DXR 1.2 aims to boost ray tracing in games DXR 1.2 aims to boost ray tracing in games

Microsoft will release DXR 1.2 for developers in April 2025, standardizing new features to enhance speed at two stages in the graphics pipeline.

Microsoft is releasing a new version of “DirectX Raytracing.” The company announced this at the Game Developer Conference 2025 (GDC) in San Francisco. This DXR will remain part of DirectX 12 and will be available as a preview in development kits starting in April. The company has not yet announced when it will be released as a Windows update, as was the case with DXR 1.0 in fall 2018 and DXR 1.1 two years later.

Since ray tracing in Windows games can still significantly reduce frame rates compared to pure rasterization methods, Microsoft has implemented two features designed to mitigate this. First, “Shader Execution Reordering” (SER) , introduced with Nvidia’s RTX 4000 generation, will become part of DXR. Developers can let the driver determine the order in which shader threads are passed to the GPU. This should resolve dependencies and increase execution efficiency.

OMM aims to remove the brake on transparency

Additionally, a second feature invented by Nvidia will be part of DXR: ” Opacity Micro-Maps ” (OMM). This is additional data provided for complex objects such as vegetation after their transparency has been tested in the render pipeline (alpha testing). When ray tracing then encounters these objects, processing is faster. Thanks to OMM, even textures with transparency, such as meshes, should barely slow down ray tracing.

With this step alone, Microsoft expects a performance increase of 2.3 times for path tracing, which can be enabled in Cyberpunk 2077, for example. Microsoft cites this figure in 
a blog post about DXR 1.2 . This is likely a best-case scenario, as such optimizations are highly dependent on the specific scene. In addition to SER and OMM, as Microsoft explains in the same post, there are several updates to tools such as the “PIX” debugger and profiler for DirectX.

Four GPU manufacturers support DXR 1.2

The remarkable aspect of DXR 1.2 is that all four major providers of ray tracing GPUs for gaming—AMD, Intel, Nvidia, and Qualcomm—now support both SER and OMM. These features are no longer exclusive to Nvidia and can be accessed through DirectX using a unified interface. Hardware support is apparently not yet available everywhere. In a presentation slide published by Microsoft, Intel states that it will support SER soon, but OMM only with future GPUs. Qualcomm refers to upcoming GPUs for both SER and OMM; AMD is not cited there.

“Performance improvements by a factor of 2.3”: Microsoft introduces DirectX Raytracing 1.2

Microsoft showed the next DXR version at GDC 2025: DirectX Raytracing 1.2 adds two new technologies that promise the “next step in ray tracing.”

At the Game Developers Conference 2025 (GDC), Microsoft announced the unveiling of DirectX Raytracing (DXR) 1.2, marking the latest advancement in its ongoing development over the years. Essentially, DXR 1.2 introduces two new technologies: “Opacity Micromaps” (OMM) and “Shader Execution Reordering” (SER). Nvidia has already promised driver support, which, according to Videocardz,This probably applies from the RTX 20 series onwards. At least in the context of SER, this is no surprise, as the GeForce manufacturer has had the technology in its portfolio since Cyberpunk 2077.Microsoft also says it is working with AMD, Intel, and Qualcomm to ensure broad support.

According to the announcement, Opacity Micromaps are used to optimize alpha-tested geometry. This technique improves the management of transparency data for complex objects such as leaves or meshes. Microsoft states that OMM can enable performance improvements of up to a factor of 2.3 in path-tracing games. Shader Execution Reordering, on the other hand, aims to increase GPU efficiency by regrouping shader execution. According to Microsoft, SER can lead to a doubling of the frame rate in certain, unspecified scenarios.

To demonstrate these technologies, Remedy Entertainment collaborated with Microsoft to develop an Alan Wake 2 demo. They showcased it at GDC 2025, but it is not yet available to the public. According to the developers, these advancements improved performance by up to 40 percent in complex scenes. It won’t be long before we can see this for ourselves: Microsoft is talking about DXR 1.2 previews for next April. However, it will likely be several months before we actually see the first games with DirectX Raytracing 1.2.

