Well, Microsoft does seem to be listening to people. A sticking point for a lot of fans on the next-generation console has been that it’s less powerful than Sony’s PlayStation 4. In a podcast today though, Major Nelson talked with Xbox’s Marc Whitten about some changes to the Xbox One that will let it crank out better graphics.
The first improvement is a graphics driver Microsoft calls a “mono driver”, which is totally optimised for Xbox One. Most of the devs have already adopted it, according to Microsoft:
You start with the base DX driver and you take out all parts that don’t look like Xbox One and you add in everything that really, really optimises that experience. Almost all of our content partners have picked it up now.
The clockspeed on the processor has been ramped up from 800MHz to 853MHz, which is a nice little bump. The early analysis of the theoretical maxes of both systems already had the Xbox One in the same league as the PS4, but Whitten said that as they get out of theoretical territory and start actually using the machines, tweaks are being made to try to get the X1 where they want it.
As important as they are, differences in graphics between the two systems are probably not going to be an issue that causes most players to enjoy a game any less so long as devs optimise for framerate (and it’s hard to imagine them not).
Nelson and Whitten also talked a bit about the matchmaking and reputation systems, which will match you with people of like skill and trollishness, and from anywhere within the Xbox. There isn’t much new news on those fronts though. Basically, the internal beta is at full steam right now, and it seems like Microsoft is being openminded about how what the X1 needs to improve. For now, they’re definitely headed in the right direction.