Windows 10: A closer look at Xbox Series X

Brink · Mar 16, 2020

A few months ago, we revealed Xbox Series X, our fastest, most powerful console ever, designed for a console generation that has you, the player, at its center. When it is released this holiday season, Xbox Series X will set a new bar for performance, speed and compatibility, all while allowing you to bring your gaming legacy forward with you and play thousands of games from four generations.

Recently, along with the tech experts https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXGgrKt94gR6lmN4aN3mYTg and Digital Foundry, we had the chance to take a closer look at some of the technologies that are powering Xbox Series X and talk to the team about the choices they made when defining the next generation of gaming. We spent an entire day discussing everything from the consoleâs custom processor and latency solutions to backward compatibility and visual enhancements.

(Editorâs Note: Weâll be using some acronyms and discussing technologies in this post without always defining them. To that end, weâve created an Xbox Series X glossary that contains many of these terms and more. Weâll link out where applicable, and you can check out the full glossary here, as well as our features on the new Xbox Wireless Controller and how the team is reducing latency.)

The next generation of Xbox is defined by three primary characteristics: Power, Speed and Compatibility. Letâs take a look at the features and technologies of Xbox Series X delivering those three hallmarks.

The Most Powerful Xbox Ever

Early on in the design of Xbox Series X, the team was determined to deliver the most powerful Xbox ever, which opened a series of discussions about how to define âpowerâ in the next generation of consoles. In past generations, power has been defined primarily by graphics innovation: from the transition from 8 bit to 16 bit graphics, 2D to 3D, SD to HD and finally to 4K.

Today, gamers are demanding more and more games run at 60 frames per second (fps) with high visual fidelity and precise, responsive input. Developers have come up with creative solutions, such as dynamic resolution scaling, to maintain high image quality while not compromising on frame rate, but this is often done to work around the limitations and constraints of current generation hardware. Thatâs all about to change with Xbox Series X. Itâs not just about making games look better, though. Itâs about making games play better too.

âWhile the Xbox Series X will deliver a massive increase in GPU performance and continue to redefine and advance the state of art in graphics with new capabilities such as hardware accelerated raytracing,â said Jason Ronald, Director of Product Management on Xbox Series X, âwe donât believe this generation will be defined by graphics or resolution alone.â

The team knew they needed to build a next generation console that could run games in 4K at 60 fps with no compromises for developers. They also challenged themselves to deliver a level of performance once thought impossible on console, including support for up to 120 fps for the most demanding and competitive games. While they believe resolution and frame rate are creative decisions best left in the hands of title developers, the team wanted to ensure the system was able to support the needs of the largest blockbusters, competitive esports, and innovative independent creators.

In order to support those needs, the team strengthened their long-term partnership with chipmaker AMD, which began working with the Xbox team over 15 years ago on the Xbox 360. Sebastien Nussbaum, Corporate Vice President & Senior Fellow, Semi-Custom Products and Technologies at AMD, spoke a bit about what the team created to help power Xbox Series X.

Thanks to a focus on transformational design and generational performance uplift, Nussbaum said that, for developers, âthe console ends up being a playground for technical innovation.â This is due in large part to the raw power of the custom designed processor, powered by an 8 core AMD Zen 2 CPU and an RDNA 2-class GPU.

These next generation architectures deliver a new level of performance that lets developers create realistic and immersive experiences like weâve never seen before, while also allowing the team at AMD to seed a next generation DirectX ecosystem that will continue to push the industry forward.

