Microsoft XBOX (XBox One X / Project Scorpio) - Prerelease News and Rumours

[MrFox]

MOD: This thread is only for discussing Scorpio news and rumours and what people do/don't hope to see. It's not for discussing the future of MS, competing platforms, relative position of Scorpio, predicting sales, or anything else not directly to the new box and the games it plays.

Starting posts are some of the most recent on topic posts I could find in the Mid-gen thread.

I would like to thank the Mods for designating me, the great Mr Fox, playstation fanboy extraordinaire, masterful rumor monger, as the official mascot of the Scorpio news and rumors thread.

 

[egoless]

Scorpio games held back to remain compatible with Xbox One's eSRAM. Brad Wardell expounds to gamingbolt.

http://gamingbolt.com/stardock-ceo-...an-take-care-of-xbox-one-compatability-issues

Everyone can now safely rally on that headline.

 

[RancidLunchmeat]

Scorpio games held back to remain compatible with Xbox One's eSRAM. Brad Wardell expounds to gamingbolt.

http://gamingbolt.com/stardock-ceo-...an-take-care-of-xbox-one-compatability-issues

Lot's of different words in that article that mean different things that seem to be used interchangeably: "parity", "compatibility", and "backwards compatibility". These are all different, and coming from a CEO that doesn't seem to be fully aware of the hardware specs of the XB1, I'm not sure how much weight we should give them. What is MS's official statement on Scorpio VS XB1 integration?

 

[MrFox]

Doesn't seem like a big problem. If MS never exposed the esram directly in the API, they can skip the memory copy operations on scorpio in a BC or "boost" mode, and they can use much bigger buffers and everything else in native mode. They can still have a fail safe mode for problematic games and just map the esram, since they now have more bandwidth than the sum of DDR3 and ESRAM. They would have planned this when they made the original XB1 API.

 

[function]

Just treat it like a faster PS4/PS4 Pro.

Developers are already mighty experienced with not having the esram.

 

[Osamar]

Put a 32MB L3 into the SoC. Probably not as fast as ESRAM, but with GDDR5 main ram, not problems to emulate the XboxOne.

 

[mrcorbo]

Scorpio games held back to remain compatible with Xbox One's eSRAM. Brad Wardell expounds to gamingbolt.

http://gamingbolt.com/stardock-ceo-...an-take-care-of-xbox-one-compatability-issues

Everyone can now safely rally on that headline.

Of the differences in hardware between Xbox One and PS4, the memory architecture is not the FIRST thing that comes to mind to explain the differences in performance between the two systems....

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Also on Twitter, Spencer talked about how he is "very focused" on first-party games. "I'll be careful about when we announce things but I know strong 1P is critical," he explained.

https://www.gamespot.com/articles/project-scorpio-critical-for-microsofts-games-to-b/1100-6448980/

I presume they'll have like PS4Pro with BC mode and Scorpio specific mode for games that are upgraded. Are XB1 executables going to run directly? Or will there be a second VM for mapping XB1 games to the hardware? That latter seems reasonable. Would that also limit the bonuses possible in XB1 mode?

 

[mrcorbo]

https://www.gamespot.com/articles/project-scorpio-critical-for-microsofts-games-to-b/1100-6448980/

I presume they'll have like PS4Pro with BC mode and Scorpio specific mode for games that are upgraded. Are XB1 executables going to run directly? Or will there be a second VM for mapping XB1 games to the hardware? That latter seems reasonable. Would that also limit the bonuses possible in XB1 mode?

It's technically possible for the VM used to run un-patched XBone games to vary on a game by game basis with Scorpio pinging the Live servers for a custom VM that exposes as many of the improved hardware features to the game as it can handle, if available, and otherwise running a generic Xbox One emulation VM. If they can use that system to run 360 games with improvements, I don't see why it can't work for OG XBOne games too. Not saying I actually expect them to do this, just that their software architecture allows for it.

 

[Jay]

https://www.gamespot.com/articles/project-scorpio-critical-for-microsofts-games-to-b/1100-6448980/

I presume they'll have like PS4Pro with BC mode and Scorpio specific mode for games that are upgraded. Are XB1 executables going to run directly? Or will there be a second VM for mapping XB1 games to the hardware? That latter seems reasonable. Would that also limit the bonuses possible in XB1 mode?

I expect all X1 games to run natively.
Although I don't expect the CPU or Gpu to be clocked down, and for the games to run better because of it. Inherent boost mode as it were.
X1 is supposed to be getting full uwp game support later in the year. So I expect moving forward most games to be developed on that platform. Which will support X1, Scorpio and pc.
The current X1 development platform will become legacy support for a couple years (sooner even), with only work being done on the uwp side.
Whether it needs another different vm specifically, I couldn't even guess. Maybe it will just run a VERY slightly modified x1 one for x1 games, and x1 & Scorpio will share a single uwp vm for both machines?

