Exactly. How are people not getting this? They are not asking you to toss out the system you bought last year, nor will you have to. LOL.
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Microsoft unifying PC/XB1 platforms, Phil implies Xbox moving to incremental upgrades
- Thread starter dancrane212
- Start date
Exactly. How are people not getting this? They are not asking you to toss out the system you bought last year, nor will you have to. LOL.
What about this: Games have an optimal profile the developer made for each Xbox model, but if the player wants they can still open up the graphics settings if they'd rather sacrifice some things for a better framerate or vice versa. The vast majority of players would stick with the optimal profile, but the kind of people who go on forums and complain about framerates or IQ might dabble in the settings a little bit. In my opinion those kinds of people no longer trust console developers to optimize console games the way they want them.
dragonelite
Member
Making a good api for resolution scaling technique Halo 5 uses can help scale
future games to older consoles.
Dinky Dino
Member
The xbone version is using dx12 features which aren't available on the pc. It also lacks tessellation on anything other than snow and the shadows are lacking dynamic aspects. On dx12 specifically, the xbone version uses async compute which is the performance booster.
Also dx12 aside, the i3 is a dual core and the xbone has a 8 core amd cpu taking advantage of dx12. The i3 will likely start losing to amd's older 8 core cpus once dx12 is fully out on the pc.
Optimisation isn't just about having software run on the machine. It's about devs going out of their way to make it run as good as they can on a specific machine (that they don't do on PC for obvious reasons). That's how you have TLOU run on a PS3 with 512Mb of splitted ram.
If you have different hardwares, you either increase the devs work, or you decrease the amount of optimisation they're willing to put in.
outunderthestars
Banned
I would argue that we certainly saw headaches during the final years of the PS3/360 as games were constantly constrained by terribly dated hardware. Expecting 7 years our of a piece of technology in 2016 is simply not reasonable anymore.
Why should other gamers be denied better experiences because of people clinging to old hardware?
That says more about the devs not fully utilizing the tools they have than anything. Look at Uncharted 4 for what the PS4 can potentially do.
Yeah, this is definitely not great news for current XB1 owners. But this still seems like a ways off anyways.
Having thought about it more, this actually a terrible idea that only benefits the sort of people who brag about their titan rigs, they get more games without having to straddle the moving target that is optimisation and configuration specs.
Consoles aren't phones, people wont line up yearly to upgrade these...
All this will do is nuke the Xbox fan base and remove any faith they had in the hardware, quite the bruising really, especially for those who dropped 500 quid on Day One
Consoles aren't phones, people wont line up yearly to upgrade these...
All this will do is nuke the Xbox fan base and remove any faith they had in the hardware, quite the bruising really, especially for those who dropped 500 quid on Day One
I mean this was the obvious next step. This leaked in 2012 already:
Look at the 2015 colunn. Everything they have done since then has been going in this direction. (I even think that the original Xbone DRM plans was a misguided way to tackle license transferral from physical XBO game to digital PC Xbox platform version.) No one should be surprised.
But that says access to the latest software without upgrades. Shouldn't that be less about hardware refreshes and more about OnLive style streaming?
Speak for yourself.
That sounds interesting. Maybe their UWA thing has more potential than I originally thought. Shipping games with fixed settings for different hardware while maintaining compatibility across them all...
Also lol @ people screaming fragmentation. This is exactly what they are avoiding by their universal application approach. Sure you might get a prettier game with a more recent Xbox but your overall experience will be the same and you can play with your friends who own an older model or whatever.
Pretty sound to me.
Also lol @ people screaming fragmentation. This is exactly what they are avoiding by their universal application approach. Sure you might get a prettier game with a more recent Xbox but your overall experience will be the same and you can play with your friends who own an older model or whatever.
Pretty sound to me.
Lucky? Some people like consoles.
7 years is too long with how fast tech changes. Earlier gens were about five years.
Why are you buying a console? It's the same deal.
Most people don't want to deal with buying separate components and building the thing. They just want to drop $399, plug it in and play.
Graphics Horse
Member
This is neogaf dude, people complain about standard ' slim' models coming out for that reason even when they don't have any new features!
Absolutely. Microsoft has to make the scaling of games as easy to developers as possible otherwise they will lose games as 2-3 new hardware revisions are released.
Suppose this happens. Would it really happen with this current generation? I'd think it'd be a massive expense to release a redesigned modular configuration of the Xbox One at this time. I also imagine many console gamers that value simplicity would go into complete revolt at the prospect of constantly having to update a machine to have the best experience. It might push many to PlayStation or Nintendo NX in droves.
Personally, I don't think I mind the concept, but I have a PC for that. I don't much see the use in buying an Xbox for the same experience I can get on PC with many more possible configurations and customization options.
Personally, I don't think I mind the concept, but I have a PC for that. I don't much see the use in buying an Xbox for the same experience I can get on PC with many more possible configurations and customization options.
Collateral22
Member
Nintendo did it with the 3ds, has that been successful does anyone know?
ElBoxyBrown
Banned
I don't think there gonna do this right away though. They'll probably wait for two or three years before going all in.
Dinky Dino
Member
I also don't think these guys realize that the gpu is all that has to be upgraded an it's not every year or so. 3-5 years. 5 years if you're okay with playing at 30 fps with high settings. Who wouldn't be excited at games not being downgraded?
Depends how far the will take this. Put it this way, the moment you make hardware differences for your games to run better, I submit by definition it's next gen. PC is forever next gen by nature. If Xbox takes the PC hardware route it will lead to by nature forever Cross Gen Games, while it's competition PS5 wouldn't have to worry about that.
