Xbox Director of Development: Xbox One Effectively a Super-Computer Design

[yamy]

Sorry...what?

Correct me if I'm wrong...but what the hell does 'quality of pixels' mean?

As far as I understand, the higher the resolution, the more pixels there are on the screen - resulting in a higher quality image.

Isn't the quality of the individual pixels on a screen determined by the quality of said screen and nothing to do with the input?

Are they saying that they're sacrificing the number of pixels to get better RGB or something? Isn't that just matter of calibration? What the hell has that got to do with performance?

 

[oldtaku]

This is a effectively a super-computer design..

Uh huh. You know, almost any GPU these days is a 'super-computer design'. They literally make super-computers out of them.

The PS3 was also a 'super-computer design'.

I could make a 1MHz 8-bit CPU with nice pipelines and ability to cluster and it woud be a 'super-computer design'.

More to the point, the PS4 has far better memory bandwidth than the XB1, making it even more of a 'super-computer design'... but this is all just marketing bullcrud.

 

[Vie]

Could somebody break it to the gentleman who said this, that it's rude to defecate in public?

Because that's what he just did - all of what he just said was nothing but male bovine excreta.

MS, give it up guys - the secret to the XBone's amazing graphics is obviously Blast processing.

 

[FalloutJack]

No, Microsoft, a super-computer is a super-computer design. That is, a machine not made for commercial use that you would find, say, running the Large Hadron Collider, or acting as the central information hub of the Pentagon, or the Not-WOPR they have running a military base like Norad.

You have a media entertainment device. Show some perspective!

 

[ZZoMBiE13]

Both SOny and MS can come up with all the bullshit they want. Dont care about 1080 and 60fps. All i want it great games. Ive been gaming since the Atari, resolution and fps are a non issue for me.

For you sir:
A high five across the table.

Both of the now current gen systems have enough exclusives that they either own or have coming down the pipe to justify interest in them.

And if one thing is sure, it's that the first party stuff will almost always be the best looking of the stable.

And if there's a second thing that is sure, it's that Halo is still fun regardless of whether it looks good or not. InFamous: Second Son is fun in 1080p 60fps, but so were the previous ones fun and they never were the best looking games. Same with early Halo or Fable games.

Fun is fun and if they can keep cranking out games that excite me, I'll stay interested. If they can't, then it's irrelevant what they "can" do as opposed to what they are in fact doing in regards to gameplay.

 

[Kargathia]

"and how getting Xbox One games to run smoothly requires shuffling data between components with absolute precision, since even the smallest delay can up the process"

It's quite the achievement, but in this whole heap of unadulterated crud, this was the one line that made me laugh.

Seriously, the XBone is special because it requires data to be processed at high speeds and precision? I'd welcome him to twenty-first century computing, but it seems he flunked out halfway the 1800's.

 

[faefrost]

This is the most pristine example of someone talking straight out of their ass I've ever seen. Just a bunch of "Oh, our console's too complex and amazing for it to actually be developed for properly, but once people figure it out? Your days are number Sony, hurr hurr hurr."

They have a worse off machine than the PS4 and they keep trying to justify it.

This! I'm sorry but this!

Resolution and Frame rate are the core deliverable's for a gaming system. If your competition is doing that better than you, at a cheaper price point, YOU HAVE FAILED. And no amount of claiming that you failed because you are actually a SUPERCOMPUTER will disguise that. ("Nono we swear it is a magical flying unicorn. Please ignore the fact that it is going "Baaahhh!" and seems oddly wooly. That's just its winter coat. Once riders figure this out it will take off.")

And guess what? Why will developers even bother learning the complex dance to properly optimize for Xbone? As the PS3 showed, barring exclusive contracts they have no real reason to bother. They simply develop the game for the similar yet easier to develop PS4 hardware. Port it over without a lot of effort, and sell it. The gaming public will buy the game either way, because there aren't a lot of competing options on the Xbox One. You have a choice between "buy good game for XBone" or "Watch Netflix with XBone". The resolution and frame rate differences are a hardware manufacturer and hardware sales issue. Not a developer one. That decision point of "do I buy CoD on PS4 or XBone?" does not hurt Activision. It hurts Microsoft and only Microsoft.

 

[Laughing Man]

For those not versed in market speak:

We released a console that is less powerful and more expensive than our competitor so here's a meaningless statement to explain why it is what it is.

Seriously he could have at least rolled out Kinect, or the fact that the XBone is better as an all round media hub, that Live is better than PSN but instead he choose a load of meaningless bullshit and then tried too see just how far he could push that bullshit before he got called on it.

 

[seditary]

Xbox Director of Development says Xbox One is Effectively a Shit-box.

Fixed that.

 

[deadish]

Both SOny and MS can come up with all the bullshit they want. Dont care about 1080 and 60fps. All i want it great games. Ive been gaming since the Atari, resolution and fps are a non issue for me.

For you sir:
A high five across the table.

Both of the now current gen systems have enough exclusives that they either own or have coming down the pipe to justify interest in them.

