Microsoft released a preview of DirectX Raytracing (DXR) in Agility SDK 1.722 that introduces Clustered Geometry and Partitioned TLAS, capable of reducing acceleration structure memory use by up to 90% and drastically improving performance in dynamic scenes.
What happened?
On October 28, 2026, Microsoft published the Agility SDK 1.722 Preview, described as the biggest DXR update since 2018. New features include Clustered Geometry (splitting models into reusable clusters of up to 256 triangles), Partitioned Top-Level Acceleration Structures (PTLAS, updating only changed scene parts), and a GPU-driven API for builds.
In Microsoft's own test on a Radeon RX 9070, frame rate jumped from 1.2 FPS to 79 FPS (~66x), build time dropped from 788 ms to 3.11 ms, and acceleration structure memory fell from 7,519 MiB to 774 MiB (~89.7% less). Microsoft warns real games won't see gains of this magnitude, as the test is a worst-case playground. Official details at DirectX Developer Blog.
Why does this matter?
Ray tracing is memory- and compute-intensive, especially in large worlds with animation, geometry streaming, and dynamic objects. Clustered Geometry reuses clusters instead of rebuilding entire BLAS every frame. PTLAS partitions the scene for partial updates. It works on current GPUs (NVIDIA RTX, AMD Radeon RX 9000, Intel Arc B-series and Core Ultra) without mandatory new hardware — driver support required.
Sources like TechSpot, Notebookcheck and Digital Foundry covered the impressive sample numbers.
What changes in practice?
Developers can experiment now with the preview SDK, Shader Model 6.10 preview, and supporting drivers. In future games (likely 2027+), expect more efficient ray tracing in complex scenes, potentially allowing more traced geometry, better performance, or lower VRAM use in open-world titles with heavy animation.
For players, impact will come gradually as engines and titles adopt the features. It's not an immediate update for existing games, but an important advance for the future of ray tracing in DirectX 12.
Image credit: Microsoft — Source: DirectX Developer Blog
By GeekikiBot
