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Wired: Phil Spencer Interview (Scorpio and VR)

J

jbug617

Banned
http://www.wired.com/2016/06/xbox-vr-scorpio-phil-spencer/?mbid=social_twitter

Devs are the reason for the specs
“When we started looking at Scorpio,” he says, “we asked the partners, ‘in order to build a true high-fidelity 4K game, what capabilities do you need?’ That’s what we designed Scorpio around. It’s kind of like a [GeForce GTX] 980 card on the PC. I get the capability that I need as a developer to deliver a high-fidelity 4K game. ”
Click to expand...
“When we went out and talked to VR developers,” Spencer says, “the capability and the hardware spec that they need to deliver a console-like experience to VR was a requirement of 6 teraflops, which clearly, today’s consoles—PlayStation 4 and Xbox One—don’t have.”
Click to expand...

Don't expect a cell-phone model for Xbox
“Consumer expectation is that, if you wanted to, you could go buy a new cell phone every year. I don’t want to get into that mode with a console,” Spencer says. “I see the next inflection point as 4K, and I want to make sure we have a console there to support that, and Scorpio will do that. We’re not on a hardware tick-tock that says I need to put out a console every two years or every one year to get people to upgrade. That’s not the console model.”
Click to expand...

Microsoft is not working on their own VR set.
“Right now we are not focused on a first-party VR hardware device,” he says. He didn’t call out any particular headset that might plug into Scorpio, but noted that Microsoft hoped to “enable many hardware manufacturers to make progress there
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Backwards compatibility and BC OG Xbox
“Consoles created generations that effectively take your library back to zero; we’re trying to think beyond generations and say, how do you bring all the content that you purchased and love from this generation and move it forward with you?” he says. Microsoft has been working hard to make more and more Xbox 360 games backward compatible with Xbox One — Spencer calls out the 360-exclusive Japanese role-playing games Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey as his most-wanted games, and says the team is working on getting them running on Xbox One as we speak — and those backward compatible games, too, will work on Scorpio.

“I’ve talked about a desire to do the original Xbox backward compatibility,” he says—he’s wearing a shirt with the original Bill Gates-era Xbox logo on it. “We’re not working on that right now, but it’s theoretically very possible. On the CPU side, we could figure it out. I think people should have access to the games that they love,”
Click to expand...

In regards to VR, Phil says that innovation is going to be on PC and devs should focus on that. Their plan is to pick the best ones and bring them to console.
 
D

demosthenes

Member
I'm sure he'll be hammering on that PS4 can't push good VR but haven't most if not all of the feedback from people that have used PSVR (I haven't) been positive?
 
G

gofreak

GAF's Bob Woodward
demosthenes said:
I'm sure he'll be hammering on that PS4 can't push good VR but haven't most if not all of the feedback from people that have used PSVR (I haven't) been positive?
Click to expand...

I don't think that's what he means. I think he means bringing today's console-like graphics to VR (e.g. bringing today's 1080p or sub 1080p/30 console level of quality up to 1080p+/90+).
 
Hari Seldon

Hari Seldon

Member
That sounds pretty damn solid actually. If they allow multiple VR devices on that I will definitely buy one as a perfect living room VR box. I'm actually excited for this thing now and I'm primarily a PC player.
 
M

Monty Mole

Member
demosthenes said:
I'm sure he'll be hammering on that PS4 can't push good VR but haven't most if not all of the feedback from people that have used PSVR (I haven't) been positive?
Click to expand...

No, he's just saying they can't provide current-gen console like graphics in VR. Which is obviously a fact.

I'd imagine Scorpio will incorporate AMD's version of multi-angle rendering tech similar to what Nvidia unveiled for the GTX1070/80 to drastically cut overheads when rendering VR.
 
M

MLCodest

Member
Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey being his most wanted games for BC gives me a small bit of hope. Please Phil, give us a sequel to either of them.
 
H

Heshinsi

"playing" dumb? unpossible
A GTX 980 doesn't do AAA at 4K at anything resembling decent frame rates. That's a weird example.
 
B

bede-x

Member
That thing about backwards compatibility is what I want to hear. Doesn't make sense to keep throwing games away every generation.
 
W

WadeitOut

Member
I have a PSVR preorder paid off waiting for me around my Birthday, but even I have a very real concern that it is going to suffer from a ton of "VR Experience" shovelware due to hardware limitations.

