Microsoft has been focusing on software solutions for ray tracing for some time. We have already had one of these technologies operational for several years, it is DirectX Raytracing. If you’re curious, I already talked to you about it in 2018. And without a doubt the Xbox Series
We now know that Americans are working in a new solution to improve ray tracing in games and other types of video solutions. From service Google patents
The idea: use the SSD as VRAM memory for ray tracing
The patent is quite dense and describes many points of the technology that Americans want to use on Windows and presumably on Xbox, although it is not known for certain whether this will reach the Xbox Series or future consoles of the American brand.
Ray tracing is resource intensive, using volatile system memory such as RAM, Flash memories, etc. Microsoft’s idea is to take advantage of the new capabilities of the most modern SSD drives and use them as if they were SSDs. a VRAM system ultra-fast with software that accelerates the reading and writing of data on this type of device.
Use inspired by Xbox Velocity Architecture
The Microsoft DXR API should be able to run and be fully functional in conjunction with the Microsoft Direct Read and Write suite, we already know that this suite works well on HDD and SSD.
In one example, the present invention relates to a graphics processing system for retrieving a first level of detail value for a subtree of a level of detail residence map corresponding to a hierarchy of enclosing volumes of objects. The graphics processing system must determine a second level of detail for the subtree. The graphics processing system includes selecting a final level of detail value for the subtree based on a comparison between the value of the first level of detail for the subtree and the value of the second level of detail for the subtree. The graphics processing system, based on the final level of detail value for the subtree, selects child nodes in an acceleration structure tree and plots the selected child nodes.
If your patent finally becomes a reality and technology advances towards that future, it is very likely that we would see a reduction in hardware and better plays executed on smaller teams in a few years. And using part of the SSD is a logical solution that is already used for other types of tasks, and the proof is the Xbox Velocity architecture.
