Overwritten.net
Games => General Gaming => Topic started by: idolminds on Tuesday, May 13, 2014, 08:36:14 AM
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WARNING SIRENS (http://news.xbox.com/2014/05/xbox-delivering-more-choices)
First, beginning on June 9th, in all markets where Xbox One is sold, we will offer Xbox One starting at $399*. This is a new console option that does not include Kinect.
Coming in June, anyone with an Xbox will be able to access popular entertainment experiences – whether or not you have an Xbox Live Gold membership. This includes great gaming apps like Machinima, Twitch and Upload, popular video services like Netflix, Univision Deportes, GoPro, Red Bull TV and HBO GO, sports experiences like the NFL app for Xbox One, MLB.TV, NBA Game Time, NHL Game Center and more. Microsoft experiences including Internet Explorer, Skype, OneDrive and OneGuide will also be available to all Xbox customers.
Looks like that is also true for 360 owners
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That was fast. 2 observations. One, the obvious one, they're hurting. The $100 price disadvantage against the PS4 and the more limited territories are killing them in sales. It makes sense to have a directly competitive price point. Now they need to address the global issue, which brings up the next point. Two, Kinect is holding them back, even without considering its cost. The thing has to be programmed for each language and possibly every variation of each of those, individually. This is the reason the XB1 is still trying to find its way into a lot of markets. Take it, and the expected voice recognition out of the picture, and the world opens up right away.
I give them one thing. They sure don't sit around pushing a losing proposition for very long. For me, the Kinect was an impediment too, not because of language barrier, but because it needs a lot of space to work properly, space which I don't have, and which I have no inclination to provide. (Come to think of it, this too could be an issue in many other countries, if not the US.) With it and the price disparity out of the way, the new Xbox looks more attractive, closer to par with the PS4, in terms of hardware alone. I'm still waiting for that one game that lets me know I have to have one or the other.
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I gotta hand it to Microsoft for trying to adapt rapidly. It's a good effort to see from any company.
Sadly, It's too little too late for someone like me.
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They are in so much trouble. They doubled down on Kinect this console generation and just shot it in the head. They've now done a 360 (ha) on pretty much their entire software and hardware strategy that they set out of the gates with.
It's probably a good thing for them, but I really can't help but feel that this is really a last resort type of move. Sony is killing them in sales, to the point where the PS3 overtook the 360 and then the PS4 has been blowing the One out of the water. Kind of strange when you think about the start of the last generation where the PS3 was doing so terribly.
Honestly, I think Sony is siting in an amazing position with what they have going on right now with the PS4, Vita, PS3, and Playstation Plus (not so much PSN itself...that shit needs work). PS+ is probably the best value in gaming right now and does a great job of locking people into the Playstation brand. They're also actively spending time developing technologies with future potential (PS Now, their VR), and seem to have learned a lot from the past.
It will be interesting to see if they (or if they even can) counter this somehow.
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That was my first reaction, that MS was hurting and was in trouble. That's because this move seems drastic.
But apparently Xbox One has sold really really well. Not as well as the PS4, but it isn't so far behind.
What I don't understand is that if the Xbox One features worse hardware, then even at the same price, isn't the PS4 a better option? At $100 more, OK you get the Kinect.
Without the Kinect, at the same price, the Xbox One actually seems worse to me/
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The hardware is a bit weaker, but not so much that it will make any difference to most buyers. Compelling games will make all the difference, and we're still waiting on those. Plus Microsoft isn't going to drop the price below the PS4's as some sort of admission of weaker hardware (or weaker prospects). That would be a marketing suicide.
I've been leaning toward the PS4 too, but ironically the only game that has grabbed my interest so far as a new-gen stepping stone is Insomniac's XB1 exclusive (yeah, I know, right?) Sunset Overdrive (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mLLqjNwpDk). So who knows what I end up buying.
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That was my first reaction, that MS was hurting and was in trouble. That's because this move seems drastic.
But apparently Xbox One has sold really really well. Not as well as the PS4, but it isn't so far behind.
What I don't understand is that if the Xbox One features worse hardware, then even at the same price, isn't the PS4 a better option? At $100 more, OK you get the Kinect.
Without the Kinect, at the same price, the Xbox One actually seems worse to me/
One thing to keep in mind is that some people are somewhat locked-in to Xbox Live. Not so much due to the games purchased (do XBL purchases on Xbox 360 even work on Xbox One?), but because of the group of friends they have. My stepson was initially gung-ho about getting an Xbox One because all his friends have the 360 and play and chat together on XBL and they were just going to graduate to the Xbox One. He's changed his tune because I was able to convince him and his friends that they should get a PS4 instead. The echo chamber in their little group resulted in them eventually changing their minds. I admit that a little of what I said was FUD, because how are you going to make pre-teens care about consumer rights? :troll:
In my view as an Xbox 360 owner, I really wish I had a PS3 instead. It's not that it has been a bad experience aside from two RRoDs; on the contrary, the Xbox 360 platform saw significant improvement over time. It's that I don't really play multiplayer (certainly not on consoles), so I'm not XBL Gold member. I also don't care about the Halo franchise. Considering those items and some of the games I missed out on, like Last of Us, I just don't see value in remaining a customer of Microsoft for the next console generation. So many games these days are cross-platform and Sony's exclusives seem better than Microsoft's. Plus you have the case that, generally, cross-platform games are running at higher frame rates and resolutions on the PS4.
In regards to Microsoft's recent announcement of a lower-priced Xbox One option that ditches the Kinect and that streaming services won't be locked behind a XBL Gold membership, I agree that it is a sign that Microsoft realizes that 1) they aren't in the position of power this generation that they were in with the Xbox 360 and the possible ramifications that means in terms of revenue and 2) the PS4 was too attractive to gamers due to the lower price point, the better specs/results, and the unpopularity of Kinect from a utility and privacy perspective. I think Microsoft really overestimated their position in the marketplace. They thought they could just do anything they wanted and that people were sufficiently locked into the Xbox brand that they would just follow along. I am sure this has been a wake-up call for them.
Their strategy will probably pay dividends in the long-run. Subsidizing the devices more heavily hurts revenue and raises expenses in the short term, but in the long term will probably result in an increase in take-up rates like it has with the Surface devices. It might even result in a similarly powerful position like they had with the 360. Console take-up probably resembles an exponential curve after a certain critical mass point. The more people that get one, the more people that get one. As the Saturn, 3DO, Jaguar, Dreamcast, Gamecube, and Wii U show, if you can't get your installed base over a certain hump, you aren't going to get the critical mass that you need to get the third parties attracted and the resulting console purchases that will come with those. So it is important for Microsoft to do something sooner than later.
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It'll probably be a few years before I get a new console but I was going to get a PS4 just because of Kinect. I hate voice and motion controls and I have very little space so Kinect is neither wanted nor practical. It makes no sense to pay extra for a feature that I wouldn't even take out of the box.
Now with this new scenario Xbox One is back in the running. I prefer the controller to the PS4 so that alone may push me over the edge.
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Cobra, most games coming out now on both consoles are on a lower resolution on the Xbox One with choppier framerates. That affects how I think about the systems, but as you say, it may not bother everyone.
So this is quite interesting:
http://www.gamespot.com/articles/1080p-dropping-kinect-could-lead-to-xbox-one-performance-boost/1100-6419621/
Apparently without Kinect Xbox One could match the PS4.
But this is interesting. They are now using the phrase 'dropped Kinect from the Xbox One', which makes it sound like the Kinect is being abandoned. I wonder how the early adopters will feel about that.
Scottws,
I agree. Many of my American cousins decided to stick with the Xbox one basically because of Xbox Live.
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I think Microsoft's target demographic is in the United States explicitly. What turned me off of the XBOne initially was that the majority of its features only benefit people with services that are exclusively available in the USA. The TV features, the streaming apps features, they all work for the US and practically nowhere else. That first reveal of the XBOne (aside from its abysmal appearance) completely extinguished any excitement I had for it. Microsoft had made it clear that this console is not for me; it was all about TV.
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Performance issues will be ironed out over time. They always are, with the PS3's being the most recent example. As the system software is made more efficient, and game code gets closer to the metal, I'm convinced the hardware differences between the One and the PS4 will become irrelevant. The goal is 60 fps at 1080p--a reachable goalpost, not infinity. Look at early games on Gen 7 vs late games. You'd think they belong to 2 different console generations, if you didn't know better.
With that out of the way, and the initial Microsoft flubs out of the way, all that will matter is the games. Set-top box bullshit won't matter. Kinect won't matter. (Once it's optional, it's no more important than any other console add-on peripheral.) The price is the same for both contenders, and without having to teach the dumb Kinect every dialect known to man, the world markets are equally available to both as well. So it gets back to the games, as it should be. I hope so, anyway. It's not good for us if either of these companies becomes too dominant.
I'm also convinced that we are well into diminishing returns at this point in the technology curve. We're seeing a lot of cross-gen games because many of us are not ready to abandon Gen 7 just yet. There's no compelling reason to do that. The new gen brings graphics that are a little smoother, a little crisper and a little more detailed. Sound has been a fully solved problem for a long time. There is no fundamental hardware leap to wow the masses into parting with billions in cash. Again, all about the games, not the technology.
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But this is interesting. They are now using the phrase 'dropped Kinect from the Xbox One', which makes it sound like the Kinect is being abandoned. I wonder how the early adopters will feel about that.
No, seriously; this move was the announcement of the death of Kinect. The only chance for it to be widely supported and implemented was for it to be universally packaged with the hardware. This totally cripples it's ability to be utilized in games and probably means Microsoft won't be focusing on implementing and improving it's integration with the OS.
