Microsoft introduces DirectX Raytracing 1.2

Microsoft has introduced an update to DirectX Raytracing 1.2 technology — according to the company, the new API version will significantly improve ray tracing on NVIDIA and AMD GPU.

The main innovations of the update are two technologies — Opacity Micromaps (OMM) and Shader Execution Reordering (SER). OMM should speed up the rendering of various translucent textures such as leaves, fences, and hair. The company claims that the technology can improve performance by up to 2.3 times.

SER optimizes the compilation of shaders and reduces performance losses when rendering complex effects such as realistic reflections. In this case, a twofold increase in performance is claimed.

The test version of DirectX Raytracing 1.2 will be available in April 2025. OMM will be supported on NVIDIA RTX GPU starting from the 20 series, and SER on the 40 and 50 series. Support for features in AMD GPU will be announced later.