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Xbox Series X: Next-Generation Technology Review

Hello everyone! We decided to start this week with more “light” and interesting material for many about our new Xbox Series X console. Today we’ll talk about how we managed to make it as powerful as the immersion effect (screenshots from games under the cat) and a little about Compatibility with previous versions of Xbox. Join now!



A few months ago,  we introduced the Xbox Series X , our fastest and most powerful console in history. Its appearance means the transition to a new generation of consoles, the creation of which we primarily thought about the players. The Xbox Series X will be available on New Year’s holidays and set new standards for performance, speed and backward compatibility, while allowing you to play thousands of games of all four generations.

Recently, the Xbox team, along with technology expert  Austin  Evans and  Digital Foundry,  was able to take a closer look at some of the technologies that underpin the Xbox Series X and discuss with developers the decisions they make to determine the fate of the new gaming generation. We spent the whole day discussing everything from a special console processor and solutions to reduce latency to backward compatibility and visual improvements.

(Editor’s Note: We will use a number of abbreviations in the publication and discuss technologies without always defining them. Therefore, we have created an  Xbox Series X dictionary  (in English) containing most of these terms and much more. We will provide relevant links. In addition , you can learn about the features of the  new Xbox Wireless Controller  and  how the  team reduces latency.) The

new generation of the Xbox has three key features: power, speed, and backward compatibility. Let's take a closer look at them and learn about the Xbox Series X technologies that have brought them to life.



The most powerful Xbox ever


Just starting work on the Xbox Series X, the team was determined to create the most powerful Xbox in history, and this led to a discussion on how to determine power in the new generation of consoles. In previous generations, power was determined primarily by graphic innovations: the transition from 8-bit to 16-bit graphics, then from 2D to 3D, from SD to HD, and finally to 4K.

Today, gamers want as many games as possible to run at 60 fps (frames per second), with high visual accuracy and a clear, effective response. The developers proposed creative solutions, such as dynamic scaling of resolution, which allows to maintain high image quality at a high frame rate, but very often this is done bypassing the limitations and obstacles in existing systems. All this will change with the release of the Xbox Series X. Not only the appearance of the games will be improved, but the entire gameplay.



“The Xbox Series X has dramatically increased GPU performance, and graphics quality has reached a new level with new features like hardware-accelerated ray tracing,” said Jason Ronald, Director of Product Management, Xbox Series X. - But we do not believe that the main thing in this generation of consoles will be only graphics or resolution. "

The members of the engineering team understood that they needed to create a new generation console on which to run games in 4K at 60 fps without compromise for developers. They also set themselves the goal of providing a level of performance that was previously unavailable in consoles, including support for 120 fps for the most high-tech and competitive games. The team considers such parameters as resolution and frame rate to be creative solutions that are better left to the game developers, but it was necessary to ensure that the system could provide the proper quality for the most powerful blockbusters, e-sports disciplines and innovative adventure games.

To meet these needs, the team has strengthened its long-term partnership with the AMD processor manufacturer, who began working with the Xbox team over 15 years ago on the Xbox 360. Sebastian Nussbaum, Corporate Vice President and Senior Partner, Head of Semi-Custom Products and Technologies at AMD, he talked a little about what solutions were created to provide the power of the Xbox Series X.

According to Nussbaum, thanks to the focus on transformational design and increased productivity in the new generation, “the console will become a real platform for the development of technological innovations.” This will largely be due to the presence of a special 8-core AMD  Zen 2 CPU  and the graphics architecture of the  RDNA 2-class GPU .

This next-generation architecture provides a new level of productivity that allows developers to create realistic and reliable gaming worlds that we have not seen before, while creating the basis for the development of the DirectX ecosystem, which will contribute to the development of the industry.

“The Xbox Series X is the biggest breakthrough in the development of single-chip systems (SOC) and software interfaces from all the generations of devices we created in collaboration with Microsoft, and it is an honor for AMD to remain Microsoft's trusted partner in this endeavor,” said Nussbaum. “The Xbox Series X will be a true technology innovation leader in this generation of consoles and will spur innovation in the DirectX ecosystem this year and beyond.”

After AMD’s presentation, technical specialist Andrew Gussen took a seat at the microphone to talk more about the technological “chips” of the Xbox Series X. Below is a list of features with links to our glossary that defines many of these terms:



For more information, read information from Digital Foundry - you’ll have a clearer idea of ​​what these features mean for developers and players.