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Supposedly the Xbox One reserves 10% of the CPU for Kinect. 8% for gesture and 2% for voice. There was already talk of allowing developers to disable the 8% for gesture. My concern as someone who already has an Xbox One, is will I lose access to voice commands in-game now? There are a number of voice commands that I use regularly just for OS navigation.
Xbox on
Xbox turn off
Xbox record that - record last 30 seconds of gameplay
Xbox snap Game DVR - allows me to save a recording of up to the last 5 minutes of gameplay
Xbox go to friends - goes to the friends list
Xbox go to Titanfall (or any game/app)
other's I'm forgetting right now
Are these voice commands worth $100? No, but I'd like to use them since I already have the Kinect. I'm not pissed that I paid an extra $100, that's part of being an early adopter, but I'd like to still get use out of it. If it becomes useless outside of games specifically designed for it, then I'm upset I paid the extra money.
Also, without Kinect required, I wonder how long it will be until the return of the 360 style guide popup. Right now, pressing the Xbox button shrinks your game/app down into the main tile of the UI. Holding it prompts you to turn off your controller or system. Also, a friend who does testing for MS told me that this button is called the Nexus button, and is called the same thing on the 360 controller. I always thought it was called the Guide button, even officially.
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Regarding all this talk of CPU reservation for Kinect and how all this performance will be unlocked now without that requirement: my understanding is that this is a CPU reservation. Pixel-pushing is more about the GPU for most modern games. So, while there might be a slight performance bump available, it does not necessarily mean that all cross-platform games will now be at identical resolutions and framerates on both the Xbox One and PS4.
With regards to Cobra saying that performance issues will be ironed out over time, that is true but the architecture of the Sony and Microsoft systems are very similar this time around. This means that performance improvements for Xbox One games will likely apply to PS4 as well.
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So it looks like I'm getting an XB1 (XBO? XO? Now that I'll own one, I need to pick one. I hate "Xbone".) There were some bundles floating around, with the white console and Sunset Overdrive for $400 first capturing my attention. But then the (normal black) console + AC Unity + AC Black Flag for the same price hit the scene. Since the SO bundle releases tomorrow, I was scouring around the relevant websites, and ran into this (http://www.bestbuy.com/site/microsoft-xbox-one-console-assassins-creed-unity-bundle/8439032.p?id=1219339616396&skuId=8439032). That did it. $350 for console + the new Unity game + the new-gen version of Black Flag, which I dearly love on the X360. It releases next Sunday.
I can easily look at this as $300 for the console + $50 for Unity + bonus BF game thrown in. That $300 price point for a new console is sort of the trigger point in my head, for some reason. But that alone wouldn't have gotten me to buy. I've been mulling over the Gen-8 consoles for a good year now. The tech superiority of the PS4 against the preferred controller, dashboard and network infrastructure of the XB1. It came down to the controller, the games and the trust in XBL established over 8 years of near-perfect service. While both of the games in this bundle are also available on the PS4, Sunset Overdrive and Forza Horizon 2 are not (and I do want both of these). I see nothing exclusive on the PS4 that I really want. And I don't want to go back to the DualShock layout and its painful left-thumb angle. The D-pad hasn't been the main directional input since the SNES. Seriously--Sony needs to give buyers the Xbox layout as an option. I doubt Microsoft can patent that, and it would remove this hurdle altogether.
I haven't bought anything major for nearly 8 years now. I got the X360 after moving back home at the end of 2006, after a year-long failed attempt at reconciling with the ex, and being with my kids. All my stuff, PCs included, was still in New York, so it was like my only entertainment for a few weeks (until I went back to get everything). It worked well as a distraction from the turmoil. Oh, it seems so long ago. Now that the excitement over this find is fading, it feels . . . weird. Where am I going to put it? How will the hookup go? Is the HDMI cable included? Will there be any issues with using my XBL account on both consoles simultaneously? How long will the downloads take? How big of a Day-1 update? Yadda, yadda. Ugh! Another week to sort out the fallout in my brain.
Edit: Woo! The wireless controller converts to a wired controller by hooking it up (http://support.xbox.com/en-US/xbox-one/accessories/connect-charge-cable-to-controller) with a USB cable. YES! No batteries for EVAR!
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It's a tough choice. After owning an Xbox 360 and now a PS4, I'll say that Microsoft definitely has the better interface, but I prefer the PS4 controller (not the same as what Sony has been doing since the PSX) and there were lots of PS3 exclusives I missed out on and zero Xbox 360 exclusives I cared about.
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Yeah, personally I prefer the Dual Shock, but that's just me. I have so much catching up to do that I don't think I'll be getting onboard with this generation for a while, although remote play on the PS4 + Vita tempts me.
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I far and away prefer the Dual Shock. I like the PS4's iteration of that controller a lot. I looked back on my 360 library when I was going through games to get rid of and realized it was 1/3 the size of my PS3 library, and even at that there was almost nothing I cared about. That trend continues with the Xbone. Every game anyone mentions looks exactly like any number of games from past generations. Of course that will get better as things go, but it never got "better enough" on the 360 for me. I wouldn't get an Xbone just based on Microsoft's 360 hardware blunders (it's doubtful I will ever buy another piece of Microsoft hardware due to that), and I absolutely hated the 360 interface, so I'm surprised to hear people prefer it on Xbone. I haven't actually seen it, so I'll reserve judgment, but the PS4's is elegant and simple, everything the 360 dashboard nightmare was not.
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I definitely prefer the Xbox controllers to the Dual Shocks. I just never cared for the stick placement or the convex stick tops. I haven't tried the PS4 controller, but it still has the same 2 major gripes I've had with the previous ones, so I'm not optimistic.
I'm still enjoying the hell out of my Xbox One, even a year later. I've been playing the shit out of Destiny, and before that it was Diablo III and Battlefield, with some Titanfall here and there. I just spent the last 4 hours playing Sunset Overdrive (started when the digital version unlocked), and that's fun as hell so far. Microsoft have also been putting out monthly updates, which have been adding some great features that were either missing when the system launched (compared to Xbox 360 functionality, like playing media across a network), or are just cool new things (like the upcoming custom backgrounds, or the ability to attach game videos to your social feed or a private message).
Also, without Kinect required, I wonder how long it will be until the return of the 360 style guide popup.
Not quite the all-encompassing mini-guide like on the 360, but there's now a little thing that pops up when you double tap the guide button. It allows you to snap apps and jump back and forth between things without needing voice commands. It brings up a 4 way menu that allows you to press left or right to bring the game or snapped app into focus (or snap the last app you had snapped, if you don't currently have on there), down to unsnap whatever is snapped, and up to bring up a list of snappable apps. Also while this menu is up, you can press x to record the last 30 seconds of gameplay. (the same as saying "xbox record that".)
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Thanks for the feedback. I totally agree about the controller layout. The concave/convex thing didn't bother me. In fact, it took a bit of time to get used to the raised edge on the X360 sticks. I did play the PS2 in its day quite a bit. The thumb angle always felt too severe. Move thumb left to go up, retract thumb to go left, etc. Plus the main joint didn't like it either. When the 360 came along, the controller felt natural immediately (except for the raised edge on the sticks).
Do you have anything hooked up to the HDMI in? I wonder how the 360 would work if I routed it through the XB1.
5 more days . . .
Edit: Looks like the $50 price drop is official (http://news.xbox.com/2014/10/xbox-one-special-savings) for the holidays, at least. So not just a Best Buy deal.
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Thanks for the feedback. I totally agree about the controller layout. The concave/convex thing didn't bother me. In fact, it took a bit of time to get used to the raised edge on the X360 sticks. I did play the PS2 in its day quite a bit. The thumb angle always felt too severe. Move thumb left to go up, retract thumb to go left, etc. Plus the main joint didn't like it either. When the 360 came along, the controller felt natural immediately (except for the raised edge on the sticks).
The symmetrical sticks never bothered me before using the Xbox controllers. After that they just felt awkward. I can't explain it, and I know I don't get joint pain in my right thumb from the position of the right stick (and I mostly play shooters, so both sticks are used a lot). It's just what I've become used to I guess. (I've owned all 3 Xbox consoles, and only owned a PS1, so I just have way more time on the asymmetrical setups.)
Do you have anything hooked up to the HDMI in? I wonder how the 360 would work if I routed it through the XB1.
Unfortunately it adds a delay to pass it through the Xbox One. A lot of people might not notice it, but I do and it drives me crazy. I tried to play Dead Rising 2 with it passed through the Xbox One. Less than a minute into the gameplay I decided to switch it back to it's own input. Also you can't use the game DVR app to record anything coming through the HDMI in. (I was really hoping to capture some GTAV Online moments with it.) It has to be an app that is categorized as a game. You can't "xbox record that" with Internet Explorer or YouTube, for example.
I personally would only use the HDMI for something non-interactive like video, unless you're going to be playing something turn-based or slow paced enough to not drive you nuts with the delay.
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Those are the 2 things I feared (lag, bullshit block on recording). Not doing it then. No reason to. Here's another question. (I should have remembered it earlier.) Are there any issues with logging into Live with the same account on both consoles simultaneously?
The right thumbstick rarely gets the same twitch demands that the left one does, even in FPS games. Maybe that's why it never bothered me. That, plus many games only make occasional use of the right stick. The face buttons are often more important (racers, for instance), so they belong where they are. The left stick always comes into play. And the tips of my thumbs don't get to bump together, something I hated also. I'm thinking a couple of DS generations back, though. Maybe now the Sony sticks are further apart, and that wouldn't be an issue?
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Those are the 2 things I feared (lag, bullshit block on recording). Not doing it then. No reason to. Here's another question. (I should have remembered it earlier.) Are there any issues with logging into Live with the same account on both consoles simultaneously?
