Ah, HERE'S A Proper Look At The Xbox One's UI & Dashboard

[Ironman273]

I assume the game would pause.. if not then you would die if in middle of zombie horde.   Also, most games have maps visibile, overlays etc.  As I say it's a cool concept, and works well for what it does, and there may be cases where it is useful.

In case you haven't seen it yet.

 

[firey]

In case you haven't seen it yet.

 

As I said, I can see cases where it is good, but I can count on my fingers the benefits that I see personally.  Cool feature to have? Yea.  Fast and responsive? Yes.   Game Changing / Awe Inspiring? I don't think so.

[Ironman273]

As I said, I can see cases where it is good, but I can count on my fingers the benefits that I see personally.  Cool feature to have? Yea.  Fast and responsive? Yes.   Game Changing / Awe Inspiring? I don't think so.

I was putting it there more for an FYI.  It's going to be as game changing as you want it to be.  Maybe you never received Skype calls because there wasn't an easy way to handle it.  Maybe looking up information was also not easy.  It's kind of how no one ever though of having a camera on their phone (and actually made fun of it when it first came out) until it became so easy and useful that now we can't imagine a phone without it.

[firey]

I was putting it there more for an FYI.  It's going to be as game changing as you want it to be.  Maybe you never received Skype calls because there wasn't an easy way to handle it.  Maybe looking up information was also not easy.  It's kind of how no one ever though of having a camera on their phone (and actually made fun of it when it first came out) until it became so easy and useful that now we can't imagine a phone without it.

I don't use skype.. so that may be part of it (I even used a tool to prevent MSN updating to skype).   Looking up information was easy..  I minimized the game, watched the video or read the post, went back to the game and applied it.   However.. I do have multiple monitors so at times I will have the browser up on the second monitor.   But having two monitors at full resolution beats having 1 monitor with stretched and skewed windows to fit everything.

Also, not to go off topic.. but for me I rarely if ever use my phones camera.  For a long time I had a ICS Rom installed that had 0 camera support (no drivers). 

[McKay]

This is blurry and low res?  :huh:  (click for full size)

Fix your monitor. Also, I don't know what PS3 dashboard you are using but its entire UI design language is centered around silly blurring and glowing effects.

 

 

No blurring or low res here. Could be to do with what connectors you're using etc.

 

 

you must have a bad 360 but I use my 360 on HDMI at 1080p with clarity on a JVC 42" screen. were you drinking perhaps? things get blurry when one drinks...

 

 

If its blurry and low res, it's your tv probably.  Make sure its not in cinema mode, has the correct resolution and color depth selected.

 

I've owned 3 Xbox 360's, and have played on probably 7 different TV's over a range of HDMI cables, look at text, it's always immensely jagged around curves and has hazy edges, the "A,B,Y" buttons along the bottom look like blown up 16x16 icons, the gamertag picture looks like a jagged, pixelated blown up 16x16 icon too.

 

 

 

The Xbox Guide is even worse, the texture looks like it was written really small and then stretched bigger, it's not the monitor, I switch over to my PC input and text in Windows 8 goes back to being cystal sharp. 

 

[spudtrooper]

hahahaha are you seriously sitting 2 inches away from your tv to play games?

 

Those pixels are the pixel of your tv, nothing is going to make it sharper / smoother at that distance.

[MikeChipshop Member]

-- Snip --

 

Seriously? You couldn't get any sharper, short of buying a 4K TV.

I own both an Xbox and a PS3 and they both look as sharp as each other to be honest.

[McKay]

Seriously? You couldn't get any sharper, short of buying a 4K TV.

I own both an Xbox and a PS3 and they both look as sharp as each other to be honest.

 

When I switch over to Windows on the same screen, the text is razor sharp in comparison. It's like going from DVD to Blu-Ray. Yes I sit 2 feet from my Screen. However when my friend brought his PS3 over, hooked up to the same screen, with the same HDMI cable, the text etc were razor sharp compared to any text that appeared on the 360. 

 

It makes me truly see how those RAM limitations are crippling the 360, when bringing up the guide can take around 5 seconds, and looks like a blown-up 320x240 menu.

[McKay]

hahahaha are you seriously sitting 2 inches away from your tv to play games?

 

Those pixels are the pixel of your tv, nothing is going to make it sharper / smoother at that distance.

 

I can't get the camera to focus very well on the screen, but any text, any curves looks really jaggy, with no AA or anything, text looks blown up and fuzzy. I switch to Windows, or even PS3 and its razor sharp.

