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[jshackles]

Just like with those, if I'm buying any of these, part of the reason is to show I approve of what they're doing.

Again also proves that piracy is a service problem. Most people aren't tech-savvy and would MUCH rather pay $10 to Microsoft than install an emulator, dump (or download) a disc image, and configure things like controller and display settings. I mean, lots of people did that on PC before now simply because that was the only available option.

Icing on the cake is that Microsoft will eventually add achievement support, which is another popular feature of emulators.

 

[kevboard]

This is pointless since you can already emulate xbox games on pc...

Microsoft's emulator is far superior tho.
you can't play Conker at the quality of their Emulator on either XEMU or CXBX

 

[kevboard]

The game I want most is Splinter Cell Double Agent. Most people dont know that the Xbox/PS2 version is a completely different game than the one released on PS3/360/PC.

If you loved Chaos Theory, its a must play. For many, its far superior than the PS3/360/PC version.

it's delisted I think even on Xbox currently, so I wouldn't get my hopes up too much. but who knows.

EDIT: If the framerates are stuck at 30 then it is a hard pass from me.

It would be disengenous for anyone to argue that this is a good thing.

A very good thing.

Props to Asha for making this happen. Credit where credit is due.

the issue for these games is probably the tickrate being tied to the feamerate. so they'd need to patch the games to function at arbitrary framerates. I hope they do that in the future tho.

 

[IntentionalPun]

Why not? They just need a "Proton" layer for that.

The rumor is, and basically it was leaked that, Magnus has full hardware level BC with Xbox Series (which then in turn has full BC with Xbox One.) That means it can just run any software that utilizes the Xbox APIs w/o any translation layer or emulation.

Translation layers are inherently flawed and require extensive modifications when edge cases are found. Proton is far from perfect, hardware level BC is as close to perfect as you'll get.

 

[LectureMaster]

Huge Asha win. Hope Gears 2 and Fable 2 come to the program soon!

 

[Gitaroo]

hope someone will make a widescreen fix and unlock fps

 

[rodrigolfp]

The rumor is, and basically it was leaked that, Magnus has full hardware level BC with Xbox Series (which then in turn has full BC with Xbox One.) That means it can just run any software that utilizes the Xbox APIs w/o any translation layer or emulation.

Translation layers are inherently flawed and require extensive modifications when edge cases are found. Proton is far from perfect, hardware level BC is as close to perfect as you'll get.

So, even better.

 

[r4vio981]

Love how this is integrated into PC gaming as well. Xbox mode is also a win for games outside of steam. I like these moves. Halo coming out soon. I'm liking Xbox right now.

 

[kevboard]

hope someone will make a widescreen fix and unlock fps

yeah, I wonder how "moddable" these are.
they are (if they work like on console) basically Xbox emulators running inside an Xbox 360 OS environment emualtor or some shit.

 

[DeepEnigma]

Huge Asha win. Hope Gears 2 and Fable 2 come to the program soon!

This was a product in development under Phil/Bond.

 

[//DEVIL//]

I don't know why, but I can't find Conker in the Xbox app here in Canada. But if i go to the website its there..

interested to try it on PC, but so far it's only showing on Game Pass on the cloud for the Xbox app.

Edit: I tried Fuzion Frenzy. so the good news it has resolution mode up to 2560x1920 in the settings before the game start. The game looks good in terms of rez for original xbox game. The menus don't ( especially the stage select ). it also has full screen . it has resolution mode up to 2560x1920

 

[phant0m]

Holy crap, my Ally X might actually become an Xbox?

 

[uncreativename]

Huge Asha win. Hope Gears 2 and Fable 2 come to the program soon!

Ooh, I forgot about Fable. I never did get a chance to play Fable 3. Would definitely buy that, too.

 

[IntentionalPun]

So, even better.

Yes much, much better.

But to my point, anything that is trying to get XBOX games emulated on PC is probably unrelated to Helix which won't need emulation.

This is really just a ploy to get PC gamers to:
- Like and appreciate XBOX (this is a popular thing)
- Use the Xbox App to download games (AKA the Windows Store)

 

[JohnnyFootball]

They may not be system sellers but they can add more value to their store once they start doing exclusives and they have Xbox games from previous generations on their as well. Especially if they aren't on steam.

 

[Topher]

Helix is supposed to be full hardware compatible with Series consoles. If it isn't then it is completely DOA as there is no way Microsoft is going to be able to emulate the Series consoles on PC.

So there's no reason to run a janky ass "PC Version" of these BC games on Helix, as they could just utilize the full XBOX hardware BC.

I think this has absolutely nothing to do with Helix personally.

I don't think it will be a matter of emulation since the underlying Xbox Series hardware is essentially the same, but with locked down software running on top of it. I could be wrong, but I don't see Microsoft doing this outside of their overall plan to make everything "Xbox" run on Windows.

We will see

 

[KyoZz]

This is actually pretty good!

Gimme Fable 2 now.

 

[xrnzaaas]

So we can assume it's going to be a very specific group of games with no chance of getting products that were already delisted. A big meh unless they announce some additional games that aren't available in BC for the Series consoles.

 

[JohnnyFootball]

I'm a noob so I have to ask. What is a decomp and what are the benefits?

Decomp is basically breaking a game down from its native version so that it can be recompiled into a version fully native to the system.

Ocarina of Time is an example, where they decompiled the N64 version ROMs and recompiled it so that it can run like a native PC game.

Basically, it eliminates the need for emulation.

 

[DarkShadowXI]

This is pretty awesome! I'd love to play Lost Odyssey and Blue Dragon on my PC.

