getting everyone on board
Microsoft first introduced Advanced Shader delivery in its SDK last September and added support for the ROG Xbox Alley as a proof of concept by October. Microsoft said the addition has reduced launch times for games such as Accepted Up to “as much as 85 percent,” which is a big deal on a battery-limited handheld.
Adoption of advanced shader delivery into the broader PC gaming ecosystem has been a slow process. Nvidia says it’s “working closely with Microsoft to add advanced shader delivery support to its GeForce RTX line “later this year,” and Intel says it’s “expecting to release a driver supporting ASD in the near future.” Qualcomm also said it “plans to launch this feature on Qualcomm Adreno X2 GPUs soon,” for what it’s worth.
Even with hardware support, game engine makers must integrate Microsoft’s SODB API to streamline the setup process for game developers. Epic Games says it is “conducting initial testing and exploration on SODB and PSDB generation and more details will be revealed soon,” which is probably not a full commitment Microsoft is making at this point.
For now, Microsoft has updated its API so developers can more easily create and test PSDBs and more easily compile shaders in larger games. The company is now also urging developers to “integrate the SODB collection into their game engines” so they’ll be ready to upload those precompiled shaders through the Xbox Partner Center starting in May.
At that time, some PC games downloaded through the Xbox app will finally be able to skip that annoying “compiled shaders” loading step. But this is not the feature Microsoft wants to have for its PC game platform; The company says that “in the future, any storefront can compile SODBs into…PSDBs and distribute them.”
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