Rumor: Xbox "Lockhart" specs leaked, is $300

[Mr Puggsly]

goopy20 said:

Mr Puggsly said:

Agree with your first paragragh. But your previous comments about X1 resolutions was mostly wrong.

The ambition of future MS games isn't inherently limited by Series S or even X1. Is Doom Eternal and Witcher 3 limited by Switch? It also depends on the individual project as games can have features removed.

"larger/ richer levels, ai, physics, world simulations etc." For Series S, all of that can be maintained as that often has little to do with GPU TF. For X1, which will be supported for a period, can scale aspects back like we see on Switch ports for example.

In theory the only significant compromise Series S would make is 4TF vs 12TF. That means the S and X should support the exact same content with GPU heavy aspects being compromised for S. Whether that be performance, graphics settings and/or resolution.

Anyway, you aren't say anything new and for decades we've seen PCs games scale significantly for GPUs.

A powerful graphics card can play RDR2 at 4K/60/Ultra. A lesser card can play it well at 720p/30/Low. Either way you would be playing the exact same game. So if GPU TF is the only disparity, they can likely handle the same large scale and ambitious games.

If all ps4/Xone games were designed to release alongside a Switch version with parity in mind, those games would also be seriously compromised and we wouldn't even have games like RDR2 right now. Luckily that's not happening because games like Witcher 3 were developed separately and released much later. It does run, but it can drop to 810x456 at times. The Switch can somewhat get away with that because its a handheld, but good luck playing in that resolution on a 55inch tv. 

All I'm saying is that any game will have to make concessions if it has to run on a range of different specs and the high-end will never be fully used to its potential. Just look at the mid-gen consoles. They were like 4 or 5 times more powerful than base consoles but they never felt like that big of an improvement. Why? Because developers could never really take advantage of the extra hardware since they had to aim for parity with the base consoles. In the end we got the exact same games with only got a higher res and/or framerate. But here's a tech-demo of what's possible on a ps4 pro if it's not held back by base ps4 and is running at 1080p/30fps: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lhpn96bbzkk

That's the thing, there isn't true parity between X1, Series S or Series X. A Series S version will have lower quality visual settings given the rumored disparity is GPU. The X1 version might be compromised in other ways kinda like Switch ports can be.

The Switch version of Witcher 3 on Switch doesen't just have lower graphics settings and resolution. They also made changes to geometry, AI density, etc. They reduced the load on GPU, CPU and RAM without breaking the game. Yeah, it looks terrible compared to other versions. Its the same game though running on surprisingly low specs. It demonstrates how much modern games can scale back spec demands.

Your argument is inconsistent. Sometines your concern is the Series S version could look bad. The simple solution for you is dont get the S. Meanwhile spec disparity isnt a big issue if its just GPU. I suspect you keep bouncing because you don't feel strongly either way.

Also I suspect you're in the PS camp. So do you really care if MS makes technically inferior games? Is that going to impact your Gamepass subscription.

Anywho, the Witcher 3 can technically function on specs well below X1 capabilities and well beyond. Yet its still a very ambitious product. Get the point? A core game can function often on limited specs.

Sometimes concessions could be exclusive to a version with limited specs. There are many examples from various generations as well. Just depends on the route MS goes.

The mid gen upgrades were simply designed to improve performance and visuals. However, if a game was designed specifically for X1X, that doesen't mean a base X1 port is impossible. Especially when the big disparity is GPU power.