It’s nearly there already
Microsoft dropped a ton of new information about the Xbox Series X this morning, a deepdive into the technical potential that some games will be able to achieve. As tends to happen with new hardware, everyone’s daydreaming about how it’ll be implemented in future games. However, Microsoft framed some of it against a recent already-released game that gives us a good idea of what to expect.
Gears 5was specifically mentioned as a title that’ll be better on Xbox Series X. Developer The Coalition put a couple weeks’ work into optimizing Gears 5and got the game running at 100 frames per second at 4K resolution. The team wants to hit 120fps for multiplayer modes, a target that (to the layman) sounds achievable considering what the developer managed to accomplish in only a couple weeks.
Microsoft also confirmed that the Xbox Series X version of Gears 5will have the following: Extremely fast load times, an opening cutscene that runs at 60fps at 4K (the Xbox One X version was 30fps), volumetric fog, a 50 percent higher particle count than the PC version on ultra settings, contact shadows, and self-shadow lighting on vegetation.
All of this comes free to Gears 5owners (and anyone playing on Game Pass) via the Smart Delivery feature across Xbox One and Xbox Series X. It’s not clear how many third-party publishers will make use of Smart Delivery — the ones who don’t offer free upgrades will look mighty greedy, but that’s never stopped anyone before — but we have assurance that it’ll be implemented for Xbox’s first-party games.
Xbox Series X: A Closer Look at the Technology Powering the Next Generation [Xbox Wire]