Rumored Xbox One Launch Issues Lead To Lots Of Questions

[trooper11]

Seriously the new consoles are coming out in less than a month can't people wait and see ?

 

 

I agree, these constant rumors are crazy to weed through.  As we get closer to launch, more confirmed info will make it out and we can actually discuss the facts.  Case in point:  the official PS4 FAQ

[Atomic Wanderer Chicken]

More rumours to bash MS on the day the PS4 officially confirms,

• All Retail Games Will Need To Be Installed
• No Audio CD Playback or MP3 Playback
• No DLNA Support for PC Media Servers
• No External Drive Support
• No 4K Output Support

What a coincidence

You got to be kidding, the PS4 does not play music CDs or MP3s? Is this a joke? Ever since the first PlayStation came out, the PlayStation could play audio cds, it is totally nonsense that the PlayStation 4 cant play audio cds. I don't believe the Playstation 4 cant play music CDs.

[-T- Member]

So, because I don't much care about NeoGAF and so on, are they even raising hell about all this stuff over there or is it only the bad Xbox stuff that gets traction?  

 

I wouldn't know, I'm sure AudioBoxer is frantically trying to spin this into a positive before coming anywhere near the Sony section today

[Houtei]

lol i see a lot of stuff on neogaf but not near as much as the the 720p stuff about xbox one.   If xbox one didnt have these features it would be going wild over there and everyone would be talking about everywhere you looked.  Instead half of them are just making excuses for sony. 

[-T- Member]

You got to be kidding, the PS4 does not play music CDs or MP3s? Is this a joke?

 

Not a joke, all of this comes from the official Sony PS4 Ultimate FAQ. http://blog.us.playstation.com/2013/10/30/ps4-the-ultimate-faq-north-america/

 

I await an article on the front page about how dumb this console is.

 

Typical Sony though, get your money then tell you it can't really do anything

[Ryster]

More rumours to bash MS on the day the PS4 officially confirms,

• All Retail Games Will Need To Be Installed
• No Audio CD Playback or MP3 Playback
• No DLNA Support for PC Media Servers
• No External Drive Support
• No 4K Output Support

What a coincidence

 

And to think I thought only Apple had one of those new fangled reality distortion machines. Seems Sony have one too, perhaps they even invented it. Apple do tend to take other company's features, re-package them and call them revolutionary after all :)

[Atomic Wanderer Chicken]

That's bullcrap, the Playstation 4 can play DVD movies but not audio CDs, that is rubbish and makes no sense. I hope Sony is saying this in error!

 

 

Can I watch DVD movies using PS4?

Yes, PS4 supports DVD movie playback; you will need to download and install PS4?s day-one system software update 1.50, and then activate your Blu-ray Disc video capability with a one-time activation through the internet in order to play Blu-ray Disc films and DVD video content.

Can I listen to audio CDs using PS4?

No, PS4 does not support audio CDs.

 

[theyarecomingforyou]

That's bullcrap, the Playstation 4 can play DVD movies but not audio CDs, that is rubbish and makes no sense. I hope Sony is saying this in error!

There really isn't much excuse for not including such functionality but who actually plays CDs anymore, let alone on a console? Same with MP3 playback. However, not being able to use an external drive for installing games is much more of an issue and a needless limitation; then again, the Xbox One will support external storage (though not at launch) but the internal drive won't be replaceable like the PlayStation 4. It's swings and roundabouts.

 

The biggest issue for Microsoft is the performance of games, with COD: Ghosts running at 720p on Xbox One and 1080p on PlayStation 4. If that sort of difference is indicative of the power of each console then that's going to be a deciding factor for a lot of people.

[McKay]

There really isn't much excuse for not including such functionality but who actually plays CDs anymore, let alone on a console? Same with MP3 playback. However, not being able to use an external drive for installing games is much more of an issue and a needless limitation; then again, the Xbox One will support external storage (though not at launch) but the internal drive won't be replaceable like the PlayStation 4. It's swings and roundabouts.

 

The biggest issue for Microsoft is the performance of games, with COD: Ghosts running at 720p on Xbox One and 1080p on PlayStation 4. If that sort of difference is indicative of the power of each console then that's going to be a deciding factor for a lot of people.

 

Audio CD was how I used to get my songs onto my 360 before I was tech-savvy enough to stream them over a network. 

[spudtrooper]

No one with any sense spends $500 on a game console to then proceed to use it to just do something like... watch netflix and little else.

 

People spend 1200 a year on a smart phone..  people spend 1500 a year on cable tv.. people spend 700 a year on internet.. some people spend 3,000 a year on coffee alone.

 

The beauty of netflix on the console is that its a value add..  