âXbox Series X is the biggest generational leap of SOC [System on a Chip] and API design that weâve done with Microsoft, and itâs really an honor for AMD to be a trusted Microsoft partner for this endeavor,â said Nussbaum. âThe Xbox Series X is going to be a beacon of technical innovation leadership for this console generation and will propagate the innovation throughout the DirectX ecosystem this year and into next year.â

Following the AMD presentation, Technical Fellow Andrew Goossen took the reins to dive deep into the technological bells and whistles that will be powering Xbox Series X. Weâve listed the full system specs below, with handy links out to our glossary for definitions on what many of these terms mean:

CPU 8x Cores @ 3.8 GHz (3.66 GHz w/ SMT) Custom Zen 2 CPU GPU 12 TFLOPS, 52 CUs @ 1.825 GHz Custom RDNA 2 GPU Die Size 360.45 mm2 Process 7nm Enhanced Memory 16 GB GDDR6 w/ 320mb bus Memory Bandwidth 10GB @ 560 GB/s, 6GB @ 336 GB/s Internal Storage 1 TB Custom NVME SSD I/O Throughput 2.4 GB/s (Raw), 4.8 GB/s (Compressed, with custom hardware decompression block) Expandable Storage 1 TB Expansion Card (matches internal storage exactly) External Storage USB 3.2 External HDD Support Optical Drive 4K UHD Blu-Ray Drive Performance Target 4K @ 60 FPS, Up to 120 FPS
For more information, I encourage you to check out Digital Foundryâs deep dive to get a better sense of what all of these features mean for developers and gamers.

One of the biggest (and most noticeable to players) features in Xbox Series X will be support for hardware accelerated DirectX Raytracing, which simulates the properties of light and sound in real time more accurately than any technology before it. To give us a better idea of how this technology directly impacts games, Clayton Vaught, Technical Director for Minecraft, ran us through a technical demo of how raytracing could impact one of the worldâs most popular games.

Switching back and forth between current visuals to hardware accelerated DirectX Raytraced visuals, Vaught walked around a pre-built Minecraft world to show off the ways realistic lighting completely changes the game. Shadows cast from objects soften or harden depending on how far away from the object you are, while lava gives off a warm orange glow that dissipates over distance and reflects off of minecart rails. Even the moon casts its own rays, streaming down through cracks in the walls and reflecting off particles in the air. The Raytraced visuals fundamentally change the way Minecraft feels, drawing the player in and immersing them in a much more realistic world.

The most impressive feature (at least for yours truly) was the way light now passes through transparent objects like glass, picking up the color on its way to your eyes. This was beautifully demonstrated while walking through a hallway lined with a veritable rainbow of colored glass cubes, each of which cast a different colored shadow on the floor. The big wow moment came from the most unassuming of substances: water. With raytracing on, water was now fully transparent and allowed light from the moon to pass through it to the player underneath and realistically reflect off the seaweed swaying in the current.. It was really an impressive demo that brought what hardware accelerated DirectX Raytracing in Minecraft could deliver to life in a way I never imagined.

To close out the segment on the power of Xbox Series X, The Coalitionâs Technical Director, Mike Rayner, came up to show us how his team is planning to optimize Gears 5 for Xbox Series X. The team showcased a technical demo of Gears 5, powered by Unreal Engine, for Xbox Series X using the full PC Ultra Spec settings, which included higher resolution textures and higher resolution volumetric fog, as well as a 50% higher particle count than the PC Ultra Specs allowed. They also showed off the opening cutscene, which now runs at 60 FPS in 4K (it was 30 FPS on Xbox One X), meaning the transition from real-time cutscenes to gameplay is incredibly smooth.

There were also some noticeable improvements in a few other areas as well. Load times were extremely fast, and the team was able to turn on some features that, while previously implemented, had to be turned off for the Xbox One X version. This included contact shadows (providing extra depth to objects) and self-shadow lighting on plants and grass, making every scene feel more realistic. Rayner also shared that the game is already running over 100 FPS and that the team is investigating implementing 120 FPS gameplay for multiplayer modes, giving players an experience never before seen on consoles. Most impressive of all? The fact that the team was able to get all of this up and running in a matter of weeks.

The team also announced that they will have an Xbox Series X Optimized version of Gears 5 available at Xbox Series X launch, which players will get free if they own the Xbox One version of Gears 5 and will leverage Smart Delivery depending on which console youâre using.

