News & Rumors: Xbox One (codename Durango)

[blakjedi]

My only complain with Win 8 is the "fight for supremacy" between the desktop and Metro/Start screen. If I open an app (from the desktop / file explorer) that invokes a Metro app then when I close that app I'd rather it goes back to the desktop (where I previously was) rather than going to the start screen.

Other than that one gripe, I'm very happy with it. I like the fact that I can get a quick view of lots up updates (without having to start different apps) an with the start screen and the Win 8.1 updates is nice for providing a good mix of updates and fitting enough apps onscreen (without scrolling) that makes it more useful as a replacement of the Win 7 Programs Menu (Windows Button).

Yes windows 8 definitely has a "context issue" wrt to app consistency. Whatever environment you are driving in is the environment you should stay in. Start screen has the dual problem of being both an app launch context as well as an app run environment which can be confusing.

ALso by removing any similar start menu functionality from exisiting within the desktop context it makes it seem kludgy. To fix that MS should have made either an updated miniature start screen for within the desktop environment that you could optionally full screen.

Booting into the start screen environment made perfect sense to me. In every other os environment you boot essentially into your app launcher too... including the future Xbox One environment. Why THAT caused an uproar ill never understand.

 

[Kb-Smoker]

Yes windows 8 definitely has a "context issue" wrt to app consistency. Whatever environment you are driving in is the environment you should stay in. Start screen has the dual problem of being both an app launch contect as well as an app run environment which can be confusing.

ALso by removing any similar start menu functionality from exisiting within the desktop context it makes it seem kludgy. To fix that MS should have made either an updated miniature start screen for within the desktop environment that you could optionally full screen.

Booting into the start screen environment made perfect sense to me. In every other os environment you boot essentially into your app launcher too... including the future Xbox One environment. Why THAT caused an uproar ill never understand.

Well i used window media center for whole home dvr. With windows 8 i can no longer boot directly into media center. No reason i should be force to use the pc like this when it worked fine in every version before it.

Just makes zero sense to force people into these changes. The fact you cannot even change these options just blows my mind.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Oh. I check the thread title and this isn't the Windows 8 user experience discussion. How odd.

 

[Ekim]

Hm... So the infiltrator demo did run on Xbox One or is the BlackTusk game UE4?

 

[AstoundingHolmes]

Project Spark always struck me as a giant user friendly GUI for UE4. I wonder if that's what he's referring to...

 

[Ekim]

Project Spark always struck me as a giant user friendly GUI for UE4. I wonder if that's what he's referring to...

Good call. But I remember the devs talking about project spark in a Build session and mentioning a self developed engine. UE4 white label ?

 

[COPS N RAPPERS]

Hm... So the infiltrator demo did run on Xbox One or is the BlackTusk game UE4?

That is interesting if true, unless he's referring to dead rising 3 or some E3 title that was using it.

 

[blakjedi]

Hm... So the infiltrator demo did run on Xbox One or is the BlackTusk game UE4?

That snippet of a game from Black Tusk was marvelous. Fingers crossed.

 

[AstoundingHolmes]

Good call. But I remember the devs talking about project spark in a Build session and mentioning a self developed engine. UE4 white label ?

Search me. The only theory I can offer is to go look through microsoft's partners' histories and see which have typically work with UE. Those teams would be the most likely to be using it. Alternately, as you mentioned, it might just be the infiltrator demo. The fact that we haven't seen the UE4 label, suggests it was either a game that we merely got a sneak peek at or a demo. Thinking about it, I doubt EPIC would be OK with hiding the UE4 label, as that's a loss for marketing their product.

 

[Ekim]

Search me. The only theory I can offer is to go look through microsoft's partners' histories and see which have typically work with UE. Those teams would be the most likely to be using it. Alternately, as you mentioned, it might just be the infiltrator demo. The fact that we haven't seen the UE4 label, suggests it was either a game that we merely got a sneak peek at or a demo. Thinking about it, I doubt EPIC would be OK with hiding the UE4 label, as that's a loss for marketing their product.

Well if you search for the terms Project Spark + Engine you will see that Project Spark itself will be called as being an engine.

 

[Cyan]

Well do you have it installed on your computer? You said the "only criticism I've heard etc."
Imo try it for yourself, and then we speak.
Honestly as far as perfs are concerned I can't really tell the difference (not that there are not) but it is "clumsy" to use imo.
May they have stuck to the desktop and the start menu, had added the charms bars, it could have been great but now try it

Yes, I do.

