[Official] Xbox Series X & Series S Discussion

[spaceelf]

https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2020/09/24/xbox-series-x-and-xbox-series-s-custom-storage-solution-primer/

Makes it sound like more sizes are coming soon.  Wouldn't be surprised if other manufacturers can get in too, despite their love affair with Seagate (but we'll see.)

 

[George P Global Moderator]

A number of gaming sites/youtubers are starting to show the Series X in action.  For now it's just backcompat titles and load times, no new "next gen" games.   Still, telling how the games just naturally gain from the SSD and then the newer, faster, CPUs.  

[spaceelf]

2 hours ago, George P said:

A number of gaming sites/youtubers are starting to show the Series X in action.  For now it's just backcompat titles and load times, no new "next gen" games.   Still, telling how the games just naturally gain from the SSD and then the newer, faster, CPUs.  

I just watched the Digital Foundry one.  Honestly I didn't know X1X was doing that bad with some games (I was sure they're not all perfect but I had no complaints most of the time.)

https://youtu.be/7oe1LUJyCCs

[George P Global Moderator]

7 hours ago, LostCat said:

I just watched the Digital Foundry one.  Honestly I didn't know X1X was doing that bad with some games (I was sure they're not all perfect but I had no complaints most of the time.)

https://youtu.be/7oe1LUJyCCs

Yeah, any game that's a bit more CPU heavy has issue.  X1X has a beefy GPU but the CPU still the same old Jaguar cores, just clocked a little higher iirc.  No surprise something like the Hitman games have issues when there's so much AI on that level they use for the test, look at all those NPCs.

[spaceelf]

5 hours ago, George P said:

Yeah, any game that's a bit more CPU heavy has issue.  X1X has a beefy GPU but the CPU still the same old Jaguar cores, just clocked a little higher iirc.  No surprise something like the Hitman games have issues when there's so much AI on that level they use for the test, look at all those NPCs.

Not quite, the Jaguar cores in X1X had additional instructions to cut rendering costs considerably.  But they still didn't quite cut it obviously.

[George P Global Moderator]

1 hour ago, LostCat said:

Not quite, the Jaguar cores in X1X had additional instructions to cut rendering costs considerably.  But they still didn't quite cut it obviously.

Yeah, it depends on the game though, I think it makes sense for Hitman, like I said, heavy AI workloads going on in some of those levels.  So you're just stressing the CPU even more.   Either way, it's a nice boost for older and current games while we wait for some true next gen versions, or free upgrades to games to take more advantage of the new hardware.

[Skiver Veteran]

Just for reference as some may not have seen some of the comparisons out there. Some games are more impressive then others but shaving 45 seconds off the eternal load times of NMS is worth the £450 for the console alone 🤣

 

Hopefully on release or shortly after some of the Devs will release the optimised patches and we'll see some of these times come down.

 

[George P Global Moderator]

1 hour ago, Skiver said:

Just for reference as some may not have seen some of the comparisons out there. Some games are more impressive then others but shaving 45 seconds off the eternal load times of NMS is worth the £450 for the console alone 🤣

 

Hopefully on release or shortly after some of the Devs will release the optimised patches and we'll see some of these times come down.

 

Just looking at that list as an example, it looks pretty clear to me that the most gains are for games that are open world and tend to just have one big loading screen to start and then you don't see another loading screen unless you fast travel.  Which makes sense because those are the ones moving more data I bet.

[Skiver Veteran]

Yep, makes sense for that to be the bigger gain.

 

I personally play 3 of those games at the moment, CoD, NMS and Destiny 2.

 

CoD there's very little loading going on for Warzone or MP and most of that is matchmaking based so I wasn't expecting to see anything here as I've never thought of it as being slow in anyway.

 

No Mans Sky, the initial loading in has always been slow, 1 min 27 still sounds like a really long time and is the only game over a minute so I'm a little disappointed that it's not quicker, but at the same time it's still a good saving. I'll be interested to see what warping between systems is like. I've got a lot of system jumping to do and the time it takes has put me off.

 

Destiny 2, again I've noticed the long load into the game so happy to shave over a minute off of that, but on some of the videos there's other more subtle improvements that I'll actually appreciate more. Anyone who has played it will probably know that 3-4 second wait of pulling up your menu and swapping gear feels way longer then it should be. I saw some videos that showed that menu change is pretty much instant on the Series X so I'll look forward to that one too.

