(Credit: Nvidia)
At GDC 2026 this week, Microsoft, Intel, and Nvidia announced a new method for delivering precompiled shaders as part of game downloads, eliminating the long wait times when gamers first boot up a title. As VideoCardz reports, this Advanced Shader Delivery will also reduce stutter when entering new areas of a game for the first time.
The reason modern games often require a lengthy shader compile the first time you play them is that every gaming PC is different. Microsoft first rolled out Advanced Shader Delivery on the ROG Xbox Ally because it knew what the hardware would be and could pre-package shaders accordingly. It can't do that with every configuration, though.
Microsoft has figured out how to manage it, but it will need support from developers and graphics hardware manufacturers. Fortunately, Intel and Nvidia are already on the case, and we can reportedly expect Intel Lunar Lake and Panther Lake CPUs to support it in the next few months, with Nvidia promising GeForce RTX support before the end of the year.
Intel explains that, "New APIs and tools from Microsoft allow game developers to package a collection of Pipeline State Objects into a State Object Database (SODB). Subsequently, Intel’s offline compiler compiles those SODBs into a Precompiled Shader Database (PSDB)." This should cut down on loading times and in-game stuttering, Intel says.
Intriguingly, AMD isn't mentioned in the announcement, even though the feature was first used on its hardware. The ROG Xbox Ally is built around an AMD APU and features an AMD CPU and GPU. Presumably, that will mean we'll see something similar with AMD desktop and mobile graphics in the future, but there's no word on that just yet.
Elsewhere in the announcement, Microsoft highlighted its new DirectStorage 1.4 capabilities, including Zstandard compression and improved DirectX Machine Learning through Linear Algebra, making it easier to implement LLM features in games. Nvidia and Microsoft have also worked together on standardizing hardware-accelerated AI through DirectX, which should cut down on the extra overhead that can be created when GPUs try to compute AI calculations alongside rendering 3D assets.
Microsoft also debuted its Pix tool, which helps game developers performance-tune and debug their games. Described as "console-level" by Intel, these tools should help PC developers produce more optimized games. Meanwhile, Nvidia has introduced a way for game developers to offer playtesting on GeForce Now to gamers worldwide; no downloads required.