Microsoft has announced Advanced Shader Delivery, a cloud-based system meant to dramatically cut first-time game load times by moving shader compilation off the player device. The feature will debut on the ROG Xbox Ally and ROG Xbox Ally X and will be distributed through the Xbox PC app. In testing with Obsidian Entertainment's Avowed, Microsoft says launch times dropped by as much as 85%, and devices spent less battery and CPU time compiling shaders. The company packages shader data into a State Object Database, or SODB, then uses cloud-based compilation to turn that data into a Precompiled Shader Database, or PSDB, which can be shipped alongside the game so a title finds ready-to-use shaders on first run.

Under the new workflow, the Xbox PC app detects a user's hardware and driver configuration and downloads the matching PSDB so the game can skip the lengthy compile step. If a system is unusual or running beta drivers, the device can still compile shaders locally. Microsoft will also refresh cached shader packages when drivers update. An AgilitySDK arriving in September will give developers and storefronts tools and APIs to adopt the format more widely. For now, the initial rollout requires no additional work from studios, and Microsoft plans to expand device and game support as the feature matures.