Nope, I've logged into both consoles with the same account plenty of times before with no issue. I have no idea what other people see, but I don't get kicked on the Xbox One while doing stuff on the 360. they share a display though, so I'm not actively doing stuff on both simultaneously. I think I've used one for chat while playing on the other though.
Also, I think having one Gold account on the One will allow anyone on that console to get Gold features. You could have Gold and a family member could use their own account on your system and play games online. Though I think most of the apps don't require Gold anymore, so if you don't play online you may not need it.
Speaking of XBL Gold. If you have it, or are planning to get it, Chariot is still free for Gold members for the next 3 days. You can get it on the store here (https://store.xbox.com/en-US/Xbox-One/Games/Chariot/aa923b65-9fc9-4af8-954e-654613a0ccc4) even though you don't have your Xbox One yet. (It's a cartoony indie platformer with local coop. I haven't tried it yet, but it's free so I grabbed it.)
EDIT: It looks like Crimson Dragon is still free for Gold members also (Panzer Dragoon spiritual successor). Here's the store link for that one (https://store.xbox.com/en-US/Xbox-One/Games/Crimson-Dragon/22562d7e-152c-4b14-8091-c8656dcb7f46).
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Thanks for posting the links, but it's not letting me "sign in". I am signed in, and I can see my avatar and gamertag, until I try to go to the XB1 games with gold. Then it tells me to sign in, but the button does nothing. I'm going to guess that it's because my profile is not tied to an XB1, so I'm out of luck until I actually sign into XBL with one. (Makes sense, actually.) Kinda maddening that it doesn't at least say "sorry, Charlie" or similar. No response at all.
Edit: Oh that's weird. I went through the Xbox 360 games gate, and chose games with gold. Then it let me see the XB1 games while I showed as signed in. So I went ahead and got Chariot for free. Let's see now if it works for Crimson Dragon.
Edit 2: Yep! Haha! Thanks, man. 2 more games for free. I know I have to stay signed into Live on the One to play these, though, unlike the free games on the 360. (Those are truly free.) Can't complain, though.
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I don't think you need to be online to play the free games, though I'm always online so I don't know. You do need to have an active XBL subscription though.
Also, the one big issue with Xbox One seems to be installs from disc. I don't have to deal with this because I've been 100% digital. Games apparently take FOREVER to install. I guess it has to do with trying to download day one patches while installing. To avoid it, you can do the following:
1) Go to network -> Go offline
2) Put in the game disc, start installing
3) wait for the ENTIRE thing to install (get to 100%)
4) go online
5) start game, update comes up
6) download patch
7) Play game only after entire patch is downloaded.
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Yeah, I've read something about that issue. Thanks for the workaround. My guess is they'll fix it eventually. I'll need to do a lot of downloading when I first set up the system, since all the games so far are digital (the AC games and the ones you linked). But my intention is to get anything full price ($50+) on disc. I have a real problem paying that much for digital. Maybe I'll get over it eventually.
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I got a Kinect! $100 surprise in the box. I paid $350 for this thing, and I got
- console (duh)
- controller (duh)
- codes for AC Unity and Black Flag
- chat headset (also unexpected)
- Kinect!
WTF? I know the Kinect SKUs are going for $450 with Microsoft's holiday promo, definitely not $350. Whatever. I don't know if I can even set it up. It wants 4' 7" minimum of distance, and I have less than 3' to the back wall. Perhaps off to the side? For now I'm ignoring it. Just a bonus that has to be a mistake on Best Buy's part.
The console is 56% done with the Day-1 update (nearly 1 GB). Download speed is not bad so far. The setup was a breeze except for snaking the power brick and cord around all the spaghetti behind my TV. The thing would not fit behind the desk, and I had to feed the console end of the cord upward from the floor while reaching for it with my other (thankfully long) arm over the desk. And hey! The HDMI port on my TV works! I've had it for years, and I didn't know for sure until today.
So far, so good. Ooo! New toy! First one since the Wii a few years ago. :)
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I'm kind of jealous. I like buying new stuff too.
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Buying new toys is the best. That little tingly feeling of giddiness while it's all still new ... if only it lasted forever!
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Done with updates. Now it's grabbing my 4 games (2 of them thanks to W7RE). I'm looking into a solution for the Kinect distance. From what I've read about use in small spaces, it looks like the best option is setting it up high, and have it look down at me. I have these 2 high bookshelf units on both sides of the desk. Hmm . . . Time to get creative.
I didn't want this thing, but since it was in the box, now I'm curious. It's heavy too. I was surprised by how heavy the box was on my way out of the store, and the Kinect is a big part of it.
Edit: Oh, hey look--a code for Dance Central Spotlight is in here too. Hahaha! Something else I wouldn't have bought in a million years. Can't beat free, though.
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I'm not sure why anyone would willingly invite the spyware that is the Kinect on the Xbox One inside their homes.
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Is it really that bad? I haven't really followed it
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I have my Xbox One setup next to my computer desk, and I sit in my computer chair to play it. The Kinect is about 3 feet from my face. Gestures don't work at all. They used to sort of work sometimes, and other times pick me up when I didn't want it to. It hasn't picked up anything in at least a month now. I'm fine with all that, as I have no games that have gesture support worth using. I love having it just for the voice commands though.
By the way, the Games With Gold offerings have changed for November. Volgarr the Viking released as part of GWG, so you can grab that for free now too. (one of the Viva Pinata games is up on 360 right now)
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Yeah, thanks. I already grabbed Volgar, though I don't think I'm going to like it. Viking I didn't see. [Edit: Oh, It's Volgarr the Viking. Duh.] I'll look again. Chariot is good fun. I'm enjoying that. I'm not quite sure what to think about Crimson Dragon yet. It might be more fun once I figure it all out. The business of dragon feeding and evolving is all a mystery so far.
I've had a few more surprises. The biggie is PC color space. I'm guessing this is only available through HDMI, because I don't recall ever seeing it on the 360 (though I had heard about it). What a night-and-day difference. I thought my TV just didn't have the ability to resolve low-light scenes well, but selecting this completely changed the picture (literally). It looks amazing now. Many dark shades before reaching the deep black, and colors that pop off the screen.
Then there's the suddenly installed games. I made the mistake of queuing up Unity ahead of Black Flag, since I can't play it till it releases officially (on the 11th). It was taking for-freaking-ever. I thought something was wrong, but all the investigations under "Network" showed that all was well. I resigned myself to just letting it stay in standby mode whenever I'm not using it, and let it take its sweet time. This morning, I saw that it was still only like 36% installed. Dammit! I clicked on the Unity tile, and got the store page with the overview etc. Then I went back, and tried to do the same with Black Flag. Aaand the game launched! WHOA! IT'S HERE! I guess the slowness is due to it dealing with all the queued items simultaneously (up to 5 at one point)? I never saw a progress bar here. No more complaints, though. It sorted itself out nicely, and I don't care if Unity takes another week to come down the pipe (as long as other stuff can be installed in the meantime).
Black Flag looks so much better than on the 360. Even the modern-day stuff, which looked like shit on the old box, looks rather good. The better color space makes such a difference, the texture resolution is clearly much better, and there are quite a few added effects--cannon smoke, god rays from the sun, multi-layered water transparency and reflections, water puddles, foliage that moves with you, and not a hint of color banding anywhere. I haven't seen any fog yet, but I'm hoping the PC volumetric fog made it to this version too. Fog really looks like crap on the 360, to the point that I would often fast-travel to a sync viewpoint just to make it go away. Fluttering sails would be nice too, but I'm a-ways off from being able to check those out.
I appreciate the feedback on the Kinect at close quarters. I can get 5 feet between it and me, but not horizontally. If it can deal with me from up above and to the left, I may find it useful. I won't mess with that for a while yet, though.
Edit: Oh cool! If you press Menu (Start) on a queued item, you can tell it to Install Now, which floats it to the top of the queue. That solves everything.
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Volgarr is tough. I've only been to the second level, and that took a lot of time and memorization. The game is fun, but not something I find myself wanting to really dig into as much as would be needed to make real progres. I can't comment on Crimson Dragon. Despite owning it since launch (won a copy on Twitter), and have yet to play it lol.
Yea I'm not sure what it does when you queue up so many things at once. The only time I've had more than one or two going was when I pre-ordered Sunset Overdrive digitally and it downloaded like 4-5 bonus items. I paused the game download to let the other ones finish, then resumed it. I usually download things overnight, so they're typically done by the time I wake up. Even the really big games, and my connection tops out at 1MB/sec.
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The system is impressive, although much of what makes it so isn't strictly necessary for just gaming. Still, I find it very appealing to be able to multitask between games running under the XOS and apps running under Windows 8. (I didn't know what a hypervisor (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypervisor) was. I do now.) I could play for a while, then jump out and do something like watch a DVD, then resume the game where I left it off. Since I have it go on standby when I turn it off, I can resume from where I left off even the next day. This presents an interesting new problem. How do I really exit a game without forcing it by launching another game? AC Black Flag occasionally will stop playing ambient and battle music out at sea, and the only thing that will bring it back is a reboot of the game from scratch. (Quitting to the main menu and loading the save file will not fix this, or other sound bugs.) This was a problem with the 360 version too, but at least there ending the running game was easy. It's probably easy here too; I just need to discover the process. (Launching another game works in the meantime.)
Web content (IE) runs so much better than on this old PC. The only reason I'm back to the PC to type this is that I couldn't find the PS/2-USB adapter I know I have hidden away somewhere, so I could use an old spare keyboard on the Xbox. I was looking at the win and fail threads there, a painfully slow activity here because of all the embedded youtube. And youtube itself runs perfectly--so smooth. I'm so used to a stuttery mess on the PC. I usually will download the youtube videos I care about and watch them in VLC because of the crap youtube performance. I may just buy a cheap new USB keyboard somewhere, rather than hunt down an adapter for a dinosaur.
