4239

That’s interesting. They must be using the hardware decompression stuff. I wonder if they needed to change the source to enable that, which of course they can do now they own Bethesda, or if it was completely separate?

4240

I guess it’s possible, but assuming they wouldn’t have access to the source code until the deal closed that would be a pretty quick turnaround. Also, to the best of my knowledge none of the other enhancements they’ve provided to boost BC games haven’t required touching the source code.

4241

They could have been working with Bethesda on this for months, though, through their developer relations guys. Framerates are one thing, I haven’t heard of speeding up loading.

4242

I would think it’s a near certainty that MS has been working with Bethesda on this effort for some time. I’m just not sure that this would involve modifying the game’s underlying code. But I certainly don’t have any inside info so I yeah, it’s possible.

4243

Load times on Prey in particular were brutal on XB1 systems. Nice to see stuff like that getting addressed as the transition into 1st-party status goes on.

4244

That’s pretty cool that you can only play the game in French now. My French is really rusty, it will give me a chance to brush up.

Also, I bought the game at launch on PC, but the load times on my PC were pretty long. (I didn’t get very far in the game). I installed it on the mechanical drive, and my CPU was from 2009, so it’s to be expected. I can’t believe the load time is now less than 2 seconds, that’s incredible.

4245

One thing that’s great about gamepass is that i probably wouldn’t actually pay money to play older games, even with these upgrades… But since they are free with Gamepass, I’ll definitely play them eventually.

4246

Speaking of GamePass, is the best/cheapest way to get it still to look for a deal on Gold, then upgrade it for a buck?

4247

Yes, that’s correct.

Get three years of gold, then convert it for $1.

4248

So is that new Xbox Wireless Headset sold out everywhere?

I should have pre-ordered.

4249

Ehh, I found a one year deal for 50 and I’ll convert that. I don’t know if I feel like committing to 3 years right now.

BTW my Xbox SeX is coming today. HYPE!!

4250

Sounds good. Just remember that you can’t change your mind later. Once you convert to Ultimate Game Pass, then when you try to add Gold time it converts at a much lesser ratio.

4251

You can, actually. You just need to let your GPU completely expire first. Assuming MS still allows it in a year of course.

4252

These games are running pure Xbox One code. Digital Foundry has done a bunch of deep dives on this.

Xbox One code running with a much faster hard drive and CPU drastically reduce load times. FPS boost improves frame rate and input latency. All those together make up the huge improvements they cover here.

4253

Not really XBox news, but I thought it was cool Windows is getting the Auto HDR option too.

4254

The thing is most PC displays aren’t bright enough to do full and proper HDR.

4255

Hmm, I redeemed 12 months of Xbox Live Gold last night and today, when I set up my new Xbox SX, it offered to upgrade it to to GPU for “$1 for one month” not $1 for the whole period left. Is it just poor wording on their part?

4256

Yes you will get a year of GPU.

4257

Thanks. It doesn’t make a difference if I do it on the Xbox or on the website in a browser, right?

4258

It shouldn’t but I used the website.