People who are talking about whether it'll be complicated for developers to run games across multiple devices are kinda missing the point IMO. The biggest impact will be on consumers. Assuming that Xbox will have some sort of capability across all Windows devices (it probably will), which games will appeal to whom? Which devices will be able to offer which experiences? Where will the traditional Xbox exclusives go to roost?
I'm not saying that this is a bad decision by MS. It's the only logical one. But it is going to be a fundamental transformation, and I have a feeling they're gonna bleed a little bit more of their hardcore audience over to Sony... which is a necessary loss in order to open their path to broader future growth. I think it's safe to say, in short, that MS and Sony will not be competitors anymore, in the sense we know today.
I'm not saying that this is a bad decision by MS. It's the only logical one. But it is going to be a fundamental transformation, and I have a feeling they're gonna bleed a little bit more of their hardcore audience over to Sony... which is a necessary loss in order to open their path to broader future growth. I think it's safe to say, in short, that MS and Sony will not be competitors anymore, in the sense we know today.
I want and have one. The difference is that it doesn't become obsolete every year and that developers focus on optimizing perfectly the specific hardware instead of developing for different hardware, you know, exactly like they do on PC. It's 400$ well spend that guarantees that the hardware will be relevant the next 4-5 years. If I want a prebuilt PC that updates every year I'll build a PC instead.
JayWood2010
Member
Give me those upgrades!
A few things need to be dealt with carefully though. Ease of install, pricing, and game compatibility.
It needs to be easy to plug in to upgrade. People arent going to want to open up their xbox, so im curious to see how they do this.
Personally im excited to see this.
A few things need to be dealt with carefully though. Ease of install, pricing, and game compatibility.
It needs to be easy to plug in to upgrade. People arent going to want to open up their xbox, so im curious to see how they do this.
Personally im excited to see this.
Storm Kyleis
Member
The point is you don't have to upgrade. Just like Steam Machine, iOS, Android and (from what we know so far) NX, you buy the platform once and you can keep playing for potentially much longer than you would on a console. From the point of view of developers, the user base will be much, much larger. iOS games are available on iPhones and iPads, which is huge. Nintendo games will be available on NX home and NX handheld (and potentially even more form factors). Microsoft games will be available on PC and Xbox.
Fixed hardwares have been outdated for years. This is the correct direction that every console manufacturer should and will take.
Dinky Dino
Member
Sony isn't one who sits on their butt after announcements like this.
What MS is doing is also letting them take full advantage of pc vr without the drawbacks of static hardware.
Roberto Larcos
Member
Spyder_Monkey
Banned
Wouldn't you be splitting your market though? I mean Nintendo tried that a year ago with the N3DS and no one really bought it.
Lister
Banned
Oh, is the game out already? Give me a break.
This ridiculous claim has a tleast improved since it was first touted last gen, where the consoles were supposedly TWICE as fast PC's. And just like then, the actual benchmarks on most games don't show this to be the case.
Surprise, surprise, similar silicon runs similarly on both platforms. Specially now given DX12 and Vulkan (CPU efficiency was the main drawback on PC with previous API's - but then again even entry level gaming PC CPU's trounce what's on consoles - that's why similar GPU's or even below spec GPU's on PC were achieving console liek quality and performance).
Graphics Horse
Member
I wonder if this could be one of amd's semi custom x86 apu products they talked about. (alongside a semi custom arm based apu product which is assumed to be for Nintendo)
outunderthestars
Banned
As always Entremet bringing the voice of reason.
I see this, combined with the ability for each individual consumer to decide when they want to upgrade is a huger leap forward for consoles.
Think about it this way: Remember the moment when you first thought that the last console generation was lingering too long? Now, imagine that, at that moment, you could simply buy a new piece of hardware and instantly you get better looking games that run at higher resolutions, etc but you also get to keep all of your existing games, accessories, controllers etc.
You don't have to wait for new hardware generations, replace your library, etc.
To me, it seems like the best parts of PC gaming but simplified around a unified user experience built for controllers and living room gaming in a way that the open nature of PC's simply cannot deliver. And for those who do want that more open PC gaming experience? No problem: Your games and saves will be there for you if you jump to PC.
Huh! I actually saw that one coming, Xbox essentially becoming a PC service, that is.
That way of handling it does slightly invalidate my prediction that it would mean the XBO would be the last MS console, but depending how open the annual boxes are as general purpose PCs that could still be technically correct.
That way of handling it does slightly invalidate my prediction that it would mean the XBO would be the last MS console, but depending how open the annual boxes are as general purpose PCs that could still be technically correct.
Brilliant idea. The Xbox One name stays and the hardware gets a nice upgrade every X years. Having a shared ecosystem between PC and Xbox is something that I've wanted for a long time.
Future Xbox's probably won't be modular, but it'd be a nice way to save money instead of replacing the whole system.
Future Xbox's probably won't be modular, but it'd be a nice way to save money instead of replacing the whole system.
ultratruman
Banned
Yeah, RIP.
Dinky Dino
Member
Agreed. I could also whip out a tablet with windows 10 on it and play some of the less demanding games on the go. Or get on word there and at home as well. This isn't a bad thing I haven't been this excited for a while.
MS can't disallow Steam from being run on Windows. That would be a death blow for MS if they actually want people gaming on Windows. No way MS can turn Windows into a completely walled garden at this point.
Yup.