Forza Dev: Everyone is Using 100% of The Xbox One's Power

[Steven Bogos]

Forza Dev: Everyone is Using 100% of The Xbox One's Power

Forza 5's creative director says that even devs that can't hit the 1080p/60 FPS benchmark are still using "100% of the box".

Forza 5, one of the Xbox One's launch titles, will run at 1080p/60 FPS, "Even in an F1 car, going 220mph around Spa with 16 other F1 cars on the track." Other games, such as Ryse: Son of Rome and Dead Rising 3, will not hit that benchmark, running at 900p and 720p respectively. Many may have attributed this to the developers not utilizing all of the power the Xbox One has available, but Forza 5's creative director, Dan Greenawalt, says this simply isn't the case. He says that "everyone" is using "100 per cent of the box."

"But the truth is that I get asked are we using 100 per cent of the box? Of course we are. Everyone is. Even people who are upscaling are still using 100 per cent of the box."

He says that the trick is not in simply using more of the console's power, but learning to optimize. "What happens over the course of years is that we get better at tricking the box into doing what we want. It's optimization," he told Xbox One magazine [http://www.xb1.co.uk/].

He added that, in the case of Forza 5, "We had more time so we're very well optimized and we will continue to optimize this game. If you think about Forza 2, it was a well optimized game, but Forza 4 looked a lot better than Forza 2. That just comes with time." He said that his team started working on Forza 5 before Forza 4 had even shipped.

"And to me, I've been working on Forza for ten years now and the reason I like it is that Forza's always a challenge, we push innovation and it's not always just make it shinier. It's cloud powered AI, 16-player multiplayer, dedicated servers, curated liveries. There's just a lot of innovation there."

Source: Now Gamer [http://www.nowgamer.com/news/2151060/everyone_is_using_100_per_cent_of_xbox_one_says_forzas_creative_director.html]

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[weirdee]

you mean that games don't magically get better looking just because we get more expensive boxes??????????

and that developers have to learn how to use the machine to make better games?????????

BLOWIN OUR MINDS HERE

but seriously folks, i expected more from your claims several months ago

 

[oldtaku]

If true, that would be horrible. You're not supposed to get 100% of console power until at least 3-5 years into the lifecycle, when you start getting the freaking amazing games.

But, when Forza 6 comes out he'll be all 'WOW we thought we were using 100% but no now we really are' like PS3 devs did.

 

[Phrozenflame500]

Really awkward phrasing here. He's trying to say that while the games are using all the power, it's not because they're particularly taxing but because they're poorly-optimized slop.

As the console lifespan goes on the games will actually be half-decently optimized so we'll see more efficent games as a result.

 

[RicoADF]

If true, that would be horrible. You're not supposed to get 100% of console power until at least 3-5 years into the lifecycle, when you start getting the freaking amazing games.

But, when Forza 6 comes out he'll be all 'WOW we thought we were using 100% but no now we really are' like PS3 devs did.

Yeah I never get why dumb people think that saying they (the release games) are using the system to its full potential/ 100%/whatever, is a GOOD thing. If your maxing it out on day 1 then the system is already gimped out of the gate. I hope its more stupidity talking than actual reality.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

If true, that would be horrible. You're not supposed to get 100% of console power until at least 3-5 years into the lifecycle, when you start getting the freaking amazing games.

Not true. Using 100% of console power and using 100% of it's potential are two vastly different things. That's why games like Assassin's Creed 1 and Assassin's Creed 3 get to look so much different, yet run on the same 8 year old hardware with the same framerate. It's all about optimizing the use of that power. This isn't news at all. And it's far from bad news. It's been the reality of game development for as long as consoles have existed.

 

[Yopaz]

If true, that would be horrible. You're not supposed to get 100% of console power until at least 3-5 years into the lifecycle, when you start getting the freaking amazing games.

But, when Forza 6 comes out he'll be all 'WOW we thought we were using 100% but no now we really are' like PS3 devs did.

Did you read the article at all? He said that they were using all of the power, but that the games weren't optimized properly.

OT: Eh, is anyone really surprised by this? This has been true for most games on most consoles the past couple of generations. Developer kits get improved and developers learn to use their kits more efficiently. Experience is important here.

 

[garjian]

If this is 100% of the console's power, then this is not a very impressive console is it?

