Microsoft Digital Events [2021]

I really wouldn't expect too much here, except if you're a developer looking at new techniques or a researcher.

It's an MSR event, and those are generally extremely technical with minimal to no product news. The only really notable thing is that it's gaming focused. That's new for an MSR event, pretty sure.
These are exactly the sort of things I'm hoping for. Can't talk for anyone else though, but you did quote me.

Previously I've also said it would be nice if they had something to talk about that wasn't half a decade out. Example being the work their doing on ML texture compression.
 
I'm not really deep in the field, but events like GDC, Game Stack etc. are things I like to follow even if I don't know/understand many terms.
To some extent I would go so far that I prefer them to the "typical" gameplay evens.
 
just listening to the fireside chat with Peter Lee and Kareem Choudry

Going to be a bit of a list, so maybe not the most coherent thing ever
Alot of these things are 'maybe in the future' kind of things just fyi
1. They said that they are working heavily on using machine learning and deep reinforcement to make realistic AI NPC characters.
2. Also they are working on AI based content generation, and Kareem Choudry, who is the head of gaming cloud at microsoft said he is (paraphrasing) blown away by what the systems being developed in microsoft research can do
3. An area they are researching currently is making AI powered NPCs have 'common sense', making them more coherent over longer time periods
4. From how they are talking about AI/reinforcement learning in the gaming space I expect HEAVY investment into this, they are saying that gaming has more hours of engagement than many other types of media. (this is paraphrasing and summarizing) And that you get much more granular responses from players playing a game. Microsoft has been trying to get a social network for a long time, just for the data, so it can be used in AI research, I think they see gaming as the next untapped well of data.
5. looking at using AI to heighten player experiences, for instance making game moments scarier, (I guess timing jump scares and things like that?)
6. now talking about using AI/machine learning for moderation and matchmaking people in the best possible way to ensure a good experience
7. possibly doing real time chat translation for in game use (maybe)
8. Project Natick was inspired by xbox! bc xbox has a problem of having sudden unexpected spikes in demand in unknown regions around the world, and microsoft research came up with the idea of underwater data centres to be able to rapidly deploy date centres close to population centres
9. Kareem choudry now talking about his role at xbox
  • talking about xcloud
  • talks about working on reducing latency, increasing framerate and responsiveness for xcloud
They also did a Q&A but there wasnt much interesting in it

Overall the MSR event was good but I guess I was expecting more? there wasnt much presented from microsoft itself imo, maybe there will be more things at GDC
 
Overall the MSR event was good but I guess I was expecting more? there wasnt much presented from microsoft itself imo, maybe there will be more things at GDC
This is pretty typical for events labeled as Summits. They're like popup academic conferences.
 
Perhaps you guys can see my favorite device from the surface line in action.. I already have my money on the side for it !
 
Perhaps you guys can see my favorite device from the surface line in action.. I already have my money on the side for it !

is it a new form factor for surface? out of interest

I think they should do a budget-ish hololens that uses transparent displays instead of the projection tech and call it surface lens. having the existing hololens series of products as the premium 'hololens pro' device, it would allow much faster rollout to businesses
 
is it a new form factor for surface? out of interest

I think they should do a budget-ish hololens that uses transparent displays instead of the projection tech and call it surface lens. having the existing hololens series of products as the premium 'hololens pro' device, it would allow much faster rollout to businesses

I'm really excited for neo and its the only one I can really talk about.

Hololens is going to keep improving , they are putting a lot of money into their current tech and will continue increasing fov. The units sell really well so I don't see them stoping and every generation its getting cheaper for them to make and performing better . Its like a snow ball going down hill.

I expect to see a new surface studio soon along with neo , new ear buds (the original were delayed 6 months so its about time for a refresh that hopefully adds nfc charging and drops the price under $200). We could see a surface laptop 3 + like the pro 7+ .

I think in the fall we will see the redesigned pro 8 and surface laptop 4 (though it might get pushed back to 2022) We will also see an updated duo and maybe a single screen device from them also.

Windows 10 x will play a big part this year although that may get pushed till late this year early next year. Also intel's big little will make waves (dunno when amd's will be ready) I think neo will be the first with it , but i can see it spreading up the product stack over the next year or two.

A quad core intel pentium with dual core atom in a big little would be a great upgrade inside of the go and go laptop. Would really pump battery life and make them more competitive. An M3 with dual core or quad core atom in both would also do wonders for that segment. I also think we will see them come to the pro and laptop proper. A quad core i5/i7 with quad core atom would let them be more competitive power wise with apple. I just don't know the exact timing of any of it since i'm not on those projects.
 
i hope Microsoft refreshes their Surface products with top of the line Ryzen APUs this year. Having no Ryzen 4700U option was a big reason for me to drop the Surface Pro brand last year and go with a new HP laptop.
 
I'm really excited for neo and its the only one I can really talk about.
I really want a Neo too but there's some pretty serious holes in the windows ecosystem around apps that are going to make that a tough sell for a lot of people I think.

Maybe the form factor will be enough and the apps will come but given how hard it's been to get developers to actually use new stuff (even harder for MS, but an issue for everyone) it's hard to have much faith in it. Even with that neat flip over magnetic keyboard as a fall back, touch is just an issue in the Windows ecosystem broadly. Maybe if we get native Android emulation that'd help too, idk. Dev support is just tough.

