In keeping with the official scheduling, Microsoft is on the brink of exhibit its first-party decision upscaler at this 12 months’s Sport Developer Convention in San Francisco. Although that is extra of an trade occasion reasonably than a convention for the patron, the presence of DirectSR is kind of thrilling.

Because the GDC description notes, DirectSR is meant to be an all-in-one decision upscaling answer built-in into Home windows itself. The notion that Microsoft is working by itself AI-based upscaler isn’t new as such, however it’s a little bit of a shock that it’d get proven off in such comparatively brief order. We’ve seen an OS-level decision upscaler make its technique to widespread gaming audiences with Valve’s Steam Deck. Actually, the FSR integration current on the Deck could supply an concept of a few of the potential caveats Microsoft could face with DirectSR, too.

Microsoft Tremendous Decision Upscaler is getting proven off at GDC 2024

Microsoft will exhibit its system-wide DirectSR upscaler on Thursday, March 21. “Microsoft will present a preview into DirectSR,” reads the GDC description, “making it simpler than ever for sport devs to scale tremendous decision help throughout Home windows units.” It’s not a lot to go on, in fact, however it’s mighty attention-grabbing certainly, on condition that DirectSR could possibly sidestep a few of the issues current in FSR 1.0 integration on the Steam Deck.

Notably, despite the fact that you’ll be able to upscale any sport you need on the Steam Deck, the gadget is doing so utilizing no AI-based tips. FSR 1.0 doesn’t have any temporal ingredient (i.e. movement vectors), which massively limits upscaling performance and delivers a comparatively muddy and low-quality image. That is the most important situation with the OS-wide function integration on the Steam Deck, and it limits the efficiency uplift and picture high quality that one can anticipate from utilizing it. Nvidia’s DLSS, as compared, wants devoted Tensor cores for its upscaling to carry out, but it surely delivers each superior picture high quality and efficiency, in return.

Since Microsoft’s DirectSR appears to be leveraging AI to some extent, the apparent expectation is that it’s going to be higher than something FSR might do on a system degree. On the flip facet, there’s the matter of it working throughout the board on all relevant {hardware}: it’s troublesome to think about it might be fairly as performant as DLSS, which wants Tensor cores to do its job.

Additional, there could also be some discrepancy between DirectSR and the leaked Auto SR function; the connection between the 2 options is presently unclear, at greatest. Regardless of the case could also be, Microsoft’s GDC discuss must be attention-grabbing, and should afford us a have a look at what Microsoft plans to do with the function in the long term.