Microsoft DirectStorage 1.4 public preview adds Zstandard and Game Asset Conditioning Library
Microsoft has released DirectStorage 1.4 in public preview, and the main change is support for Zstandard , or Zstd, as a new compression option for Windows game assets. Microsoft says the update should help improve compression ratios, cut load times, and make asset streaming smoother in larger games. That’s the theory.
The update also includes the first public preview of the Game Asset Conditioning Library , or GACL. Microsoft says GACL can improve Zstd compression ratios by up to 50% for some assets, and DirectStorage 1.4 can already reverse those transforms for BC1, BC3, BC4, and BC5 textures, with BC7 support planned for a later update.
Microsoft is also publishing an early open-source Zstd GPU decompression shader, while AMD, Intel, NVIDIA, and Qualcomm are all working on tuned support, with most driver-side optimizations planned for later in 2026.
AMD : “Aligning the industry on an open compression standard builds a foundation for future game titles to deliver immersive experiences with even larger worlds than realistically possible today. We plan to make optimizations for AMD GPUs available in a public driver during the second half of 2026 and look forward to seeing how developers use these investments to enhance the player experience.” – Daniel Staheli, CVP Software Development, AMD
Intel : “We’re co-engineering with Microsoft to tune Zstandard decompression through DirectStorage across our GPU architectures. We look forward to sharing our performance improvements in the months ahead.” – Lisa Pearce, Corporate Vice President, Software Group, Intel
NVIDIA : “NVIDIA is excited to bring Zstd support to game developers, with decompression optimizations tailored for NVIDIA GeForce RTX GPUs arriving in the second half of this year.” – Patrick Neill, Distinguished Engineer, NVIDIA
Qualcomm : “Before the end of the year, we’re excited to bring tuned driver updates that reflect our investments in Zstd decompression on our platforms. We look forward to these investments ensuring reliable, high performance asset streaming across Windows games.” – Nagendra Kumar, Senior Director of Engineering, Qualcomm
One thing worth pointing out is that the list of publicly documented DirectStorage games is still relatively short. We have been hearing and reporting about DirectStorage for quite some time now, but it’s one of those features that we hardly see in new games. However, there are some exceptions.
Some of the better-known examples are Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, Forza Motorsport, and Horizon Forbidden West Complete Edition . Ratchet & Clank uses DirectStorage 1.2 with GPU decompression, Forza Motorsport uses DirectStorage for CPU-side loading improvements, and Horizon Forbidden West uses the API for quicker loading on PC.
Direct Storage 1
DirectStorage 1.4 Preview (features)
New Features
- Add support for D3D12 CreatorIDs to improve GPU command queue parallelization:
- New configuration structure:
DSTORAGE_CONFIGURATION2with globalCreatorIDfield. - New function:
DStorageSetConfiguration2()to configure DirectStorage with CreatorID support.
- New configuration structure:
- Add Zstd support to IDStorageQueue’s EnqueueRequest API and the DStorageCreateCompressionCodec API through DSTORAGE_COMPRESSION_FORMAT_ZSTD.
- Add support for Game Asset Conditioning Library (GACL). The GACL shuffle transform type can be specified at the request level.
- New enum:
DSTORAGE_GACL_SHUFFLE_TRANSFORM_TYPEin theDSTORAGE_REQUEST_OPTIONSstruct.
- New enum:
Known Issues with Preview Release Notes
- It has been observed in this preview release that larger staging buffer sizes above 256MB may cause unexpected failures on some GPUs. If this occurs, reduce your staging buffer size. We are aware of this issue and are actively working on a fix.
- The Zstd GPU decompression fallback shader is currently in development and may encounter TDRs with certain compressed content on some GPUs.
Source: Microsoft
