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Forums - Microsoft - Xbox One SDK and documentation leaked!

walsufnir on 31 December 2014

source: http://www.theverge.com/2014/12/31/7472393/xbox-one-sdk-leak-homebrew-apps

 

 

Xbox One SDK leak could let developers make homebrew apps for the console

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A group of hackers has reportedly leaked the full version of Microsoft's official Xbox One SDK — the software kit that approved Xbox developers use to make games and apps for the console. The group, calling itself H4LT, announced the leak of the kit via its Twitter account, tweeting screenshots showing the SDK's files to Microsoft's official Xbox account.

Developers still need a license to release games on Xbox

The apparent public leak of the SDK doesn't mean that everyone with a basis in programming can start launching games and apps on Xbox One — developers aiming to officially release software on the company's consoles must register and be approved by Microsoft before doing so. But with the SDK in the hands of the public, there's the possibility that developers could create homebrew apps and modifications for the console further down the line.

The hacker group behind the leak says there's "no definite exploit" at the moment that would allow developers to do that, but it hopes that people familiar with Windows 8 will be able to dig into the files to find more. The group says that it leaked the files because sharing with the community allows "creativity and research," but the public leak caps off a tough holiday period for Microsoft, in which its Xbox Live service was taken down by a DDoS attack on Christmas Day.



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walsufnir on 31 December 2014

I am currently reading through the docs but found something interesting already:

In the default system configuration, titles have access to 6 of the 8 processing cores available on the Xbox One. In order to improve performance a game may choose to forego NUI title speech support in order to gain access to a 7th processing core. The 7th core will be available while the title is in the full state. While using the 7th core, users will still have access to Xbox System voice commands such as "Xbox Snap Achievements" or "Xbox Record That". Access to the 7th core requires the October 2014 XDK or newer.

If your title does not utilize NUI title speech, we recommend that you enable the 7th processing core in order to gain access to additional processing power and to reduce underlying system overhead from the NUI title speech engine.

Enabling the 7th Processing Core

Access to the 7th core is enabled by setting the XboxSystemResources extension to 'extended' in the application package manifest.





Note that process lifetime management states will continue to operate at current levels. For example, when your application becomes constrained it will be limited to 4 CPU cores. When your application is suspended it will have access to 0 CPU cores. The 7th core is only available when your application is in the full state. As a consequence of disabling NUI title speech, other NUI services such as IR and depth are also disabled. Because of this, titles making use of the 7th core should also set the CoreApplication.DisableKinectGpuReservation property to true in order to make use of the 4.5% NUI GPU reserve.

Windows::ApplicationModel::Core::CoreApplication::DisableKinectGpuReserve = true;
Availability of the 7th Core

Because the 7th core is shared with the underlying system OS, titles will not be able to utilize 100% of the core. Titles are always guaranteed at least 50% of the core and will have at most 80% of the core. The amount of the core that is available will vary based on what is happening in the system at any point in time. For example, when the system must process commands spoken by the user (e.g "Xbox Go To Friends"), it will take up to 50% of the 7th core. After the processing is done, the amount of the core made available to the title will increase again, up to the maximum of 80%.



vivster on 31 December 2014

Interesting stuff.



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walsufnir on 31 December 2014

Several graphs included, giving a lot of inside views on the architecture. I'd like to write a summary but my girlfriend is screaming so... Perhaps will do a summary in the next few days. In the meantime, have fun while exploring (links can be found easily ).