Games on Xbox One

[Showan]

 

Hi! My name is John Bruno ? I am a Lead Program Manager from the Xbox Live team. For as long as I can remember, games have been part of my life. Whether it was playing my Commodore 64 in my basement as a young kid, feeding my spare quarters into arcade machines in the 1980s, or playing ?Project Gotham Racing? on the original Xbox - I have always enjoyed playing video games. We?ve obviously come a long way with games since I started playing, and for me personally, it has been an incredible experience bringing Xbox One to life and supporting the forthcoming game titles that are launching on this console generation. I?m especially proud of what our team has been working on with Xbox Live Compute, and I?m glad to finally be able to share more details with you as part of the ?Week of Xbox Live!?

As you have heard over the course of the past weeks, Xbox One will benefit greatly from the power of the Xbox Live cloud. This obviously represents a broad Microsoft commitment that spans a number of scenarios, all intended to bring the best of entertainment and gaming experiences that our game creators have to offer. Xbox Live Compute represents one of the ways that games will be better on Xbox One. This service is specifically designed to enable game creators to utilize the scalable computing resources that Microsoft deploys within our regional datacenters, to enhance their game experiences beyond what is generally possible with the finite resources of a console. This sounds great, but what does it really mean for gamers and developers?

Well, for starters let?s talk about what the Xbox Live cloud is all about. Simply stated, it?s about massive numbers of high-powered servers running in Microsoft datacenters all over the world ? all performing various computing workloads. At Microsoft, running hundreds of thousands of servers that power experiences like Bing, Skype, or Xbox Live is in our DNA.

So, why did we build Xbox Live Compute? When we were planning the next generation of Xbox Live, we spent a lot of time talking with game creators about ways to make games better. We realized that there was an incredible opportunity to bring together the resources and global scale of Windows Azure, with the game services of Xbox Live to build a cloud computing platform that was uniquely focused on gaming and game creators. Our intent was to enable developers to take advantage of server resources in their games without having to deal with the challenges that come with building, managing and running servers at scale. So, we chose to provide cloud features that allow the game creators to push the limits of their gameplay experiences and apply the bulk of their investments to game creation, rather than server and operational resources. In fact, we even give them the cloud computing power for FREE so they can more easily transition to building games on Xbox One for the cloud.

As you?ve seen since its debut, Xbox One is a powerful device, and it will do amazing things for entertainment and games. The challenge with the compute power of any consumer electronics device, however, is that the resources it ships with are finite. Building games that leverage the power of the physical device often requires game creators to strike the balance between the fidelity of the player experience and the available computing resources on the device. In essence, the richness of the game world they create is often limited by what they can do with the power of the device. With every generation of console we have seen the richness of the game experiences improve as the power of the devices improved. However, in this generation, we really want to help game creators draw on the ever-expanding power of our server infrastructure to drive continuous innovation in their game experiences ? innovations that translate directly to better, more engaging gaming experiences. The really exciting part becomes evident when we consider a few things game creators can do when they use these additional computing resources in the cloud:

• Higher fidelity game experiences ? As I mentioned before, cloud compute can enable developers to offload computations for all sorts of environmental elements. In a typical game development scenario, the game creator needs to balance resource allocation across each area ? world management, rendering, controls, networking, lighting, physics, AI, as well as networking and multiplayer. Balancing the local computing resources for all of these elements often results in developers making tradeoffs that result in more focus on core gameplay, and less on environments, NPC and other elements of world fidelity. However, when cloud compute is available to support the various computationally-intensive elements of the game, these kinds of tradeoffs become much easier for developers to make. Games can afford to provide higher fidelity worlds and deeply intelligent NPC AI all at the same time. These experiences could only be accomplished by leveraging the resources of servers.   
   
• Improved multiplayer game experiences ? This is perhaps the most obvious example of what is possible with Xbox Live Compute ? dedicated servers! If you have played a lot of multiplayer games, you know that playing on dedicated game servers has advantages over peer-to-peer gameplay. With server-based multiplayer gaming, not only can more players play the game (think hundreds of players simultaneously), the gameplay will be much more reliable for the players. No more host migration interruptions, suboptimal experiences for the host, home network NAT constraints, or player cheating! Additionally, Xbox Live Compute can be utilized to persist game state so that your squad can live to fight another day without losing any progress. A great example of a game that is using Xbox Live Compute for their dedicated server multiplayer experience is ?Titanfall.?
   
