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Backward compatibility has returned to the spotlight after the announcement of the Xbox Series S, with the lower-powered console capable of playing all the same games as Xbox Series X, but questions were raised as to whether and how it can improve those games. compared to Xbox One S and Xbox One X.
Microsoft has now detailed (via Digital Foundry) what the S Series will be capable of across the full range of backward compatible titles.
For the original Xbox and Xbox 360, the S Series will be able to significantly scale and improve those games. Similar to Xbox One X and Xbox Series X, the emulation layer will be able to increase the rendering resolution of the game in select games, the same ones already listed as Xbox One X Enhanced.
This will be done in accordance with Microsoft’s Xbox Series S target resolution of 1440p, so Xbox Enhanced games running at 480p will get a 3x boost on both axes (giving us 9 times the resolution), while Xbox 360 games will have their 720p. doubled resolution. In both cases, this results in a native 1440p. These can be further scaled with the S Series resolution at 4K.
Much more interesting is the situation with Xbox One backward compatibility. As previously confirmed, the Xbox Series S will not be able to take advantage of Xbox One X’s enhanced modes in games. While the biggest benefits come from resolutions up to 4K and performance modes for higher frame rates, games could also have higher detailed game assets that make use of the most RAM on the Xbox One X. In other words , Backward compatibility of the S Series will play games in One S mode, restricted to whatever resolution and frame rate limit the developers encode; This could often max out at 900p instead of 1080p, but you can use the power to stabilize dynamic resolutions. and frame rates at their highest settings.
However, there is still a chance to significantly improve the games beyond that. At the system level, the SSD will reduce load times and Auto HDR can add HDR to games that don’t support it natively, but Microsoft has talked about the ease with which developers can add the specific resolution of the S Series. and frame rate modes.
System architect Andrew Goossen told Digital Foundry: “We made it easy to upgrade existing Xbox One S games to run at twice the frame rate when they are also played on the S Series. Existing games can be consulted to determine if they are running on the new console. And in terms of performance, the S Series provides more than twice the effective CPU and GPU performance of the Xbox One, making it pretty straightforward for games to do this. And indeed, the S Series GPU runs the Xbox One S games with better performance than the Xbox One X. “
So “you don’t need a real performance tuning when you do this, and quite often it’s as easy as changing three lines of code, and then the game works.” Sometimes it’s not that simple and some elements of the games can be tied to certain frame rates, but Goossen emphasizes that these should also be simple to fix.
As for which games will be improved? Well, games with large communities and active development will probably be improved as well, even if the developers do not plan to make a dedicated version for Xbox Series X | Yes, they could be improved, but Microsoft is working with as many developers as possible to test and improve the games.
Microsoft’s compatibility team could also take over, as they have done for the Xbox and Xbox 360 game enhancement process. As in those cases, there are ways to override a game to enable different texture filters, tweak resolutions etc, but it looks like Microsoft will continue to do so in collaboration with developers rather than making one-sided changes.
It’s a pretty fascinating proposition, but it really will depend on how widely it is adopted by developers. I’m sure the newer games that are still being patched will likely include such changes in their next update, and some legacy games that had Xbox marketing partnerships like Assassin’s Creed or Tomb Raider could get a push for such changes to be made, but don’t do it. I hope something like F1 2017 or Black Ops III gets modified.
Source: Digital Foundry
