AMD’s neural texture compression may scale back storage and VRAM necessities
One thing to look ahead to: Excessive-resolution textures are a major issue behind the rising set up sizes and VRAM utilization in fashionable blockbuster video games. Nvidia proposed a neural-network-based methodology to enhance texture compression final 12 months, and AMD has introduced what seems to be a concurrent methodology based mostly on comparable know-how. Workforce Pink will reveal extra subsequent month at EGSR.
AMD is ready to current a brand new texture compression system to scale back gaming information utilization at this 12 months’s Eurographics Symposium on Rendering in London. Though the strategy makes use of neural know-how like rival Nvidia’s, the necessities for builders to make the most of such strategies stay unclear.
With out going into element, AMD known as its answer “Neural Texture Block Compression”, confirming that it’s designed to scale back obtain sizes by compressing textures by neural networks. Moreover, the corporate promised that integrating the know-how into video games might be straightforward as a result of it does not alter runtime execution.
We’ll current “Neural Texture Block Compression” @ #EGSR2024 in London.
No one likes downloading large recreation packages. Our methodology compresses the feel utilizing a neural community, lowering information measurement.
Unchanged runtime execution permits straightforward recreation integration. https://t.co/gvj1D8bfBf pic.twitter.com/XglpPkdI8D
– AMD GPUOpen (@GPUOpen) June 25, 2024
It is not clear whether or not neural compression can work on the driver stage, which may assist it instantly help a variety of titles, or if builders should implement it on a per-game foundation. A analysis paper from Nvidia described comparable know-how final 12 months, but it surely has but to seem in video games, presumably as a consequence of prolonged growth durations or challenges with the compression methodology.
Known as Neural Texture Compression (NTC), Nvidia’s system employs a number of neural networks optimized for varied in-game materials sorts. The corporate’s analysis paper exhibits that, in comparison with typical block compression strategies, NTC achieves increased picture high quality at decrease file sizes.
Additionally learn: Why Are Trendy PC Video games Utilizing So A lot VRAM?
Nevertheless, utilizing NTC does require builders to change their workflows and may not help fashionable antialiasing and texture filtering strategies like DLSS and anisotropic filtering. AMD’s methodology is probably going aiming for the same outcome, and the corporate plans to disclose extra info throughout its ESGR presentation on July 2.
New leaps in texture compression may assist many customers with gradual web speeds, smaller SSDs, or graphics playing cards with solely 8 GB of VRAM. Right this moment’s high-resolution textures have helped push set up sizes to nicely above 100 GB for AAA video games like Name of Responsibility, Baldur’s Gate 3, or Future 2. The textures may also choke VRAM, resulting in stutters and degraded efficiency, particularly since a number of the most generally used PC graphics playing cards characteristic solely 8 GB of reminiscence.
