The XBOX One

stusser · 2014-06-05T08:19:20.000Z

Yep, no wireless on PC at all yet. Stick with your 360 controllers.

instant0 · 2014-06-05T09:04:27.000Z

Real names? Optional or always?

Wendelius · 2014-06-05T10:29:01.000Z

instant0:

Real names? Optional or always?

Optional.

Wendelius

Scotch_Lufkin · 2014-06-05T10:32:33.000Z

I also wanted to use this place to bitch that since my son and I are both on Windows 8 we wanted to use his XBOX to stream media with the Media Center from a Windows 8 PC to the system, only to find out what was once free software (Windows Media Center) is now a paid-for upgrade if you have Windows 8. WTF is up with Microsoft lately? It’s still free software on Windows 7. That makes sense, MS, hobble a main feature of your console by making people pay for it. Why not use a proprietary port for the headphones while you are at it! Oh, wait, you DID! Sigh.

Woolen_Horde · 2014-06-05T11:09:12.000Z

BleedTheFreak:

I also wanted to use this place to bitch that since my son and I are both on Windows 8 we wanted to use his XBOX to stream media with the Media Center from a Windows 8 PC to the system, only to find out what was once free software (Windows Media Center) is now a paid-for upgrade if you have Windows 8. WTF is up with Microsoft lately? It’s still free software on Windows 7. That makes sense, MS, hobble a main feature of your console by making people pay for it. Why not use a proprietary port for the headphones while you are at it! Oh, wait, you DID! Sigh.

It’s $100 for Win 8 vanilla, and $10 for Win 8 Pro. (Or, you got it free like me because you upgraded to Win8 in the first few months).

Anyways, doesn’t really matter, because you’d still be screwed. The Xbox One does not have Windows Media Extender, even though the 360 has it. I’m using my 360 more than my One simply because of that fact. Yeah, it’s sort of stupid of Microsoft. Actually, that’s wrong. It’s not sort of stupid. It’s very stupid.

Scotch_Lufkin · 2014-06-05T11:19:22.000Z

Yeah, it’s true that Windows 8 is only $10, but it feels fundamentally wrong to pay $10 and then LOSE a feature that you literally probably just had installed. Very stupid. I’m glad it’s not just me - we are also using the 360 (and ironically the PS3 is better about streaming too, again with third party (free) software) over the XBO, which is supposedly some sort of all-in-one media experience that isn’t even close to that. Big freaking fail, in my book.

Telefrog · 2014-06-09T07:34:29.000Z

Bungie’s Destiny will forego Kinect features to use the extra horsepower on the game’s graphics.

http://www.totalxbox.com/77665/destiny-xbox-one-resolution-is-higher-because-it-doesnt-use-kinect-says-microsoft/

Phil Spencer:

“This was a time when we wanted to give developers a choice on how much of the reserve, the Kinect reserve, they wanted to leave in the system,” Spencer continued. "If they know how they’re going to use Kinect, or if they’re going to not use Kinect in their game, we wanted them to have the option at a game side to decide how much of that reserve will wait - will remain.

“Even our friends at Bungie, and I’ve been spending a lot of time down there, they’re going to pick up the June SDK update for Destiny, and they’re going to up the resolution of Destiny based on this change. So I think it’s just a great time for us.”

Jake_Plane · 2014-06-14T17:45:02.000Z

So… does this mean that:

A) the game itself will not use any Kinect features
B) within the game, you cannot use system wide Kinect commands (so you can’t say Xbox, watch tv and have it switch instantly from the game to tv viewing)

sharaleo · 2014-06-14T20:29:34.000Z

Jake Plane:

So… does this mean that:

B) within the game, you cannot use system wide Kinect commands (so you can’t say Xbox, watch tv and have it switch instantly from the game to tv viewing)

Actually, that is an interesting question. Does making this reserve available completely disable the core platform functionality while in-game? If so, Kinect really is dead as a door-nail.

RickH · 2014-06-15T06:01:21.000Z

sharaleo:

Actually, that is an interesting question. Does making this reserve available completely disable the core platform functionality while in-game? If so, Kinect really is dead as a door-nail.

Been wondering that myself. My guess is that overhead was for processing the visual data rather than the audio commands, since MS has been doing voice command on lesser platforms like Ford Sync for a while now.

