490°

Xbox Series FPS Boost: five Xbox One games now run at 2x frame-rate

From Digital Foundry: "Microsoft today lifts the lid on its brand new FPS Boost technology - a series of system level tweaks that allows legacy Xbox One titles to run with twice or even four times the frame-rate on Xbox Series consoles. Far Cry 4, Watch Dogs 2, UFC 4, Sniper Elite 4 and New Super Lucky's Tale are the first five titles to support the new feature - and we've had a chance to test them all. First impressions are impressive and the gaming experience is transformed on every game.

We've seen a doubling of performance on older games running on the new wave of consoles already, of course. We've looked at Days Gone, Ghost of Tsushima, The Last Guardian and God of War on PlayStation 5, while legacy titles running with unlocked frame-rates can also tap in to the extra horsepower of Xbox Series consoles and PS5. The difference with FPS Boost is that Microsoft's Xbox compatibility team is working its magic this time around to adjust frame-rate caps at the Direct3D level, increasing performance within the system, without any changes at all to the original code. As far as the games are concerned, they're still running at their original frame-rates."

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eurogamer.net
RaidenBlack1161d ago (Edited 1161d ago )

Honestly its kinda cool.
But only 5 titles for now.

darthv721161d ago (Edited 1161d ago )

Maybe there is more involved with making it work than what it takes to get a game on the bc list in the first place?

I hope they can apply this technique to 360 and og games as well.

RaidenBlack1161d ago

Done at the Direct3D level.

Tacoboto1161d ago

It's in the description of this article: "system level tweaks", but there is at least another step.

Developers need to issue patches though for games that want to exploit this functionality. They originally demoed this feature showing Fallout 4 running at 60fps on a Series S, obviously not a part of this first wave. Maybe Bethesda's team just... hasn't gotten to it yet? Or, they haven't updated SDKs/Tools from the earlier demo implementation? Or they've coordinated marketing due to the merger, with a bigger push from them to double FPS on both Fallout 4 and Skyrim at the same time, less of a priority since the recent mod does kinda that?

shabz6661161d ago

The d3d acceleration seems like putting fast forward on the io throughput reading and processing of data, the game still thinks it's running at 30 but all info is being fast forwarded to 60 or 120 on screen, it's probably the best way to avoid weird physics glitches and what not. But the audio is being processed at the original speed to keep sync. It's kinda nuts.

It seems older titles from og xbox and 360 are in the works.would love for a 60 fps splinter cell games. I was playing gta4 at 60fps on series x just the other day. Feels like the Game hasn't aged a day at that framerate.

darthv721161d ago

Pretty neat achievement. I'd love to see quantum break and alan wake get added to the list.

ABizzel11161d ago

This is actually pretty cool. I personally don't see myself playing too many older games once more current-gen games start releasing, but it would be transformative for a lot of those older games that are stuck in 30fps modes. As I said both Xbox and PlayStation are aiming for great, but different things this generation.

Xbox is finally getting closer to its PC roots, and that's for the better. I've said for years now that their console needs to be more PC-like in order to separate themselves from being in direct competition with PlayStation, so they can carve a niche out for themselves, and their current niche is having a library of games easily accessible to their audience (GamePass), aiming for full and improved backwards compatibility, and making their platform work across different devices. They just need to get their first-party content up to par which they should be over the next couple of years.

AngelicIceDiamond1161d ago

"This is actually pretty cool. I personally don't see myself playing too many older games once more current-gen games start releasing"

My thoughts exactly. Older games will feel more update to date and feel fresher but once more current gen games get released I'll be all over those games mainly (if I can get a new system that is). This updates just makes the console more well rounded I suppose.

Babadook71160d ago (Edited 1160d ago )

Good for Microsoft. This helps bring Xbox games from 30 FPS to 60 FPS. Ps5 does this with a simple (more than) 2x clock speed boost. Using an API is another way to do it. Getting at least double the performance over the og game is a great feature.