One of the main (and most noticeable for players) features of the Xbox Series X will be  hardware support for ray tracing DirectX Raytracingthanks to which the simulation of refraction and propagation of sound and light in real time will be much more accurate than in all previous generations. To see how this technology affects games, Clayton Here, Minecraft CTO, showed a tech demo showing how ray tracing can transform the most popular games.





Switching between a regular image and an image with hardware acceleration of DirectX ray tracing, I conducted a “tour” of the Minecraft world and showed how realistic light completely changes the game. The shadows cast by objects become clear or blurry, depending on how far you are from the object, and a warm orange glow emanates from the lava, which scatters at a distance and is reflected on the rails. Even the moon casts off rays that penetrate the room through cracks in the wall and collide with particles floating in the air. The visual effects of ray tracing completely change the perception of Minecraft landscapes, allowing the player to plunge headlong into a more realistic world.

But the most impressive was how now the light passes through transparent objects - for example, glass - being painted in their colors. This is clearly visible in the corridor, where the walls are made of rainbow-colored glass cubes, each of which casts a shadow of its color on the floor. One of the most unlikely substances is still very impressive - water. Ray tracing technology made it completely transparent, moonlight can now penetrate through it to a player under water and realistically bounce off algae swaying in the waves. This amazing demo video showed what possibilities the technology of refraction of rays in Minecraft is fraught with - I could not even imagine such.

Concluding his talk about the power of the Xbox Series X, The Coalition Studio CTO Mike Reiner showed how his team plans to optimize their Gears 5 development for the Xbox Series X. He demonstrated the Gears 5 technical demo based on Unreal Engine for the Xbox Series X with graphics settings at the level of ultra-high-quality PC versions, including the highest resolution for textures, increased clarity of volumetric fog, and a 50% increase in particle density. An opening in-game video (cutscene) was also shown - with a frequency of 60 fps in 4K resolution (on the Xbox One X the frequency was 30 fps) - this means that now the transition from the screen saver to the game will be as smooth as possible.



Improvements have affected other areas. Download time was reduced as much as possible, and the team was able to fully utilize a number of new features that were disabled in the Xbox One X version. Among the updates are contact shadows (which allow better conveying the depth of objects) and shading effects on vegetation, making each scene more realistic. Reiner also said that the game is already starting at 100 fps and the team is working to get a performance of 120 fps in multiplayer modes, giving players the opportunity to enjoy the unsurpassed quality of the game. What is most impressive? The fact that the studio managed to achieve such results in just a few weeks.

The developers also announced that the optimized version of Gears 5 for the Xbox Series X will be available to owners of the current version of the game immediately on the day the new console is released thanks to the Smart Delivery system.

Improved immersive effect and breathtaking speed


The next important aspect of the Xbox Series X is speed, which can be measured in a variety of ways. Modern devices have changed our expectations: most of us now want to be able to instantly switch between applications and continue to play from where we left off. Therefore, the developers designed the system architecture in such a way that you could spend more time in the game and less in anticipation.

In many ways, this has become possible thanks to the use of a solid state drive (SSD). Traditional hard drives have already exhausted almost all available performance limits, so investing in data transfer at the SSD level was simply necessary to ensure the proper quality, given the plans for the Xbox Series X. The developers put special emphasis on these changes, since it was clear that the key to a new level of performance lies here. But they did not want the upload and download speeds to affect only how fast the games started.

Thus, the revolutionary new Xbox Velocity architecture was created for gaming  . with close integration of hardware and software solutions. This will open a new, previously inaccessible opportunity in the development of consoles - instant access to 100 GB of virtual memory for developers. The components of the Xbox Velocity architecture are involved in such a way that it was possible to run multiplayer games entirely based on physical memory, and this literally changes everything.



“The central processing unit (CPU) is the brain of the new console, the graphic processor (GPU) is its heart, and the architecture of the Xbox Velocity is the soul,” said Andrew Goossen, technical partner at Xbox Series X at Microsoft. - The architecture of the Xbox Velocity does not just provide speed. This is one of the main innovations of the new console. It completely changes the way games are created. Giant and most realistic worlds await us with her. ”

First of all, these technological improvements will affect the quality of games with large-scale worlds that offer players freedom of movement and discovery. Games such as Final Fantasy XV, Assassin's Creed Odyssey and Red Dead Redemption 2 have determined what dynamic, life-full worlds should be like on the new generation of consoles.

