New
#1
Very interesting
Makes me want to upgrade to the One, streaming features sounds nice
Xbox users might want to check for updates, as a new version of the console’s OS is currently rolling out.
The latest update, which comes in at a hefty 2GB, doesn’t bring many user-facing features although it does prepare the console for two important functions: game streaming to Windows 10 devices and backward compatibility with the Xbox 360.
Game streaming has been shown off by Microsoft numerous times, ever since the feature was unveiled back in January. It allows users to stream their games from the Xbox One to any Windows 10 device that has the Xbox app installed. The feature works through the local network and has been quite reliable in testing.
Read more: Xbox One update prepares console for Windows 10 game streaming and backward compatibility
I had the pleasure to try this out yesterday after work (after the excitement of being accepted into the XBL preview program; yay!). It is surprisingly quite good. I have my X1 hooked up via router whilst my laptop is running 5GHz. For being in a test environment, the streaming works so well that I gasped when I first fired up the streaming link. Albeit there is artifacting and some lag due to probably a myriad of reasons (wireless, video stream encoding hiccups, etc...), it was rather fun to be playing X1 on my laptop. Tonight I plan to fire up Mass Effect 1 for the backwards compatibility piece and perhaps seeing if the emulator will stream it. To be completely honest, Microsoft has blown me out of the water with Windows 10 and Phil Spencer's reins on the Xbox program. I haven't been this excited for an incredibly long time.
Good Thursday morning (or evening)!
I promised I would come back to share my feedback on the backwards compatibility. Short answer: Very pleased.
360 DVD formats are just shy of 10 GBs (at least for earlier release titles such as Mass Effect 1). Upon inserting the disc, nothing popped up, however being familiar with the X1 dashboard I knew to look for the disc tray status. Sure enough it was denoted as 'Install Disc'. A simple selection of that option began installing the ~9.6GB install. Feeding the dogs and emptying the dishwasher helped to bide my time as it finished installing. I thought why not max out the variables for this test and go straight for the streaming option. This is where I felt nostalgia and a degree of uncertainty. Streaming connected immediately and I fired up a squished X1 dashboard pin of the very first original Mass Effect 1 cover art (no trilogy or GOTY covers here). This is when I figured out how they are doing backwards emulation. I was presented with what honestly felt to me like a very early feel of the 360 dashboard GUI theme like screen asking me to wait while it retrieved my information. Moments later the familiar 'bloop' sound happened and I saw my gamertag pop up in the 360 fashion. Microsoft (so far) has effectively inserted the 360 environment into a working emulator. That is by far the slickest way of doing it that I have ever seen. From my years of personal hobby of computers and consoles and game creation, this has some serious potential. Everything responded perfectly as far as input. Graphics are still OK after the last 7-8 years, but Shep still has his stiff rigged running animations.
To answer your question paulsalter, I think you and I both would benefit being able to use our extensive 360 library on the X1. I am hoping more games become available soon that I have in my library. I would like to compare the fluidity as I experienced in ME1.
Matt
Good Morning
That all sounds great, backward compatibility is a great thing
Shame it doesn't play direct from the 360 disk, a 10GB download would take me 2 days
I have quite a large collection, had the 360 from day one and also get the free games each month, so with games becoming compatible with the One, its getting hard to say no to getting it
It is what made me get one, that and fallout 4. Lol. Streaming works well, backwards compatibility is nice, only a few right now, but more coming. As far as downloading, let it run in background and over time they will all get done. It's worth it. oh buy your bigger expansion drive early. You will need it.