• Adaptive & evolving game play ? Imagine the game you play every day improving each time you log in. Imagine joining a match in your favorite first person shooter to find new maps and game modes even though you never downloaded a game update. Imagine playing with your friend even when he/she is not online. When games are powered by Xbox Live Compute, they can be dynamically updated, tuned, changed, and improved continuously. Games will evolve and live on for greater periods of time, continually providing fresh content and new experiences. The flagship example of this application of cloud computing can be found with ?Forza Motorsports 5, ?and itsDrivatar system. 
   
• On-demand compute improves game availability ? With all of the potentially interesting things that can be accomplished with Xbox Live Compute, one of the most important things is that the resources (e.g. servers) are available when gamers need it most. It is the geographic availability of this service, and its elastic scalability that enables gamers to connect to an available server and play without experiencing busy or unavailable servers. This ensures that games meet the changing demands of their player communities for compute, and gamers experience optimal connectivity based upon their geographic location. Additionally, it means that game creators can be assured that the server capacity they need, in the appropriate geographies, will be there when they need it.

With Xbox Live Compute we hope to inspire a new era of innovation in game development and game experiences for Xbox One. We expect that this platform will help our development community build more of their games as services ? games that are intelligent, immersive and continuously evolving experiences for the players ? powered by Microsoft?s ever-expanding cloud infrastructure. This is only the beginning though. We are really excited for the opportunities that lie ahead for the platform, our development community and ultimately our amazing Xbox owners. Stay tuned though, as we?re excited to share more of the nuts and bolts details about how we?re bringing this platform to life.

To learn more about how developers are taking advantage of the cloud, check out this?Forza Motorsport 5? cloud piece and watch for additional posts on games and the cloud to come.

 

 

http://news.xbox.com/2013/10/xbox-one-cloud

 

 

[spaceelf]

I love the idea but it's up to the devs to make this compelling.  We'll have to see what actually happens.

[+Eternal Tempest MVC]

Thank you for articulating a bit better cloud computing can actually do for a console vs the general misunderstand stood comments I've seen on Neowin.

Example, it makes graphics run better, etc.

 

I do want to give kudos to Microsoft Entertainment Division for having this in place for the Xbox One, and offering some computer power for free to game developers / publishers.

This concept is not a unique concept and Sony cold replicate it down the road as well.

 

I'm also curious to see how some of this works with lagging / dropping internet of some area's of the counties that are stuck with DSL, Satellite, and limited bandwidth or pay high fee's for internet. I personally believe the united states internet infrastructure is holding back a lot of potential and slowing down the computing model of going back to the old mainframe / server model (just replace mainframe with computer and server with cloud). 

 

This might make an impact on player cheating, but not sure it can be eliminated all together, just closing off some ways players could cheat.

 

I think expanding environment / npc can be done already, just not in real time using cloud services, by using the data a lot of games send back to developers, that can tweak, expand the game (DLC, patches, but takes more disk space).

 

I'm am existing to seeing cloud based online multi-player servers that can shrink / expand based on player demand while saving game publishers money.

[spaceelf]

however this is not a unique concept and Sony cold replicate it down the road as well.

I'd disagree on it not being unique.  While the cloud has certainly been used for gaming, not on this scale.

 

Sony will certainly replicate it down the road, they're already working on it.

 

As for graphics there are ways it could enhance that as well, but I'm not expecting much.

[vcfan]

Thank you for articulating a bit better cloud computing can actually do for a console vs the general misunderstand stood comments I've seen on Neowin.

Example, it makes graphics run better, etc.

I don't think anyone said it would make graphics better than what the console is capable of. some of us argued that offloading elements to the servers for compute will free up resources on the box,which is exactly what one point highlighted in the article explains.

 

cloud compute can enable developers to offload computations for all sorts of environmental elements.

so if you are using the cloud for compute,and freeing up resources, then the box can enable more visual effects,details,better AI, resolution(scaler can dynamically scale). if it detects network congestion of loss of network,then these can be scaled back to what they normally are.

[+Eternal Tempest MVC]

I'd disagree on it not being unique.  While the cloud has certainly been used for gaming, not on this scale.

 

Sony will certainly replicate it down the road, they're already working on it.

 

As for graphics there are ways it could enhance that as well, but I'm not expecting much.

 

I can see if your streaming the game or parts of it down the road (provided you have the bandwidth) then you can push better graphics independent of the hardware, such as the struggling Onlive service, or Sony's work around for backwards compatibility (streaming the game), however the current infrastructure limits it greatly (for everyone to benefit)

 

Something I'm thinking about as well, PC MMO's are kinda on the forefront of this and still have a lot of client side processing and rendering vs server side still.

