Xbox Series S/X: Thread 03

[wakka]

Interesting news. Another entry point to Game Pass, lowering barriers further, makes a whole bunch of sense IMO. I don't think it invalidates Series S, either, particularly as we move into the back end of the cross-gen era. Bone owners might put up with streaming to play stuff in the here and now, but sooner or later they'll want a version of COD/FIFA/etc that isn't totally gimped by their old hardware, and being able to move onto playing the latest exclusives locally will be an additional benefit.

I would see a potential streaming stick/puck as simply yet another entry point in addition to the Series S, rather than a replacement.

Not sure what there hoping to achieve on that other than providing a rubbish experience to games that would be fine on native hardware, by all accounts Flight Simulator is crippling to all but the best pc hardware, so hows this going to stream?

Not sure what you mean here - it doesn't matter how demanding the game is as streaming means it's simply sending a picture and sound to the end user from a data centre? According to MS the game runs well on Series X, which is what the data centre will be using.

Don't think Flight Sim would be fine on native hardware either - the original and S Bone tended to struggle at the best of times

[nonny]

What I want to know is, doesn't flight simulator stream live weather and terrain data from the servers as you play? If they co-locate the Xbox gaming servers at the same locations there's a possible improvement in overall loading there.

Really this all hinges on latency though for the experience. I've had mixed experience with it to the point that for every couple of hours on Minecraft Dungeons with zero issues I've also had frustrating times trying to play faster titles and given up.

What MS has nailed with the cloud option this far is seamless cross save and progression. It's all there as you expect from when you last played no matter where you access it.

Maybe they need the direct WiFi connection seen in the Stadia/Luna controllers instead of using Bluetooth and/or their proprietary Xbox wireless stack?

Any latency gain would be a huge benefit. There's also that Orion streaming tech id Software demoed a few years ago .. I wonder if that will come to this at some point now they're part of the team.

[Neon Ignition]

In a way I mean more as in if you care about input and fidelity to rule xCloud out then you'd probably skip over Series S to begin with and jump to Series X. If you don't mind because their line up doesn't really lean on software with twitch responses it means if you have an Xbox One it's all the more easier to look at the xCloud option and think to yourself you can play their upcoming games via that method through Game Pass and use the money you've saved toward a Switch or PS5 instead.

[fishbowlhead]

Games are nothing like just a picture. There infinitely more complicated to stream than music or tv.

Music or tv is just a very basic 2 way set up between player and servers, play pause, ff, re, thats it.

Games have to be live and fully interactive at all times, theres zero leeway on that fact.

[Neon Ignition]

Even if there's performance hiccups I imagine most would stomach it unless it's too poor. It's the coupling with Game Pass that might make it viable even if not perfect. I see Cloud mentioned with Switch and it's a stone cold interest killer. There's absolutely no way I'd ever consider paying RRP for a cloud title but I could easily bear with minor lag if I were accessing it via a pre-existing sub

[nonny]

Yeah the subscription service goes a long way, again this is where Stadia got it wrong massively.

Here's that Orion tech I mentioned. It's gone dark since 2019 but I wonder if MS have it now available going forward for new titles?

https://youtu.be/SSWZQC0BVvU

https://youtu.be/6-kCxRSNQGo

[wakka]

Games are nothing like just a picture. There infinitely more complicated to stream than music or tv.

Music or tv is just a very basic 2 way set up between player and servers, play pause, ff, re, thats it.

Games have to be live and fully interactive at all times, theres zero leeway on that fact.

Not sure I get you here, if this is aimed at me. You seemed to be saying that because the game is graphically demanding, streaming it on Xbox One will be a bad experience? I don't really get how that works, because Xbox One is just showing a picture that it's receiving (and yeah, sending the controls back to the data centre). It's not generating any graphics locally.

More complex than Netflix, for sure, but even the original Bone is easily capable of it.

[Neon Ignition]

The real magic would be playing Forza Horizon 5 via xCloud on a Dreamcast

[Lebowski]

if your sensitive to input lag you wouldn't play with a wired controller as Bluetooth controllers introduce input lag too. Cloud gaming is gonna be fine for most games i doubt sea of thieves or Microsoft flight sim will be any worse over xcloud your brain can adjust to a bit of input lag, its not talked about a lot but I've found that when docked the switch feels different on a lot of games, and has games that introduce horrible input lag, I thought my brain was broken when i played hollow knight on the tv after playing it exclusively in handheld for a few weeks, i went from a hollow knight god to messing up all attack timing and missing simple jumps

[Neon Ignition]

https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-2021-how-forza-horizon-5-scales-across-the-generations

Forza Horizon 5 will run at 1080p/30fps on XBO. I'm not sure the scalability issue is as complicated as is made out, it'll surely be like PC rather than always assuming performance will be clawed back via resolution drops always

[Neon Ignition]

Embedded Tweet

[nonny]

https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/d...he-generations
Forza Horizon 5 will run at 1080p/30fps on XBO. I'm not sure the scalability issue is as complicated as is made out, it'll surely be like PC rather than always assuming performance will be clawed back via resolution drops always

They've just really done their work in making the engine scale. The game was quite smart on One X with its 60fps as it doesn't just scale resolution it can actually dynamically turn features on/off to maintain the 60fps and keep it smooth.

From the looks of things they've ramped up that ability alongside making it look nuts on the top end hardware. No doubt it'll look worse on XBO but I have a feeling it could still be the best looking in the series on the old machines.

The craziest thing is this is the engine they're building Fable with as well. Gives me some confidence that game is going to look sharp when it finally lands, particularly as I'm sure they'll keep squeezing more efficiencies out of the engine over the course of development

[Neon Ignition]

From the showcase, a brief bit about Senua's Saga: Hellblade II. Gives me a sense this will be quite bigger and apart from the original but also far off



The game is not in full production as yet and will be set in 9th Century Iceland. It's also described as not quite a direct sequel.


Here's the full Showcase Extend




The showcase also doesn't shake the suspicion that Halo Infinite's campaign might not make 2021. It's kind of nuts as well that MS is still sleeping on Halo 5 coming to PC

[Nico87]

Decided to get a Series X after E3. Still sold out everywhere

[nonny]

From the showcase, a brief bit about Senua's Saga: Hellblade II. Gives me a sense this will be quite bigger and apart from the original but also far off



The game is not in full production as yet and will be set in 9th Century Iceland. It's also described as not quite a direct sequel.


Here's the full Showcase Extend




The showcase also doesn't shake the suspicion that Halo Infinite's campaign might not make 2021. It's kind of nuts as well that MS is still sleeping on Halo 5 coming to PC

I've got a feeling the scope of Hellblade 2 is an attempt to elevate it to God of War type status. Xbox has plenty of genres covered but I feel they need something in that space and this is what they're aiming for.

Halo, well it's hard to say. They could be knee deep in crap trying to get the campaign up to a serviceable level or they could be comfortable and just not spoiling things...