Diablo 4 datamine reveals support for a killer PC gaming feature

Blizzard’s latest game, Diablo 4, might be getting Microsoft’s new DirectStorage feature which can significantly cut down on loading times when playing the game.

With the beta now over for Blizzard’s upcoming action RPG Diablo 4, fans of the game have been doing some serious digging. Just about everything will be sifted and scrutinized while the beta files remain on their systems.

These intrepid dataminers have actually discovered that not only is the previously announced DLSS 3 support in the beta files already, but also DirectStorage.

DirectStorage is Microsoft’s new software that taps into the rest of the PC to assist the NVMe SSD with loading times for games. While it was assumed that it was the cause of poor performance from the PC version of Forspoken, that was soon refuted.

Microsoft and Sony currently employ similar technology on the Xbox Series X, S, and PS5 to better take advantage of the SSD inside the consoles.

While it could yet be updated, the version found in the beta files was 1.0.2, which lags behind the advances that 1.1 brings. DirectStorage 1.1 could allow Diablo much faster loading times by calling on the graphics card to decompress files on the go.

Diablo 4 is the second DirectStorage-supported game

Blizzard

Despite The Witcher 3 getting DirectStorage support later in 2023, Diablo 4 would be the second game to support it on PC. This depends on whether Blizzard plans to implement it, and it isn’t just leftover files from a previous build of the game.

DirectStorage hasn’t been wildly adopted as of yet, with the tech still in its infancy. Once major players like Blizzard hopefully adopt the software, we should start to see loading times come right down across the board.

Diablo 4 launches on June 6, and will be available on all major consoles, except the Nintendo Switch. We’ve covered how to get the game going on the Steam Deck, too.