How Project Scorpio Makes Xbox One And 360 Games Better

Now that details on Microsoft's Project Scorpio hardware have been revealed, information on how the new console will improve Xbox One and Xbox 360 game performance has also been detailed.

According to Eurogamer--which received official information from Microsoft--Project Scorpio is 100% compatible with all Xbox One games as well as Xbox 360 titles that are supported by Microsoft's backwards compatibility program. On Project Scorpio, these games will be "smoother, look better, and load faster."

The PlayStation 4 Pro features more powerful versions of the original PS4 hardware, allowing it to essentially function as a standard PS4 for emulation purposes. On the other hand, Project Scorpio is a radical hardware overhaul, and so cannot take this approach. The new hardware configuration allows its full horsepower to be used when running existing games.

This means Xbox One games that aren't able to sustain their frame rates on that console have "a really good chance of doing so on Scorpio." However, it is noted that games that are designed to run at 30 FPS won't just start running at 60 FPS, as it is the software itself that decides the target. Scorpio doesn't have the capability of unlocking a cap.

On the subject of screen tearing, Microsoft says that "you will never see a torn frame, because we have enough performance there to ensure that."

Games that use dynamic scaling to adjust their resolutions based on what's happening on-screen also stand to benefit, as Scorpio should allow them to reach their maximum resolution at all times. Texture filtering, meanwhile, has been improved since Project Scorpio can overwrite "all bilinear and all trilinear fetches to be anisotropic."

The 31% CPU boost means that loading times in existing games will be "fundamentally faster." This is because the CPU is capable of decompressing assets streamed from the hard drive quicker. Additionally, the hard disk speed is 50% quicker so that 4K textures can be delivered faster. Naturally, Xbox One and Xbox 360 games also benefit from this.

In addition, the improvements mean you'll be able to capture higher quality screenshots and footage using the enhanced Game DVR app.

Eurogamer notes that some of these enhancements may cause compatibility issues on "a very small percentage of titles." However, Microsoft is working on ensuring that "all titles work," even if "some of the benefits above need to be dialled back."