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gamer78041161d ago

Sweet wish they could do the same for locked resolutions

darthv721161d ago (Edited 1161d ago )

that would be great if they could. But that would require more work from the original developer. As it is, the series x will allow games that used dynamic resolution to hit their peak limit more consistently. MS has done the up sampling of older games with locked res to get higher res but they do that on their own when it comes to adding them to the bc list.

porkChop1160d ago

That's technically possible at the system level. That's probably the next big thing they're working on. Imagine playing 360 games in 4K60. That would breath a lot of new life into those dated games.

There's a lot of things they can do with these kinds of tweaks. Auto Ambient Occlusion, 16x Anisotropic Filtering, etc. They can make some really big upgrades with all the extra horsepower of these new consoles.

shabz6661161d ago

Absolutely, looking forward to more games getting these enhancements. The bc team is doing some really cool stuff

LOGICWINS1161d ago

This flipped me over the edge to get a Series X right now as opposed to waiting. Microsoft has some truly talented people working for them.

InUrFoxHole1160d ago

It's an excellent system. You won't be disappointed, as long as you understand the value in gamepass ultimate and the upcoming games.

autobotdan1161d ago

Need Assasins Creed Odyssey at 60fps!!

Destiny10801161d ago

interesting for sure, but only six titles

i guess we can look forward to the rest over the next three years

1161d ago Replies(2)
AngelicIceDiamond1160d ago

Every few weeks they said to be rolling out a new batch of games in the coming months. I don't where you got a random number like 3 years from.

InUrFoxHole1160d ago

When you're throwing low key shade but really have no reason to.

VersusDMC1161d ago

Kinda weird they decided to upgrade games that a very small amount of people want to play again...but still cool tech if it's easy to apply to all the games.

Loktai1161d ago

They may be limited in which games will work or how easily a game can be made to work. Microsoft kind of promised original Xbox games last generation but we ended up with 40 out of 1000 games working, it had to be some limitation of the emulation.

Tacoboto1161d ago

It's more about licensing rights and sales than it has anything to do about technical limitations at this point. If they make a title BC, they're going to list it to the store, and they need the publisher/developer to do that.

InUrFoxHole1161d ago

Lol maybe they want to support the gamers that buy games?

Zeref1160d ago

Well there's people who never played these games at all.

I personally only played luckys tale(briefly) out of those 5 games.

DJStotty1160d ago

Nice downplay VersusDMC

All in all improvements to any game is never a negative, regardless of playerbase.

VersusDMC1160d ago

I didn't say it was a negative. It's just a weird list of games. If they made this announcement with 1 or 2 classics mixed in it would have had a bigger impact.

+ Show (1) more replyLast reply 1160d ago
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50°
8.0

The Mildew Children Review | TheXboxHub

Review - If you are a fan of intrigue in your stories then The Mildew Children on Xbox will be well up your street.

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thexboxhub.com
60°

A New Era for Mixed Reality

Meta writes: "Xbox and Meta teamed up last year to bring Xbox Cloud Gaming (Beta) to Meta Quest, letting people play Xbox games on a large 2D virtual screen in mixed reality. Now, we’re working together again to create a limited-edition Meta Quest, inspired by Xbox."

150°

Bethesda Needs to Reduce the Gaps Between New Fallout and Elder Scrolls Releases

Waiting a decade for new instalments in franchises as massive as Fallout and Elder Scrolls feels like a waste.

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gamingbolt.com
-Foxtrot9h ago

Microsoft have Obsidian but I feel it's Bethesda who just don't want to play ball as they've always said they want to do it themselves.

Once MS bought Zenimax in 2020 they should have put the Outer Worlds 2 on the back burner, allow Bethesda to finish off its own Space RPG with Starfield (despite totally different tone why have two in your first party portfolio with two developers who's gameplay is a tad similar) and got Obsidian for one of their projects to make a spiritual successor to New Vegas.

