Microsoft Expands Advanced Shader Delivery to All Xbox PC Game Developers

Microsoft has opened up Advanced Shader Delivery (ASD) to all developers building Xbox PC games with DirectX 12. On September 15, 2026, Microsoft introduced a self-service system that lets developers submit their own ASD data, which is aimed at shortening the wait for shader preparation.

The feature allows game developers to precompile shaders and deliver them alongside the game, reducing the time it takes for the player's PC to compile shaders during gameplay. However, this benefit may not be consistent across all situations, as the success of ASD depends on how thoroughly developers collect the rendering workloads the game needs and whether they keep that data updated with each game version.

Microsoft had been expanding ASD's availability in stages, starting from a limited preview at GDC in March. In its June 11 update, ASD reached general availability for all AMD RDNA generations in the Xbox PC app. The system now supports dozens of titles and is growing both in supported titles and hardware.

The process of enabling ASD has changed, with developers no longer needing to rely on a limited set of titles or a trial program. Instead, they can build ASD into their own update pipelines.