Improving Immersion and Embracing Speed

The next major tenet of the Xbox Series X is speed, which can be defined in a large number of different ways. Modern devices have changed our expectations on how quickly you can move between experiences or applications. Most of us want to be able to instantly jump into an experience or return right to where we left off. This influenced the team designing the system architecture, as they wanted to ensure they enabled gamers to spend more time playing and less time waiting.

A big part of that revolves around the addition of a solid-state drive (SSD). We have reached the upper limits of traditional rotational drive performance, so the team knew they needed to invest in SSD level I/O speeds to deliver the quality of experience they aspired to with Xbox Series X. This was an area where the team really wanted to innovate, and they knew this could be a game changer for the new generation. But they didnât want the I/O system to be just about your games loading faster.

Enter Xbox Velocity Architecture, which features tight integration between hardware and software and is a revolutionary new architecture optimized for streaming of in game assets. This will unlock new capabilities that have never been seen before in console development, allowing 100 GB of game assets to be instantly accessible by the developer. The components of the Xbox Velocity Architecture all combine to create an effective multiplier on physical memory that is, quite literally, a game changer.

âThe CPU is the brain of our new console and the GPU is the heart, but the Xbox Velocity Architecture is the soul,â said Andrew Goossen, Technical Fellow on Xbox Series X at Microsoft. âThe Xbox Velocity Architecture is about so much more than fast last times. Itâs one of the most innovative parts of our new console. Itâs about revolutionizing how games can create vastly bigger, more compelling worlds.â

A big beneficiary of this technological upgrade are large open world games where players have freedom to play and explore in their own way and at their own pace. Titles such as Final Fantasy XV, Assassinâs Creed Odyssey, and Red Dead Redemption 2 have redefined expectations of a living, dynamic world this generation.

To make these universes even more dynamic and feel like large, high fidelity worlds requires a massive increase in processing power and the ability to stream assets in extremely quickly to not break immersion (epic elevator rides or lengthy hallways are good examples of how developers creatively hide assets loading in). Developers will also be able to effectively eliminate loading times between levels or create fast travel systems that are just that: fast.

You also canât talk about speed without also talking about latency.

âCompetitive gamers and the best gaming experiences demand precise, responsive controls,â said Goossen. âThe Xbox team analyzed the entire end to end input pipeline, from the controller to the console and from the console to the display and we challenged ourselves to identify every opportunity to further reduce latency to provide the best experience for gamers on Xbox.â

This has included developing brand new technology such as Dynamic Latency Input (DLI) as well as helping to shape the HDMI 2.1 specification by adding new gaming-centric features such as support for 120hz, Variable Refresh Rate (VRR) and Auto Low Latency Mode (ALLM). The team has also been working with the industryâs leading TV manufacturers for the past two years to ensure the display ecosystem is ready for the features coming with Xbox Series X.

While it can be difficult to notice the improved latency from any one of these improvements alone, when they all add up, it makes for a profoundly more responsive experience.

Finally, there are the player experiences that will be greatly improved thanks to the speed afforded by Xbox Series X. The most noticeable of these is https://youtu.be/0eBaPS3uj-A, which will be greatly decreased thanks to the processing power of Xbox Series X.

Thereâs also the new Quick Resume technology that we outlined in our last blog post. With current gen consoles, you can resume the last game you played. However, since most players play (on average) three to four games a month, the team wanted to give them the option to switch between them easily and quickly. With Quick Resume, you can resume multiple games with the press of a button, instantly jumping back into the action, right where you left off, for multiple titles at the same time.

Since game states will be stored directly in the systemâs SSD, theyâll even persist after you turn off the console, unplug it entirely, or even take a system update. One of the testers on the team unplugged his console for a week, then took an update, and was still able to continue right where he left off without so much as a loading screen.

Game Compatibility Continues in the Next Generation

The third and final pillar for Xbox Series X is compatibility. Through the Xbox One generation, the team has shown their passion and commitment for compatibility, putting the player and their favorite games at the center of everything they do. As gamers themselves, they understood that we all have our favorite memories, franchises or titles that we want to continue to play even as technology and game design continues to advance.

