Microsoft has announced DirectX Raytracing 1.2 at the GDC conference with claims of "game changing" performance benefits. But the newly revised API looks an awful lot like it has incorporated some key Nvidia technologies rather than introducing new features and so may not be the ray-tracing performance panacea we've all been waiting for.
Microsoft is claiming performance speed ups of 2x and more for DirectX Raytracing 1.2. Specifically, Microsoft says the introduction of support for opacity micromaps (OMM), "significantly optimize alpha-tested geometry, delivering up to 2.3x performance improvement in path-traced games. By efficiently managing opacity data, OMM reduces shader invocations and greatly enhances rendering efficiency without compromising visual quality."
