Backward Compatibility - Xbox Series X|S

[dronology]

A PlayStation emulator noted for its internal resolution scaling has now been ported to the Xbox Series X and S.

DuckStation is a PS1 emulator that focuses on “playability, speed and long-term maintainability”. According to the developer, “the goal is to be as accurate as possible while maintaining performance suitable for low-end devices”.

Because of this, when the emulator is run on more high-end devices it can tap into their extra processing power to upscale games by up to 16 times their original resolution.

A port of DuckStation was recently made for Xbox Series consoles, and a video by YouTuber Modern Vintage Gamer shows it running games at native 4K resolution and locked to 60 frames per second.

As well as the ability to internally upscale games to 4K, the Xbox version of DuckStation also lets players turn on True Colour Rendering (which disables the dithering effect used in the original PlayStation hardware) and Texture Filtering (which smooths out the blockiness of textures on 3D objects when they get larger).

Another supported feature is the ability to fix texture warping, which was a typical issue with PlayStation games. This takes up a lot of processing power, but as the video shows the Xbox Series S handles it well.

Since many PlayStation games didn’t originally run at 60 frames per second, in order to avoid creating issues they instead run at whatever their original frame rate was by default. However, the emulator also has an option to overclock the emulated CPU, which lets some games run at 60fps.

One example shown is PowerSlave (aka Exhumed), which has a 60fps frame cap but never comes close to that on the PlayStation. By enabling CPU overclocking, the game can then hit 60fps.

Of course, given that it’s an emulator, DuckStation is not simply available on the Xbox digital store. The only way to access it is to set the Xbox Series X/S to Developer Mode (which requires players to pay a fee to Microsoft to enable), and install the software manually.

Developer mode has previously been used to run other emulators on Xbox Series X/S such as RetroArch, but Modern Vintage Gamer states that DuckStation is “probably hands down the best PlayStation experience [he’s] had running under emulation”.

A new emulator lets Xbox Series X/S play PlayStation games at 4K

[paul]

Summary
- In celebration of Xbox’s 20th anniversary, we’ve added 70+ Xbox 360 and Original Xbox games to the backward compatibility library today on both Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S.
- These games benefit from the power of Xbox Series X|S: All games support Auto HDR and many will receive a resolution enhancement.
- We’ve also enabled FPS Boost for 11 titles added today and 26 more titles from the existing library.
- And beginning today, FPS Boost is rolling out to Xbox Cloud Gaming (Beta) for select titles like Fallout 76 and Fallout 4.

Today, we’re excited to add 70+ Xbox 360 and original Xbox games to our backward compatibility catalog in celebration of our 20th anniversary. This includes many of your top requested favorites including:
- The entire Max Payne series and the F.E.A.R. franchise are now playable on Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One consoles for the very first time.
- The entire Skate franchise is now complete with the addition of Skate 2 and playable on both Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One consoles.
- We also heard the desire for more original Xbox titles to be added to the catalog. We are pleased to announce we were able to bring more than 20+ original Xbox titles to an entire new generation of gamers, including Dead or Alive Ultimate, Star Wars: Jedi Knight II, Star Wars: Starfighter, and Otogi franchises.

- Every backward compatible title added today will experience improved visual quality with Auto HDR on supported displays, which automatically adds HDR enhancements on Xbox Series X|S.
- Original Xbox games will experience a resolution increase on all Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One consoles on supported displays.
-- 4x resolution increase on Xbox Series X and Xbox One X
-- 3x resolution increase on Xbox Series S
-- 2x resolution increase on Xbox One S and Xbox One
- Players will experience even smoother gameplay on 11 titles added today via FPS Boost, which doubles the original framerate up to 60 FPS, including F.E.A.R., F.E.A.R. 3, Binary Domain, and NIER.
- We are also excited to announce we enabled FPS Boost on 26 more titles from the existing catalog including top requested titles such as the entire Gears of War franchise, Fallout 3, Fallout: New Vegas, Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, Dragon Age: Origins, Dead Space 2 & 3, Alan Wake and Sonic Generations.
- And beginning today, FPS Boost is rolling out to 33 titles via Xbox Cloud Gaming (Beta) that were previously enhanced on Xbox Series X|S including Fallout 4, Fallout 76, and The Evil Within 2.

Celebrate 20 years of Xbox with over 70 new Backward Compatible Games - Xbox Wire

[marv]

great news, mersi!

[dronology]

Xbox boss Phil Spencer wants to see the games industry work towards a legal game emulation solution, in order to better preserve older software, he’s said.

Preservation has become an increasingly important topic in the games industry in recent years, as older games gradually become unavailable due to obsolete hardware or closed online services.

Speaking to Axios, Xbox exec Spencer advocated software emulation as a solution to game preservation.

Emulators, which allow modern hardware to simulate older hardware and run games, are widely used by fans and preservations, but currently there’s no universal support for them across the industry.

Xbox Series X|S runs older Xbox games using its own emulation. However, because there’s no industry-accepted standard, it still has to secure rights from game makers for each title, instead of running games directly from old discs.

And this week the company claimed that the 76 new games added to its backwards compatibility library would be the last, due to those legal and technical constraints. Presumably, an industry-wide emulator standard would solve such issues.

“I think we can learn from the history of how we got here through the creative,” Spencer said. “I love it in music. I love it in movies and TV, and there’s positive reasons for gaming to want to follow.

“My hope (and I think I have to present it that way as of now) is as an industry we’d work on legal emulation that allowed modern hardware to run any (within reason) older executable allowing someone to play any game.”

He added: “I think in the end, if we said, ‘Hey, anybody should be able to buy any game, or own any game and continue to play,’ that seems like a great North Star for us as an industry.”

Compared to console rivals Sony and Nintendo, Microsoft has historically championed the importance of preservation on its consoles.

Backward compatibility has long been a key feature of Microsoft’s Xbox Series X/S marketing efforts, with the company promoting the consoles’ ability to play a wide range of original Xbox, Xbox 360 and Xbox One games

Many games take advantage of the new consoles’ capabilities to “look and play better” than they originally did, and others support features like FPS Boost, which almost doubles the original frame rate, and Auto HDR, which adds HDR enhancements to games which only shipped with standard dynamic range.

And earlier this year , Microsoft brought backward compatible titles to Xbox cloud gaming for the first time by making a number of classic games from Rare, Bethesda and others available to mobile users with an Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription.

As rights issues block more Xbox back-compat games, Phil Spencer calls for ‘legal emulation’

[paul]

FPS Boost: Sonic Generations, Sonic Unleashed, Sonic & All-Star Racers Transformed, Fallout 3, Gears of War 3, Assassin's Creed, Mirror's Edge:

[paul]

Unele jocuri si add-ons ce sunt si backward compatible vor fi delistate din Marketplace pe 7 februarie. Raman disponibile pentru redescarcare dupa aceasta data.

Liste in PDF in functie de regiune: Xbox 360 Marketplace update.

[paul]

The Orange Box - 4K 60fps Mod For Xbox Series X - 1440p 60fps on Series S:

Half-Life 2 and The Orange Box run at 4K 30fps on Xbox Series X and 1440p 30fps on Xbox Series S, thanks to the X-enhancements created by Microsoft back in the day for Xbox One X.

But what's missing is a frame-rate boost to make these games hit 60fps, eliminating the poor frame-pacing that's been in the games since day one.

A mod is available that gets the job done, but there are heavy DF-style caveats.

Tom Morgan has the story - along with unlocked frame-rate tests on Xbox 360, Xbox One, Xbox One X and the Series consoles!