Microsoft DirectSR has just been made available, providing a single application programming interface (API) for developers to access the upscaling features of AMD FSR, Intel XeSS, and Nvidia DLSS. As a result, more games should be able to implement a wider range of upscaling options in a quicker and easier manner than ever before.
The new Microsoft API will mean that whichever one of the best graphics cards in the world you’re using, there’s a greater chance your favorite game will support resolution upscaling.
It has only been three months since the initial Microsoft DirectSR announcement but Microsoft has already turned around a working version of the technology with it available via the DirectX 12 Agility SDK 1.714.0 preview build. Microsoft took to X/Twitter to announce that the SDK was now available to download and for developers to start implementing into their games.
While it’s exciting to see this collaboration – DirectSR was developed in partnership with AMD, Intel, and Nvidia – it’s worth clarifying just what this does and doesn’t mean for gamers.
DirectSR isn’t a new version of any of the existing upscaling technologies but instead, it provides a universal interface for developers to ‘ask’ the graphics driver to perform upscaling. If you’re using an AMD graphics card, DirectSR will run FSR 2.2 (which it supports natively and is cross-platform anyway), while Intel cards will fire up XeSS, and Nvidia cards will use Nvidia DLSS 2.
The API works by passing on the key data required to activate upscaling then leaves the rest to the driver. This information includes pixel depth and color as well as motion vectors, with the latter used to help inform the upscaling algorithms of how far objects in the scene have moved.
It’s unclear just how long it will take for the first games to use DirectSR to start being available but we suspect it won’t take long for some independent developers to play around with the tech. Perhaps the bigger question will be how many larger developers change tack on current development to implement the feature and just how many will go back and make updates to existing games.
While we wait to find that out, you can read up more on what DLSS and FSR upscaling actually do in our DLSS and FSR guides.