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Advanced Shader Delivery (ASD) is a Windows 11 Direct3D 12 technology that helps games load faster. Gaming on Windows has evolved in many directions, including high-level shaders. As graphics continue to improve, so does the number of shaders a game compiles — and how those shaders are loaded during startup and gameplay needs to evolve with them. Compiling shaders on the player’s device at launch, or “just-in-time” during gameplay, leads to longer load times, in-game shader compilation stutter, and higher power consumption. ASD moves that work off the device. It captures a game’s shader states in a standardized format called a State Object Database (SODB), then precompiles those shaders and delivers them to players at download time, greatly reducing in-game shader compile times. ASD is fully available to all developers building games on PC with Direct3D 12.

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For documentation on how to adopt Advanced Shader Delivery for your title, see Prepare your game for Advanced Shader Delivery.
Last modified on August 31, 2026