I wonder if I should pick up an ROG Xbox Ally X before the price gets out of hand? $1000 is a great price in today's market.

Part of me wants to gamble with it being cheaper for Black Friday, but another part of me is like "dude, it'll cost $1200-1500 by Black Friday".

 

[LectureMaster]

This was a product in development under Phil/Bond.

 

[DeepEnigma]

His career moment was consolidating more of the industry. His words.

 

[JohnnyFootball]

it's delisted I think even on Xbox currently, so I wouldn't get my hopes up too much. but who knows.





the issue for these games is probably the tickrate being tied to the feamerate. so they'd need to patch the games to function at arbitrary framerates. I hope they do that in the future tho.

Now decomp and recomp is now a very real thing emulation is becoming less relevant.

 

[ChoosableOne]

Wow that's great news! Is it US only? I can't see those games in my app. I was curious about crimson skies. Conker is cool too. 10 dollars is a bit much though.

 

[ElRenoRaven]

This is great news. I can't wait to try it out when it becomes available for everyone.

 

[IntentionalPun]

I don't think it will be a matter of emulation since the underlying hardware is essentially the same, but with locked down software running on top of it. I could be wrong, but I don't see Microsoft doing this outside of their overall plan to make everything "Xbox" run on Windows.

We will see

Where has MS said their overall plan is to "make everything Xbox run on Windows"?

 

[amigastar]

Does that mean i will be able to play Skate 2 on my PC soon?
Now that would be awesome.

 

[kevboard]

Wow that's great news! Is it US only? I can't see those games in my app. I was curious about crimson skies. Conker is cool too. 10 dollars is a bit much though.

i don't see them either yet.
you can just change regions on windows tho in your system settings. haven't tried setting it to US yet

 

[StereoVsn]

This is pretty cool stuff. Hopefully the program continues and the entire BC library for OG and 360 becomes available.

This does make sense in light of Helix rumors and potential handheld.

 

[LordCBH]

Ooh, I forgot about Fable. I never did get a chance to play Fable 3. Would definitely buy that, too.

Fable 3 via BC on PC would legitimately be a significantly better experience than the PC version of Fable 3 ever was lol.

I have Fable 3 on Steam and it may be one of the worst pc ports I've ever seen.

 

[Topher]

Where has MS said their overall plan is to "make everything Xbox run on Windows"?

They haven't. I'm speculating

 

[r4vio981]

I wonder if Helix is going to be a straight up PC, but slightly more optimized for gaming. Maybe a way to pause windows somehow and free up that extra performance.

 

[Dorfdad]

Awesome news and I assume this is just an open beta disguised as commercial because the titles are very lack luster and VERY VERY old. Id like to see them do this for a few 360 era games and than open the floodgates. It won't be a good thing if it's Nintendo Lvel of drips and drabs.

 

[rodrigolfp]

his is pretty awesome! I'd love to play Lost Odyssey and Blue Dragon on my PC.

Based on how this is running you are better with Xenia already.

 

[Hideous Snake]

About fucking time! Now that's something I 100% get behind

 

[Elginer]

Yes and tomorrow the hammer drops and another 1800 jobs lost. I hope not.

The empress giveth and taketh away

 

[Boo Who?]

Not on Steam? That's an easy pass. I want nothing to do with their dogshit Xbox app.

 

[rkofan87]

yay the shit remake of bad fur day

 

[Kagoshima_Luke]

 

[kiphalfton]

https://www.digitalfoundry.net/features/hands-on-with-xbox-back-compat-for-pc-a-new-initiative-that-begins-with-four-classic-games

- 30 fps locked;
- can increase the resolution by 2x, 3x or 4x, for a maximum of 2560x1920 (4:3 ratio);
- can enable v-sync, increase MSAA to 2x or 4x, enable anisotropic filtering (AF) and choose a trade-off between sound latency and sound clarity;
- sub-par frame-pacing on the 30fps titles, with deviations from the regular 33.3ms or 16.7ms update rate that can produce jerky camera motion.
- There's also a bug where display scaling results in lower-than-intended rendering resolutions - so the "2560x1920" setting produces only 1440x1080 if Windows is set to 150 percent scaling. Setting Windows to 100 percent scaling fixes the issue - something we didn't know during testing, meaning our video captures require updating before we can post video content. Beyond this, AF is limited to a single setting and looks worse than on Series X, and there are a handful of visual bugs, including wireframes visible in Fuzion Frenzy, shadow artefacts in Blinx and motion judder in Conker.

Lmao, of course there's a catch.

This could have been an easy win for Microsoft, but then they fumble the ball with stupid shit like this.

 

[mckmas8808]

You guys backed the wrong horse. It happens your hobby is dying and there is no better time then now to pick a better one.

Edit: This is the type of ship Nintendo and Sony needs to be doing but aren't. Nintendo has the games to survive but Sony doesn't. They need to move unless the plan is to go down with the SPS Playstation.

Oh so you think all consoles are going away and that PC will be the only place to game?

 

[Aressa]

That's cool

 

[simpatico]

Oh we are playing the Xbox version of GTA VI on our PCs in launch day boys!

 

[NeverYouMind]

That is a weak selection. I know that they probably did not want to deal with license holders but if this is testing the waters they might as well not even bothered. They should expand their BC library with popular Activision games instead.

Now decomp and recomp is now a very real thing emulation is becoming less relevant.

It takes at least a year for a single title to even run as well as the emulator and more setup.

 

[simpatico]

It takes at least a year for a single title to even run as well as the emulator and more setup.

Not the case these days with AI tools.