Microsoft To Launch DirectSR API to Standardize Super Resolution in Games
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Erick
This is going to be amazing.
Undying
When will the update come out of insider to retail? Interested in testing it.
Reddoguk
Is this a Win 11 only update or will Win 10 also get it?
pimp_gimp
This seems to state that it will be available for Windows 10 and above.
CPC_RedDawn
how will we know what res games are actually rendering at? Is this a blanket support for all games? Will it ignore UI in games or make them blurry? Does this work alongside FSR, DLSS, XESS or will it disable when you select in game upscaling?
aufkrawall2
Can't imagine that, e.g. Nixxes said they have their own internal lightweight abstraction layer for upscalers.
This really sounds like reinventing of reinventing the wheel. But maybe there's something we don't know yet.
CPC_RedDawn
From the screenshot in the article its just a toggle on/off in the graphics settings of windows in the same place as VRR, Windowed Optimisations, and HAGS.
How is this going to work? Turning it on in windows and then lowering the in game resolution maybe? But this is how AMD's driver level FSR works and its awful as FSR1 is just a spatial upscaler, yes this one in windows uses A.I but how will be ignore UI elements? How low can you go before it breaks?
I can a lot of people getting hyped for this and ultimately I think its going to be a nothing burger once again. Would love to be proven wrong.
Robbo9999
I'm not certain that this new Microsoft option is going to be better than NVidia's option in their Control Panel - specifically DL Scaling in the DSR Factors variable you can configure - my understanding is that this already uses the capability of the tensor cores for more efficient (higher performance) super resolution running. Already we can apply that in every game if you've got an NVidia card, so I'm not really seeing where the added value is coming from with this Microsoft feature, instead it just seems like it might just be an innefficient "middle man" in comparison that just achieves the same thing?
RealNC
DirectSR is for upscaling using DLSS/FSR/XeSS without games having to implement these three separately. Instead, they will only need to implement DirectSR.
DSR is for downscaling.
It just occurred to me that with DirectSR, AMD users won't be able to select XeSS anymore in games but will be stuck with FSR. So even though putting it in DirectX is a net win, there's at least one drawback.
On the plus side, it looks like we won't have to do the DLL switcheroo on Nvidia anymore to update the DLSS version used by games, since this will be managed by the GPU driver installer now (like it does for PhysX.)
tsunami231
and it begin, again if it comes to Win 10 too then is bonus to everyone still not fan of these techs as anything but last resort we all knew there were be a MS would step in to this
Robbo9999
Are you sure about that though, have you got a link somewhere that explains that? The term "Super Resolution" I normally see in reference to rendering at a higher resolution and then downscaling, which improves visual quality. The Deep Learning Dynamic Super Resolution (DLDSR) that NVidia use in their Control Panel leverages the Tensor Cores to provide better quality downscaling when using not so high resolutions for the game, so you only need to run 2.25 times the native resolution to equal the equivalent image quality of 4 times native resolution with conventional DSR, explained here for example:
https://www.theverge.com/2022/1/14/22884124/nvidia-deep-learning-dynamic-super-resolution-game-ready-driver-ai-upscaling
So to me it seems that this DirectSR from Microsoft is the same thing, but just acting as a middle man for compatibility purposes. Whenever I see the term "Super Resolution" it always means to me running the game engine at a higher resolution than your panel & then downscaling. Could you provide a link that clearly supports the point you're making as I'm not convinced yet?
RealNC
Yes. It's in the article (linked to in the first post in this thread.) The article also contains a link to a Microsoft blog post about it.
Martin2603PL
The thing on the screenshoot and DirectSR are two different things.
This screenshoot must be removed, brings confusion.
Robbo9999
I read all those and both are still using the term "Super Resolution" which in history is downscaling - ie the game runs at a higher resolution than your monitor panel. Can you provide a bit more explanation and/or links why you think it's actually upscaling?
EDIT: after a bit of googling I found Tom's Hardware saying it's "upscaling":
https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/gpus/microsoft-to-debut-directsr-universal-image-upscaling-technology-next-month-co-developed-with-nvidia-and-amd
However, I'm bold enough to think they're wrong, I can't see any evidence in the Microsoft blog post that it's upscaling, instead I think it's a downscaling tech - albeit there's less appetite in the market for downscaling I suppose, which does lend it more likely to be upscaling.....but still I don't see any actual evidence in the Microsoft blog post that it's upscaling rather than downscaling.
22JHP
nvidia won't gave even their sins. no DLSS3 FG to 2000 3000 users so no excite about it. "maybe" it's required to adopt FSR1-2 games to 3 eh? i heard ubi doomed on avatar title update 3. have you seen the change log oh wait they're removed. wonder why? cos it's full of FSR3 bugs and amd didn't happy about it, i think.
CPC_RedDawn
how is it different?
RealNC
They mention DLSS, FSR and XeSS by name, explicitly. These are all used for upscaling. However, they are also a form of super-sampling, so that's why they are calling it "Super Resolution." It's temporal super-sampling, but still super-sampling. Instead of sampling pixels in space, they sample pixels in time.
In the end though, "Super Resolution" has never been a technical term. It's a marketing term, and we all know how those are used sometimes.
Robbo9999
Yep, it's probably gonna be upscaling! And I found a reference to DLSS Super Resolution and in that context of the word "Super Resolution" NVidia use it as upscaling:
https://www.nvidia.com/en-gb/geforce/technologies/dlss/