âThe communityâs response to Philâs announcement of 360 backward compatibility at E3 2015 was one of the biggest career highlights for me in my time as part of Team Xbox,â said Ronald.

For the next generation, the team knew from the outset that they wanted to double down on compatibility. That vision helped influence the design of the system and, through a combination of hardware and software, they committed themselves to ensuring the thousands of games on Xbox One, including Xbox 360 and original Xbox games, will play even better on Xbox Series X.

âThe team came and told us about Xbox Series X. They said âWhat can you do with even more power?â So, the challenge was set. They gave us the Xbox One X and it was like we got this big playground to play with,â said Peggy Lo, Principal Program Management Lead, Backward Compatibility. âThen we got the Xbox Series X and it was like we had a whole amusement park to play in.â

Players will see the benefits of the improved hardware of Xbox Series X for backwards compatible games, including improved boot and load times, more stable frame rates, higher resolutions and improved image quality. The Compatibility team is also continuing to create entirely new techniques and innovation that we can use to further enhance the existing catalog of games when running on Xbox Series X.

The Xbox team is so committed to the concept of compatibility and cross generation play, that not only do your games move forward with you, but so do your Xbox One accessories, your game saves, and progression. In fact, your entire gaming legacy moves forward with you to the next generation.

Whatâs more, the team has also designed the system to enable cross generation multiplayer, as well as introduce new features such as Smart Delivery, which ensures you only have to purchase a title once, knowing you will get the best version of the title on whatever Xbox console you choose to play on. This will allow players to seamlessly move between multiple consoles and console generations as they see fit. Xbox Series X is the fastest, most powerful Xbox console ever, designed for a console generation that has you at its center. We hope this closer look at some of the design decisions and technologies powering Xbox Series X answered your questions and gave you a good idea of what to expect when the console becomes available this holiday season.
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Source: https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2020/03/...series-x-tech/

Read more:

THE NEW XBOX SERIES X FASTEST. MOST POWERFUL.

Xbox Series X: A Closer Look at the Technology Powering the Next Generation

Xbox Series X: Whatâs the Deal with Latency?

Xbox Series X: Making Gamingâs Best Controller Even Better

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Brink · Mar 16, 2020

A Closer Look at the New Xbox One Experience’s Avatars and OneGuide

The New Xbox One Experience launches on November 12 – and today, we’ve got a couple of new sneak peeks at some of the updated features you’ll be getting your hands on when the update goes live: introducing Xbox One Avatars and the new-and-improved OneGuide!

Bringing Avatars to Xbox One should be music to any Xbox 360 fan’s ears – and Avatars on Xbox One come with the same visual fidelity improvements that gamers on Windows 10 have already gotten a taste of. That means improved anti-aliasing, lighting, shading, and an altogether more modern feel.

Of course, the core Avatar experience on your Xbox One is exactly what you’d expect. You can create an Avatar, change his or her look and clothing style, and browse all of the items you’ve already earned or purchased. If you choose, your new and awesome Avatar will show up in multiple locations across the New Xbox One Experience, including your Profile, your Activity Feed, the Compare Achievements section in Game Hubs, and more.

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Xbox One is also getting a totally revamped OneGuide. With the rapidly expanding selection of video content from apps on Xbox, OneGuide makes it easier than ever to find something to watch, quickly. The new and improved OneGuide gets you to all of the content that you own and have access to watch via apps while providing access to featured and recommended content that you may not already know about.

The real star of the new OneGuide is app channels which enables you to see, at a glance, what’s new in your favorite video apps, like YouTube, Hulu, and FXNOW, without having to go in and open the apps themselves. In other words, you’ll spend less time finding something to watch and more time actually watching!

We’ve also made improvements to the live TV experience you already know in OneGuide. You can now enjoy a picture-in-picture of what you’re watching while you check TV listings or browse for something else to watch. If you watch live TV, you’ll also notice that TV listings now come up instantly and in full screen, letting you see what’s on more channels at once.