[George P Global Moderator]

1 hour ago, Skiver said:

Yep, makes sense for that to be the bigger gain.

 

I personally play 3 of those games at the moment, CoD, NMS and Destiny 2.

 

CoD there's very little loading going on for Warzone or MP and most of that is matchmaking based so I wasn't expecting to see anything here as I've never thought of it as being slow in anyway.

 

No Mans Sky, the initial loading in has always been slow, 1 min 27 still sounds like a really long time and is the only game over a minute so I'm a little disappointed that it's not quicker, but at the same time it's still a good saving. I'll be interested to see what warping between systems is like. I've got a lot of system jumping to do and the time it takes has put me off.

 

Destiny 2, again I've noticed the long load into the game so happy to shave over a minute off of that, but on some of the videos there's other more subtle improvements that I'll actually appreciate more. Anyone who has played it will probably know that 3-4 second wait of pulling up your menu and swapping gear feels way longer then it should be. I saw some videos that showed that menu change is pretty much instant on the Series X so I'll look forward to that one too.

Another thing that should be pointed out is that these systems MS gave out to select reviewers are marked as prototypes.  I wonder just how close to final they are?  I think the hardware is final but firmware/drivers might be older than retail units.   It would be interesting to see a updated chart of the above games with retail hardware or maybe after some possible day 1 update like what the Xbox One had, though that was for other reasons.

[George P Global Moderator]

 

 

For any of those out there who are also into Apple TV.    I have to ask though, this app has IAP, does MS get a cut of that?  I somehow doubt it.  How ironic it would be with all the iOS fuss going on.

[spaceelf]

1 hour ago, George P said:

 

 

For any of those out there who are also into Apple TV.    I have to ask though, this app has IAP, does MS get a cut of that?  I somehow doubt it.  How ironic it would be with all the iOS fuss going on.

Yes and no?  I believe in app billing is through MS but you aren't required to use it (you can subscribe anywhere you like.)

[George P Global Moderator]

https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2020/10/05/a-record-year-for-xbox-game-studios/

 

Looks like MS is going to have another Xbox Series X/S event later this month.   Should be showing gameplay and  new games they haven't talked about yet.   Some Starfield gameplay would be huge actually.

[Astra.Xtreme]

On 30/09/2020 at 05:57, Skiver said:

Just for reference as some may not have seen some of the comparisons out there. Some games are more impressive then others but shaving 45 seconds off the eternal load times of NMS is worth the £450 for the console alone 🤣

 

Hopefully on release or shortly after some of the Devs will release the optimised patches and we'll see some of these times come down.

 

You can do a pretty simple mod to replace the HDD with an SSD in the existing XB1 consoles.  I added one to my XB1 S and it make a pretty significant difference.  Overall loading of the console and apps was a lot faster.  Forza Horizon has pretty bad loading times, and the SSD cut that load time dramatically.

The Series X will still be a bit faster, but if you have a spare SSD laying around (or buy one on Ebay for $40-50), you got nothing to lose.

[spaceelf]

9 hours ago, Astra.Xtreme said:

You can do a pretty simple mod to replace the HDD with an SSD in the existing XB1 consoles.  I added one to my XB1 S and it make a pretty significant difference.  Overall loading of the console and apps was a lot faster.  Forza Horizon has pretty bad loading times, and the SSD cut that load time dramatically.

The Series X will still be a bit faster, but if you have a spare SSD laying around (or buy one on Ebay for $40-50), you got nothing to lose.

Eh.  I just stuck with externals.  They're a bit more expensive than they were but no hardware modificiation necessary.

Just glad the HD thing is done.

 

Also

https://kotaku.com/microsoft-is-beating-sony-at-cross-generation-save-tran-1845280133

Quote

As is often the case between video game generations, several high-profile PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X games will also be available on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. But when it comes to the ability to start a game on a last-gen console and pick right up where you left off in the game’s next-gen version, there unfortunately isn’t one simple answer.

I don't know if this article is accurate or not but what the crap?  Much happier to be a Microsoft fan if it is. 

[George P Global Moderator]

4 hours ago, LostCat said:

Also

https://kotaku.com/microsoft-is-beating-sony-at-cross-generation-save-tran-1845280133

I don't know if this article is accurate or not but what the crap?  Much happier to be a Microsoft fan if it is. 

That seems to be the case, Sony dropping the ball there.  I've seen a number of posts saying you don't even get good sync'ing between two PS4s let alone a PS4 and a PS5.   Go figure.  

