We are pleased to announce both a retail and preview Agility SDK release with several new features, available on Agility SDK Downloads today! As usual, the features in this release come with Day One PIX support. Please read the PIX blog post for more information.

Agility SDK 1.717-preview features

• Cooperative Vectors unlocks powerful new hardware acceleration for vector and matrix operations, making it easier for developers to integrate neural rendering techniques directly into real-time graphics pipelines with greater efficiency and performance. To learn more, check out our full blog post!
• Shader Execution Reordering (SER) is a new feature in DirectX Raytracing that allows applications to inform the driver how to reorder GPU threads for improved execution coherence and performance. By reducing divergence and improving parallelism, SER supported hardware can deliver a boost in performance up to 2x faster in path traced games. Learn more about SER in our full blog post or watch the GDC DirectX State of the Union Recording.
• Direct3D Video Encoding Updates include the following features:
  • HEVC Reference List extension to support complex long-term reference (LTR) scenarios
  • Two-pass encode with lower resolution 1st pass
  • Adding Peak Signal to Noise Ratio (PSNR) to the encoded frame output stats

Check out the full spec at D3D12 Video Encoding | DirectX-Specs.

Agility SDK 1.616-retail features

• Opacity Micromaps (OMMs) is a new feature in DirectX Raytracing that takes advantage of hardware accelerated alpha testing during raytracing workloads. This reduced— and in some cases eliminates— AnyHit shader invocations, which boosts efficiency without sacrificing visual quality. In path traced games, OMMs can deliver performance improvements up to 2.3x faster by allowing supported hardware to more intelligently process complex transparency. Learn more about OMMs in our full blog post or watch the GDC DirectX State of the Union Recording.
• D3D12 Tiled Resource Tier 4 introduces support for creating tiled texture arrays with a full mip chain— removing a long-standing limitation that blocked packed mips in arrayed tiled resources. This unlocks more efficient texture streaming and greater layout flexibility for developers. See the full spec at Tiled Resource Tier 4. This release includes the following driver support:
  • AMD: AMD driver support for Tiled Resource Tier 4 will be made available in early June 2025.
  • Intel: Intel support for Tiled Resource Tier 4 is now available with the driver here.
  • NVIDIA: NVIDIA will fully support this SDK release, please contact your developer relations representative for specifics.