[Crisp]

<snip>

 

Shh, shh, shhh. *pats McKay on the head*, it's ok. I understand, you're now use to the master race and have higher expectation.

 

Come back to the dark side, we have native 1440p, Milk / cookies and 4K soon.

[McKay]

Shh, shh, shhh. *pats McKay on the head*, it's ok. I understand, you're now use to the master race and have higher expectation.

 

Come back to the dark side, we have native 1440p, Milk / cookies and 4K soon.

 

My 1440p monitor cripplied my framerate on PC  :cry:

 

[spudtrooper]

When I switch over to Windows on the same screen, the text is razor sharp in comparison. It's like going from DVD to Blu-Ray. Yes I sit 2 feet from my Screen. However when my friend brought his PS3 over, hooked up to the same screen, with the same HDMI cable, the text etc were razor sharp compared to any text that appeared on the 360. 

 

It makes me truly see how those RAM limitations are crippling the 360, when bringing up the guide can take around 5 seconds, and looks like a blown-up 320x240 menu.

 

 

Take a picture of windows running at 1080p on the same screen, i'd love to see it at the same distance you did the dashboard from.

 

We all know the dashboard is slow when having to get in / out of dashboard, that's why we're cheer leading the new paradigm.

[Gerowen]

Fixes my biggest beaf with the 360.. the slowwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww dashboard / app / navigation experience in and out of content and games.

 

Looking forward to it. Hope we see more announcements and i'd really love to hear about app support. (want my Plex app! hehe)

Same.  I had an XBox 360 years ago, and a PS3 now, and they are both REALLY slow sometimes to bring up the dashboard / XMB while you're in a game.  The best example on PS3 is if you are in game and earn a trophy, then go to look at your trophies, it takes a while for them to load.

[McKay]

Take a picture of windows running at 1080p on the same screen, i'd love to see it at the same distance you did the dashboard from.

 

We all know the dashboard is slow when having to get in / out of dashboard, that's why we're cheer leading the new paradigm.

 

I took some more of the 360 too, the camera had an easier job of focusing with the brightness turned down. I know the text on Windows has some jaggies, but at least it looks sharp and crisp. I prefer that over jaggy and blurry.

 

 

Text in Windows

 

 

Text in Xbox

 

[AJerman]

Yeah, I'm with firey. I don't get this. It would annoy the ever living **** out of me to have some window snapped to the side. Almost every single case that has been presented for using this would be easily handled by the phone that every one of you already have in your pocket. I've paused games to look something up on my phone before, for sure. And I'd do that a hell of a lot faster than I'd try to use IE in my console. If I got a call, it'd go to my phone, regular call or Skype (though I don't use Skype). If I needed to look something up, it'd go to my phone. If I wanted to listen to music ON the console, I certainly wouldn't want it snapped to the side of my game while I play, you could just do the minimize thing, play it, then go back to the game.

 

I mean, it's a feature that you can take or leave, you don't have to use it, I get that. I just can't think of a time where there isn't a better way to do what you are trying to do.

 

I could see myself being more likely to use it with other apps and maybe even TV or video watching, but absolutely never in gaming, and even in those other situations I'd still rather pick up my phone.

[Osiris]

In my case I can seem myself getting great use out of this, particularly with the machinima app and some of the others that will come along.  I agree with another poster who said its nice but not game changing.  Still I admit seeing how fluid it is and the multi-tasking has me excited for the xb1.  I just wish MS would confirm dlna support and talk about if the xb1 has a miracast receiver built in as some rumours have pointed to.

[trooper11]

The speed at which it transitions to the menu is certainly impressive and one of the strengths of consoles over PCs. However, the functionality demonstrated was terrible. There's little point being able to use websites pinned to the side when everything they display is heavily truncated and not even slightly optimised for the display area. Even Bing, which should be optimised for mobile devices and therefore suitable for narrow widths, was virtually unusable - the logo was cut-off, the navigation was small and cut-off, the page required the user to scroll horizontally and vertically to use, etc. Further, the game's aspect ratio wasn't maintained - it was compressed along the horizontal axis, which could have been avoided by implementing a letter box.

 

Very unimpressed.

Well its going to be up to the app developers to handle the snap mode properly. I hope the IE team is working on that to allow for better layouts while snapped to the side, but there is only so much you can do. Maybe use the mobile versions of sites where possible and of course use the bing mobile site.

I agree that the IE app in that form just looked uncomfortable.