The controller is awesome. Improves on the 360's in almost every way (still getting used to the shoulder bumpers).
The D-pad is way better--completely reliable as the 360's should have been, and leaves no doubt when a direction has been pressed. The vibration of the triggers will take some getting used to. After 8 years, the rumble on the 360 became 2nd nature, and I don't even think about it. It just feels right. Here, it doesn't. Not yet. Smaller motors (in the triggers) means higher vibrating frequency, and it feels more like a buzz than a rumble. A bit weird at this early stage. There's the more traditional rumble motors in the handles too, and that feels very right.
Then there's the dual nature of the thing. It's both wired and wireless, depending on whether it's connected via USB to the console. If it is, the transmitter stops working. All data goes through the cable. Hardcore response with a wire, or casually laid back with a bit of lag. I think it uses WiFi Direct, though I'm not sure. What I do know is that it has much greater bandwidth than bluetooth, and latency is down to 9 ms (in wireless mode). I've tried it both ways, and haven't been able to tell the difference, besides shutting itself off after a few minutes of inactivity when wireless. I'm leaving it plugged in all the time now. I hope that doesn't hurt the battery pack. (Lithium-Ion--it shouldn't, right?)
The AC Black Flag version here has all the enhancements I was hoping for, and even a few I didn't know about, like the Jackdaw's deck getting awash when cutting through waves. Rain and fog look so good now. Foliage moves with you. The water and wave detail is markedly better. Sails flutter and wave in the wind. All firearms make a cloud of smoke, and sometimes gets so thick during a sea battle that you can't see what's going on. Trees have moss and other vegetation growth. Good stuff. The 30 fps is locked and consistent, and the control experience always smooth. Only the full-screen map moves herky-jerkily around, which is ridiculous. I guess no one thought this should be optimized. It's just a 2D scrolling display, so WTF? No new bugs at all, as far as I can tell. No crashes at all.
A few more days before I can try out AC Unity. That will hopefully be even more impressive than the cross-gen AC4.
I usually download things overnight, so they're typically done by the time I wake up. Even the really big games, and my connection tops out at 1MB/sec.
I do that a lot too. But I was getting only like 512KB/sec bandwidth from my 2MB/sec line. (It's supposed to be 20 mbps, or 2.5MB/sec, but it never goes past 2 for me on anything.) After giving the console a static IP address and opening all the ports to it in the router, my NAT went from strict to open. I tested the network, and now I'm getting 16 mbps (2MB/sec). I haven't had the chance to see if that's really an improvement in real-world XBL downloads, though. We'll see. Sure hope so.
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How do I really exit a game without forcing it by launching another game?
Highlight the game, press "start", choose "quit".
With any game or app, when you hit that button, the top items pertain to the game/app you were hovering on, and the bottom half of that menu is system wide commands (settings, help, switch profile).
I may just buy a cheap new USB keyboard somewhere, rather than hunt down an adapter for a dinosaur.
I was thinking about picking up this $20 wireless keyboard just for my XB1: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00C9W27RQ/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=20I3PPKP0S3XN&coliid=I5KLTIHF81IM&psc=1
Right now I'm just using an old PC keyboard I replaced not long ago. I've used a tenkeyless keyboard on my PC for years now though, so even this older one is smaller than most, but it's still corded.
I'm leaving it plugged in all the time now. I hope that doesn't hurt the battery pack. (Lithium-Ion--it shouldn't, right?)
I have no idea on that one. Though I plug mine into my PC and don't bother taking out the Eneloop rechargeables, and haven't had any issues.
I do that a lot too. But I was getting only like 512KB/sec bandwidth from my 2MB/sec line. (It's supposed to be 20 mbps, or 2.5MB/sec, but it never goes past 2 for me on anything.) After giving the console a static IP address and opening all the ports to it in the router, my NAT went from strict to open. I tested the network, and now I'm getting 16 mbps (2MB/sec). I haven't had the chance to see if that's really an improvement in real-world XBL downloads, though. We'll see. Sure hope so.
I've had party issues, not sure about speed issues, if I don't forward ports. I give it a static IP and forward like 7 ports, the ones suggested on xbox.com.
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I see the Quit option. Thanks! I still have so much to get used to. Like Snap. I get the idea, but I always get confused with it, and I end up not using it.
That KB looks good, except I'd be afraid to lose that itty bitty receiver, or drop it behind the desk.
While I was on the PC, the console went into standby (had it set for an hour of inactivity, now bumped to 6) and an update installed. When it came back from the reboot, the light on the controller cable was amber, meaning charging. So I'll guess that since charge leaks out of the batteries, leaving it plugged in all the time without it ever really going off isn't too great, because it will never sense that it needs to charge again. I should unplug it now and then, or restart the system now and then. (I did find that option.)
Oh, damn. So all that mucking about with the router and portforward.com didn't really do much for download speed. Eh. I've confirmed the speed is there now. Any slowness is at their end--not that I'd be happy about it. But at least I'd know it's not my fault.
I deleted you a long while ago from my friends list, because I didn't know who Fleshfeast was. :D Send me an invite sometime if you want to. HypnoticCoqui (still sounds stupid to me, still refuse to pay for a change) is my gamertag. I don't do much multiplayer, but at least I'll see what you're up to.
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I don't think there's an option to send an invite to someone, you can just follow them. Also, my name has a 1 in it: F1eshfeast, so careful you don't add the wrong person. It should show in your Activity Alerts that I added you. (Friends app, main screen, left side)
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Looks like your gamercard in your sig is back too (they were gone earlier), so I can look at that too. So no more invites. Way out of touch here.
Edit: That update I got last night turned out to be the November update. Check out the new features. (http://majornelson.com/2014/11/07/xbox-one-november-system-update-personalize-watch-tv-xbox-one-like-never/) That Restart Now option I mentioned is one of them. I didn't realize that, but I did notice the marked improvements in browsing the store. I now have Black Flag achievement art as my background. Works very well, since it's mostly dark anyway, with the assassin in the middle. I'll need to set up a USB stick with some personal photos to try out as well. But why doesn't it let me use OneDrive photo albums for this?
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I'm using this as my background: http://i2.minus.com/iRLH6dsRKWnWm.jpg
I don't want to just slap a picture on there, because it will mostly be obscured by the tiles. I may use the template they put out a while back to make one, but I don't feel like it right now.
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I'm leaving it plugged in all the time now. I hope that doesn't hurt the battery pack. (Lithium-Ion--it shouldn't, right?)
I looked this up a while ago and all Lithium-ion batteries will have built in circuit monitors to prevent damage from over charging. They don't handle trickle charging well, as Ni-Cad batteries used to, so the circuitry is necessary to prevent them from....well, catching fire I guess. That will shut off the charge to the battery at full capacity (or near) and not turn it back on until a certain threshold is met. So, in the case of your controller, current to the battery will be cut off (and I'd assume that the controller would then still be powered directly from the hard wire - like a laptop) until the natural power degradation from the battery sitting there unused causes the charging to kick back in - which should be days or weeks.
Lithium Ion batteries are fine to store charged, so you're good. "Memory effect" is mostly a myth these days, and the only things you really have to worry about with Lithium Ion batteries is that heat causes them to degrade (this is more of an issue with laptops and construction equipment), and keeping them 100% depleted CAN damage the sensors. In most devices, however, the the "out of juice" shutoff is at a similar threshold as the top end - so when my phone shuts off at 0% and refuses to turn back on, there's still probably a 5% charge in there which should ensure that the battery won't hit true zero for a couple weeks after the phone shut off. Power tools more or less work the same way now, and I'm sure the controllers do as well.
The prevalent wisdom behind lithium ion batteries these days seems to be "Don't worry about it, don't even think about it, do whatever".
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. . .
The prevalent wisdom behind lithium ion batteries these days seems to be "Don't worry about it, don't even think about it, do whatever".
Thanks, man. Good to know all that. I did know that Li-Ion batteries had some sort of charging smarts, but not the details. I really like the flexibility. Keep it wired until I need to untether for whatever reason, then just pull out the wire and keep going. Perfect.
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Hello from the XB1. Got this cheap KB from Amazon when I ordered my mom's new PC. Her old one is too old and messed up, so I had to get her something as cheaply as possible. She can't handle Win 8. She has such a hard time learning new tech stuff. Luckily I found this little HP desktop with Win 7 (+Win 8 upgrade option). Some sort of quad-core Pentium with 4GB RAM, 500GB HDD, and integrated everything. I think the case is mostly empty. Thing is plenty fast online, and for videos.
Anyway, it also found the XB1 on the network, and I was able to set it up as a device. Now I can stream from media player to the Xbox, which is so sweet. I can also pair youtube.com on a PC to the Youtube app on the Xbox, and finally get to see Youtube videos the way the rest of you do--smooth playback and full screen. Oh, her PC does fine with youtube and H.264. It's my dinosaur that can't keep up.
Not sure if all this belongs in here, but I didn't want to start a new thread for it. Peace, out!
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Hello from the XB1. Got this cheap KB from Amazon when I ordered my mom's new PC. Her old one is too old and messed up, so I had to get her something as cheaply as possible. She can't handle Win 8. She has such a hard time learning new tech stuff. Luckily I found this little HP desktop with Win 7 (+Win 8 upgrade option). Some sort of quad-core Pentium with 4GB RAM, 500GB HDD, and integrated everything. I think the case is mostly empty. Thing is plenty fast online, and for videos.