[spaceelf]

12 minutes ago, George P said:

That seems to be the case, Sony dropping the ball there.  I've seen a number of posts saying you don't even get good sync'ing between two PS4s let alone a PS4 and a PS5.   Go figure.  

I'd be surprised if they didn't come through fine if you're on PS+ for the PS4s.  I really don't know what to think of this, it's hard to imagine it's actually accurate.

[George P Global Moderator]

17 minutes ago, LostCat said:

I'd be surprised if they didn't come through fine if you're on PS+ for the PS4s.  I really don't know what to think of this, it's hard to imagine it's actually accurate.

It might be a bit exaggerated coming from Kotaku, we'll see I guess.  Sony did some half hearted "reviews" of the PS5 in Japan.  I say that because they didn't actually let anyone touch the units, and they couldn't even show the main UI.  I don't get why they're still being so secretive about all this?  Unless they're really rushing to finish things still, this late into the cycle?

[Skiver Veteran]

15 hours ago, Astra.Xtreme said:

You can do a pretty simple mod to replace the HDD with an SSD in the existing XB1 consoles.  I added one to my XB1 S and it make a pretty significant difference.  Overall loading of the console and apps was a lot faster.  Forza Horizon has pretty bad loading times, and the SSD cut that load time dramatically.

The Series X will still be a bit faster, but if you have a spare SSD laying around (or buy one on Ebay for $40-50), you got nothing to lose.

I went with a 256GB SSD attached via USB 3 a while back, it was enough to see some improvement but NMS is running on that and still feels like a lifetime to do anything. 

6 hours ago, LostCat said:

Eh.  I just stuck with externals.  They're a bit more expensive than they were but no hardware modificiation necessary.

Just glad the HD thing is done.

 

Also

https://kotaku.com/microsoft-is-beating-sony-at-cross-generation-save-tran-1845280133

I don't know if this article is accurate or not but what the crap?  Much happier to be a Microsoft fan if it is. 

Speaking to my brother who's a Sony guy, this didn't bother him in the slightest. He said they've never done it before so didn't expect them to start now. So I think this is true, but it's less of a problem because it's expected by at least some PS users.

[dipsylalapo Supervisor]

Can't believe we're only 4 weeks away from release!

[spaceelf]

4 hours ago, Skiver said:

Speaking to my brother who's a Sony guy, this didn't bother him in the slightest. He said they've never done it before so didn't expect them to start now. So I think this is true, but it's less of a problem because it's expected by at least some PS users.

I had a PS4 Pro and some games I was pretty well into so it'd definitely bother the hell out of me.  I was still thinking about getting a PS5 some day.

[Skiver Veteran]

1 minute ago, LostCat said:

I had a PS4 Pro and some games I was pretty well into so it'd definitely bother the hell out of me.  I was still thinking about getting a PS5 some day.

There's definitely some games I've played and not finished so if that was to happen, yep I'd be pretty frustrated but if this is expected from most of the PS guys, it's probably not seen as a big deal.

 

 

[George P Global Moderator]

2 hours ago, Skiver said:

There's definitely some games I've played and not finished so if that was to happen, yep I'd be pretty frustrated but if this is expected from most of the PS guys, it's probably not seen as a big deal.

 

 

Not a big deal to them or they're just giving Sony a pass again.  Honestly if MS couldn't sync your saves it'd be headline news for a week.   I don't much care which system someone buys and plays on but the double standards irk me to no end.

[George P Global Moderator]

Another back compat vid from DI.  

 

 

Looks pretty clear to me, just get a good external SSD for older games and cold storage of newer games till you need them, then copy them over.  Once the expansion cards drop in price, which shouldn't take long IMO, you can pick one of those up for next gen games.

 

I saw a post saying they're going to have multiple options for the expansion cards later, no surprise when you think about it.  I think we could all expect a future 2TB card on the way, but they might actually have smaller 512GB cards for sale to, multiple makers so prices will come down quicker.

 

I personally expect to see a official 3rd party adaptor so you can use any speedy nvme you want to show up later on as well.

[spaceelf]

Eh I did end up preordering that storage drive again.  It'll be nice to have at least 2TB(ish) of decent native storage to work with, and I should basically never have to buy storage again.

 

And an Eero 6 pack to move most of my setup to wireless and a Sonic Blue controller because of course I did.