I guess what I was imagining was that in the future, you'd be able to play Call of Duty 85:SUPEREXTREEME on your original XBone... but it would be at 1080p/30fps instead of 8k/120fps.
It seems to me that they'd have to make it plug n play, otherwise it's the same as a PC. The Steam machines are doing well, aren't they?
PCs have gotten *way* easier to deal with over the past 3-4 years. Maybe not as cheap, though I tend to do mine in cycles kinda like the Olympics. It's usually about 4 years between upgrades on a specific part, and the specific parts have basically come down to CPU/mobo/RAM vs. video card. I think I spent about $400 on my CPU/mobo/RAM and it's still rated pretty high, and I just recently spent about $350 on a GTX 970. And that's basically it...the only driver I ever have to deal with is the video card one, and nvidia's app handles that for me. Anything else runs over USB (headphones, steering wheel, flight stick, 360 controller, speakers, wifi adapter). Haven't had a driver problem in quite some time now.Originally Posted by novicius
...like a PC?
I'm glad I was able to ride consoles for the entirety of my gaming life. I've tried PC gaming in the past and it is not as easy by comparison nor as cheap. Fuck drivers and fuck twiddlin' with component hardware.
I don't get the sense they are, but I don't know. I lurked on a few Alienware Alpha vs. Steambox discussions on a Dell community forum recently and the support was unanimous for the Alpha. Both are the same hardware - the only difference is the color of the LEDs and the OS. SteamOS has "significant" driver issues that result in identical hardware being 10-20% slower Steam vs. Windows. Since Windows is cheap in the OE market, the difference between a Win10 box and a SteamOS box only ends up being $30-$50 - not enough to offset the greater hardware requirement. "Better performance" is being promised but hasn't been realized. SteamOS *should* be faster than 10, but there just isn't the same expertise doing driver optimization. (I bought an Alpha, should arrive next week)
As for any sort of modular hardware, the issue that keeps rearing its ugly head is bus bandwidth. Even if the original Xbox was totally modular, PCI just wouldn't have the bandwidth to support modern PCIe video cards. Even if the Xbox One was modular, modern PCIe busses just don't have the bandwidth to support next-gen peripherals that are already prototyped. There just isn't a scenario where tomorrow's hardware plugs into today's architectures.
Everyone is looking for a magic bullet to shorten hardware lifespans, reduce development costs, and increase profit margins. The only way that happens is with less specialized platforms. Okay, so we can solve that right now by using OTS PC hardware & software. Great. But once you do that, how do you then prevent people from breaking or hacking stuff? You build bespoke platforms with locked down components. And then we're back to square one.
You don't get it both ways. Everyone just needs to chill the fuck out and maintain status quo until everyone has enough bandwidth to host games in the cloud and just send the display over the intertubes.
In theory it sounds nice, but the reality is, that the video game industry has never done great with console hardware 'upgrades' as mandatory to play certain games. Was the Xbone built in a way to allow for easy upgrades, or is this decision being made after the fact, and it'll require people to buy a new Xbone with upgrade abilities? While Windows/PC building is relatively easy for the technically inclined, it's not something a great many people want to deal with. I mean hell, how many of you have family members with computer problems that you just shake your head at?
I'll file myself under "hmmm, I don't know... could be cool... could be fail miserably" I think it'll depend on just how friendly MS can make it, not only for the stupidest of consumers, but also developers.
heh... speaking of pc drivers.
If you’re an Nvidia graphics card user, you might want to hold off on installing the latest driver.
The 364.47 driver was released yesterday, and is meant to include optimisations for The Division, Hitman, Need for Speed, Ashes of the Singularity and Rise of the Tomb Raider. The drivers can also severely damage your computer.
Blue screens, failing to boot up Windows, restart loops, losing sound, graphical artifacting and even burned out cards are all problems which are being reported by users on various sites. It doesn’t seem to be specific to one brand or generation of card, either.
Nvidia has released a statement saying that the problems lie in the express installation settings, and that it is “actively investigating the issue”.
I am personally running the driver with my GTX 980 on a non-upgraded installation of Windows 10 64-bit, installed using express installation, and have found my entire PC now locks up after a few minutes of The Division. Enough people having more serious issues for me to suggest you wait until Nvidia releases a fixed version, or roll back your drivers if you’ve been unlucky enough to already install it.
Heh.
"Oops."
Happy that I haven't been prompted to update my drivers yet. Though I generally do a custom installation, I wonder what's special about the express one.
I stopped updating my Nvidia drivers a while ago after three releases in a row caused a bunch of problems.
Does anyone use the bluray player in the xbone? Curious how it is...
Right now I use a PC with PowerDVD but the Alienware Alpha I intend to replace that system with does not have a drive. Is the xbone a decent bluray player?
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