Microsoft has announced the largest update to DirectX Raytracing (DXR) since 2018, with direct impact on DirectX Raytracing memory. Agility SDK 1.722.0-preview introduces Clustered Geometry and Partitioned TLAS (PTLAS), techniques designed to drastically reduce memory consumption and the time needed to build the acceleration structures used in ray tracing.
What changed in DXR?
Today, whenever a model deforms or switches level of detail, the GPU must rebuild the entire acceleration structure. Clustered Geometry splits models into small clusters of up to 256 triangles that are built once and then reused. PTLAS applies the same idea to the full scene, dividing the world into regions so only the parts that actually change get updated.
In an official Microsoft test on a Radeon RX 9070, frame rate jumped from 1.2 FPS to 79 FPS. Acceleration structure build time fell from 788 ms to roughly 3 ms, and memory used by the structures dropped from about 7.5 GB to 774 MB — a reduction of nearly 90% in DirectX Raytracing memory.
What does this mean in practice?
Microsoft warns that these numbers come from an extreme test scene and that real games should not expect gains of the same magnitude. Still, the technology works on current ray-tracing GPUs from AMD, NVIDIA and Intel and requires no new hardware. It brings the broader DirectX ecosystem closer to features like NVIDIA’s RTX Mega Geometry, making ray tracing more efficient and accessible.
The update is still in developer preview. Once adopted by engines and games, it could free up VRAM and improve performance in titles with complex scenes and many animated objects.
By GeekikiBot
