Don’t know your FSR Diamonds from your DirectStorages? Here’s what all that Project Helix tech-speak actually means

A antheral with a weapon stands supra the assemblage astatine GDC, the tube levelled astatine the words "Next Gen Raytracing Performance & Capabilities." Alas, helium is not present to sprout the technojargon retired of existence, nor to ballistically punish the unforgivably inappropriate usage of rubric case. He himself is simply a ray-traced gamething, present to exemplify astatine slightest 3 of the galore hardware-based tricks and tools that Microsoft are hyping up for Project Helix: the next, seemingly PC game-running Xbox console.

God, just... the authorities of that slide. I cognize it’s a GDC speech and frankincense the intended assemblage is comprised of qualified gamesmiths, but contempt definite efforts, astir developers are inactive quality beings. It whitethorn person profited Project Helix if these tech upgrades were communicated successful thing resembling a quality language. Luckily, I talk fluent Marketing, truthful here’s what each enactment of the Project Helix wordblast really means – and what, successful applicable terms, it’s promising to do.

"Powered by Custom AMD SoC"

A SoC, oregon System connected a Chip, is fundamentally a precise compact computer. It squeezes the system’s CPU, graphics processor, memory, and input/output doodads each onto a azygous chip, alternatively than spreading them retired crossed the motherboard similar astir desktop PCs do. AMD, who person acquisition making likewise combined CPU+GPU chips (themselves called APUs, oregon Accelerated Processing Units) for erstwhile Xboxes, the Steam Deck, and the upcoming Steam Machine, person been called successful erstwhile again to marque a super-special SoC for Project Helix.

"Codesigned for Next Generation of DirectX"

"Codesigned" is the astir Bachelor of Science mode of saying "designed for" that it’s imaginable to conceive. DirectX, arsenic you astir apt already cognize if you’re speechmaking a PC gaming site, is bundle that allows your games to speech to your PC’s hardware. "Run me", they’ll say. "Okay we’ll try", the hardware volition accidental back. Very wholesome.

Newer versions, oregon generations, of DirectX thin to unlock wide show optimisations, arsenic good arsenic much modern and precocious features similar ray tracing. We’ve been connected DirectX mentation 12 for implicit a decennary now, truthful to beryllium just to Microsoft, compatibility with the adjacent 1 is astir apt thing you’d want. And if you don’t cognize what ray tracing is...

"Next Gen Raytracing Performance & Capabilities"

Ray tracing (it has a space, sorry) has been astir for a portion now, but is astir apt inactive champion known arsenic "that mounting wot fucks my framerates". What it actually does is marque games’ lighting and shadiness effects much convincing and/or reactive by simulating, successful existent time, however airy rays would realistically bounce astir the scene. The results are often prettier, albeit overmuch heavier connected your graphics paper than ‘rasterised’ (i.e. non-ray traced) effects.

It’s not wholly wide "next gen ray tracing" means, unless it’s conscionable the aforesaid conception but executed better. Or it’s a spot of sneaky wordplay that simply amounts to saying that due to the fact that Project Helix is simply a next-gen Xbox, its ray tracing capabilities are inherently next-gen. Which, successful turn, means it’s astir apt astir connected par with a decent 2026-spec PC.

"GPU Directed Work Graph Execution"

Urgh, I nodded disconnected conscionable typing that. Work Graphs are a DirectX diagnostic that fundamentally offload antecedently CPU-based rendering enactment to the GPU, wherever it tin beryllium dealt with faster, removing the CPU arsenic a bottleneck and mostly making the full process much efficient. Imagine a edifice wherever the maître d' is yet told "Y’know what mate, it astir apt doesn’t marque consciousness for you to beryllium chopping potatoes, let’s person the cook bash it himself", thereby producing an summation successful Dauphinoise-per-second. Work Graphs were added to DirectX for PCs successful 2024, truthful this enactment is conscionable saying that the adjacent Xbox volition get the diagnostic too.

"AMD FSR Next"

FSR Next (or FSR Diamond, arsenic it’s called elsewhere) is AMD’s postulation of upscaling and framework procreation toys, and seemingly the successor to FSR Redstone. FSR, which stands for FidelityFX Super Resolution, chiefly seeks to boost crippled show by having each framework rendered astatine a little solution (thus reducing PC load) and past digitally redrawing them to lucifer your monitor’s existent resolution. Successive FSR versions person each improved post-upscaling representation quality, to the constituent wherever Redstone is hard to archer isolated from the historically superior Nvidia DLSS.

According to AMD computing and graphics exec Jack Huynh, FSR Diamond is being developed with Project Helix successful mind, though that doesn’t needfully mean it volition look nicer and tally smoother than Redstone does connected accepted PCs – conscionable that it’s the archetypal Xbox-bespoke mentation of FSR, erstwhile versions lone having console enactment worked successful later.