Spoiler

I have it since the day it was launched because there was a promotion with an offer where if you had Windows XP, Vista or 7 and wanted to upgrade to the digital version of Windows 8 Pro, it would only cost you 30€.

My only gripe is that they removed the MIDI mapper from previous Windows versions. The Metro interface never bothered me so much (hence the "I've heard of" comment) and I barely used the Start button in previous Windows tbh. I have Windows 8.1 beta now and I can also go to the desktop instead of the Start/Metro menu when I sign in.

But Shifty is right and maybe he is pondering whether he should've created a new thread or remove these posts if we continue with this subject. It's not B3D style and I love their standards btw, so no derailment or ERP, AlNets, and the aforementioned mod are going to do something about it .

Hm... So the infiltrator demo did run on Xbox One or is the BlackTusk game UE4?

Not a big fan of the UE3, but I am curious about UE4 and I'd like to see the demo with the lava and stuff they ran on the PS4 and PC, on the Xbox One, too.

 

[Rangers]

misinterpeted!

 

[warb]

Or Mike Ybarra will probably have an Xbox One and there will be UE4 games on Xbox One.

Also there's been at least 1 UE4 game demoed on Xbox One, whatever that is.

 

[Cyan]

Or Mike Ybarra will probably have an Xbox One and there will be UE4 games on Xbox One.

Also there's been at least 1 UE4 game demoed on Xbox One, whatever that is.

For the looks of it, out of intuition, I'd dare to say it is Sunset Overdrive....

 

[dagamer]

Isn't the most important thing about UE4 tools and production pipeline anyway? It's not something you can tell from just looking at a game since I think they learned their lesson from super HDR applied to everything (ala Gears of War).

 

[RudeCurve]

If Infiltrator demo could be run on X1, then MS is doing the right thing with their hardware. They really do need to move away from "spec wars" and emphasize "if it looks this good who cares what the specs are...". It's like 99% of Apple iPhone buyers who don't know and don't care what cpu or gpu is in their phone as long as it offers a great overall experience.

 

[Niebotskick]

I want to point out that the Infiltrator demo was running on a GTX 680. http://www.geforce.com/whats-new/ar...80-powered-unreal-engine-4-tech-demo-unveiled

Of course this doesn't mean that it won't be able to run on the Xbox One, but I would imagine some loss in quality and/or a significantly lower framerate. (depending on the optimization)

 

[Vertrucio]

Except that these aren't smart phones, those have different expectations from their users.

I do agree with you, partially. As development has shown, a good art design and solid gameplay trumps technical graphics any day. Just one look at Id's failure this generation shows that.

However, good tech within a system can actually help find that gameplay and art design, allowing for things previously impossible.

For example, for all that streaming technology/techniques in games have accomplished to overcome the memory limitations of this generation of consoles, those limitations have established certain ways of doing things that are just too difficult to get around, especially in AAA development.

Enemies, encounters, levels, etc. Everything is made to fit within constraints dictated by the system. Wonder why enemy AI really hasn't improved much in the last 6 years on consoles? It's because AI code and processes have to fit into memory and run at the same time as everything else. All those fancy animations that give feedback and allow the enemies to do interesting things to the player have to be kept in memory. Levels have to be designed so that they're corridors, even if they just happen to be big and wide corridors.

Any developer trying to make something different has to expend a lot of resources to overcome these limitations. Otherwise it behooves them to just stick to certain tried and true methods and designs.

In all frankness, MS will be fine in this regard. Their system is not so far behind that they will miss out on those "different" games.

 

[Cyan]

While he was at Microsoft, Don Mattrick tried to snatch up Zynga because he wanted Microsoft to gobble up Zynga.

It's *nice* to see that Mattrick usee his position at Micrososft and his travel and expense account to fully study Zynga, which is now his employer before signing on.

Not to mention he was recently finalizing the contract details with Zynga trying to disguise it as a trip as if he was attending a Zynga event. Yup, very professional.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/matthic...ttrick-wanted-microsoft-to-buy-zynga-in-2010/

 

[blakjedi]

While he was at Microsoft, Don Mattrick tried to snatch up Zynga because he wanted Microsoft to gobble up Zynga.

It's *nice* to see that Mattrick usee his position at Micrososft and his travel and expense account to fully study Zynga, which is now his employer before signing on.

Not to mention he was recently finalizing the contract details with Zynga trying to disguise it as a trip as if he was attending a Zynga event. Yup, very professional.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/matthic...ttrick-wanted-microsoft-to-buy-zynga-in-2010/

This might end up having the same positives as Elop to Nokia.