They could make it an amazing platform for redesigned touch/pen driven office apps and Edge, and with some partnerships with Kindle and Netflix even if there's very little else, at least initially, maybe that works at least as a lower volume device, but that would need to be ready at launch. If they launch without their own apps being ready I will cry.
Edit: it's probably also a really nice target device for xCloud.

Any limitations will get focused on by the tech press, so they need something compelling out of the gate. It's an exciting form factor but it'll need momentum.
 
Last edited:
I really want a Neo too but there's some pretty serious holes in the windows ecosystem around apps that are going to make that a tough sell for a lot of people I think.

Maybe the form factor will be enough and the apps will come but given how hard it's been to get developers to actually use new stuff (even harder for MS, but an issue for everyone) it's hard to have much faith in it. Even with that neat flip over magnetic keyboard as a fall back, touch is just an issue in the Windows ecosystem broadly. Maybe if we get native Android emulation that'd help too, idk. Dev support is just tough.

They could make it an amazing platform for redesigned touch/pen driven office apps and Edge, and with some partnerships with Kindle and Netflix even if there's very little else, at least initially, maybe that works at least as a lower volume device, but that would need to be ready at launch. If they launch without their own apps being ready I will cry.
Edit: it's probably also a really nice target device for xCloud.

Any limitations will get focused on by the tech press, so they need something compelling out of the gate. It's an exciting form factor but it'll need momentum.

They just need it to work and need 10x to work apps will come later . I'm more focused on it from a productivity stand point. I don't have an issue with netflix and I think it be really easy for netflix to roll out a touch enabled version of the xbox app. But i dunno.

MS is spending a lot of resources working on windows 10x and 10 for touch based interfaces
 
They just need it to work and need 10x to work apps will come later . I'm more focused on it from a productivity stand point. I don't have an issue with netflix and I think it be really easy for netflix to roll out a touch enabled version of the xbox app. But i dunno.

MS is spending a lot of resources working on windows 10x and 10 for touch based interfaces
That's good to hear, things have been really rough on the touch front since 10 launched. Windows 8 had a lot of issues especially since they pushed it into non touch devices where it really didn't make a ton of sense, but it was so much better to use on tablets than 10 has been thus far. I really hope they get that all sorted in time for the Neo launch. I really want it to succeed.

It's the first really exciting, to me at least, piece of tech in years, but being on the outside it's hard to get a feel for how they're addressing the software side of the equation. Looking forward to it for sure though.
 
That's good to hear, things have been really rough on the touch front since 10 launched. Windows 8 had a lot of issues especially since they pushed it into non touch devices where it really didn't make a ton of sense, but it was so much better to use on tablets than 10 has been thus far. I really hope they get that all sorted in time for the Neo launch. I really want it to succeed.

It's the first really exciting, to me at least, piece of tech in years, but being on the outside it's hard to get a feel for how they're addressing the software side of the equation. Looking forward to it for sure though.
Wont lie to you. It could still be better , but its a big step in the right direction. Windows Central has a bunch of videos of it running on a surface pro if you want or if your in jersey you can try mine
 
They need to get some devices out and not just have a platform for others to tap into. Sounds cool in concept but let's see some actual drive behind it.
They also need to premier software to support this new interaction paradigm. They demonstrated a bunch of compelling use cases with HoloLens but its needs solid support. Hardware with mere potential generally does not do great on without serious software inertial. Look at Kinect. They also need to show how it's better and not just different.
 
They need to get some devices out and not just have a platform for others to tap into. Sounds cool in concept but let's see some actual drive behind it.
Yeah, I agree with that. It is one of the problems with MS - unlike Apple they do not have custom devices that can demonstrate their achievement and progress for the end consumer. For businesses it might be work fine, but for general consumer - not really.

Comparison with Xbox Live is cool, but Xbox Live was provided to consumers at no additional cost as a part of Xbox - the device. Hell, they don't even have their VR headsets.
 
They need to get some devices out and not just have a platform for others to tap into. Sounds cool in concept but let's see some actual drive behind it.
Well I mean they have hololens out ?

Also they have windows mixed reality and there are a bunch of headsets supporting the format including the hp reverb g2 which imo has the best image quality of any headset available to the public right now.

I can't really say anything else
 
Well I mean they have hololens out ?
Hololens is not a consumer level device. For example PS has PSVR - its own dedicated VR headset. So if PS will come up with something interesting regarding VR - though they seem do not have aresearch division - they can easily deliver it to the end user. While in case of MS it creates some API or standard that may or may not be used and so on.
 
Hololens is not a consumer level device. For example PS has PSVR - its own dedicated VR headset. So if PS will come up with something interesting regarding VR - though they seem do not have aresearch division - they can easily deliver it to the end user. While in case of MS it creates some API or standard that may or may not be used and so on.

Why is that a problem ? Microsoft dominates the desktop despite not having their own computer line during the 80s and 90s. For the first decade or so of Andriod Google didn't make their own phones either.

Not all products need to be sold the same way. I'd actually be happy if MS just updated WMR to 2.0 added support for more cameras (another 2 above the reverb g2) and teamed up with a few oem's to make the new headsets. There were a lot of great things to come out of the WMR 1.0 headsets.

Meanwhile if you look at oculus they on a whim decided to no longer make a pure pc headset. So now you have to buy the quest 2 , sign up for a facebook acount , hope your not banned and then plug it into your pc. At the same time you have a host of useless hardware in your visor .

If Oculus allowed others to make headsets on the API one could have chosen to make a quest 2 spec for spec while leaving out all the soc and battery stuff and have it purely a pc headset.

pros and cons
 
Back
Top