"Devs Not Hitting 1080p on Xbox One Due To Memory Bandwidth/ESRAM/RAM, No Definite on Resolution Benefit With DX12"
Resolution-gate has been one of the hottest topic of discussion of new generation consoles war, many developers have openly admitted that due to ESRAM, they were unable to lock their games in native 1080p resolution on Xbox One as compared to the Playstation 4, where almost all games run at 1080p. Recently, Stardock's CEO Brad Wardell spoke about why developers are unable to hit 1080p on Xbox One, benefits of DirectX 12 and a lot of more things.
I recently got in touch with Wardell via Twitter and asked: What exactly is the reason behind developers being unable to hit 1080p/60 FPS on Xbox One whereas on PS4 it's a cakewalk? Twitter user "Perpetual Coding" jumped in and replied: "I believe it's to do with memory bandwidth and not utilizing the ESram efficiently."
To this Wardell replied that "that's our take as well." and added that "MS cheaped out on the RAM."
Furthermore, I inquired Wardell on his previous statement: "Mantle provided a 6X performance boost for their engine as compared to DX 11", so how much performance boost do you expect from DX12 for your engine?
To this Wardell replied:
"depends on the game. The more objects on screen the more boost you get. Will mean little for a typical FPS, but huge for RTS."
When quizzed further: Does this mean resolution benefit will definitely come with DX 12? he replied:
"there are no 'definite' it'll depend on the developer."
Lastly, Wardell stated that currently gaming industry is on the cusp of a new golden age. When asked what exactly are the key fundamentals that are leading to this new golden age? he replied:
"64bit memory space, digital distribution and more female participation (more brain power in coming up with new ideas)."
I also got in touch with JS Bourdon, R&D graphics programmer at Square Enix and Sebastian Sylvan, Graphics engineer working at Microsoft on Secret Project and asked for some Direct X12 benefits for Xbox One.
Bourdon replied that the tech is currently in NDA and so he can't talk about it now, but added that "It will be a very good thing!". Sebastian declined to comment as he's not working on DX12: "I really have no inside info on that (not working on DX12). Probably a bigger deal for PC since consoles are already low level"
So there you have it folks, everyone is accepting that there will be some performance improvement is coming with Direct X12 but no one is openly admitting that it's going to end resolution-gate controversy.