 

 

As I said, I can see cases where it is good, but I can count on my fingers the benefits that I see personally.  Cool feature to have? Yea.  Fast and responsive? Yes.   Game Changing / Awe Inspiring? I don't think so.

Why does it need to be game changing or awe inspiring? Is this one of those times where a feature is downplayed because it doesn't change the world? :laugh:

 

Seriously though, its just a neat feature to have and see what developers do with it.  The Machinima app is the first example of that effort.  Who knows what may come next.

 

I don't use skype.. so that may be part of it (I even used a tool to prevent MSN updating to skype).   Looking up information was easy..  I minimized the game, watched the video or read the post, went back to the game and applied it.   However.. I do have multiple monitors so at times I will have the browser up on the second monitor.   But having two monitors at full resolution beats having 1 monitor with stretched and skewed windows to fit everything.

Also, not to go off topic.. but for me I rarely if ever use my phones camera.  For a long time I had a ICS Rom installed that had 0 camera support (no drivers).

Ah, now I understand a little better why this is less interesting to you. Your referring to pc gaming. When I'm on my pc, I also just minimize the game, get what I need, and pop back in. Just like you, when I had a second monitor, I would just use that for other things I needed to do.

But this is about a console being used at a TV, where most people will not have multiple monitors. In my home theater, I have one screen. Plus, I can't alt-tab on a console and say go back to a desktop to load something else. So in that environment, these snap functions make more sense and offer access to apps that wasn't possible before.

What will ultimately become of it come down to developer support.

[AJerman]

Well its going to be up to the app developers to handle the snap mode properly. I hope the IE team is working on that to allow for better layouts while snapped to the side, but there is only so much you can do. Maybe use the mobile versions of sites where possible and of course use the bing mobile site.

I agree that the IE app in that form just looked uncomfortable.

 

 

Why does it need to be game changing or awe inspiring? Is this one of those times where a feature is downplayed because it doesn't change the world? :laugh:

 

Seriously though, its just a neat feature to have and see what developers do with it.  The Machinima app is the first example of that effort.  Who knows what may come next.

 

Ah, now I understand a little better why this is less interesting to you. Your referring to pc gaming. When I'm on my pc, I also just minimize the game, get what I need, and pop back in. Just like you, when I had a second monitor, I would just use that for other things I needed to do.

But this is about a console being used at a TV, where most people will not have multiple monitors. In my home theater, I have one screen. Plus, I can't alt-tab on a console and say go back to a desktop to load something else. So in that environment, these snap functions make more sense and offer access to apps that wasn't possible before.

What will ultimately become of it come down to developer support.

But isn't that exactly one of the features the X1 offers? Click a button and you're back on the dashboard to do whatever, click another and you're back to the game? That was one of their favorite things to show off, didn't they go back and forth between TV and game like 15 times in a row just to prove it could do it? This would be infinitely more useful than snapping skinny little windows to the side for me.

 

But you're right, like you said, I can definitely see the right developers getting their hands on this and making it do something cool. IE snapped isn't cool, nor is anything else they've shown so far. Give it a little time though and someone will do something that's actually useful and unique with it.

[trooper11]

Yeah, I'm with firey. I don't get this. It would annoy the ever living **** out of me to have some window snapped to the side. Almost every single case that has been presented for using this would be easily handled by the phone that every one of you already have in your pocket. I've paused games to look something up on my phone before, for sure. And I'd do that a hell of a lot faster than I'd try to use IE in my console. If I got a call, it'd go to my phone, regular call or Skype (though I don't use Skype). If I needed to look something up, it'd go to my phone. If I wanted to listen to music ON the console, I certainly wouldn't want it snapped to the side of my game while I play, you could just do the minimize thing, play it, then go back to the game.

 

I mean, it's a feature that you can take or leave, you don't have to use it, I get that. I just can't think of a time where there isn't a better way to do what you are trying to do.

 

I could see myself being more likely to use it with other apps and maybe even TV or video watching, but absolutely never in gaming, and even in those other situations I'd still rather pick up my phone.

This all boils down to creating an app that makes sense for it. The feature itself isn't a bad thing, but it requires apps that are tailored to work best in that environment. The IE app clearly was not. The machinima app however, seems to be moreso.

As far as the music playback thing. I would never leave any app snapped permanently to the side. However, I like the option to snap to it whenever I want to change tracks, playlists, etc. I couldn't do that on the 360. There is no minimize option the 360, not to mention that the controls for music in the mini guide are fairly limited and clunky compared to say a full featured music app.