JD · 2014-06-15T06:12:14.000Z

Wasn’t one of the CPU cores reserved for Kinect as well?

Murbella · 2014-06-15T13:41:08.000Z

Kinect was dead last generation. It has just taken Microsoft this long to admit it.

Starlight · 2014-06-16T15:45:19.000Z

Murbella:

Kinect was dead last generation. It has just taken Microsoft this long to admit it.

For gaming. Loads of scientific and robotics uses!
…
Heh.

As for voice processing, I believe that some mobile phones have low-power chips specifically for voice processing while keeping the main CPU’s offline. (Google ones, I think?)

Dejin · 2014-06-16T16:10:08.000Z

Murbella:

Kinect was dead last generation. It has just taken Microsoft this long to admit it.

My university students love the Kinect dancing games.

Jason_Becker · 2014-06-16T18:13:02.000Z

Dejin:

My university students love the Kinect dancing games.

I think that should read “My drunk university students love the Kinect dancing games”.

Editer · 2014-06-16T18:16:51.000Z

Jason Becker:

I think that should read “My drunk university students love the Kinect dancing games”.

Extra adjective is redundant.

Cyrano · 2014-06-17T10:27:58.000Z

BleedTheFreak:

Yeah, it’s true that Windows 8 is only $10, but it feels fundamentally wrong to pay $10 and then LOSE a feature that you literally probably just had installed. Very stupid. I’m glad it’s not just me - we are also using the 360 (and ironically the PS3 is better about streaming too, again with third party (free) software) over the XBO, which is supposedly some sort of all-in-one media experience that isn’t even close to that. Big freaking fail, in my book.

If you have a Windows 8.1 laptop near your TV, you can right click a music or video file and select “Play to” to play it on your Xbox One. Or you can use the Xbox Music and Xbox Video apps to start playing your file, then choose Devices->Play from the charms menu. If your media is on another PC in your house, put them on the same homegroup in Windows. I was upset about Xbox One not having Media Center at first (still am, somewhat), but I have found that it’s much faster to navigate Xbox Music with mouse and keyboard than to scroll through page after page in Media Center with a controller. Moreover, Xbox One is so much quieter than 360 that listening to music is a much better experience.

Sam_Jones · 2014-06-17T11:00:14.000Z

Cyrano:

If you have a Windows 8.1 laptop near your TV, you can right click a music or video file and select “Play to” to play it on your Xbox One. Or you can use the Xbox Music and Xbox Video apps to start playing your file, then choose Devices->Play from the charms menu. If your media is on another PC in your house, put them on the same homegroup in Windows. I was upset about Xbox One not having Media Center at first (still am, somewhat), but I have found that it’s much faster to navigate Xbox Music with mouse and keyboard than to scroll through page after page in Media Center with a controller. Moreover, Xbox One is so much quieter than 360 that listening to music is a much better experience.

For what it’s worth, people in the XBO test group forums do request DLNA functionality, and MS have specifically acknowledged that it is one of the most requested features and that they are looking at it. So it may happen. Someday. Personally, I think MS being on the back foot vs Sony is working to our (users) advantage in that they are more likely to implement features they may not otherwise have wanted to add.

Telefrog · 2014-06-17T12:00:48.000Z

What that extra 10% freed up with optional Kinect means: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2014-06-17-how-the-xbox-one-gpu-reserve-unlock-actually-works

What Microsoft has done is create a flexible system where, according to Lobb, the Xbox One’s GPU and RAM “can bounce”.

“So if someone says, ‘Xbox record that,’ it will work on 100 per cent of the games, if you have a Kinect.”

If you don’t have a Kinect, “it’s not like you have more RAM,” Lobb clarified.

It’s worth noting that if a developer creates a Kinect-free game, gesture controls and visual recognition features are suspended while the game is running. As soon as you minimise the game, however, all of the Kinect functionality returns.

“You have more GPU, so go ahead and use it how you want,” Lobb said. “It’s more GPU plus more bandwidth to the GPU, so they both matter. So for some games it might be resolution, it might be frame-rate, or it might be, let’s throw in more enemies.”

jpinard · 2014-06-17T12:46:51.000Z

Remember when people were saying the horsepower difference between PS4 & Xbox One didn’t make a difference? I think the fact Bungie opted for horsepower over Kinect shows that attitude was wrong.