Anyway, it also found the XB1 on the network, and I was able to set it up as a device. Now I can stream from media player to the Xbox, which is so sweet. I can also pair youtube.com on a PC to the Youtube app on the Xbox, and finally get to see Youtube videos the way the rest of you do--smooth playback and full screen. Oh, her PC does fine with youtube and H.264. It's my dinosaur that can't keep up.
Not sure if all this belongs in here, but I didn't want to start a new thread for it. Peace, out!
For anyone using Win 8.0 or 8.1 - StartMenu8 (http://www.iobit.com/iobitstartmenu8.php) puts back in the old start menu [from Win 7]; and it also keeps ModernUI [for Windows 8].
That can be configured and set-up however you like - whether you want to use Old Start Menu by default, Modern UI by default, switch b/t the two, have hot keys to access either UI, whatever.
I'd easily + highly recommend that program.
I'm not a fan of Win 8's new ModernUI when using a KB-mouse combo, either.
I have Win 8.1 (with StartMenu8) installed on my laptop [since the laptop came with Win 8.1 already installed]; and my desktop gaming PC runs Win 7.
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I had looked extensively into doing that, and even had the process bookmarked. But then I found the HP with Win 7+8, and so much the better. No need to modify the basic interface, and I can always bump it to Win 8 in the future, if it makes sense. Also, Win 7 runs Office 2003, which she already had. No need to spend another 3 figures on Office. The compatibility upgrades for the newer formats (like DOCX) are still available too. I grabbed those right away. More still, Outlook 2003 has an easy migration path from Outlook Express, including the address book. Later versions of Outlook make it more difficult. She has all this organization of her email that would be lost without it.
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I had looked extensively into doing that, and even had the process bookmarked. But then I found the HP with Win 7+8, and so much the better. No need to modify the basic interface, and I can always bump it to Win 8 in the future, if it makes sense. Also, Win 7 runs Office 2003, which she already had. No need to spend another 3 figures on Office. The compatibility upgrades for the newer formats (like DOCX) are still available too. I grabbed those right away. More still, Outlook 2003 has an easy migration path from Outlook Express, including the address book. Later versions of Outlook make it more difficult. She has all this organization of her email that would be lost without it.
Oh, sure - I certainly understand all of that w sticking w/ Win 7! Want to make sure old stuff still works + being so used to Win 7 style/format.
Just if you, her, or anyone does have a PC and it's saddled w/ Win 8,. especially if you get a damn good deal on it - there's ways around it and to modify it! Bookmark them!
Question - will that PC w/ Win 7 + 8 only allow for upgrade?
Or can you dual-boot them?
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I don't know. I had not thought about it, since it's for my mom, and she won't be needing anything fancy like a dual-boot. I must say, though, that since I've moved away from gaming on PCs, a modest, but modern setup like this would not be too bad for me.
But I doubt it. Dual-booting would require repartitioning the drive, and it's already partitioned 3 ways, with recovery and HP tools each having its own small partition. I have a feeling it's just a straight upgrade.
Edit: This is the system (http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=9099499), in case you're still curious.
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I bought my mom a new notebook last year and really wish I had a Windows 7 option at the time - literally everything I looked at was Win 8. I don't know if it's Start8 I put on there to make it more of a familiar interface, but one of them and it works perfectly fine.....but fucking Windows 8, man. There is a bunch of little shit about it that is just so problematic for anyone not familiar with it. Why they thought it was a good idea to make a computer run with a tablet interface is beyond me, and some file extensions default to an "app" instead of a program. Sure, it's fixable, but it's still ridiculous.
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A poor decision, likely based on predictions during development that didn't quite pan out (like a mostly keyboard-less market). But at least that's understandable. What I don't understand, especially with Microsoft (who will otherwise backpedal in a hurry when needed--see the rest of this thread), is that they haven't fixed it, like they said they were going to. Windows 8 should detect the environment it's running on, and adjust itself accordingly. The user shouldn't have to jump through hoops and enlist third parties to get the GUI in a reasonable state for his device's capabilities. And the KB/mouse PC is still very much a mainstream device.
Related, but back on topic, the Kinect is absolutely no replacement for a mouse. I don't mean that it's less good; I mean that it's wholly unacceptable to navigate a GUI, even with huge fucking tiles for buttons. The lag is ridiculous, and the reliability of responses even worse. Speech works, but that's an entirely different kind of system control, and not suitable for everyday, continuous use. Besides, I hate talking to inanimate objects. But that's just me.
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I don't know. I had not thought about it, since it's for my mom, and she won't be needing anything fancy like a dual-boot. I must say, though, that since I've moved away from gaming on PCs, a modest, but modern setup like this would not be too bad for me.
But I doubt it. Dual-booting would require repartitioning the drive, and it's already partitioned 3 ways, with recovery and HP tools each having its own small partition. I have a feeling it's just a straight upgrade.
Edit: This is the system (http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=9099499), in case you're still curious.
It says Win 8 is optional.
Don't know if they mean it's dual-booted or upgradable from Win 7 to 8.
That seems absolutely fine for doing any non-gaming PC stuff.
If you ever wanted to do any kind of modern PC gaming - especially w/ modern AAA PC titles - I wouldn't touch that thing w/ a ten-foot pole.
Could always try to run older games on it whose requirements you pounce by quite a bit, of course.
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Related, but back on topic, the Kinect is absolutely no replacement for a mouse. I don't mean that it's less good; I mean that it's wholly unacceptable to navigate a GUI, even with huge fucking tiles for buttons. The lag is ridiculous, and the reliability of responses even worse. Speech works, but that's an entirely different kind of system control, and not suitable for everyday, continuous use. Besides, I hate talking to inanimate objects. But that's just me.
How does that even work with Kinect? Do you just point at the tile?
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When your hands are in range, you get a hand-shaped cursor for each onscreen. One hand is enough. You move your hand to a tile, then press forward in the air, and pull back. (You need to do both.) That clicks the "button". You can make a fist, which the system interprets as grabbing the screen. Then you can pan the screen in the direction you move your fist. All nice in theory, but in practice, it's a laggy, unreliable and frustrating exercise. A controller is much better; and a controller is nowhere near as good as a mouse would be for this. I'm sure they were thinking Minority Report. The reality falls far short of that.
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A poor decision, likely based on predictions during development that didn't quite pan out (like a mostly keyboard-less market). But at least that's understandable. What I don't understand, especially with Microsoft (who will otherwise backpedal in a hurry when needed--see the rest of this thread), is that they haven't fixed it, like they said they were going to. Windows 8 should detect the environment it's running on, and adjust itself accordingly. The user shouldn't have to jump through hoops and enlist third parties to get the GUI in a reasonable state for his device's capabilities. And the KB/mouse PC is still very much a mainstream device.
Related, but back on topic, the Kinect is absolutely no replacement for a mouse. I don't mean that it's less good; I mean that it's wholly unacceptable to navigate a GUI, even with huge fucking tiles for buttons. The lag is ridiculous, and the reliability of responses even worse. Speech works, but that's an entirely different kind of system control, and not suitable for everyday, continuous use. Besides, I hate talking to inanimate objects. But that's just me.
They did do exactly what you are saying, Cobra. It's called Windows 10.
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Today, a first, in my entire decades-long history with consoles: AC Unity crashed hard, with the audio stuck in an evil loud buzz. I pressed the Home button, and the system actually responded, letting me back out to the dashboard. It then proceeded to terminate the game program gracefully. I relaunched it, and played it for the better part of an hour without issue.
Never before has a console game crashed on me where the entire system didn't go down with it. I feel like celebrating this milestone somehow. Drink?
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Its pretty hard to crash the actual kernel of an OS anymore. Everything is a userland program that can be killed by the (still living) kernel.
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Yeah, I read that this system runs 2 OS's (XOS, Win 8 ) under a hypervisor, which was a new term for me. It still surprised me though. I know that ever since XP (any NT-kernel Windows, really) apps should never crash the OS. (Only bad drivers could.) But that nicety did not find its way into the X360. It always needs a power cycle when a game crashes.
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Around release, Microsoft was referring to it as 3 OS's. One for games, a second for apps, and a third to handle them both. The game OS will keep one game running, even in standby mode. You can go back to it at any time as long as you haven't run another game. The app OS will run 4 or 5 apps simultaneously, and start shutting down old ones when you try to run more than that. This is why you can go back to apps and often see what you were doing last time you ran it.
Oh, and recently I had a game (Archeage, a Korean MMO) crashing and giving me BSOD. I wasn't getting it in anything else, only when the game was running. This is in Win7 64bit. This was ultimately the reason I quit playing it.
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Huh, interesting. Never really thought about this. I know many times on the PS3 things would crash and not require a hard reset. Though sometimes they would.
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Around release, Microsoft was referring to it as 3 OS's. One for games, a second for apps, and a third to handle them both. The game OS will keep one game running, even in standby mode. You can go back to it at any time as long as you haven't run another game. The app OS will run 4 or 5 apps simultaneously, and start shutting down old ones when you try to run more than that. This is why you can go back to apps and often see what you were doing last time you ran it.
Oh, and recently I had a game (Archeage, a Korean MMO) crashing and giving me BSOD. I wasn't getting it in anything else, only when the game was running. This is in Win7 64bit. This was ultimately the reason I quit playing it.
If I understood what I read correctly, the hypervisor is sort of a master OS that handles virtual machines, and the XOS and modded Win 8 each runs as a virtual machine. That they went to such lengths for a game machine is impressive. (Maybe I'm too easily impressed.) Then again, MS was thinking beyond games, too far perhaps, which got them in trouble with their Xbox fanbase.