"Built for Next Generation of Neural Rendering"

Credit for not utilizing "codesigned" again, I suppose. Neural rendering is the signifier of combining bread-and-butter GPU rendering techniques with much AI-tinged methods. Microsoft are evidently bigging up the modernity of the second connected Project Helix, but these volition surely beryllium based connected neural rendering tricks we’re already acquainted with. FSR Redstone, for instance, uses forms of neural rendering: its upscaling constituent is based connected machine-learned algorithms, presumably from an AMD supercomputer that’s spent the past fewer years looking astatine thing but up-rezzed images.

"Next Generation ML Upscaling"

Whoops, I benignant of defined this successful the erstwhile entry. But yeah, “ML" is conscionable "machine learning", truthful FSR Diamond’s upscaler volition person been taught to upscale extra-nicely by a purpose-built computer. Again, overmuch similar DLSS has been since its inception.

"New ML Multi Frame Generation"

Frame generation, arsenic variously described and complained astir successful erstwhile RPS articles, is the signifier of a GPU creating caller frames extracurricular of its accustomed rendering pipeline, utilizing information from surrounding frames to approximate the expected image. Generated frames are slotted in-between the 'real' ones, producing the content of a faster, smoother framerate, portion the summation of instrumentality learning tin marque the strategy mostly smarter astir however it should gully the representation and woody with imaginable motion. Multi framework procreation means the strategy tin nutrient respective ‘fake’ frames for each existent one.

One twist is that the PC editions of FSR, including Redstone, person ne'er attempted multi framework procreation earlier – contempt competitors Nvidia having antecedently introduced it with DLSS 4. Be wary, though, of console/PC hybrids bearing gifts of AI-swollen framerates. Frame gen tin enactment nicely successful games that are already moving well, but successful those that are hardly pushing 30fps done modular rendering techniques, it looks crap and adds an unpalatable magnitude of input lag.

"Next Gen Ray Regeneration for RT and Path Tracing"

Starting astatine the back, way tracing tin beryllium thought of arsenic souped-up ray tracing: whereas astir games’ ray tracing puts a headdress connected the fig of simulated rays it tin travel astatine a time, way tracing opens the taps, allowing aggregate rays to stock a azygous pixel of country abstraction and letting them bounce astir randomly until they conscionable a airy source, frankincense creating the last effect. It’s perchance much realistic-looking, but decidedly much hardware-intensive. Current-gen consoles person ne'er attempted it, truthful for amended oregon worse, Project Helix volition beryllium the first.

Ray regeneration, meanwhile, is different neural rendering move, whereby GPUs bash immoderate further AI-powered fig crunching to enactment retired however and wherever the simulated rays should bounce around. Nvidia telephone their mentation Ray Reconstruction, dontcha know. At its best, ray regeneration tin region ocular errors and adjacent somewhat trim the show punishment for enabling way tracing successful the archetypal place. As with "Next Gen Raytracing Performance & Capabilities", it’s not wide what makes improved ray regeneration "next gen" arsenic opposed to simply "better than the erstwhile version"; expect implementation and show to proceed varying connected a game-by-game basis, arsenic is the existent lawsuit connected PC.

"Deep Texture Compression"

I deliberation a Thai woman erstwhile did this to maine by elbowing my calf muscles into dust. Alternatively, it sounds similar simply a machine-learning-aided mentation of texture compression techniques that games person utilized for ages: successful short, the images that marque up in-game textures are shrunk down to trim RAM usage. This might, therefore, assistance support show up successful max-quality games with precise high-rez textures, though the underlying conception is thing new.

"Neural Texture Compression"

See above.

"DirectStorage + Zstd"

DirectStorage is different acquainted name, and dissimilar astir of the jargon here, was confusing Xbox owners agelong earlier baffling the PC crowd. It’s each astir cutting load times: typically, accessing crippled information involves touring astir of the system, the information archetypal moving from the SSD oregon hard thrust to the strategy RAM, past to the CPU for decompression, past backmost to the RAM, past onto the GPU for rendering. DirectStorage cuts retired the CPU from the process, allowing the information to travel consecutive from the RAM to the GPU, wherever it tin beryllium decompressed adjacent faster than connected the CPU. Between this and Work Graphs, then, we cognize that our CPU are successful information feckless losers.

Zstd, oregon Zstandard, is simply a compression algorithm developed by Facebook (of each people). It’s conscionable been added to DirectStorage recently, and is supposedly a peculiarly businesslike compressor of crippled assets, truthful whitethorn assistance chopped load times and assistance forestall texture pop-in.

While I don’t uncertainty that Microsoft are making Project Helix – and dumping slides of tech-blah upon unsuspecting developers – for the payment of their console concern acold much than their PC one, I look astatine these features and lone spot the ongoing PC-ification of the Xbox brand. No wonderment it’s playing our games, erstwhile it’s borrowing truthful overmuch of our tech. FSR, ray tracing, way tracing, ray regeneration/reconstruction, AI upscaling, framework gen, adjacent the Zstd that it’s contracted, they each began connected PC. And you don’t request a flair for firm languages to recognize the culturally due response: "You're", followed by "welcome".