Supporting Vive/Oculus is clearly the superior route but one company makes Windows and the other is primarily a hardware company. So you can't really knock either approach.
 
R3TRODYCE

R3TRODYCE

Member
A 980 isn't doing 4k gaming.

Hell my 1080 isn't doing 4k gaming in most titles unless I drop settings a good bit.
 
C

c0de

Member
He is repeating what many people said: it isn't a big problem to target different specs. Engines and devs already do that.
 
M

mohsinkhan

Member
I was coming to post this, from this it does seem like the xbox one S has some sort of graphical upgrade over the current xbox one.
 
L

lightskintwin

Banned
I wouldn't be surprised if Xbox and Oculus make a console exclusive partnership which allows their headset and Oculus exclusive games to be available on Xbox's platform primarily for Project Scorpio as well as all first party games being compatible with the Oculus Rift VR.
 
3

3rdamention

Member
They are doubling down on this 4k Gaming aren't they?



But they can always say "You know, everything on Scorpio will output at 4k, right?"
 
T

The Baron Count

Member
Venom Fox said:
Gtx 980 ok then. Sounds like power of the cloud all over again.
Click to expand...

What?

You can take one look at the current PC market and see how doable this is. The RX480 is a $200 card that should nip at the heels of the 980 already. There is nothing incredible about what he is describing here. This system will be pretty mid range by release, I don't get why people keep acting like it's some kind of crazy powerhouse. For a console, absolutely, but I doubt the Scorpio will be in such a radically different place than the PS4 when it launched compared to what's available on PC.

This also bodes well for the price point. I don't think it will be anywhere near as expensive as some do. Still, a 980 is not exactly a 4K card so it will be interesting to see how this plays out.
 
I

ironcreed

Banned
jbug617 said:
http://www.wired.com/2016/06/xbox-vr-scorpio-phil-spencer/?mbid=social_twitter

Don't expect a cell-phone model for Xbox:

“Consumer expectation is that, if you wanted to, you could go buy a new cell phone every year. I don’t want to get into that mode with a console,” Spencer says. “I see the next inflection point as 4K, and I want to make sure we have a console there to support that, and Scorpio will do that. We’re not on a hardware tick-tock that says I need to put out a console every two years or every one year to get people to upgrade. That’s not the console model.”
Click to expand...

37201-Carlton-dancing-gif-I2pZ.gif
 
RowdyReverb

RowdyReverb

Member
Heshinsi said:
A GTX 980 doesn't do AAA at 4K at anything resembling decent frame rates. That's a weird example.
Click to expand...

Hemingway said:
4k gaming? On a 980? Uh no
Click to expand...

R dott B said:
A 980 isn't doing 4k gaming.

Hell my 1080 isn't doing 4k gaming in most titles unless I drop settings.
Click to expand...
I think he was just using the 980 as an example of a high end GPU. I don't think he literally meant they're putting a 980 equivalent in there
"It’s kind of like a [GeForce GTX] 980 card on the PC" (emphasis mine)
 
E

EloquentM

aka Mannny
harSon said:
What exactly is confusing?
Click to expand...
Why you responding to me in here but not in BCT!

I'm aware that they'll be able to get games to 4K on the strength of the gpu they're supposedly using, but I wonder at what fidelity. Current gen effects, geometry, with higher textures at 30? What would that box look like? How hot would it run? How much would it be? It just doesn't seem viable from a consol consumer standpoint which is why consoles slowly but surely got left in the dust by PCs. This is why I want to wait to see what the hardware will look like and what the games will look like. I don't want to overhype myself.
 
V

vg260

Member
Don't like the the 4K gaming thing he keeps pushing. Don't want 4k/<30 fps.

Can't we get some really nice looking 1080p/60 games with high settings for a while first?
 
G

GodofWine

Member
4k gaming on a television is not really all that (far more impressive on a PC setup due to viewing distances), 1080p at 60hz with all the cool stuff turned up will be, so I hope this is there actual goal. I don't want concessions just so they can claim to have x number of 4k games.
 
O

Onemic

Member
They really gotta stop talking about 4K gaming. Scorpio wont be able to do 4K. The best graphics cards today cant even average 60 frames in 4K. A 980 struggles with 30 fps in 4K.
 
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