And if one thing is sure, it's that the first party stuff will almost always be the best looking of the stable.

And if there's a second thing that is sure, it's that Halo is still fun regardless of whether it looks good or not. InFamous: Second Son is fun in 1080p 60fps, but so were the previous ones fun and they never were the best looking games. Same with early Halo or Fable games.

Fun is fun and if they can keep cranking out games that excite me, I'll stay interested. If they can't, then it's irrelevant what they "can" do as opposed to what they are in fact doing in regards to gameplay.

1080p 30fps

Just nitpicking.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

So let me get this straight. First they say that it's not a big difference. 30fps, 900p is no big deal. You can't even tell the difference. Then they say that the power is in "THE CLOUD". And now they're telling us that it's just super complicated and awesome?

NO IT ISN'T! It's actually very, very simple. It's a weak hardware. And no amount of tweaking o will make it stronger than it is. They might be able to squeeze more performance out of it in the coming years, but the same will happen to the PS4 and it's already a 50% more powerful system by it's very design.

 

[ZZoMBiE13]

Both SOny and MS can come up with all the bullshit they want. Dont care about 1080 and 60fps. All i want it great games. Ive been gaming since the Atari, resolution and fps are a non issue for me.

For you sir:
A high five across the table.

Both of the now current gen systems have enough exclusives that they either own or have coming down the pipe to justify interest in them.

And if one thing is sure, it's that the first party stuff will almost always be the best looking of the stable.

And if there's a second thing that is sure, it's that Halo is still fun regardless of whether it looks good or not. InFamous: Second Son is fun in 1080p 60fps, but so were the previous ones fun and they never were the best looking games. Same with early Halo or Fable games.

Fun is fun and if they can keep cranking out games that excite me, I'll stay interested. If they can't, then it's irrelevant what they "can" do as opposed to what they are in fact doing in regards to gameplay.

1080p 30fps

Just nitpicking.

I'd be annoyed at that if it didn't perfectly illustrate my point that it's irrelevant to bicker over the numbers.

 

[Daemascus]

This interview is so full of bullshit I can smell it through my monitor.

 

[Hairless Mammoth]

Man MS, just shut up. It's a x86-64 PC made with mid range slightly customized AMD APU. The PS4 is nearly the same, with some extra power and less OS and hidden processes bogging it down. They'd probably have almost the same performance for the same price if MS wasn't obsessed with the foolish idea of a live TV Picture in Picture and force feeding the Kinect.

MS, give it up guys - the secret to the XBone's amazing graphics is obviously Blast processing.

So, you're saying Sonic games will look better on the xbone? Neat. We'd better tell MS about this sales point for when the next Sonic comes out. At the rate they're going, I'd bet they would say something like that.

 

[thiosk]

My Xbone isn't just a super computer- its a super DUPER mega pooper computer!

I mean, give it up. You can jam a regular PC into a similar box for better performance. However, without the console, you can't sell the cheapest possible components at a same-price markup and run a walled garden style marketplace, thus squeezing every possible ounce of revenue out of the audience.

If they weren't so dishonest, it would be laughable. Welcome to the last credible console generation. I predict it falling apart. Supercomputer. Please. Informed by state of the art supercomputing circa 2000 AD

 

[The Lunatic]

If the Xbox is a super computer, mine PC must be some fucking NASA Grade shit.

Anyone who believes any of this has pretty much no idea what computer hardware actually is.

 

[Vegosiux]

Super-computer? Can it lift a building in a single bound? Why isn't it wearing a cape? Okay, more seriously, it's always funny to see such PR talk. I mean, that statement coming from someone who doesn't have a horse in the race would sound way different.

 

[Xeorm]

Sorry...what?

Correct me if I'm wrong...but what the hell does 'quality of pixels' mean?

As far as I understand, the higher the resolution, the more pixels there are on the screen - resulting in a higher quality image.

Isn't the quality of the individual pixels on a screen determined by the quality of said screen and nothing to do with the input?

Are they saying that they're sacrificing the number of pixels to get better RGB or something? Isn't that just matter of calibration? What the hell has that got to do with performance?

I'd bet that they're talking more about the image processing within a game. The game has a bunch of models, textures, and animations and all that has to be rendered onto an image to be shown to the player. The pixels don't become better, but they do end up showing better images (ideally).

Still, it's not like he's making a good argument. Saying your crap is harder to use than your more successful competitor isn't exactly a good thing, but that's what he's saying.

 

[CpT_x_Killsteal]

[...] His last statement that it's a design out of the super computer realm is utter horse shit. It doesn't even make a lick of logical sense. And saying they really pushed how fast the CPU is running? The cores are running at 1.75GHz. Maybe they were pushing it as far as they could without the cooling system failing and the console melting, but that's not fast. The major benefit from the new CPU is updated architecture and 8 cores. Not clock speed.

My guess is he's trying to appease investors

Mmmm my two favourite comments on this thread.

I wish people would stop trying to lie to their investors on a public forum, it just annoys everyone who isn't a total moron. Isn't their some way they can contact all their investors at once and lie to them privately?