The excitement is building as we head into the 2026 Game Developer Conference and the DirectX team has a lot to share. We will be showcasing major updates in asset streaming, GPU tooling, ML-powered real-time graphics on Windows, and shader compilation at GDC. 

If you’re attending GDC, we’d love to see you in person. Below is a quick preview of what we’ll be covering so that you can mark your calendars! 

DirectX State of the Union 2026: DirectStorage and Beyond 

Wednesday, March 11, 11:30 AM – 12:30 PM (Room 3001, West Hall) 

Over the past year, we’ve tackled some of the toughest challenges facing developers on DirectX 12. One major investment is the next chapter in game asset streaming where we’re introducing Zstandard compression support in DirectStorage. Alongside this we’ll release the Game Asset Conditioning Library (GACL) and talk about asset pipelines optimizations that will unlock the full potential of NVMe storage. These innovations reduce I/O latency and enable smoother streaming, paving the way for richer, more responsive worlds. 

In this session we’ll also explore how we’re addressing other critical developer needs, including advancing raytracing features and shader pre-compilation. We’re evolving ML integration in DirectX and we’re delivering tooling improvements that converge our PC and Xbox developer experience. Join us to learn more about how we’re building the future of graphics. 

DirectX: Bringing Console-level GPU Tools to Windows 

Thursday, March 12, 11:30 AM – 12:30 PM (Room 2020, West Hall) 

Join the DirectX team and our GPU hardware partners as we announce new cutting-edge tooling features in DirectX, PIX, and more – all with the goal of helping you make great, reliable, and performant DirectX games on Windows. 

The talk will introduce major new DirectX features to help you with the biggest pain points of PC graphics development today. We will give you unprecedented insight into the ambitious GPU tooling work that is happening across the industry, both today and in the future. We will show the biggest wave of new features to come to PIX on Windows in its 10-year history. And our hardware partners will join us to showcase our joint collaborations – to DirectX, to PIX, and to the wide range of other GPU tools available on Windows today. 

Evolving DirectX for the ML Era on Windows 

Thursday, March 12, 12:45 PM – 1:45 PM (Room 2024, West Hall) 

Machine learning is reshaping graphics, and DirectX is evolving to meet this moment. This session explores how we’re enabling neural rendering on Windows by introducing linear algebra capabilities in HLSL, unlocking dedicated hardware acceleration for AI operations and allowing developers to embed lightweight models directly in shaders. We’ll also look ahead to the challenges of scaling beyond hand-authored shader models and share our vision for how we will eventually allow any developer to integrate entire models into their engines. Join us to learn how these innovations lay the groundwork for the next generation of real-time graphics and what they mean for the future of gaming. 

Advanced Shader Delivery on Windows 

Thursday, March 12, 3:40 PM – 4:40 PM (Room 2011, West Hall) 

Shader compilation has long been a pain point for PC games, causing slow initial loads and disruptive stutter during gameplay. Advanced Shader Delivery introduces a new approach: distributing precompiled shaders through storefronts so players experience faster startup and smoother performance. In this session, we’ll show how developers can leverage state object collection in their engines to automatically gather shader inputs, package them for submission through the Xbox PC app, and ensure updates stay in sync with game patches and driver changes. Come learn how this system streamlines deployment and improves the player experience across the PC ecosystem. 

See you at GDC! 

We’re looking forward to connecting with the community at GDC 2026 and sharing what we’ve been working on.  

If you’re attending, we hope you’ll stop by one (or all!) of our sessions! 

As always, check out our DirectX Discord server to stay in touch.