GPU Decompression is here!

As my previous poll on "Quality vs. Size" suggested, implementation of DirectStorage with GPU decompression for Texture++ was being worked on and it's nearly complete. I’ve made a video (roughly one and a half minutes) to explain how it works at a high level. Hope you enjoy it!

https://youtu.be/F-CoYSToIHo

While GDeflate is an open standard for compressing data streams, there is no public standard for how it's applied to specific game assets like textures and up to the developer to decide. While great for performance, the drawback of custom GDDS format is the custom build of 3DMigoto is required to load these new textures because the standard version does not support DirectStorage.

This new implementation directly corresponds to the routes you voted on:

• The "Quality" route is achieved with lossless GDDS (GDeflate without block compression), as shown in the first half of the video.

• The "Size" route uses block-compressed GDDS, which is what Texture++ already use for standard DDS, but now compressed using GDeflate.

It's important to note that a lossless GDDS file might be larger or smaller than a block-compressed DDS file depending on the specific texture. Also, keep in mind that while block compression saves VRAM, GDeflate compression does not; its primary benefit is reducing storage size and speeding up load times.

Test It Yourself

I've updated the custom 3DMigoto build to support GDDS and have uploaded the exact textures from the demo video to OneDrive for you to experiment with.

OneDrive Link

The "BlockCompressedDDS" textures for Amber in the folder should be identical to those already present in the current Texture++ mod. Feel free to test and benchmark them yourself! Please note that performance will vary based on your hareware. For the best results, it's highly recommended to keep Texture++ on your fastest available SSD.

For control, the demo tested loading Amber's textures. While DirectStorage excels at loading large number of textures in the open-world, it's very difficult to consistently control texture loading for repeatable results in such settings. So it's not demoed in the video.

Release Plan & What's Next

I am planning to update both the Finale and Finale 4K variants to use the new GDDS format with block-compression. The updated Finale variant should be less than 30GB, and Finale 4K should be under 80GB. The other variants will remain on the standard DDS format for compatibility with standard 3DMigoto.

The update will be released over the weekend. Texture++ in Lossless GDDS format still need further testing and may come at a later date.

Thank you again for your incredible support and for being a part of this journey.