As part of the upcoming game developer conference GDC 2024, which officially starts on March 23, Microsoft will introduce a new scaling technology called DirectSR or Direct Super Resolution.
Image Source: VideoCardz
Details about the new technology remain unknown, but it is assumed that DirectSR will become a universal software image scaling technology for video cards, implemented at the level of the Windows operating system and working with the support of graphics cores. Microsoft will explain which graphics cores exactly in March.
It is likely that the main goal of DirectSR technology is to provide universal compatibility with the latest GPU architectures, which already support native Intel XeSS, AMD FSR and NVIDIA DLSS scaling technologies. Examples of the same AMD FSR and Intel XeSS show that such technologies are not necessarily tied to video cards of certain vendors, and can work on equipment from third-party developers, although their effectiveness may vary greatly.
Currently, game developers have to add each upscaling technology to their games separately. Microsoft, for its part, can present a technology that will be supported by all modern GPU architectures simultaneously and which will be much easier to implement in games.
Microsoft presentation is scheduled for March 21. Representatives of AMD and NVIDIA will take part in it together with Microsoft. Recently, leaks also revealed that Microsoft is working on introducing a new scaling feature in Windows 11 called Auto SR.
It is currently unclear whether Auto SR is somehow related to DirectSR. However, from the available description it follows that it uses AI algorithms to operate.