Does Microsoft Realize games don't just suddenly become 4k when played on the Scorpio?

They aren't altering the game though, or the way it functions. They are changing how the system interprets the game's call into it. M$ has complete ownership in this layer. The game wouldn't know there difference as it would be operating as normal. That's sort of a fundamental difference on how cheat engine differs. It does modify and potentially alter how the game functions. What they might do as a courtesy is blacklist games that end up not working well with it.

Driver's SSAA forces the game to render at higher resolution before down sampling to user's resolution. What's needed is to remove down sampling stage and target 4K instead.

If they're altering the resolution in which the game renders and it negatively affects game performance, it would absolutely become a legal issue.

Regardless of the depth of the intervention, if it projects the game in a negative or lesser light than initially coded and certified by the publisher, they have grounds for legal intervention.

The publisher doesn't certify the game M$ does. They really have no legal grounds for how M$'s system handles their game code. IE if an update on M$'s end causes an issue is M$'s issue unless the developer would have been using an API wrong.

For instance boost mode on ps4 pro is a global setting, there is nothing developers can do if boost mode works poorly. The only real course they would have is ask M$ for a fix to again blacklist their game or allow users to disable upscaling per game.

edit: Cheat Engine however does breach some act for protecting corporate IP, since its modifying game code.

Xbox One S already has system wide boost mode with a minor 1.4 TFLOPS boost. At XBO graphics settings, XBO games with 900p and 1080p can be boosted into 4K with GPU head room to spare.

Microsoft certifies the game for the platform, the publisher also certifies the game before release, this is when a game goes gold. They know how it operates and functions for the platform in which it has been coded and it is released in what is considered a 'finished' state.

Boost mode is simply a global allocation of hardware resources which also comes with a disclaimer and is a feature of the platform, not of the game. What we're talking about here would be isolated game to game, it would be targeted intervention on a case by case basis as they could not apply this as a blanket operation, it enters grounds of legality.

They've also admitted that upgrading to Scorpio won't mean anything unless you have a 4K TV.

Actually thats incorrect. A publisher's "certification" amounts to them stamping a gold sticker on a product they think is ok. Usually it means its feature complete and passed SQA... When a game goes gold, its at the mercy of M$'s certification system for that particular build to be allowed to be distributed on M$'s platform. Apart from the company completing the work and submitting it to M$ for certification, anything they do on their end isn't legally bound to M$ in any way.

Also some games depend on FPS being locked and boost mode can effectively break those games... its not all that much different. The situation is the same, someone developed a piece of software that was intended to run at 30fps at 1080p, if something messes that up, they may have to release a patch to fix it. If m$'s boost mode breaks it, it just needs to be optional to make sure games don't break compatibility.

@manticored: Also a good example is when M$ shutdown live support for xbox games... even if there was a game developers still supported for online functionality... they are totally at the mercy of M$'s choices with the platform. They have no legal right's to the platform and M$ can choose do what they want with it.

That's not true, they said its optional for developers if they want to push 4k or different aspects of the game... or both. Not to mention they've stated there will be immediate performance gains...

Another top quality thread showing off how desperate some cows are...

AF 16X is forced on Scorpio's XBO and X360 BC..

Read https://www.vg247.com/2017/04/18/sony-is-killing-servers-for-a-6-games-one-of-which-is-a-ps4-game-thats-less-than-a-year-old/

Sony is killing servers for 6 games, one of which is a PS4 game that’s less than a year old

That's a mistranslated quote lacking context from Phil Spencer 10 months ago, he went on to explain exactly what he meant shortly after. Also that's been completely ratified since then, all games that render at a higher native such as 4K will downsample to 1080p to provide drastically cleaner image quality for 1080p TV owners, also 16x anisotropic filtering is forced at a system level so games will have better texture filtering on Scorpio than any other console platform by default, doesn't matter if the games are patched or not.

Plus you get the benefit of locked performance, so for a game that previously dropped below 30 or 60 will now operate at a pegged 30 and 60, and any game with a dynamic resolution solution will scale up to its highest setting automatically and hold it.

Good post. I want to point out that games capped at 30fps will still play at up to 30fps (without a patch to remove that), and will likely not drop below or as low in areas where they do on original xbox one hardware.

@xdude85 said:

@ProtossRushX:

Lmao. Same goes for a few others on here that keep harping on about Scorpio...

Without a patch they won't run anything over 1080p30, but they definitely would never drop under 30fps. Then you have the 4k upscaler and the game should look better on a 4k TV on the Scorpio than if you had just an Xbox One.

Basically if you have a 4k TV, you should get a Scorpio. Should also get a PS4 Pro if you have a PS4. It's just better for 4k.

Microsoft has some of the world's most renowned software engineers...

Shame they all work on Excel and Word and not games though.

PC games are released with those high settings, I'll say for a fact that if a game only goes up to 1080p and you can run 100 million p, you'd still only be able to play teh game in 1080p.

On the one hand, PC games are programmed to use different hardware and one of the advantages of consoles is that they can program a game for a specific hardware.

But on the other hand, through the GPU driver, you can force all sorts of settings on default or for specific programs or games that impact the way games look. However doing it on a per game basis is better and less wasteful of resources than doing a blanket base setting change.

I think the TC brought up a good point, despite the reaction of several people in the thread to the post. There are clear limitations regarding how much Scorpio's power will be utilized in games released from 2013-2017. Those games will have to be patched to support 4K resolutions or higher FPS than their original target. Basically, besides the improved texture filtering, it has similar limitations to PS4 Pro's boost mode.

By contrast, PC games are all created with the idea of scaling up to more advanced hardware from the get-go. When you buy a more advanced GPU or a 4K monitor, it's a simple matter of going to the settings and increasing your resolution. You enjoy faster FPS automatically as long as your graphics card can handle it.

You might think a 4K patch would be a simple matter, but devs like CD Projekt Red have gone out of their way to say a 4K resolution patch would be a "drain on resources".

@hrt_rulz01 said:

@xdude85 said:

@ProtossRushX:

Lmao. Same goes for a few others on here that keep harping on about Scorpio...

Good stuff, so true and lots-o-chuckles. :P

OP does have a point though...... It will make some improvments out the box but resolution won't and can't be changed unless a game is patched.

Some developers will patch games but as we have seen on Pro, some developers will not.