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Coming soon, live TV listings from the Sling TV app including ESPN, AMC, TNT, HBO, and more will be integrated into OneGuide, for Xbox One owners in the U.S. This will allow you to be able to see all your favorite channels including Sling TV channels side by side in OneGuide.

Check out the videos above for the full rundown on Avatars and OneGuide on Xbox One, from Major Nelson and Partner Group Program Manager for Xbox One, Richard Irving. And stay tuned to Xbox Wire for more details on what you can expect when the New Xbox One Experience launches on Nov. 12!

For a closer look at the New Xbox One Experience’s Home and Guide, check out this post and video. Click here for a video on Game Hubs and here for the new and improved Store.
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Source: A Closer Look at the New Xbox One Experience’s Avatars and OneGuide - Xbox Wire

See also:

Global Rollout Of The New Xbox One Experience On Nov 12 - Windows 10 Forums

Your New Xbox One Experience Begins Today - Windows 10 Forums

A Closer Look at the New Xbox One Experience’s Store - Windows 10 Forums

Brink · Mar 16, 2020

New Xbox Series X console available Holiday 2020

For eighteen years and three console generations, the Xbox community has shown us the power both games and fun can have on all of us. As we enter a new generation of gaming, we see a future where you’re instantly absorbed in your games – where worlds are even more lifelike, immersive, responsive and surprising – and where you are at the center of your gaming experience. With the new Xbox Series X, we will realize that vision.

Xbox Series X will be our fastest, most powerful console ever and set a new bar for performance, speed and compatibility, allowing you to bring your gaming legacy, thousands of games from three generations and more forward with you. Its industrial design enables us to deliver four times the processing power of Xbox One X in the most quiet and efficient way, something that is critically important in delivering truly immersive gameplay. We also designed Xbox Series X to support both vertical and horizontal orientation. It’s bold and unique, very much like our fans around the world and the team of collaborators and innovators who built it.

The name Xbox is an expression of our deep history in gaming, our team’s unrelenting passion, and our commitment to both our fans and the future of gaming at Microsoft. It also signifies our belief that a gaming console should be for just that – gaming.

Alongside Xbox Series X, we also unveiled the new Xbox Wireless Controller. Its size and shape have been refined to accommodate an even wider range of people, and it also features a new Share button to make capturing screenshots and game clips simple and an advanced d-pad derived from the Xbox Elite Series 2 Wireless Controller. The new Xbox Wireless Controller will be compatible with Xbox One and Windows 10 PCs, and will be included with every Xbox Series X.

The possibilities of what Xbox Series X enables developers to achieve was also brought to life this evening with the unveiling of Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II. A sequel to the award-winning Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice from world-renowned developers Ninja Theory, the game is being built to leverage the full power of Xbox Series X. The footage shared tonight was captured in-engine and reflects the power of Xbox Series X available to developers to deliver new universes, experiences and games in ways you have never imagined.

Bringing Developers’ Dreams to Life with Xbox Series X

Games today deliver amazing visuals and tell an array of different and deep stories. That’s why, when we started work on Xbox Series X, it was vital we continue to advance state-of-the-art visual capabilities for developers, while also ensuring they could realize even greater feeling, emotion and empathy in their games. With Xbox Series X, we will elevate the way games look, play and feel. We will also remove the technical barriers faced in previous generations and enable developers to create more expansive, immersive gaming worlds that invite more players to play.

From a technical standpoint, this will manifest as world-class visuals in 4K at 60FPS, with possibility of up to 120FPS, including support for Variable Refresh Rate (VRR), and 8K capability. Powered by our custom-designed processor leveraging the latest Zen 2 and next generation RDNA architecture from our partners at AMD, Xbox Series X will deliver hardware accelerated ray tracing and a new level of performance never before seen in a console. Additionally, our patented Variable Rate Shading (VRS) technology will allow developers to get even more out of the Xbox Series X GPU and our next-generation SSD will virtually eliminate load times and bring players into their gaming worlds faster than ever before.