[firey]

I am still uncertain of where we will see the benefits.  All this is doing is adopting the MMO style strategy which has been around for 20 years.   In any good MMO the server does all the processing and sends the information to the client.   The server tells the client what animation to play, what sounds to play, what images to display. 

The game still needs to know how to draw the images, has to know how to manipulate the models, but no longer needs to do extra checks, extra processing.. the server does it.   That is exactly what we will see with this (outside of datamining).

 

[+Eternal Tempest MVC]

I don't think anyone said it would make graphics better than what the console is capable of. some of us argued that offloading elements to the servers for compute will free up resources on the box,which is exactly what one point highlighted in the article explains.

 

so if you are using the cloud for compute,and freeing up resources, then the box can enable more visual effects,details,better AI, resolution(scaler can dynamically scale). if it detects network congestion of loss of network,then these can be scaled back to what they normally are.

 

That does make sense, and can see how that would cause a game to become more dynamic and responsive.

 

I just sometime see the discussions where the hardcore fans that hate the opposite console derail discussion and become ridiculous. 

[firey]

Something I'm thinking about as well, PC MMO's are kinda on the forefront of this and still have a lot of client side processing and rendering vs server side still.

Most MMOs now are becoming more server driven to prevent hacking.

ie) Non Server Controlled

Client -> I attacked target X for 99999 damage

Server -> Okay

Server -> You just got hit for 5k damage, take it off.

Client -> Okay, I now have 50HP

Server -> Okay

Server Controlled

Client -> I attacked target X 

Server -> Okay, you did 500 damage

Client -> Okay

Server -> You now have x Mana

Client -> Okay

Even things like fall damage, speed, etc are controlled on the server.

 

[BajiRav]

This concept is not a unique concept and Sony cold replicate it down the road as well.

With all due respect, this is such a stupid point. There may not be anything unique in what Microsoft is doing with XBO but they are doing it on day one.

There was nothing unique in online gaming when Xbox 360+Live launched in 2005 and sony could replicate it down the road except it took them an entire generation to catch up and probably still not on par feature wise.

[George P Global Moderator]

Developers will use it, early on a number will use it for MP to begin while others like Forza 5 will use It a bit more.  I bet in another year when we're looking at the 3rd batch of games we'll see it be used more and more.

[Showan]

I am still uncertain of where we will see the benefits.  All this is doing is adopting the MMO style strategy which has been around for 20 years.   In any good MMO the server does all the processing and sends the information to the client.   The server tells the client what animation to play, what sounds to play, what images to display. 

The game still needs to know how to draw the images, has to know how to manipulate the models, but no longer needs to do extra checks, extra processing.. the server does it.   That is exactly what we will see with this (outside of datamining).

 

 

 

 looking at this from the wrong angle.  Look at it like this.  Microsoft is saving developers a ton of money (maybe even give some of the compute power for free and an enticement to get some time exclusive on games, Titanfall anyone)  as they don't have to house the servers.  Devs can scale and use only what they need.  Yes this has been done for years.  But this is a breath of fresh air into an old dinosaur model.  

 

Name any game development company that has the amount of servers Microsoft has throughout the world, has the $$$ to maintain the infrastructure, and can scale at such a level.  When a game is on it's last legs and only 200-1500 people are playing the game.. The server is heading towards shut down status.  Lets say if you like a game where there are only 500 or so people around the world still playing it.  That server doesn't have to be shut down now.  They can just scale down' to the amount of users on the server and therefore you can still enjoy the game and the host doesn't have to feel they are bleeding money because of a handful of people still playing the game.

 

If Microsoft can save say for example; Respawn $25million dollars on infrastructure alone... that means more maps, perhaps another game can get developed and all of the above.

[Skiver Veteran]

With all due respect, this is such a stupid point. There may not be anything unique in what Microsoft is doing with XBO but they are doing it on day one.

There was nothing unique in online gaming when Xbox 360+Live launched in 2005 and sony could replicate it down the road except it took them an entire generation to catch up and probably still not on par feature wise.

completely agree - nothing here is "new" other than the fact it's being done on a console in a much bigger way than ever before. 

[tytytucke]

"Imagine playing with your friend even when he/she is not online"

 

what does that even mean? i'm lost...

