Microsoft’s DirectSR, from the DirectX team, is a tool developed in partnership with AMD, Intel, and NVIDIA to help game developers integrate all of the various upscaling methods into their games.
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With support for AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution (FSR), Intel XeSS, and NVIDIA DLSS Super Resolution, the technology breaks upscaling down to a standard set of inputs and outputs that can then be called upon by DLSS, FSR, and XeSS. Upscaling works, generally speaking, by using frame information broken down into pixels and motion vector data for moving objects to create a higher-resolution image.
Upscaling methods employ different algorithms and tech to achieve the same result – an impressive AI model on the NVIDIA DLSS side and an open-source algorithm on the AMD FSR side – but the inputs are the same.
With DirectSR available for developers in Preview, Microsoft has announced that it has updated the tool to support AMD FSR 3.1. With improved image quality, less ghosting, and fewer artifacts, FSR 3.1 is a welcome update, so it’s great to see DirectSR updated to include the latest version of AMD’s upscaling tech.
A PC game is expected to have at least one or more upscaling options in 2024. It’s a tool most gamers use to significantly boost in-game performance without dramatically reducing image quality. In the case of NVIDIA DLSS, it’s played a significant role in bringing real-time ray-tracing and path tracing to several PC games, something that otherwise wouldn’t be possible (or, more accurately, playable).