Xbox is working on its fourth generation Xbox Series X console. The Microsoft-owned video gaming brand aims to preserve gaming legacy through its Xbox Series X.
The Xbox Game Studios teams are trying to create the biggest and best line up of titles in Xbox history, ranging from the original Xbox to Xbox One alongside new titles. Thus, at the time of its release customer will have thousands of titles to play on the Xbox Series X console.
Jason Ronald, Director of Program Management for Xbox Series X believes that gaming brings people and communities together. The shared communities which get created via the gaming world and universe are an experience in itself. And people create memories and get attached to the games they played first with a group of friends.
Preserving Gaming Legacy
Tapping on to this, team Xbox decided to move gaming across generations and bring them forward. So its not only the gaming console that gets advances and upgraded but also the gaming titles. Their goal is to enable gamers to play the best versions of games from across four generations of Xbox at the launch of Xbox Series X.
To ensure that this works Xbox has developed Backwards Compatibility in its latest console and has been thoroughly testing it with old titles.
Backwards Compatibility
The video gaming brand has tried backward compatibility earlier. The title which ran on Xbox 360 was made compatible to run on Xbox One console. Even games that ran on the original Xbox were brought back from the past to run on the Xbox One.
It was a great way to keep in touch with the past and recreate the joy of playing those titles again, on a superior piece of hardware. The innovation team is working hard to push the limits and make Xbox Series X the most compatible console. They are upgrading the processor, the operating system, and the hypervisor to grant the best experience to the gamers.
The device has been play-tested for over 1 lakh hours. They will test for another 1 lakh hours before the final game library begins to take shape.
Overcoming Technical Challenges
Backward compatible titles can run at their peak performance in the new console. You don’t require a boost mode or downclocking to play your old favorites. So, you can play your classic game’s best version now.
The compatibility team has made new innovations to enhance a curated list of titles. This improves the quality of these games making them better than they were at the time of their original creators. Techniques such as the Heutchy method increase resolutions of the titles up to 4K. The anisotropic filtering mechanism improves the final image quality. The classic games seamlessly meet modern standards.
Work is also going on to double the frame rate of a select set of titles from 30 fps to 60 fps or 60 fps to 120 fps.
The games will run at steady frame-rates at maximum resolution with a premium visual quality. This is made possible by the highly advanced custom NVME SSD which powers the Xbox Velocity Architecture.
The Series X also delivers a new innovative HDR reconstruction technique. Through this one can play the old titles with HDR support. And because the technique is a feature of the platform it doesn’t affect the game performance.
Thus, the hardware and platform advancements enable the gamer to go back in time. And not just merely play the classic game titles, but play their best versions.
There is also a new Quick Resume feature which allows you to resume the game from where you left off. This applies to both the new and the backward compatible titles.
Xbox may well set an advanced State of the Art of Game Preservation. Avid gamers and fans wait for the launch of Xbox Series X this holiday.
