Gears of War E-Day First Game with Microsofts Advanced Shader Delivery

Microsoft has announced that Gears of War: E-Day will be the first game to support Advanced Shader Delivery (ASD) across its expanded range of Windows hardware. This feature precompiles shaders and includes them with the game download, eliminating the need for the player's processor to build them on first launch. Currently, ASD supports AMD and Qualcomm GPUs, with Intel and Nvidia support expected later this month.

The feature, which Microsoft claims reduces shader compilation time by approximately 95%, aims to address long first-launch wait times and shader-related stutter. AMD's RDNA architectures and Qualcomm's Snapdragon X2 Series are supported today, while Intel's Arc B570, B580, and Core Ultra Series, along with Nvidia's RTX GPUs, will receive support later this month.

Players are instructed to install the Xbox PC app to experience ASD for Gears of War: E-Day. The game is set to launch on October 6, with early access beginning on October 1. TechPowerUp's pre-release testing showed shader compilation taking about 20 minutes on the MSI Claw 8 handheld, highlighting the need for ASD. Microsoft has also named Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 as the next title to receive this feature.