When the Elder Scrolls VI is finished Bethesda can then onto the main numbered Fallout 5 themselves.

The Outer Worlds 2 started development in 2019 so putting it on the back burner wouldn't have been the end of the world, they'd have always come back to it once Fallout was done and it would have been nicely spaced out from Starfields release once they had most likely stopped supporting it and all the expansions were released.

If they did this back in 2020 when they bought Zenimax and the game had a good, steady 4 - 5 years development, you might have seen it release in 2025.

We are literally going to be waiting until 2030 at the very earliest for Fallout 5 and all they seem bothered about is pushing Fallout 76.

RaidenBlack7h ago(Edited 7h ago)

Its not just only Todd not playing ball.
Obsidian have made a name for themselves in delivering stellar RPGs, but most famous once have always been sequels/spin-offs to borrowed IPs like KOTOR 2, Neverwinter Nights 2, Fallout: New Vegas, Stick of Truth etc.
Obsidian wants to invest more in their own original IPs like Outer Worlds or Pillars of Eternity with Avowed.
Similar to what Bluepoint & inXile wants to do or Kojima is doing (i.e not involving anymore in Konami's IPs).
So yea, even if New Vegas has the most votes from 3D Fallout fans, Obsidian just wants to do their own thing, like any aspiring dev studio and MS is likely currently respecting that.
But a future Fallout game from Obsidian will surely happen. Founder Feargus Urquhart has already stated an year ago that they're eager to make a new Fallout game with Bethesda, New Vegas 2 or otherwise. Urquhart was the director of the very first 1995's Fallout game after all.
And don't forget Brian Fargo and his studio inXile, as Brian Fargo was the director of Fallout's 1988 predecessor: Wasteland

KyRo3h ago(Edited 3h ago)

Obsidian should take over the FO IP. They're do far better with it than Bethesda who hasn't made a great game for almost 15 years

Duke193h ago(Edited 3h ago)

I disagree. Part of these games is the support for the mod community. If they move to releasing a "next game" every 2 or 3 years, the modding support plummets and the franchises turn into just another run of the mill RPG.

Make the games good enough to withstand the test of time, to keep people coming back to them and expanding on them with mod support.

--Onilink--1h ago(Edited 59m ago)

I dont think anyone is saying they need to come out every 2 years (not to mention almost no game is released that quickly anymore)

By the time Fallout 5 comes out, it will be more than 15 years since Fallout 4 came out (same with ES6 coming out 15 years after Skyrim). Even if you want to use F76 as the metric for the most recent release, that one came out in 2018. It will be a miracle if F5 comes out before 2030

The point is that for a studio that doesnt seem to operate with multiple teams doing several projects at once, that their projects normally take 4-5 years as a minimum, and that now they even added Starfield to the rotation, it becomes a 15+ years waiting period between releases for each series, which doesnt make sense. Imagine that Nintendo only released a mainline Mario or Zelda game every 15 years…

They either need to start developing more than 1 project at a time, let someone else take a crack at one of the IPs or significantly reduce their development times

mandf58m ago

Yeah I’m going to say it, who cares about the modding community when making a game? Half the time developers only tolerate modders because they fix there game for them.

Skuletor2h ago

Yeah, let's all advocate for smaller gaps between series' releases, then we'll probably get headlines about how the series have dropped in quality and they could have benefited from more time in the oven. Let them cook.

SimpleSlave1h ago

"how the series have dropped in quality and they could have benefited from more time in the oven" So every Bethesda game then? Got it.

Listen, I would agree if this was about From Software or something, but Bethesda?

🤣

C'mon now. What timeline are you from?

isarai1h ago

Hows about you focus on quality, just a thought 🤷‍♂️

Sciurus_vulgaris49m ago

Bethesda [or Microsoft] would have to reallocate internal and external studios towards fallout and elder scrolls titles. Bethesda has the issue of developing 2 big IPs that are large RPGs on rotation. If you want more Fallout and Elder Scrolls, development will have to be outsourced.

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