Xbox 360 HD Requirements Dropped?

[Evil Avatar]

Develop has an article online with quotes from Black Rock Studio's David Jefferies suggesting that Microsoft has dropped the requirement that all Xbox 360 games (except Halo and Call of Duty) display in 720p.

In his article Jefferies addresses the relative merits of screen resolution and anti-aliasing – two disciplines that are hard to achieve simultaneously without unrealistic GPU demands.

"We are making a trade-off and saying that the screen resolution is more important to us than the quality of the anti-aliasing," said Jefferies, when discussing the fact that while both HD consoles can output both 4xMSAA and 2xMSAA, the demands of 1280x720 make the former option very difficult.

"This isn’t necessarily an entirely voluntary move because, until recently, Microsoft had a TCR insisting that games run at 1280x720 – providing you weren’t one of the lucky ones like Halo, who got it waived and ran at 1152x640, that is," he added.

[Wolfgang]

I don't see a big deal. If it looks good, it looks good. I don't care what resolution it is running at.

If they can use the power to put 10 more people on the screen at 640p vs 5 more at 720p, I'd rather have the 10 more, etc...

[Jotoco]

He is just clearing things out.

The only HD 'console' this generation is still the PC. Next gen perhaps the consoles can get there.

[Dag-Sabot]

I thought there was something fishy about next Gen gaming. First they got rid of B.C now the H.D.

[StANTo]

Low resolution with MSAA tends to look rather nice.

[bickle]

Originally Posted by Dag-Sabot

I thought there was something fishy about next Gen gaming. First they got rid of B.C now the H.D.

They didn't get rid of backwards compatibility, they just stopped adding more titles to the list. That's a big difference.

[StGeorge]

I predict the next XBox will share the same chassis and power supply as the current 360 with slightly upgraded components - 1GB, 6 cores @ 3GHZ, DX11-class graphics, 250GB HD. It'll debut for $300. It'll run XBox 360 games natively (no more backwards compatibility nonsense). Will they give in to Sony and pay blu-ray licensing & royalties?

[PopoWRX]

Originally Posted by StGeorge

I predict the next XBox will share the same chassis and power supply as the current 360 with slightly upgraded components - 1GB, 6 cores @ 3GHZ, DX11-class graphics, 250GB HD. It'll debut for $300. It'll run XBox 360 games natively (no more backwards compatibility nonsense). Will they give in to Sony and pay blu-ray licensing & royalties?

Will they give you hdmi/component cables bundled in? How bout WIFI out of the box? I'm leaning towards no on both.

[DanAmerson]

I've heard over beers with various developers that many other games also shipped below 720p. The two in the post are just the ones that got enough analysis online for anyone to "care."

Ultimately, I think this change is a good thing. When you have limited hardware resources and budgets, it's best to have the flexibility to optimize what needs optimization rather than limiting choices with respect to resolution and MSAA.

dba

[Johan]

I've heard over beers with various developers that many other games also shipped below 720p.

Ultimately, the population that cares is a slim sliver of the gaming "pie" and they'll always find something to complain about. Counting pixels always seemed like such a ridiculous waste to me...

[Your Good Twin]

Aw, I was all excited expecting this to be an article about dropping the need to use Xbox proprietary bullshit expensive ass Hard Drives...

[StANTo]

Originally Posted by bickle

They didn't get rid of backwards compatibility, they just stopped adding more titles to the list. That's a big difference.

The ones on the list don't necessarily work that well either..

[donkeydrop]

Originally Posted by DanAmerson

I've heard over beers with various developers that many other games also shipped below 720p. The two in the post are just the ones that got enough analysis online for anyone to "care."

Tony Hawk, PGR3, Tomb Raider, Perfect Dark, Quantum of Solace (of course, it uses the COD engine), Alone in the Dark, Ninja Gaiden 2 .....