 

[Kahani]

And it's far from bad news. It's been the reality of game development for as long as consoles have existed.

On the other hand, given that both the PS4 and Xbone are essentially PCs it's rather sad that many developers apparently have no idea how to use them. With the PS3 they at least had the excuse that it was a completely different system from everything else. What's their excuse for not knowing how an x86 chipset works?

 

[A-D.]

And it's far from bad news. It's been the reality of game development for as long as consoles have existed.

On the other hand, given that both the PS4 and Xbone are essentially PCs it's rather sad that many developers apparently have no idea how to use them. With the PS3 they at least had the excuse that it was a completely different system from everything else. What's their excuse for not knowing how an x86 chipset works?

Their excuse?

"PC Gaming ruined Console Gaming forever!"

Someone will actually say this, im calling it now.

 

[Strazdas]

Wait a minute. A FOrza developer developing for Xbox is giving a level headed take on console actual power and optimization. did the hell just froze over or something? this guy makes more sense than anything from Xbox front for months!

the good thing is, with same architecture, their optimization for the console means same optimization can be applied for the PC version. yay?

 

[Something Amyss]

Really awkward phrasing here. He's trying to say that while the games are using all the power, it's not because they're particularly taxing but because they're poorly-optimized slop.

As the console lifespan goes on the games will actually be half-decently optimized so we'll see more efficent games as a result.

It's still kind of problematic that we're having this issue with one console and evidently not another.

 

[Aiddon_v1legacy]

And it's far from bad news. It's been the reality of game development for as long as consoles have existed.

On the other hand, given that both the PS4 and Xbone are essentially PCs it's rather sad that many developers apparently have no idea how to use them. With the PS3 they at least had the excuse that it was a completely different system from everything else. What's their excuse for not knowing how an x86 chipset works?

None; thing is most devs were whining about wanting a new generation simply because their ineptitude was starting to show. They could no longer rely on brute force, but instead had to rely on skill and doing that is something that scares them. Plus asking for the PS4 and XB1 is just delaying the inevitable; diminishing returns are quickly setting in AND THERE IS NOTHING THEY CAN DO TO STOP THAT. So they might as well get used to an efficiency model NOW, instead of being forced to do it later and being unprepared for it.

 

[Jamash]

Really awkward phrasing here. He's trying to say that while the games are using all the power, it's not because they're particularly taxing but because they're poorly-optimized slop.

As the console lifespan goes on the games will actually be half-decently optimized so we'll see more efficent games as a result.

It's still kind of problematic that we're having this issue with one console and evidently not another.

A similar issue could exist on the PS4, but it's not as evident because the only comparable launch title, Driveclub, has been delayed.

It's been speculated that the reason for this delay is because the developers haven't yet managed to achieve the performance targets of 1080p and a stable 60fps, which does seem to suggest a similar situation, because why would a 1st party developer purposefully not use all of the console's resources and under-achieve, forcing them to miss the launch window (or why would Sony make it so their own developers aren't able to use all the resources available to them and have to delay a launch title)?

 

[lacktheknack]

I'm reminded of the Myst devs literally having to change where images were located on the disk to optimize the CDx1 searching so the game was playable.

It's not something you can do right away, so of course we're willing to wait on maximum potential.

 

[Poetic Nova]

If this is 100% of the console's power then it does scream 'diminishing returns' to me since it doesn't look that much better over Forza4.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

And it's far from bad news. It's been the reality of game development for as long as consoles have existed.

On the other hand, given that both the PS4 and Xbone are essentially PCs it's rather sad that many developers apparently have no idea how to use them. With the PS3 they at least had the excuse that it was a completely different system from everything else. What's their excuse for not knowing how an x86 chipset works?

That's not how programming works, unfortunately. It's not just about the chipset. It's about the engines they use as well. And even though the architecture is simple enough, it's still unfamiliar territory because they can't just know the true capabilities of the hardware and how to achieve the best results from the start. They don't need an excuse. It's just the reality of their job.

 

[TomWiley]

Well his quote is kinda taken out of context.

He is not saying that the Xbox One can't possibly perform better than it is now, just that optimization plays a huge role.

"What happens over the course of years is that we get better at tricking the box into doing what we want. It's optimization"