‘No smoke and mirrors’
The latest generation in gaming has brought with it an emphasis on sharing. Screenshots and gameplay videos can be relatively easily captured and uploaded for anyone’s audience to see. It’s a smart way to drive interaction — whether it’s to share an unbelievable kill streak inHalo, or something as irreverent as alunatic stabbinggoats in the butt.
With the announcement that Windows 10 will, in part, contribute to the “Xbox ecosystem,” it really opens the door to the accessibility and possibility of sharing content. In what was called a “platform demo” at GDC in San Francisco last week, we got a first-hand look at how simple Windows 10 will make this process.
Available for any game played on Windows 10 (even non-native Xbox titles) is a Game DVR that operates similarly to the “Xbox, record that” function of the Xbox One. Mapped to the Windows + G command, the DVR captures the past 30 seconds of gameplay, regardless of what’s playing.
In our demo, the presenter chose to record footage of Goat Simulatorrunning on Steam. Goat Simulatorwas selected because “[It] shipped on Steam about this time last year. The developers haven’t really touched its base functionality since it shipped. It has no knowledge of Xbox One, or Game DVR and Windows 10. But, Game DVR is a feature of the Windows 10 operating system, and it’s available to any game played.”
After just a bit of nonsense in Goat Simulator(which isn’t difficult to accomplish), he recorded the clip and showed how Windows 10 saves it. “No smoke and mirrors, no magic, no special file formats. They’re just 1080p .mp4s sitting in my videos folder.” From there, users can either use the Xbox app on their computer to select start and end points, or they can use any video editing software to make more nuanced edits. Once the clip’s suited to their liking, it can be uploaded anywhere, just like any other video.
When we asked whether users will find this feature to be resource intensive for Game DVR to always be recording in the background, Microsoft responded by saying “We’re working on what the performance profiles of different hardware configurations are. You’re going to have best experiences with modern GPUs, but you’re still going to be able to use it if you have an older system. We’re going to be very upfront about whether it’s on or off by default because of the performance profile of your system.”
But, limitations of your system aren’t the only way to turn Game DVR off if it isn’t to your liking. The presenter elaborated “We want to put that flexibility in the user’s hands. If they say ‘frame-rate is unequivocally the most important thing; I don’t care how tricked out my rig is.’ If they want to turn it off because that’s what they want to optimize for, they’re going to be able to.”
A decent chunk of today’s gaming space is occupied by sharing unique gameplay videos on sites like reddit. Some personalities thrive on it; others are just normal players that had something wacky happen to them. Whatever the case may be, Windows 10 will make it easier than ever to get those special moments out in front of a crowd.