Gaming has always been a cornerstone feature of the Windows platform. Some may even say that the OS was made for gaming. And the legacy continues in Windows 11.
Microsoft is bringing a couple of key gaming features to the new OS, along with a whole lot of games.
The company hyped up these capabilities in a post on the Xbox blog, highlighting how gaming has always been fundamental to Windows, and how the latest version of the operating system brings superior graphics, amazing speed, and an incredible selection of titles.
It all comes down to AutoHDR, DirectStorage, and full Xbox Game Pass integration.
The first of these is a AutoHDR, a feature that was introduced to Windows Insider builds in March of this year. Essentially, it adds high dynamic range (HDR) enhancements to standard dynamic range (SDR) games, so long as it was built using DirectX 11 or higher.
It basically allows the game to render more levels of brightness and adds more colors than it would otherwise, enabling an extra sense of richness and depth to the image.
This is a feature that was first introduced on the Xbox gaming console, but is now coming to PCs.
Another feather that has roots in the latest consoles, in DirectStorage, which leverages the power and performance of NVMe SSDs to shunt assets directly to the GPU, sidestepping any potential CPU bottlenecks that might otherwise occur.
This allows game worlds to be rendered at lightning speeds without long load times.
The final piece of the Windows 11 gaming puzzle is the full integration of the Xbox app being built into the OS, which enables instant access to the Xbox Game Pass library from you PC — as long as you have a subscription, anyway.
With Game Pass Ultimate, you also get access to Xbox Cloud Gaming on your computer via a browser, and this lets almost any Windows 11 PC to be able to play the latest console titles.
Pretty solid stuff overall that makes the new OS the best place to play games.
