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Advanced Shader Delivery, a Microsoft-authored service which distributes compiled shaders from the cloud - to prevent shader compilation stutter and speed up first-boot shader burns - is coming to more GPUs. DirectX Program Manager Wendy Ho announced the news in a Microsoft blog, promising that ASD will soon support "additional Windows devices powered by Intel, Nvidia and Qualcomm."
That's huge news, as ASD has just seen a major PC release in Gears of War: E-Day, while currently only supporting recent AMD Radeon GPUs like the RX 9000 series. Once the support rolls out later in October, owners of Intel and Nvidia will also be able to enjoy the game without what my colleague John told me in an upcoming DF Direct podcast was "one of the longest shader compilation steps" he'd ever witnessed.
The blog goes on to say that ASD reduces shader compilation at launch to "just a few seconds", compared to "several minutes". All in, Microsoft say the technology reduces the burn time by 95 percent.
Advanced Shader Delivery needs to be implemented by game developers to work, so it will probably take some time for the majority of games to support it - if they ever do. The next game slated to receive support is Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4, which is released on 23rd October.
What do you make of the news? Let me know in the comments below.