We are minimizing latency by leveraging technology such as Auto Low Latency Mode (ALLM) and giving developers new functionality like Dynamic Latency Input (DLI) to make Xbox Series X the most responsive console ever. Xbox Series X is also designed for a future in the cloud, with unique capabilities built into the hardware and software to make it as easy as possible to bring great games to both console and elsewhere. Xbox Series X will deliver a level of fidelity and immersion unlike anything that’s been achieved in previous console generations.

One Console, Four Generations of Gaming

One of the things we’re most proud of with Xbox Series X is the promise we’re delivering to our fans who have and continue to invest with Xbox. Thanks to backward compatibility, you can expect your gaming legacy, thousands of your favorite games across four generations of gaming, all your Xbox One gaming accessories, and industry-leading services like Xbox Game Pass to be available when you power on your Xbox Series X in Holiday 2020.

Building on our compatibility promise, with Xbox Series X we’re also investing in consumer-friendly pathways to game ownership across generations. Leading the way with our first-party titles including Halo Infinite in 2020, we’re committed to ensuring that games from Xbox Game Studios support cross-generation entitlements and that your Achievements and game saves are shared across devices. As we branch out and extend gaming to more players around the world, console gaming will remain at the heart of our Xbox offering. Game creators around the globe are already hard at work building content for Xbox Series X and our 15 Xbox Game Studios are developing the largest and most creatively diverse lineup of Xbox exclusive games in our history. On behalf of Team Xbox, we’re excited to enter the future of console gaming with you and can’t wait to share more in 2020.
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Source: Power Your Dreams with Xbox Series X, Available Holiday 2020 - Xbox Wire

See also: Project Scarlett | Xbox

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Brink · Mar 16, 2020

A Closer Look at the New Xbox One Experience’s Store

The New Xbox One Experience is almost here – and we’ve got an exciting video of the improved Xbox One Store to share with you! As you’ll see in the video clip above, Major Nelson recently sat down with Partner Group Program Manager for Xbox One, Richard Irving to talk about a few of the changes and updates we’ve got in store for… well, the Store!

There’s a ton to discover in the New Xbox One Experience, and all of the games you already own will be ready and waiting for you. But when you’re ready for more, quickly find the games and content you want in the optimized Store. As you land on the Store from Home, you’ll notice it expands into four easy to explore areas – Games, Apps, Movies & TV, and Music. A new vertical gallery view inside the Store brings you more listings at a glance. You can browse through categories like Featured, New Releases, Most Played, Top Rated, Coming Soon, and Recommendations to help you find new things to play, interact with, watch, or listen to.

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You’ll also notice that the Store has gotten a big quality-of-life upgrade: It’s much faster and easier to navigate, and requires fewer clicks to get to the stuff you care about. The new Store menu for each section is streamlined, allowing you to get to add-on content quickly, plus redeem any codes you may have.

On each game’s page within the Store, we’ve reorganized everything to focus on the information that our fans want when making their purchasing decisions. All of the content for all of the games in the Store is front-and-center, from add-on content to videos and bundle items. Browse some more and you’ll be able to see active Twitch broadcasts for a game, popular screenshots and videos that players have created, and – of course – access each title’s Game Hub, so that you can check out the latest updates on your favorite games directly from the game developers, and see which of your friends play the game. You can also compare Gamerscore, Achievements, and other game stats with your friends.

Like the rest of the New Xbox One Experience, the revamped Store is coming on Nov. 12. Check out the video above for the full rundown, and stay excited – we’ve got a lot more to share with you between now and launch!
For a closer look at the New Xbox One Experience’s Home and Guide, check out this post and video; for a view of the new Game Hubs, check out this one.
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Source: A Closer Look at the New Xbox One Experience's Store - Xbox Wire

See also:

Global Rollout Of The New Xbox One Experience On Nov 12 - Windows 10 Forums

Your New Xbox One Experience Begins Today - Windows 10 Forums

A Closer Look at the New Xbox One Experience’s Avatars and OneGuide - Windows 10 Forums

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