 

also, over the past 8 years, most people have had multiple apple tv's, multiple generations of roku players, multiple set top boxes and most of those were deprecated, de supported or never got the new features or new updates unless you replaced the hardware

 

my xbox is probably 75% tv and 25% gaming.. 

[spudtrooper]

 

The biggest issue for Microsoft is the performance of games, with COD: Ghosts running at 720p on Xbox One and 1080p on PlayStation 4. If that sort of difference is indicative of the power of each console then that's going to be a deciding factor for a lot of people.

 

Ehh, it won't matter in the end.  On the PS4 the textures are rendered at 1080p and look smeared and lossy, yet at 720p on the x1 scaled to 1080p they look much better.  It's an elegant solution that gets lost in the hysteria of people thinking that the #'s matter the most.

 

we've been through this with multiple generations.. and yet, we shall never learn.

[BajiRav]

There really isn't much excuse for not including such functionality but who actually plays CDs anymore, let alone on a console? Same with MP3 playback. However, not being able to use an external drive for installing games is much more of an issue and a needless limitation; then again, the Xbox One will support external storage (though not at launch) but the internal drive won't be replaceable like the PlayStation 4. It's swings and roundabouts.

 

The biggest issue for Microsoft is the performance of games, with COD: Ghosts running at 720p on Xbox One and 1080p on PlayStation 4. If that sort of difference is indicative of the power of each console then that's going to be a deciding factor for a lot of people.

Care to explain why BF4 is "only" 900p on PS4? The launch games are nowhere indicative of their true powers. I don't doubt PS4 has more specs on paper but we haven't seen either console in their true form.

[Growled Member]

The biggest question I have about the Xbox One is

 

Does the Xbox One accept Atari 2600 cartridges? :laugh:

 

If it does I'm gonna pull all my old cartridges out of the attic and make a fortune. :D

[theyarecomingforyou]

Care to explain why BF4 is "only" 900p on PS4? The launch games are nowhere indicative of their true powers. I don't doubt PS4 has more specs on paper but we haven't seen either console in their true form.

But with BF4 the PS4 again has the advantage when it comes to resolution, though there are concerns about the visual quality that complicate the matter. We'll see with the final games, as the XBO build will certainly see improvements with the addition of ambient occlusion. The point I was making is that many multiplatform titles are running at a higher resolution on the PS4 - there are indications that the advantage the PS4 has over the XBO is greater than the X360 had over the PS3, without even considering the price difference. Either way it seems that both consoles are underpowered, as the advantage that PCs have over consoles is much more substantial than the previous generation.

[trooper11]

But with BF4 the PS4 again has the advantage when it comes to resolution, though there are concerns about the visual quality that complicate the matter. We'll see with the final games, as the XBO build will certainly see improvements with the addition of ambient occlusion. The point I was making is that many multiplatform titles are running at a higher resolution on the PS4 - there are indications that the advantage the PS4 has over the XBO is greater than the X360 had over the PS3, without even considering the price difference. Either way it seems that both consoles are underpowered, as the advantage that PCs have over consoles is much more substantial than the previous generation.

 

 

Aren't we ignoring a reality of a new console generation where games are not yet making proper use of a console's hardware?

 

I know that both the ps4 and x1 are closer to pc builds than ever, but they do have custom bits, in configurations that pc devs aren't use to.  There is also the idea of being able to maximize performance thanks to the closed nature of consoles.

 

I'm not saying that the difference between them and pcs will go away, I'm just saying that it seems premature to assume just yet.

 

As far as the ps4 vs x1, I also think that the ps4 has a spec advantage, but I'm wondering if what we are seeing with COD and BF4 are conclusive examples of the difference between the two or just an artifact of a launch lineup of consoles.

 

I remember seeing talk about how developers got started much later on x1 dev kits than the ps4, and other rumors that game development in general was behind for the x1.  Then there was talk that the x1 was more difficult to program for vs the ps4 (not that the x1 was difficult, just not as pc-like as the ps4 perhaps).  Could it be that what we are seeing at launch is the result of that late start and more difficult development process?

[vcfan]

Care to explain why BF4 is "only" 900p on PS4? The launch games are nowhere indicative of their true powers. I don't doubt PS4 has more specs on paper but we haven't seen either console in their true form.

we must also keep in mind that not long ago,Microsoft discovered the esram has an extra 100gb/s of bandwidth that may not have made it to the SDK until much later,which couldn't be taken advantage without requiring massive changes to the game engines,which would make the deadlines impossible to achieve.

[BajiRav]

we must also keep in mind that not long ago,Microsoft discovered the esram has an extra 100gb/s of bandwidth that may not have made it to the SDK until much later,which couldn't be taken advantage without requiring massive changes to the game engines,which would make the deadlines impossible to achieve.

sorry but I refused to believe that they "discovered" anything. It is possible that it became feasible at some point in their dev. cycle but their explanation just doesn't make any sense much like how I don't buy sony's indie story.

