Update May 25th 2017: Introducing 'Mixer' - renamed Beam from Xbox One and Windows 10 - Windows 10 Forums

Last year, we set out to make Windows 10 the best version of Windows for gaming. Today, PC gaming gets even better for Windows 10 gamers everywhere. With the release of the Windows 10 Creators Update, we’re delivering built-in game streaming and interactivity with Beam, game performance improvements with Windows Game Mode, and a unified destination to customize your system settings for your Windows 10 gaming experience. Here’s a look at the new features rolling out today, which we announced and released for Windows Insiders earlier this year:

• Built-in Beam game streaming: We’re committed to making great gaming experiences that unify players across devices, and with the release of Beam on Windows 10 today following its console release last month, we’re doing just that. Beam is the easiest and most interactive way to stream your gameplay on Windows 10. Simply press the Windows key + G while playing your game to bring up the Game bar, and you’ll find we’ve added a broadcast icon to launch Beam – no extra software required. This gives everyone the opportunity to show their creativity as a game broadcaster. And it gets better. Thanks to Beam’s low latency technology, Beam streams have less than a second of delay, enabling streamers to engage and interact with their viewers in near real-time. What’s more, Beam enables streamers to incorporate interactive features such as animation and sound triggers right into their stream. The ability to manage your Beam broadcast and interact with fellow gamers on chat will appear as overlays. For more on Beam, check out our Beam Week posts on Xbox Wire here.

• Game Mode: With Game Mode, it’s our goal to provide a better and more consistent gaming experience on Windows 10, by dedicating more system resources to your game. The initial release of Game Mode works best when your PC is experiencing resource contention. In other words, when your PC is working hard to run your game and possibly other concurrent software, Game Mode can help manage system resources more efficiently and optimize them for gaming. What’s more, Game Mode works for both Win32 and UWP games. To enable Game Mode, pull up the Game bar (Windows key + G) and click on the Settings button. There you’ll be able to opt the running game into using Game Mode. And the Creators Update is just the first milestone in our commitment to Game Mode and Windows 10 performance improvements for PC gaming.

• More Games supported by Game bar: In the Windows 10 Creators Update, we now support Windows Game bar in full screen mode with over 80 of the most popular PC games. You can also now manage this feature in the new Gaming section of Windows Settings. Look for “Game bar”, and make sure that “Show Game bar when I play full screen games Microsoft has verified” setting is checked. A regularly updated list of supported titles is available here.

• Gaming section in Windows Settings: Inside the main Windows System Settings, a new section has been added: Gaming, identified with the Xbox logo. This new section unifies your gaming settings into one easily accessible location. At the launch of the Creators Update, you’ll see four initial settings options: Game bar, GameDVR, broadcasting, and Game Mode. Note that Game Mode may then be turned on or off for specific games using the Game bar (Windows key + G).

Thanks to all the fans for their constructive feedback on our Windows 10 gaming features. We sincerely appreciate our Windows Insiders who are gaming with us and sharing their input. While we’re happy to now share the new gaming experiences in the Creators Update, we’re already deep in planning for the future. So, keep the feedback coming, or if you’re not with us on the Windows Insider Program, join us! Finally, if you haven’t seen the full view of features releasing alongside the Windows 10 Creator’s Update starting today, head over to the Window Blog for more details!

Mike Ybarra

Source: Beam Streaming, Game Mode, and More Begin Rolling Out Today with the Windows 10 Creators Update - Xbox Wire

Posted By: Brink
11 Apr 2017