficiency. Shader divergence occurs when threads in the same warp or wavefront need to execute different instructions. In this case, concurrent execution becomes impossible, forcing the GPU to handle each instruction path separately, leaving some threads idle and increasing latency. ⏱️
According to Microsoft, SER groups or organizes similar shader workloads, reducing divergence, maximizing GPU utilization, and accelerating rendering by up to 2 times. 🔥
Hardware support
Regarding hardware support, the situation is varied, which is common with new API features.
All Nvidia GPUs since the Turing architecture (GeForce RTX 20) are compatible with Opacity Micromaps (OMM), so these graphics cards could see a performance boost once game developers implement them in their titles. Intel announced that its upcoming next-generation GPUs, Celestial (Xe3), will also support OMM. 🌟
Las GPUs de Nvidia han soportado el Reordenamiento de Ejecución de Shaders (SER), comenzando con la serie GeForce RTX 40, familia Ada Lovelace. Intel mencionó que espera poder soportar SER «cuando esté disponible en un futuro Agility SDK». Sin embargo, no está claro si se soportará en las GPUs Arc ‘Alchemist' o ‘Battlemage' de Intel (o en ambas). 🤔
AMD, for its part, appears not to support OMM or SER on its RDNA 2/3/4 GPUs, although Microsoft stated that the company is collaborating on the widespread adoption of these technologies. Furthermore, AMD has certain programming optimizations that can mimic how SER works, so if game developers take the time to optimize for Radeon GPUs, these could benefit from some speed increases.
Qualcomm doesn't support OMM or SER either, but mentioned that it will in its next generations of integrated GPUs. 🏆
The preview version of DXR 1.2 will be released in April 2025. 🗓️
In summarythe arrival of DirectX Raytracing 1.2 🎮 represents a significant advance in the evolution of ray tracing in video games, offering important improvements in performance ⚡ and visual quality 👁️ Thanks to innovative technologies such as Opacity Micromaps (OMM) and the Shader Execution Reordering (SER).
Aunque la adopción y el soporte de hardware varían entre fabricantes, el compromiso de grandes empresas como Nvidia, Intel, AMD y Qualcomm, as well as key developers, indicates that these improvements will be gradually integrated into future titles and devices 🚀.
With a planned launch for April 2025, DXR 1.2 It promises to optimize the gaming experience, benefiting both developers and players through more efficient and realistic rendering 🎯.
This update will undoubtedly mark a significant step towards the future of gaming with advanced ray tracing 🌟.