[vcfan]

sorry but I refused to believe that they "discovered" anything. It is possible that it became feasible at some point in their dev. cycle but their explanation just doesn't make any sense much like how I don't buy sony's indie story.

just had a look again at the techs interview from DF. What was said wasn't that they magically discovered it, it was that they wrote a spec for devs to design around, the 102gb/s number as a guarantee, and when it was finally implemented in hardware, it turned out they could crank it higher. This makes sense to me, because even though you can simulate propagation delays and all that, you don't know how fast it will actually go in implementation. Just like how after Intel fabs chips,they separate them in batches based on how they clock. The good ones become the k, good for over clocking,and so on.

[Slammers]

I love sitting back and reading all the hate on xbox 1, the wars between the two consoles fanboys etc.

 

Pretty happy with my PC and Wii U. Way too many good games on PC or Wii U alone to even think about a PS4/XB1 right now. 

Will wait 6 months and pickup what ever one has the best games.

[blerk]

Can anyone describe how 720p upscaled on XB1 looks so good though? That to me is the most curious part. If the upscaled images look so sharp, what were they like before up-scaling? Hypersharp? :P

[Yusuf M. Veteran]

Can anyone describe how 720p upscaled on XB1 looks so good though? That to me is the most curious part. If the upscaled images look so sharp, what were they like before up-scaling? Hypersharp? :p

 

 

This should surely be a home run for Sony's console, but what is likely to be a software-based upscale to 1080p delivers less-than-stellar returns, and for better or worse leaves the Xbox One with an often crisper looking, albeit much more aliased image.

Source: EUROGAMER.net

 

Have they started building Xbox One consoles in factories yet? If not, then they still have time to squish any bugs.

[McKay]

Can anyone describe how 720p upscaled on XB1 looks so good though? That to me is the most curious part. If the upscaled images look so sharp, what were they like before up-scaling? Hypersharp? :p

 

Maybe the textures were sharper to begin with. I could make a large blurry texture with little detail and claim (quite truthfully) to have native 1080p textures, and make nice detailed textures as 720p and stretch them out to 1080.

[spudtrooper]

Maybe the textures were sharper to begin with. I could make a large blurry texture with little detail and claim (quite truthfully) to have native 1080p textures, and make nice detailed textures as 720p and stretch them out to 1080.

 

Textures have independent resolutions and are mapped on objects according to a view scale and performance goals... open up code and you see a lot of generic textures at like 4000x4000 and the image is processed according to how much of that resolution is needed.

It may very well be that games simply look fine at 720p and textures fill faster at 720p in which case hardware scaling to 1080p would be fine and not noticeable to anyone.

 

as far as jaggies in game, i'm guessing the title doesn't any any anti aliasing enabled and last i had read, anti aliasing is on the esram and done rather fast in hardware..

 

also, with the esram, one can intelligently buffer the textures that matter the most and are the focus point of the image display so those portions have higher detail.. its really up to the devs how they want to do it.

 

with all of this said, every game engine has logic to the display.. There isn't is a PC video card that could handle 100% fill rate on 1080p to this day at 60fps.. 500 dollar video cards running ultra in bf3 still intelligently draw the scene and can't do 100% 1080p/60 so i'm not sure what the expectation is. 

 

It looks like for the PS4 they chose native 1080p with lower resolution textures and on the x1 they chose 720p with higher res textures and hardware scaling..

 

all in all - both consoles scale its just on the PS4 the images were pre-scaled by developers and look washed out.

[XorpiZ]

Source: EUROGAMER.net

 

Have they started building Xbox One consoles in factories yet? If not, then they still have time to squish any bugs.

 

Yes they have. Major Nelsen showed off the "first" retail box medio September.

[George P Global Moderator]

The XB1, unless I'm mistaken, has a custom hardware scalar option while from the DF post it sounds like Sony is using software to do it.  If that's how it is, doing software upscaling would also have an impact on the rest of the systems performance compared to having a dedicated hardware solution which leaves the CPU and GPU out of it.  

 

But whatever, I think these topics are going around in circles.   So far BF4 is the best looking new game on these systems and neither run it native at 1080p.  Knowing that and looking at the video/pictures the game looks great on both IMO.   People seem to be fixated on this a bit too much so early on.    As far as the XB1 goes, it has games running at 1080p native, it has games at 900p native and it has 720p native games.   It's not like all of the games on it are 720p while all of the games on the PS4 are 1080p, then we'd have something to actually talk about.    Let's see where games are by summer 2014 and developers have had final hardware and more time to work with it to pass judgment.