It's so handy to be able to jump out of a game into any app, or use that snap feature (that took me a while to figure out, because it's not intuitive). Meanwhile, the game is still running, and I can jump back in at any time. Out of being a computer geek, though, I always quit out of all apps manually when I'm going to play the game in earnest. One thing that bugs me is Media Player. It is so limited. The worst is not being able to keep music playing while I'm running something else. I'm positive there's no good technical reason for it.
If a program (even a Korean MMO) BSODs your NT-kernel OS (e.g., Win 7), then some driver is buggy. It could be a driver you already had, like video or audio, which only happens to misbehave for that particular game (but could affect others in the future), or the game itself installed a buggy driver for something.
This is something that I dealt with while I was still a software engineer. Drivers run at Ring 0 (most open system level), where they can hurt things plenty. Apps (e.g., user programs, games) run at Ring 2 and up, where they have no power to hurt the OS or underlying system. If I wanted to manipulate the system at the nuts & bolts level, I had to write a driver, which is a lot more involved than coding an app.
Wikipedia has some info on protection rings. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protection_ring) There happens to be some talk about hypervisors there too. Interesting. As I said, that's new to me. Also, it looks like drivers run at Ring 1, not 0 as I remembered/mis-learned. Haha! It makes sense. 0 is the kernel itself, the inner sanctum.
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Hypervisors aren't really new technology. Technically, the first one was out in 1967 although it wasn't called a "hypervisor" at the time. VMware ESXi (and ESX before it), Microsoft Hyper-V, and Citrix XenServer are all hypervisors. VMware ESX was the first modern and well-known one and it was released in 2002.
Hypervisor technology is extremely pervasive in medium and large businesses; pretty much everyone is using it. For instance, I estimate off-the-cuff that 95% of our 200+ servers are virtualized on eight physical host machines running the VMware ESXi hypervisor and the only reason that other servers aren't virtualized is because they require things like hardware telephony cards.
It's truly awesome technology. If we need to do something like upgrade RAM on one of the phyisical hosts, we have the ability to migrate the virtual servers running on it to another physical host live with no downtime of the virtual servers and no service outage perceptible to users. Then we can move it back when the maintenance is complete the same way with the same results.
Of course, if there is a problem with the hypervisor itself and you are unable to migrate the virtual machines off before rebooting it, it sucks because a bunch of virtual servers go down at the same time. Luckily such events are pretty rare and have only occurred one or two times a year at all the places I've worked.
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I am so far out of the loop anymore. That stuff all sounds like magic to me. Doesn't all that virtualization hamper performance? Or is the hardware so powerful that a bit of extra overhead doesn't matter? I'm surprised that I could have gone through 2 decades as an employed software guy without ever hearing the term hypervisor. I've known about virtual machines for a very long time, though. Just how new is the term, and what was it called previously?
Edit: "Virtual-machine monitor", or VMM. That looks more familiar. Heh.
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I am so far out of the loop anymore. That stuff all sounds like magic to me. Doesn't all that virtualization hamper performance? Or is the hardware so powerful that a bit of extra overhead doesn't matter? I'm surprised that I could have gone through 2 decades as an employed software guy without ever hearing the term hypervisor. I've known about virtual machines for a very long time, though. Just how new is the term, and what was it called previously?
Edit: "Virtual-machine monitor", or VMM. That looks more familiar. Heh.
Trust me, it's still like magic to me too. Whoever came up with it and got it working the way it does are geniuses.
I'm not sure what hypervisors were called before. Maybe just "virtualization". I think I first heard the term "hypervisor" maybe around 2007 or so. VMware's earlier product, GSX, wasn't actually a hypervisor. Rather it was a type of "paravirtualization" product. It ran on top of another operating system, so you had both the overhead of the base OS plus the virutalization layer. In that scenario, everything was virtualized through the virtualization product. It basically translated requests for the hardware to stuff the OS it was installed on would understand. Performance here took a big hit, but it was okay for lighter workloads or cost-conscious organizations.
With a real hypervisor, some of the bare metal hardware is actually exposed to virtual machines and they treat it as if they aren't even virtualized. In such cases, usually the hardware makers have added some extensions or functionality into their product that enable this (like Intel's vt-x). Other parts of the hardware are still virtualized through the hypervisor OS and yes, there is a performance penalty but it is pretty much insignificant these days.
Windows 8+ actually has a form of the Hyper-V hypervisor built-in. If you enable it, it basically turns the Windows 8 OS into a hypervisor and then you can create other virtual machines that run at near native speed on the same workstation. I use this all the time for testing different software, or at least I used to until I got a new laptop where enabling Hyper-V breaks the networking on my computer. Now I use Oracle VirtualBox, which is an old-fashioned paravirtualization product. It's a step down, but good enough for my needs.
When I see "VMM", I just think Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager, commonly called just VMM. I haven't seen that acronym in another context before.
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If a program (even a Korean MMO) BSODs your NT-kernel OS (e.g., Win 7), then some driver is buggy. It could be a driver you already had, like video or audio, which only happens to misbehave for that particular game (but could affect others in the future), or the game itself installed a buggy driver for something.
This is something that I dealt with while I was still a software engineer. Drivers run at Ring 0 (most open system level), where they can hurt things plenty. Apps (e.g., user programs, games) run at Ring 2 and up, where they have no power to hurt the OS or underlying system. If I wanted to manipulate the system at the nuts & bolts level, I had to write a driver, which is a lot more involved than coding an app.
Wikipedia has some info on protection rings. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protection_ring) There happens to be some talk about hypervisors there too. Interesting. As I said, that's new to me. Also, it looks like drivers run at Ring 1, not 0 as I remembered/mis-learned. Haha! It makes sense. 0 is the kernel itself, the inner sanctum.
Battlefield Bad Company 2 and Battlefield 3. BSODs all over the place. Turns out everyone with Realtek integrated audio gets them (read - a virtual shit ton of people), and only on Frostbyte engine games. Who's at fault here? I mean, of course it's a driver error, but it seems weird that only DICE's coding brings it out. As far as I know it was never solved - I ended up just buying a $25 Sound Blaster card to work around it.
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Battlefield Bad Company 2 and Battlefield 3. BSODs all over the place. Turns out everyone with Realtek integrated audio gets them (read - a virtual shit ton of people), and only on Frostbyte engine games. Who's at fault here? I mean, of course it's a driver error, but it seems weird that only DICE's coding brings it out. As far as I know it was never solved - I ended up just buying a $25 Sound Blaster card to work around it.
I had read that lots of other people were getting BSOD in Archeage as well. So it wasn't just me, but the company hadn't really acknowledged it and no one really knew if there was a common hardware configuration among people that were getting it. I never had the problem in other CryEngine games, just this one. Far Cry, Crysis, Crysis 2, Aion, State of Decay... these all use CryEngine as well, and I've never gotten a BSOD in any of them.
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The March update added screenshots. Not only that, but they can be exported ("shared") in several ways. Very nice. So I played a bit with it. AC Unity allows turning off the HUD, and I came up with these. Some are perhaps NSFW, if classic-style nude art presents that problem. The interior detail and lighting in this game are the best I've ever seen in a game.
Luxembourg palace 1 (http://j4v9eg.bn1304.livefilestore.com/y2pCbSexoOdW2on_obKN9TovDe2cIPHRuA_ib9i5AgwRZTwzMgmiM6RPKQdMdVd3nUZt7aMso1VKR1XllgPm7HlS0GKUNa4NZn6Dzla0yiNqcNTnVCE6qBXThUVXCIdkdTxSEUsuFvpWpKXlRAsk9S0NQ/Wed_Mar_11_13-29-41_EDT_2015.png?psid=1)
Luxembourg palace 2 (http://j4v9eg.bn1304.livefilestore.com/y2pnTpp89wA_nh0KlPj3s299mN2fEIGmtxAE8lpNEpyg7JrlGQfe4HrmJxQQYeJlSv1qDUcMMA4wDVR1xrOs6-JynAI41xnURPtbRWm_-XU7lunrNlSEYFfXviTb3H1xAjJxuiev0LMdLoOEyjtXSPV1A/Wed_Mar_11_13-30-53_EDT_2015.png?psid=1)
Luxembourg palace 3 (http://j4v9eg.bn1304.livefilestore.com/y2p3pcxzaNblzjXCJMdpMv-i5BbpmaOtKZPfIKygYBXUR98_OGUNmHgAa09ZRX9MH5dTz8u3YmM-foiK1vbdjVpN8vk7TXn7JI5zlayibNITJW0DLgAHdk9PPFrLcEA4nbh7H5dMFPVdD0gn94acF7mmw/Wed_Mar_11_13-42-03_EDT_2015.png?psid=1)
Luxembourg palace 4 (http://j4v9eg.bn1304.livefilestore.com/y2pEI7C4RQcLYKHXrbIFA36OkCxX_xKWVU_8pjCHMaUiz3M5tRBVO5-rQLqvJ63j2JejR8uZ5VnP3cJ2Eyu1RX2KntKjyKqLj61jnBPEJZ2q9jrSXBKae9CXjf3zm6FDjs4vpe3WGrgCG84xX2w71RzoA/Wed_Mar_11_13-42-39_EDT_2015.png?psid=1)
Luxembourg palace 5 (http://j4v9eg.bn1304.livefilestore.com/y2pBvo7r9SEdxnJW1ez4eQkNET6Ul3E4GiLWOA25Rdl602TPdiZIHfLGlvzQ-xN542EfztB60fGdCcYOh4LITrlF_Au6vTTTmK8_OozjzwJyO5Uh1yQ45jTDynw68x3Rn19t-NjB95jJxOQqeCflmUzzA/Wed_Mar_11_13-43-40_EDT_2015.png?psid=1)
Luxembourg palace 6 (http://j4v9eg.bn1304.livefilestore.com/y2pvv05DB9TPPcAPRJhh-dnBdFwCKs2Ffwg8SRZmVUSGmxch_lOkQCpSbIG0x5cOepNs7V7jfdVW2UDfYa45hKr0piow2Sc46Yefa95a83xPNP5MI5KQ1aYhrEyo6-IN6-dGzDgeUT3RI1h-GoTbBCG_g/Wed_Mar_11_13-44-14_EDT_2015.png?psid=1)
The outdoors look fine too:
Outside 1 (http://j4v9eg.bn1304.livefilestore.com/y2pK6rr7pOse5e1HVdx7XOLBfCumPGIadKcOg9UA10llOaTv4aRY-2shDy1V919bheJras1G_Lr3r7Bf_vXkA-yFJSTzpikixLLLk6so9929wDdigTZ_t0ebwC9xFwjZjb8RDwrlezE4AxMigfnNXx3mw/Wed_Mar_11_13-45-14_EDT_2015.png?psid=1)
Outside 2 (http://j4v9eg.bn1304.livefilestore.com/y2pU0h4e3LACZDsZru5ITEtGxVWcEwQUCrLNLmsyTji-pDnnzxRDfj46Mkb3Jpy96o6PPk7w0Om-7yIya0Ejk6ja56S8-A2DJjXaPksG8C5CrvjDyA50BsxCr9keef4F_RO_V43zAR4fKAvmFwyI5-OVg/Wed_Mar_11_13-45-51_EDT_2015.png?psid=1)
Outside 3 (http://j4v9eg.bn1304.livefilestore.com/y2p7mVzn-JOJ5LML3V7ZFXICccrTxig9NQfR18vK-Rn8Mgb00ihVY_QNg7BZiQGmxwLt7BUtaokRWdw9Cb6D1DL6vmoayL43PdPc2gE5Ml6JNm46rjAyAfJs17MDsuPfd7UIPQFm1oZWwsM_8Socy10mw/Wed_Mar_11_13-46-52_EDT_2015.png?psid=1)
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Here's a few I took:
Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor (http://i4.minus.com/ibx4bcsXE0XReN.png) (photo mode, but I only messed with camera positioning. Color and contrast and such are all at default.)