 

[iroboto]

I expect all X1 games to run natively.
Although I don't expect the CPU or Gpu to be clocked down, and for the games to run better because of it. Inherent boost mode as it were.
X1 is supposed to be getting full uwp game support later in the year. So I expect moving forward most games to be developed on that platform. Which will support X1, Scorpio and pc.
The current X1 development platform will become legacy support for a couple years (sooner even), with only work being done on the uwp side.
Whether it needs another different vm specifically, I couldn't even guess. Maybe it will just run a VERY slightly modified x1 one for x1 games, and x1 & Scorpio will share a single uwp vm for both machines?

How Scorpio will run XBO games natively (without patch) is deeply buried in secrecy
All we know is that they don't want to publish again like they are with XB360 BC games. (too expensive, too time consuming, also painful for the customers)
So expect something built into Scorpio/the OS to support this.

 

[Jay]

How Scorpio will run XBO games natively (without patch) is deeply buried in secrecy
All we know is that they don't want to publish again like they are with XB360 BC games. (too expensive, too time consuming, also painful for the customers)
So expect something built into Scorpio/the OS to support this.

Was just thinking is the gameVM part of the game binary?
Can't remember.
In that case it's probably a modified x1 host vm.

I expect that x1 and Scorpio will have different host vm's, to handle the different architectures.
With Xbox OS, being single OS for both machines.

 

[mrcorbo]

Was just thinking is the gameVM part of the game binary?
Can't remember.
In that case it's probably a modified x1 host vm.

I expect that x1 and Scorpio will share the same vm's, just slightly modified, they don't won't to have multiple source code and branches I suspect. And I see little reason why they would need to, but someone much more knowledgeable can correct me here.
Same with Xbox OS, single OS for both machines.

The game is packaged within the VM it runs under.

 

[Deleted member 11852]

It's technically possible for the VM used to run un-patched XBone games to vary on a game by game basis with Scorpio pinging the Live servers for a custom VM that exposes as many of the improved hardware features to the game as it can handle, if available, and otherwise running a generic Xbox One emulation VM.

It technically is but I think PS4 Pro has demonstrated that the majority of developers/publishers do not want (or can't be arsed) to revisit older games and enhance them. If Sony are to be believed, building for PS4 Pro is a little work and an updated binary, and if devs/pubs aren't doing that, rebuilding a new VM seems even less likely. Unless Microsoft incentivi$e them in some way. ;-)

 

[Cyan]

https://www.gamespot.com/articles/project-scorpio-critical-for-microsofts-games-to-b/1100-6448980/

I presume they'll have like PS4Pro with BC mode and Scorpio specific mode for games that are upgraded. Are XB1 executables going to run directly? Or will there be a second VM for mapping XB1 games to the hardware? That latter seems reasonable. Would that also limit the bonuses possible in XB1 mode?

like a mate would say Phil should stop the baloney and little snakes charmer babble and bang the top of the table with his prick during the presentation of the creature in a way that causes that all the hetero xboxers want to lick his glans in a row one by one.

 

[mrcorbo]

It technically is but I think PS4 Pro has demonstrated that the majority of developers/publishers do not want (or can't be arsed) to revisit older games and enhance them. If Sony are to be believed, building for PS4 Pro is a little work and an updated binary, and if devs/pubs aren't doing that, rebuilding a new VM seems even less likely. Unless Microsoft incentivi$e them in some way. ;-)

What I was saying wouldn't involve the developers. It would be implemented by MS. Like the BC list there would be a "better on Scorpio" list of games that been tested to run with some or all of Scorpio's hardware improvements exposed.

 

[Globalisateur]

Last I checked/heard, it was a higher clocked version of the same CPU in the X1, only with some other adjustments to the bus on the APU. But, that was from a briefing from back in January and the possibility that an 11th hour surprise (although I highly, HIGHLY doubt this would be the case), like Sony's, is entirely possible.

Allegedly, it's someone from Microsoft, maybe even Phil Spencer himself.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?p=232919998#post232919998

 

[RancidLunchmeat]

like a mate would say Phil should stop the baloney and little snakes charmer babble and bang the top of the table with his prick during the presentation of the creature in a way that causes that all the hetero xboxers want to lick his glans in a row one by one.

You have strange friends.

 

[iroboto]

maybe even Phil Spencer himself.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?p=232919998#post232919998

Lol!
Once again sadly only confirming details already known or assumed.

MS lock down is pretty hardcore. I don't get how they are doing this. hardware dev kits may not be sent out just yet. Perhaps prepping them for after full announcement and for now providing target spec hardware for GPUs ?

that would have provided them a full 12 months since last E3 to develop their Scorpio games.
Then they get their dev kits after announcement. Certification begins shortly after until launch.

To me this is the most plausible scenario. A great deal of many things are all being released in this June/July time frame to be coincidence.

 

[kalelovil]

maybe even Phil Spencer himself.

I think that was a joke.