Microsoft previews DirectX ray tracing update that cuts memory use by up to 90%

Microsoft has previewed two new DirectX ray tracing features, Clustered Geometry and Partitioned TLAS, which the company's own testing suggests can reduce ray tracing memory load by as much as 90%. The company describes the update as the most significant change to DXR since it debuted in 2018, according to pcgamer.com.

Clustered Geometry splits detailed models into packages of 256 triangles or fewer, while Partitioned TLAS divides a scene into smaller regions so that only the parts that change are updated.

In one Microsoft test running on an AMD Radeon RX 9070, memory use dropped from 7.5 GB to 774 MB, and the frame rate rose from 1.2 fps to 79 fps.

The features are not yet widely available, and Microsoft has not given a release date. Developers can try the experimental features with matching Agility SDK preview headers and runtime, a supporting driver, and Windows Developer Mode.

Earlier work in the same area

Nvidia previously introduced its own RTX Mega Geometry technology, which addresses similar geometry-handling problems in ray tracing.