*spin-off* (?) Xbox One drivers

[Delta9]

All of this talk of ms drivers being behind comes from one article on edge that doesnt even name a source.
If you read that entire article which in my opinion is nothing but click fodder at the very end of the article they also claim that the ps4's graphic driver is also quite lacking. You never hear anyone even mention that part of the article though. All this from a company that has already picked which console they are backing (ps4) and posted it as a major headline a few months ago.

Edge also had an earlier article with Avalanche saying MS were behind back in May.

 

[Dominik D]

what?

Google it. There's a group of phrases that are jokingly called that.

 

[Davros]

when the xb1 is released will the graphics drivers be totally final or will amd/ms be able to offer updates

 

[McHuj]

when the xb1 is released will the graphics drivers be totally final or will amd/ms be able to offer updates

Than can keep updating as long as they wish, but I'm assuming it's something that is built/compiled into the game itself so I doubt performance will improve for games once they've launched, just future games.

 

[Michellstar]

Than can keep updating as long as they wish, but I'm assuming it's something that is built/compiled into the game itself so I doubt performance will improve for games once they've launched, just future games.

But they can patch games as well, as they do in current gen

 

[dumbo11]

But they can patch games as well, as they do in current gen

AFAIK there's a difference between patching a bug/issue and 'rebuilding/testing the game with a new version of the graphics API'.

DirectX works in a similar manner I think (every game seems to ship with a specific version of DX, and that version never updates).

 

[taisui]

AFAIK there's a difference between patching a bug/issue and 'rebuilding/testing the game with a new version of the graphics API'.

DirectX works in a similar manner I think (every game seems to ship with a specific version of DX, and that version never updates).

Thought we are talking about drivers?

 

[Lalaland]

Thought we are talking about drivers?

IIRC in a console title platform drivers are compiled/packaged into the game to provide better performance. They're not separate and modular as they are on the PC, because console games 'code to the tin' they're far more sensitive to timing changes enduced by system updates. To allow Sony/MS to update the system without forcing developers to retest all over again the drivers for GameOS and GameOS itself are packaged into the title. Only new or in development titles benefit from any driver or GameOS updates, I'm deliberately excluding the SystemOS (XMB or Dashboard) as those are isolated from the running game anyway

Of course I could be completely wrong but that's my understanding!

 

[ERP]

I think it's probably dangerous to think of drivers in the context of the PC space. I would imagine part of the reason for the virtualization was so they could follow the existing console model and ship drivers with the game, and get away from games being broken by "driver" changes. It's certainly what I would do. Later games use later drivers, but you never have to worry about a driver change breaking shipped product.

I would imagine that driver issues in the context of the article are probably API instability or performance issues.

 

[taisui]

IIRC in a console title platform drivers are compiled/packaged into the game to provide better performance. They're not separate and modular as they are on the PC, because console games 'code to the tin' they're far more sensitive to timing changes enduced by system updates. To allow Sony/MS to update the system without forcing developers to retest all over again the drivers for GameOS and GameOS itself are packaged into the title. Only new or in development titles benefit from any driver or GameOS updates, I'm deliberately excluding the SystemOS (XMB or Dashboard) as those are isolated from the running game anyway

Of course I could be completely wrong but that's my understanding!

Then the studios probably won't bother with it.

 

[Dominik D]

IIRC in a console title platform drivers are compiled/packaged into the game to provide better performance.

AFAIK whether drivers/API glue/whatever is statically linked to the game binary or not depends on the platform. There are many approaches platform holders could take to make sure games continue to work despite the OS upgrades and I don't think it makes sense to speculate right now what Xbox One does or does not in this respect.

 

[Brad Grenz]

I think it's probably dangerous to think of drivers in the context of the PC space. I would imagine part of the reason for the virtualization was so they could follow the existing console model and ship drivers with the game, and get away from games being broken by "driver" changes. It's certainly what I would do. Later games use later drivers, but you never have to worry about a driver change breaking shipped product.

I would imagine that driver issues in the context of the article are probably API instability or performance issues.

I believe they have already specifically mentioned OS/driver versioning as a benefit to the 3 OS system. Games are packaged in the VM with exactly the version of the game OS it was tested with.