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DirectX Raytracing 1.2 and Neural Rendering promises better graphics

At GDC 2025, Microsoft introduced DirectX Raytracing (DXR) 1.2. This major upgrade significantly increases ray tracing performance and realism in Windows-based games. This should improve both the level of detail and performance in games.

DXR 1.2 with performance improvements

Two new features are central to the DXR 1.2 update: Opacity Micromaps (OMM) and Shader Execution Reordering (SER). Opacity Micromaps optimize the rendering of alpha-checked geometries, significantly increasing efficiency and potentially increasing path-tracing rendering speed by up to 2.3x. Shader Execution Reordering intelligently optimizes the shader execution order, delivering up to twice the rendering performance in certain scenarios. This innovation reduces GPU workload divergence, resulting in smoother frame rates and significantly more immersive ray-traced gaming experiences.

Hardware manufacturers such as NVIDIA, AMD, Intel, Qualcomm, and game studios such as Remedy are actively collaborating with Microsoft, underscoring the importance and rapid adoption of DXR 1.2. NVIDIA has already confirmed comprehensive support for DXR 1.2 in the upcoming GeForce RTX drivers.

Updates for the PIX Developer Tools

Microsoft’s graphics debugging and profiling tool PIX supports DXR 1.2 from the start. In April 2025, Microsoft will release the PIX API Preview, providing developers with new features for programmatic access to PIX’s powerful profiling data in popular languages such as C++, C#, and Python.

PIX will also introduce advanced custom visualizers that enable deeper analysis and understanding of graphics assets such as textures, meshes, and buffers. Microsoft will introduce a fundamental overhaul of the PIX user interface with a customizable, Visual Studio-inspired layout system to improve usability and efficiency, launching it simultaneously with the API preview.

Cooperative vectors for real-time neural rendering

Microsoft also introduced “cooperative vectors,” a new feature in Shader Model 6.9 optimized for neural rendering workflows. This new hardware-accelerated technology significantly improves vector and matrix operations, making neural rendering feasible in real-time graphics pipelines.

Intel has demonstrated the effectiveness of cooperative vectors with Neural Block Texture Compression. Achieving a tenfold increase in inference performance and a dramatic reduction in memory consumption without visual impact. Additionally, real-time path tracing can now benefit from neural supersampling. And advanced noise reduction techniques, combining cutting-edge graphics methods for stunning realism.

NVIDIA announced compatibility of the Neural Shading SDK with DirectX. And cooperative vectors, allowing developers to efficiently incorporate advanced neural rendering approaches into games, significantly increasing realism without compromising performance.

We still need to see how the update actually affects performance in games.

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The birth of Microsoft: Bill Gates celebrates 50 years of computer code

Bill Gates (69) looks back on a moment that changed the world! Fifty years ago, the Microsoft founder wrote a piece of computer code that ushered in a new era in technology. This code laid the foundation for the founding of Microsoft in April 1975.

In a blog post, Gates recalls the exciting beginnings with his high school friend Paul Allen. Inspired by an article in Popular Electronics magazine about the Altair 8800, an early minicomputer, the two decided to found the world’s first software factory.

Bill Gates wrote the computer code without the Altair computer

Although Gates and Allen (who died in 2018) hadn’t yet written a single line of code, they promised the CEO of a computer company that they would develop software that could control the Altair. Without owning the Altair computer , the two nerds spent two months working on the code, virtually flying blind.

“This code remains the coolest I’ve ever written,” Gates exults in his blog. Attentive BILD readers explain that Gates and his colleagues developed a dialect of the computer language BASIC for the Altair.

Bill Gates celebrates three milestone birthdays this year

In April, we’ll celebrate the 50th anniversary of Gates’ legendary code. The Gates Foundation will also celebrate its 25th anniversary . Finally, October marks the Microsoft founder’s 70th birthday.

But things haven’t always been smooth sailing for Gates. In his recently published memoirs, he writes that he often felt misunderstood as a child. Gates is idolized by some, viewed with disdain by others. Critics see Microsoft as a data octopus with monopoly power. In fact, the company currently has a market capitalization of a staggering $3 trillion.

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Sources used:

• With material from the News agencies  Microsoft, Reuters news agency, BBC News and CNN reports. The content has been independently analyzed and rewritten to provide original insights.

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