Halo 4: Master Chief Collection (UI turned off) (http://i4.minus.com/ibr7Zol4U8Umaz.png)
Zombie Army Trilogy (http://i1.minus.com/ioDPo6CDFgE76.png)
Dying Light (http://i2.minus.com/iqMufWghYlVoU.png)
Geometry Wars 3: Dimensions (http://i2.minus.com/iiKXjc40zP17r.png)
Volgarr the Viking (http://i4.minus.com/ibqnBpQO7k4X5V.png)
1001 Spikes (http://i2.minus.com/ifL8lpl9WhDdr.png)
Lords of the Fallen (http://i3.minus.com/ibaGAbXy3emLzB.png)
This one looks pretty terrible. Looking at the character, it looks like it may be running at sub 1080p (or just has some bad AA). It also has some serious blurring in the background, and chromatic aberration is destroying the tree on the right. The game does look better in motion though.
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So I found an option in Lords of the Fallen to remove the chromatic aberration. I couldn't quite get the same shot as before, so I just took 2 more: one with the setting on, one with it off. It makes a pretty drastic difference.
With chromatic aberration (http://i1.minus.com/ib0kEYga8kuBK2.png)
Without chromatic aberration (http://i3.minus.com/iEWkbywIOp2g7.png)
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Cool shots. Is that Spelunky (1001 Spikes)? Looks like the shots come out at whatever res your screen is set to, which makes sense. I'm still using my Samsung 720p LCD set, which is one reason I don't care about all the bitching about resolution.
The graphics in LotF don't get much love. But how is the game? It's on sale now for half price, but after expecting it for a lot less than that in the big sale (and not getting it), I'm going to hold off. How does the difficulty compare to the Dark Souls games?
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Nope, that's the default character in 1001 Spikes. There are a bunch of unlockable characters you can buy with coins. So far I only have Master Chief and Commander Video.
Lords of the Fallen is like Dark Souls, but things are explained more clearly, and there are less random difficulty spikes. So far when an enemy is lurking behind a blind corner, he won't 1 or 2 shot me if I didn't anticipate him being there. Bosses don't 2-3 shot me. I understand what all the items in my inventory are for, either because the name makes them clear, or the description does. It is a bit easier, mostly in the amount of damage the bosses do, and the frequency of the save points. There's also a ranged gantlet weapon you get that shoots magic, and you can use it to cheese a lot of fights if you want. Also I don't know if a magic focused character is viable, maybe later in the game. At the start you have enough magic to cast 1 or 2 spells at the beginning, then you have to wait 20-30 seconds for mana to regen.
And when I say "like Dark Souls", I mean that. It's very obvious these guys said "hey, let's make our own version of Dark Souls", and copied almost every system. Weapon and armor weight determine your movement and attack speed, you have a fixed number of health potions, and when you go to a save point it refill them and your HP. You gain xp from enemy kills, but have to get back to a save point to spend it on increasing your stats. It's very much a copy of Dark Souls, and probably seen by most as Dark Souls on easy mode. Though I don't know that I'd call it an easy game, just easier and more approachable than Dark Souls.
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. . . probably seen by most as Dark Souls on easy mode. Though I don't know that I'd call it an easy game, just easier and more approachable than Dark Souls.
Sounds perfect. I like the idea of Dark Souls, just not the crazy difficulty. I can do reasonably hard. I'm waiting for a low price, but eventually I'll get it.
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I ended up getting a 2TB WD My Passport Ultra (http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=1000) locally at Microcenter. They had a lot of good press, the best warranty, are powered through the USB cable, and were on a good sale for brick-and-mortar. The My Passport X specifically mentions the Xbox on the packaging, but they wanted $50 (!) more for it. Crazy.
It comes formatted with NTFS. The system recognized it right away, and the "formatting" step was instant. Transferred Sunset Overdrive to it for testing, because I can reinstall it from disc if something goes wrong. Works like a charm. I went from about 15 GB free to 1.8 TB free. I started the transfer of The Witcher 3 last night, then went to bed. I'll see how that works today. It's supposed to be better because the internal drive and 3GB/sec (SATA II) speed are kinda pokey. If it streams better, I'll know it, especially in Novigrad.
Assuming no bad surprises, I guess I'm pretty well set now. 2 TB should hold about the same number of games as my 250GB drive does on the 360, and that has been plenty big enough for everything I care about. The only bummer is that the drive doesn't fully power off when the system is (truly) off. The USB port keeps getting power, and the drive spins down and goes into standby. There goes one reason I wanted a USB-powered drive (the other being not having to snake an extension cord all the way to my already crowded UPS).
Edit: Can't tell the difference, really. There were no hiccups in Novigrad, but load times didn't improve as far as I can tell, and cutscene loading along with their textures was variable, as usual. The one good thing is the load split across 2 separate drives, with save files, DVR stuff and any system I/O staying on the internal. That has to help overall. Regardless, it serves the desperate need for more space without issues. That will have to do.
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When I got my external, I set it as the default location for new installs. I'm not sure if that would be better, or to leave it set to the internal. On one hand, if I redeem a code from the web and it starts installing a game, I want it on the external. On the other hand, it also puts all apps and saves and such there. I guess that's not a big deal, since saves are stored int he cloud anyway. I copied a few games to the internal, then unplugged the external, and the only thing I noticed was that upon running a transferred game for the first time, it gave me a brief "getting your game ready" message for 5-10 seconds before actually launching the game.
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By default, it sets itself up as the default installation drive. That makes the most sense, since the internal filling up is what makes us go out and buy the things. It's probably best that way, though I'll try to keep all apps on the internal, since those are often run concurrently with games. Division of labor for best performance (games run off the external, apps run off the internal). So I'll probably move any new downloaded apps to the internal after they install.
I ran The Witcher 3 for a long time today, with no more problems than it usually has. As I've progressed in the game, there are some spots in the big city of Novigrad where the game will freeze momentarily and the screen blurs out as more stuff is streamed in. That can happen anywhere, but it's far more common in Novigrad. The screen smearing to a blur is what really bugs me. (Momentary hitching is no big deal in open-world games, unless the developers choose to emphasize it with idiotic screen smearing.) They didn't have to do that, and there is no way to defeat it. I can't blame the drive for that. It's behaving quite well, and it's apparently plenty fast (http://www.engadget.com/products/western-digital/my-passport/ultra/) for what it is.
You said saves go on the external too. How do you know that? I have no control at all over the saves. I can copy or move other things between the drives, but not the saves. There is no indication of where they are, so I assumed they are still on the internal. That makes sense, because saves are treated like system files rather than user files (which I hate).
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Yeah I think you're right about the save data. I had assumed it was on the external because I went in to manage a game that was on the external, and it says the name of the drive it's on, with a list of the dlc and whatnot. Then to the right of that, with no drive label is saved data. I just assumed the lack of a drive label meant it too was on the external. It does have a different background for that section though, which is probably meant to differentiate it.
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That was my impression. The save data is shown in this separate grey area, like the system is telling you that it's out of your reach.
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The NXOE is finally out officially. It takes some getting used to, and I'm still doing that. It's definitely faster. The most notable perk is backward compatibility, which just works. All the compatible 360 digital purchases show up on the ready-to-install list. Click on them and wait for the download. I installed some of my 360 games on it to check it out, and booted up Borderlands intending to spend only a short time in it. I ended up playing for over an hour, and getting up to Level 7. All the DLC for it (which I owned) migrated too.
