Microsoft Says Advanced Shader Delivery Cuts Compilation Times by About 95% in Gears of War: E-Day

Microsoft says its Advanced Shader Delivery (ASD) technology cuts shader compilation times by about 95% in Gears of War: E-Day. The game is the first to support ASD across systems powered by AMD, NVIDIA, Intel and Qualcomm, according to Wccftech.

Shader and Pipeline State Object (PSO) compilation can affect modern PC games. Typically, a computer’s CPU compiles many shaders when a game launches for the first time, or compiles them just in time during gameplay. Microsoft’s approach lets precompiled shaders be delivered with the game download instead.

Microsoft is expanding ASD across Windows 11. The technology is designed to reduce the need for shader compilation on the user’s system, and the reported reduction in Gears of War: E-Day is about 95%. The source does not specify the conditions behind that figure.

Wccftech reports that support in the game extends across AMD, NVIDIA, Intel and Qualcomm-powered systems. The available source does not provide further details about supported hardware or the rollout.