I think we are getting stuck on a feature that really isn't meant to be a huge deal. Its just a multitasking option for developers. The really important thing to me is how quickly you can switch between apps and games and the ability to go to the dashboard while the game is suspended. You can now access the entire system without leaving the game.

[trooper11]

But isn't that exactly one of the features the X1 offers? Click a button and you're back on the dashboard to do whatever, click another and you're back to the game? That was one of their favorite things to show off, didn't they go back and forth between TV and game like 15 times in a row just to prove it could do it? This would be infinitely more useful than snapping skinny little windows to the side for me.

 

But you're right, like you said, I can definitely see the right developers getting their hands on this and making it do something cool. IE snapped isn't cool, nor is anything else they've shown so far. Give it a little time though and someone will do something that's actually useful and unique with it.

That is true, quick switching between apps is basically like alt-tab. I guess I'm just stuck in my pc experiences :laugh:.  Its still hard to believe that you can do that with a console now.

 

For things like IE, etc, I would definitely use the quick switch function over snapping it.  As I said, I think that function is a  much bigger deal than the snapped part. 

[AJerman]

This all boils down to creating an app that makes sense for it. The feature itself isn't a bad thing, but it requires apps that are tailored to work best in that environment. The IE app clearly was not. The machinima app however, seems to be moreso.

As far as the music playback thing. I would never leave any app snapped permanently to the side. However, I like the option to snap to it whenever I want to change tracks, playlists, etc. I couldn't do that on the 360. There is no minimize option the 360, not to mention that the controls for music in the mini guide are fairly limited and clunky compared to say a full featured music app.

I think we are getting stuck on a feature that really isn't meant to be a huge deal. Its just a multitasking option for developers. The really important thing to me is how quickly you can switch between apps and games and the ability to go to the dashboard while the game is suspended. You can now access the entire system without leaving the game.

I seem to recall the 360's media functions got majorly neutered when going to the new Dashboard. On the old blade system I feel like I remember it being a lot more useful. That was also back when they launched and you could plug in an iPod and it would just start playing away. The 360 (and the PS3 for that matter) have both lost a number of features over the years, annoyingly.

 

You're right though, this is just something small and insignificant that we've all gotten caught up on. I do agree with you though, dropping from the game to dashboard or another app with such smooth multitasking is much more impressive. It's really not really any different than the multitasking we've been doing since the beginning on computers, but it's nice to see a console get that ability as well.

[firey]

Why does it need to be game changing or awe inspiring? Is this one of those times where a feature is downplayed because it doesn't change the world? :laugh:

 

Ah, now I understand a little better why this is less interesting to you. Your referring to pc gaming. When I'm on my pc, I also just minimize the game, get what I need, and pop back in. Just like you, when I had a second monitor, I would just use that for other things I needed to do.

But this is about a console being used at a TV, where most people will not have multiple monitors. In my home theater, I have one screen. Plus, I can't alt-tab on a console and say go back to a desktop to load something else. So in that environment, these snap functions make more sense and offer access to apps that wasn't possible before.

What will ultimately become of it come down to developer support.

I thought the point of the one was quick switching (minimize, alt tab, etc).  the reason we are stuck on that side bar thing is because that's what the video was showing off, that's what it was based on.   I am just saying that I don't know how mission critical that is, considering the ability ot minimize/bounce around is there without that.

[trooper11]

I thought the point of the one was quick switching (minimize, alt tab, etc).  the reason we are stuck on that side bar thing is because that's what the video was showing off, that's what it was based on.   I am just saying that I don't know how mission critical that is, considering the ability ot minimize/bounce around is there without that.

 

 

Who said it was mission critical?

 

I mean sometimes it sounds like people want to hype something just so they can turn around and bash it for being overhyped.

 

The X1 is closer to a pc then ever before.  Thanks to that, its now gaining functions that use to be exclusive to a pc.  The only thing I take away from this video is that apps can be snapped to the side without a performance hit.  Apps can also be switched to quickly without having to leave whatever your currently doing, including playing a game. 

 

Similar to windows on a pc, MS has built in these functions, but its the app developers that will make it useful or not. 

[Showan]

People really do REACH to no end to down a feature from Microsoft.  Doesn't even have to be used if people don't want to...  Microsoft gives features, not take them away.. But all you see is people reaching to the bottom of the barrel to find something negative to say, doesn't matter what it is..

 

"Look at that power brick" yep that's make or break..

 

"Snap feature sucks, because IE isn't laid out to my liking"... smh in which the capture is from a early build...

 

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[vcfan]

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