A recent information leak perpetrated by the hacking group H4LT, has revealed information about the Xbox One’s development kit that could explain why certain recent multi-platform third-party video games are performing better on the console than the PlayStation 4.
According to Eurogamer, Microsoft is giving developers access to a seventh core, a part of the system’s CPU power previously dedicated to enabling Kinect features like voice and gesture control, as well as the Xbox One’s operating system. Previously two of the console’s eight cores were reserved for these functions, but now Microsoft is allowing developers to use 50% to 80% of one core for game performance.
In order to take advantage of this extra hardware power developers need to give up the ability to use game-specific voice commands as well as Kinect’s infra-red and depth functionality. CPU usage with this core is also reportedly variable, with system-related voice commands like “Xbox record that,” or “Xbox go to friends,” moving the extra core’s usage to approximately 50%. According to Eurogamer, this means, “scheduling tasks will be troublesome,” for developers.
While giving developers the option to remove Kinect functionality from games to increase hardware power, is a logical step forward for Microsoft since not every Xbox One comes with the gesture-controlled Kinect, taking advantage of the new development feature seems like it is a complicated task. There’s no way for a game creator to know when a player might use a voice command, limiting the amount of power available in the extra core.
Games such as Assassin’s Creed Unity, a title suffering from technical issues across the Xbox One PS4 and PC, performed better on the Xbox One than the PS4. Some users have also reported GTA V runs smoother on the Xbox One than the PlayStation 4.
It’s unclear if this additional hardware power will help multiplatform Xbox One titles achieve parity with PS4 games, allowing them to also run at 1080p.
Source:: National Post