To make these worlds even more dynamic, large-scale and detailed, you need a significant increase in computing power and the ability to reproduce as quickly as possible, without violating the effect of presence (without long trips on the elevator or long empty corridors, which developers usually mask loading processes). Developers will also be able to effectively reduce loading times between levels and create truly fast moving systems.

Speaking of speed, one cannot but mention the delay time.

“Demanding eSports fans need clear, responsive management,” Goossen said. “The Xbox development team has analyzed all the elements involved in the gameplay - from the controller to the console and from the console to the display - we set ourselves the goal of using every opportunity to reduce the delay time to ensure the best gaming experience on the Xbox.”



To do this, the team created a new Dynamic Latency Input (DLI ) technology  , and also made some changes to HDMI 2.1, adding new game-oriented features such as 120 Hz support,  Variable Refresh Rate (VRR)  and automatically switch to a low latency mode (the Auto-Mode the Low Latency, ALLM) . In addition, over the past two years, developers have collaborated with leading TV manufacturers to prepare modern screens for the new features of the Xbox Series X.

When using each of the above technologies individually, it would be difficult to notice some effect, but when they work together, the result becomes much more responsive management.

And finally, thanks to the speed of the Xbox Series X, a number of opportunities for players have been significantly improved. The most noticeable thing is  the  boot time , significantly reduced due to the processing power of the Xbox Series X.

About the new Quick Resume technology   already told earlier. On today's consoles, you can continue the game from the moment you left off. However, most players on average run three to four games a month, so the developers decided to provide the ability to easily and quickly switch between them. With the Quick Resume feature, you can resume several games at once with the click of a button and instantly switch between them right from where you left off.

Since the progress of each game will be stored directly on the system SSD, it will remain with you even after turning off the console, completely disconnecting it from the network and after updating the system. One of the testers turned off his console for a week, and then updated the system, after which he was able to continue the game from the place where he stopped - no download was required.

Backward compatibility will continue in the new generation


The third and final pillar of the Xbox Series X is backward compatibility. In the Xbox One era, developers have repeatedly demonstrated their love and commitment to compatibility. Players and their favorite games are the main value for the Xbox team. Like gamers themselves, they understand that we all have favorite memories, franchises, or games that we want to continue playing, even when technology and design continue to evolve.

“The community’s feedback on Phil’s announcement of backward compatibility with 360 E3 games in 2015 was one of the highlights of the Xbox team for me,” said Ronald.

When working on the next-generation console, the team from the very beginning realized that it was necessary to redouble efforts to ensure compatibility. As a result, the system was designed in such a way that with the optimal combination of hardware and software, the multi-thousand library of Xbox One games, Xbox 360 and even the original Xbox console will be available on the Xbox Series X in even better quality.

“The developers told us about the Xbox Series X. They said,“ How can you further increase power? ” The goal has been set. They gave us the Xbox One X - and it’s like we got a big playground, ”said Peggy Lo, Principal Program Management Lead, Backward Compatibility. “And when they gave us the Xbox Series X, we seemed to have a whole amusement park.”



Players will see the benefits of improved Xbox Series X hardware for backward compatible games: improved download times, more stable frame rates, higher resolution, and improved image quality. Compatibility specialists will also continue to create completely new technologies and innovations that we can use to further improve the existing game catalog when launching on the Xbox Series X.

The Xbox team is so committed to the idea of ​​compatibility between games and different generations of consoles that we will help you take with you to the new a generation of not only games, but also your Xbox One accessories, progress, and saved files. In fact, your entire gaming experience will go with you into a new generation.

But that is not all. The team has developed a multi-player game system on different generations of consoles and a new Smart Delivery feature  that allows you to buy the game once and be sure that you will get the best version, no matter which Xbox console you decide to play. This will allow players to seamlessly transition between generations of consoles. The Xbox Series X is the fastest and most powerful Xbox console ever. In this generation of consoles, the main character is you. We hope that this review of the Xbox Series X's design and technology solutions has helped answer your questions and understand what the new console will be available later this holiday.

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