Microsoft officially launched a preview of DirectSR today. Built in collaboration with AMD, Intel, and Nvidia, the new API aims to seamlessly integrate DLSS, FSR, and XeSS into DirectX 12 titles with just a single code path, increasing the accessibility and ease with which developers can integrate all three upscalers into their games. DirectSR is available now through Microsoft’s Agility SDK 1.714.0 preview release featuring built-in FSR 2.2 support. DirectSR support for DLSS and XeSS can be accessed through Intel’s and Nvidia’s latest drivers.
DirectSR is Microsoft’s version of Nvidia’s Streamline SDK, which also supports third-party upscaling solutions on top of DLSS. Microsoft’s new API enables multi-vendor upscaling through a common set of inputs and outputs, unifying AMD’s, Intel’s, and Nvidia’s upscaling solutions under one interface.
This unification reduces the amount of work developers need to do to integrate DLSS, FSR, and XeSS into their games. In the past, each upscaling solution had to be implemented manually with separate SDKs — except for game engines with upscale-specific plug-ins, such as Unreal Engine 5. With DirectSR, all three upscalers can be implemented in one fell swoop.
Technically, DirectSR’s functionality is already present in Nvidia’s Streamline SDK, which has been out for two years, but has yet to be widely adopted for integrating anything other than DLSS. DirectSR has a much higher potential to gain traction with developers, as it’s rooted in the DirectX 12 pipeline.
Because DirectSR is technically an alternative installation method of integrating DLSS, XeSS, and FSR, Microsoft’s new API needs to be supported at the graphics driver level for hardware-specific upscaling solutions. This means that existing graphics drivers for, say, DLSS and Intel’s XMX-compatible version of XeSS will not be compatible with DirectSR, and users will need to upgrade to a GPU driver version that is compatible with the new API.
Microsoft says that DirectSR will have built-in support for GPU-agnostic upscaling variants, which apparently will not require GPU driver updates. For the latest preview of DirectSR, Microsoft has added built-in support for FSR 2.2 only. However, we expect Microsoft to add built-in support for Intel’s DP4a, the GPU-agnostic version of XeSS, in a future update (probably the full-release version).
It’s great to see developers getting treated to easier accessibility and more streamlined integration for all three upscaling solutions. DirectSR will inevitably contribute to the increasing adoption of upscaling solutions in modern video games, particularly in DirectX 12 titles. We expect DirectSR support to be integrated into both new/upcoming games and existing titles. However, we don’t expect to see widespread adoption of DirectSR until the API is fully released. It’s a shame Vulkan doesn’t have a DirectSR counterpart (yet), but at least Nvidia’s Streamline SDK can still technically fill that void.