The 360 virtual machine works just about exactly like the real system, once you're in a 360 game. Game progress saved to the "cloud" (local saving with sync to the "cloud", actually) on a real 360 will be loaded (and saved) on the virtual 360. So the same game can be played back and forth between consoles. The only real difference is that bringing up the 360 guide takes the press of 2 buttons (since the big Xbox button is taken). Frame rates can suffer, but I think a lot of that is due to the emulator insisting on full-time locked vsync. I had already experienced this with one Rare Replay game. I hoped they added the adaptive vsync the real system uses on many games. Not yet. Maybe it isn't practical? Regardless, Borderlands plays very well, and it looks better for some reason. There are still jaggies on the edges of the 3D-rendered geometry, but on the whole, it looks cleaner. The 360 has these coarse edges on everything, and those are happily missing here. [Edit: Eurogamer has some good insights into the back-compat feature here (http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-2015-fallout-3-is-an-xbox-one-back-compat-showcase).]
Not everything was rosy yesterday. Before I even installed the update (which I delayed intentionally), I noticed that one game in Rare Replay would not work. The system thought I didn't own it, and refused to let me launch it. A chat with support ruined my morning. They ended up sending me to a support forum. Turns out that back-compat going active broke the 360 Rare Replay games. (My guess is they conflicted with the same games under the general BC). Fortunately, they addressed this quickly, and the RR version of Banjo-Tooie now works again. I haven't tried the others yet.
Edit: Update on the external drive: It definitely helps with performance. I've used it a lot more extensively, and there's no question that load times and streaming are better. I moved Forza Horizon 2 over to it recently, and that was the right decision. That's not so much praise for USB 3.0 or WD MP Ultras as it is a smack against the half-speed SATA both current consoles use internally.
W7RE, some folks out there swear that their game saves move over to the external along with the games. I was questioning this before, but it seems I was wrong about that. I haven't figured out a way to test it yet. The most obvious way would require 2 consoles. Play an externally installed game offline; save; move the drive to the second console (also offline); launch the game; see if the saved progress persists.
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To be honest I haven't run any of the Rare Replay games in a while, so if they stopped working for a while I hadn't noticed. I did notice that every one of them needed an update when NXOE went out to everyone. I'm not sure if these updates were pushed at the same time as NXOE, or just soon afterward. I just remember every time I put my Xbox in sleep mode it would start a download, which would kill the internet. So I paused it, and left it on until everyone was asleep.
NXOE is a bit of a mixed bag. Some of the core features of the OS, like friends and parties, are built into it now instead of apps, so they load a lot faster. The quick guide has most of what you need just a couple button presses away, and it usually comes up fast. Things that aren't integrated into the quick guide are still cumbersome without Kinect though. The recently played section feels like a lot of wasted space, and it seems weird having all your pins down below that (but yes, you can get to them quickly by pulling the right trigger).
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I'm glad I'm not alone thinking they went backwards with the recently played space. We had 4 slots plus the disc before. Now we have 3 + disc. How's that an improvement? They could have fit 3 times as much history in that space they're wasting with so much blank transparency.
At least there's more room for pins now. I had it filled up before, and now I have nearly a whole line of tiles free to add more stuff.
As I said in the Rare Replay thread, there was a massive improvement in the performance of the one back-compat 360 game that was behaving so poorly--BK: Nut & Bolts. I won't regurgitate it all here. Suffice it to say that it now maintains seamless audio, and the frame rate inside the worlds is just about perfectly locked at 30 fps. Those updates to the RR games have all been in the neighborhood of 720 MB. I'm going to guess it's the emulator/virtual-machine code for each game. Banjo-Tooie is all of about 90 MB on the 360, yet it gets a 720MB+ update? Ha!
Your router should allocate the internet usage more sanely. One user should not be able to suck down the entire pipe.
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Your router should allocate the internet usage more sanely. One user should not be able to suck down the entire pipe.
We've tried QOS settings and such, but the router just doesn't have the right options. All it allows is to assign 3 different devices high or low priority. I do have some ports forwarded to the Xbox One, and disabling that might help, but then I'd get a strict NAT and have connection issues with party chat and some games. I play online a lot, so I don't want that happening. It's also not my router, it's my brother's. He's not willing to put custom firmware on it, and he doesn't let me have the password to it. (I once blocked someone's PC from the internet because they were killing the network with torrents, so he changed the password and won't let me have it.)
It might help if we had more than 8Mbit down and 1Mbit up, but I don't pay the bills around here, and everyone else thinks that's plenty.
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We've tried QOS settings and such, but the router just doesn't have the right options. All it allows is to assign 3 different devices high or low priority. I do have some ports forwarded to the Xbox One, and disabling that might help, but then I'd get a strict NAT and have connection issues with party chat and some games. I play online a lot, so I don't want that happening. It's also not my router, it's my brother's. He's not willing to put custom firmware on it, and he doesn't let me have the password to it. (I once blocked someone's PC from the internet because they were killing the network with torrents, so he changed the password and won't let me have it.)
It might help if we had more than 8Mbit down and 1Mbit up, but I don't pay the bills around here, and everyone else thinks that's plenty.
I did have an issue once with torrents slamming my own internet access, but it turned out to be an issue with the stupid-slow upload speeds of consumer cable internet. Clamping down on upload bandwidth in the torrent client fixed it. I doubt that the Xbox needs to upload enough data during downloads to make that a problem.
All I have is an honest 16 mbps down. (Roadrunner claims 20, but I've never seen it.) I'm really tempted to try out the brand-new fios service in the area. (They laid the cable across our poles last Spring.) But I'm chicken. Roadrunner has been super-reliable (a couple of problems that persisted more than a day, in a span of over 10 years), and I've never gotten a nasty letter from them, about anything.
I understand about the port forwarding and the strict NAT without them. I use a static IP on the system and forward all the ports I read about at portforward.com. I doubt they're all really necessary--there's like 7 of them. That's a permanent allocation, though. Even with your Xbox shut off, it would cause a problem for users on the network if what they were doing needed any of those ports. So don't worry about that.
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So, Xessive, you joined the dark side? Cool! How's the X1S working out? Did you get it for the nifty 4K disc player, or have you been wanting to play some X1 games?
I have to admit that I'm tempted. If I was getting a 4K TV, I'd probably look for a bundle deal with one of these. The extra bit of speed and lower power consumption get me in an impulsive mood. (Hey look! It will pay for itself in lower electric bills! Yeah, right. Rationalize away.)
Anyway, I guess I'll be seeing more of you under Friends and Community feed.
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So, Xessive, you joined the dark side? Cool! How's the X1S working out? Did you get it for the nifty 4K disc player, or have you been wanting to play some X1 games?
I have to admit that I'm tempted. If I was getting a 4K TV, I'd probably look for a bundle deal with one of these. The extra bit of speed and lower power consumption get me in an impulsive mood. (Hey look! It will pay for itself in lower electric bills! Yeah, right. Rationalize away.)
Anyway, I guess I'll be seeing more of you under Friends and Community feed.
Haha yeah, it was a combination of reason but the real drive was that I had some reward points that were about to expire with this local electronics/appliances store, and the options on what I could spend them on were limited (Vacuum cleaners, microwave ovens, home theatre system, etc.). Then an Xbox One S showed on their store front, I asked if I the points could be used towards it, and the rest is history :P
Having a true 4K video player is great. Even though I already have a PC hooked up to my TV but it doesn't have a Bluray drive, so the XOS can fill in that gap.
I have to admit the new interface is quite a leap from the original UI (from 2013) and much more in line with the Windows Modern UI visual profile. I like it. By contrast, the PS4 UI has not changed (save for some minor tweaks) since 2013.
If you already have an Xbox One I'd argue against going for the Xbox One S unless you're already shopping for a 4K Bluray player (which are generally more expensive than the Xbox One S anyway) or if your Xbox One breaks down and you're looking to replace it. The Xbox One S is the new standard.
I've been watching Netflix, streaming 4K, and it's definitely gorgeous but realistically at the distance I usually sit it's extremely difficult to distinguish between 1080p and 4K. I'll sometimes sit up closer to try to appreciate the resolution.
Other than the minor issue I mentioned in the other thread, the experience has been pretty awesome. I kinda like the seamless integration with my Windows 10 PCs too.
UPDATE:
Good news! The X360 profile downloaded and Forza Horizon is working! Looks like it was related to that Xbox Live alert after all.
I never had an Xbox 360 so being able to play some is great perk! If Forza Horizon is any measure to go by, these games have aged well. I mean, I know they're older but they still look and play very. They make it clear that the gap between the last generation and the current one is minuscule.
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Some have aged very well; others have not. Like I've been touting, FH1 is one of the top open-world racers, in my experience. It was technically superlative on the 360, and it holds up fine against the 8th-gen competition. The controls, once you get into the groove, are terrific. All cars handle differently, and take different techniques to use best. There's a long campaign of personal progression and races. I like most of the music. And I want to go to that damn festival in Colorado. Where is it? ;)
They tried to emulate the amazing vibes of this game in the sequel, and only partly succeeded. And the second game has more tech problems than the first--some stutters and an unforgivable bug in the changing pitch of the engine as you accelerate. (I went on at length about that travesty in FH2's thread.) There's more music, but l like fewer songs than in FH1. I also hate the weather. Someday game devs will learn to do believable weather patterns, instead of just random, annoying sudden changes several times per day. (Rain every other hour in Nice, France during the Summer? No, sorry. I've been there. That's very wrong.) Let's see how the 3rd installment turns out down under.
I'm glad your issues solved themselves. I guess that was what I experienced too, though a simple reboot got me past it. Have fun with your new toy. No, I'm not really thinking of buying one. My X1 is doing just fine.