 

Also when will xbl support more than 16+ players per game session?

with all the new servers being added maybe I can expect this will be a new feature in the future?

[M_Lyons10]

This is an incredible advancement for gaming.  I really can't wait to see what developers do with this.  It could be really amazing.

[spaceelf]

"Imagine playing with your friend even when he/she is not online"

 

what does that even mean? i'm lost...

Forza 5s Drivatar saves an AI model of how your friends drive, so you can play against a virtual version of them instead of just a ghost car.

[M_Lyons10]

"Imagine playing with your friend even when he/she is not online"

 

what does that even mean? i'm lost...

 

Also when will xbl support more than 16+ players per game session?

The new XBox Live allows the game states running in the cloud to learn how your friends play so that their character can play with you when they aren't online...  I'm curious to see how well this really works in practice.

 

As for 16+ players, many of the limitations previously were the result of the peer to peer nature of online gaming.  One of the consoles was in fact the host, and that can only do so much.  Now, that is no longer the case (For the XBox) and limitations such as that can be removed... 

[Argi]

People who say that cloud infrastructure is easy to copy have no understanding about the technical challenges.  It's one thing to connect a ton of servers but there's the software, cross-version problems, monitoring, tools infrastructure, on call engineers, security, recovery, and the list goes on.  It'll take year or two.  Even then with all the best work, you'll then run into performance and scale issues that you couldn't predict (Hi GTA V) which will take 6 months to get on top on optimistically, more realistically another year.

[M_Lyons10]

With all due respect, this is such a stupid point. There may not be anything unique in what Microsoft is doing with XBO but they are doing it on day one.

There was nothing unique in online gaming when Xbox 360+Live launched in 2005 and sony could replicate it down the road except it took them an entire generation to catch up and probably still not on par feature wise.

Agreed.  This however I really don't think Sony would ever be able to duplicate.  They just don't have the resources or the know how...  What Microsoft is doing here, I don't think any other console manufacturer would be able to do...

[BajiRav]

The UI looks sick (GIFs from reddit)

 

 

 

 

Video (OP should have included this)

 

[Skiver Veteran]

"Imagine playing with your friend even when he/she is not online"

 

what does that even mean? i'm lost...

 

Also when will xbl support more than 16+ players per game session?

with all the new servers being added maybe I can expect this will be a new feature in the future?

I'm not sure if this is being implemented in anything other than Forza for the moment but they are referring to the Drivatar feature, in which your driving style is uploaded to the cloud, Turn 10 do some wizardry and then allow a virtual you to compete in your friends races. 

 

So for instance if your friend take a different line than the AI into a corner, you will notice that your friends AI is in the game and will adopt their lines and overtaking style etc.

[Skiver Veteran]

The UI looks sick (GIFs from reddit)

<snip>

wow I know it isn't much but I agree - I think if you're a win 8 fan you're going to love this.

[123456789A]

I can't wait to get my Xbox One. The cloud thing sounds interesting but I'll have to wait and see how/if people take advantage of it.

[+Eternal Tempest MVC]

With all due respect, this is such a stupid point. There may not be anything unique in what Microsoft is doing with XBO but they are doing it on day one.

There was nothing unique in online gaming when Xbox 360+Live launched in 2005 and sony could replicate it down the road except it took them an entire generation to catch up and probably still not on par feature wise.

 

I have to disagree with you on this one. I agree Sony PS3 launch was disastrous and was playing catch up, radically changing the console design and function after launch after a changing direction cost them a lot. Based on what I've seen from Sony, they learned a lot of lessons, and since the entertainment division is one of the few revue area's of the company (not the biggest, finical services makes them the most profit) and they seem far more future thinking / responsive to changes then before, time will tell however.

 

Sony will already be using cloud streaming for backwards compatibility, plus they host several PC MMO's. Sony's no stranger to having server's in the cloud.

 

With Developers having to plan for the lowest common denominator, including people with poor or unreliable internet, I'm curious to see how many games actually use cloud computing to fullest potential. I expect 1st party / exclusive games to make as much use as they can, Cross platform games may or may not use these features. There will also be games designed around cloud computing to try and show it off as well, will it succeed, again time will tell. Will have to wait and see how it shakes out. 

 

Also, if you look at my first post, I give Kudios to MS about making cloud computing option pretty much ready to go at launch, which could give Microsoft an early edge on this.

[vcfan]

The UI looks sick (GIFs from reddit)

 

Video (OP should have included this)

 

apologies Baji, didnt see your post when i made the thread.