Xbox director of project management Jason Ronald has been speaking more about FPS Boost in an interview with the Iron Lords Podcast, confirming there are no immediate plans to add any more titles to the Xbox Series X|S program.
In the interview, Ronald explained that the team is finding the limitations of the current FPS Boost technique right now, and so while they'll continue to "look for new opportunities", there's nothing to confirm anytime soon:
"We're always looking at new ways that we can enhance titles, whether it's resolution increases, frame rate improvements, things like Auto HDR. I'll say right now, with the existing technique that we have with FPS Boost, we've tried plenty more than [the 130 FPS Boosted titles] and in some cases the vast majority of the game works great, but then we find a game-breaking bug 80% of the way through."
"We're going to continue to look for new opportunities and new ways that we can enhance titles, but we don't have anything in the immediate future... Right now, I think we're kind of finding where some of the limitations of our current technique is."
FPS Boost has been in place for the Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S since February of this year, and the Xbox team has successfully boosted well over 100 games in that time, either from 30fps to 60fps, or 60fps to 120fps.
It's a shame that the technique seems to have reached its limit for the time being, but hopefully the Xbox team can find a way to add even more titles to the catalogue in the future. At the very least, we're very grateful for what we have!
Sad to hear about this? Which games did you want to see get an FPS Boost? Let us know down below.
[source youtube.com]
Comments 21
They've done enough as it is. Are people really going to complain about that? Focus on new games now, please, and if some more games can get the boost then great. If not, not a big deal.
Yes, I will complain because there are omissions that make no sense and would have been far better to have than a lot of the games they threw on the list earlier this month.
I find it hard to believe that they can't do it for games in series that they randomly skipped over. At the very least, newer ones like Dishonored 2, Assassin's Creed Origins, Rise of the Tomb Raider, and probably others I'm not thinking of right now. Also now Final Fantasy 13 since the other two lesser sequels for it got FPS Boost this month.
It's not that I don't appreciate what they've already done. It's great, but the quote really makes it seem like they just don't want to bother doing any more when there are games out there like the ones I mentioned that have to be able to be boosted.
Every Lego game (I'm pretty sure) besides Lego Dimensions supports it so either the Toys-to-Life stuff is causing issues (which is doubtful) or they aren't doing it for some reason in relation to the game being discontinued. If it's the latter, it's pretty ridiculous.
I wish they'd make a list of games that can't be added with reasons why, but I understand that it could cause fans to harass publishers and developers if it's for licensing or bug issues.
Ubisoft has to take a look at the few Assassin's Creed games that are still 30fps on Series X. They're almost there!
@KilloWertz
Fine, it's your right. I'm disappointed that Condemned 2 won't be making its way to the BC catalogue, but I can't fault Team Xbox for this. I imagine there are some mechanisms at play here that determine their moves. If one wants 60 fps on all older games PC is the only way to go, I guess.
"..the existing technique that we have with FPS Boost, we've tried plenty more than [the 130 FPS Boosted titles] and in some cases the vast majority of the game works great, but then we find a game-breaking bug 80% of the way through."
Considering how some games break, completely with higher framerates, I can see how this statement is true. Not all games can be boosted without any complications. Maybe some of the fps boosters will stay and continue the work, while the others move onto other projects. This will slow down the games, drastically, but hopefully they don't wash their hands of this.
I’m cool with this. But now I’m curious. What is this team going to work on? No more bc titles or FPS boost. So what’s their next project?
@xMightyMatt14x xCloud I think.
@mousieone ok. That’s cool then. Great potential in the future there.
@KilloWertz just because you find it hard to believe doesn’t mean it’s not insanely difficult.
Which do you think of these options is more likely?
A: the Xbox back compat team thought it would be super funny to pick one title in every series to miss out.
B: they couldn’t be bothered.
C: it’s actually a very complicated thing to do and for one of a thousand reasons the technique they use to do it just didn’t work for that title.
I respect their time and effort, and understand their decision... but can I pleeeeeease get it for Dishonored 2??? PLEASE??? 😭
Considering these games are built for and capped to a certain frame rate, the fact that ANY games are 'boosted' without any access to the games source code, its already delivered above and beyond the expectation of Backwards Compatibility.
You have to remember that this is not going into the game and changing the frame rate cap from 30 to 60 (or 120) like a developer patch - the 'game' still thinks its running on older hardware. Some things may also be directly tied to the frame rate and whilst it might be 'fun' to walk at double speed, its considered 'broken' because that's 'not' the intended speed.
You also have to remember that these games were built, optimised and 'tuned' specifically for the older hardware. These are 'not' the PC version of games released for a wide range of hardware - these are 'tuned' specifically for the Console. Some aspects are reliant on things taking a set time, so have specific timings based on the cycles (speed of CPU/GPU) which are greatly affected if the cycles are much faster (as they are on newer hardware).
The PS4 Pro has a 'boost' mode - basically keeping the 'clock' speeds of the Pro instead of reducing them down to match the PS4. The PS4 has a 1.6Ghz CPU and Pro has a 2.13ghz CPU and that 'boost' was enough to 'break' some PS4 games -they only work properly if you turn 'boost' mode off. Cerny himself talked about this on both the PS4 Pro and PS5 - both of which have 'different' modes to ensure that the games work as expected.
I'd be OK with games running 'perfectly' as the Developer specced them to run. Its still a 'better' experience than playing on the original hardware which often had frame rate drops so its an improvement.
If the games you want aren't able to be 'boosted' with their current Emulation and back-end system, it may be worth trying to get the developers to update and patch in new settings or asking for a remaster. After all, its their 'game' and they are the only ones who can 'update' their games.
@xMightyMatt14x
Apparently Digital Foundry was shown a new resolution upscaling technique, using Gears Ultimate as an example, way back when they visited MS HQ to get hands on with Series X.
Either that has been scrapped, or maybe now this team can focus on that.
Who knows...
@agenttrav I agree.... I was hoping for Dishonoured 2 and Fable 2
Especially with the other games in both series getting FPS Boost :-/
@Scenes Whether I'm wrong or not, Dishonored 2 is definitely a very strange omission, and I find it hard to believe that's the only one in the series to break with FPS boost.
I'd be less disappointed with them not including that one if it wasn't for the fact that both the first one and the expansion for Dishonored 2 weren't both boosted. There's almost no way I can believe that they could do Death of the Outsider and not the actual sequel.
Well they added Oblivion, so I'm happy.
After playing Sonic Generations in 30 and 60 fps, I can safely say I'm not sensitive to games not being 60 fps. Sorry to those who are upset by this news, but it doesn't bug me.
great bunch of games got it. i did want Assassins Creed Origins, but i'll live lol
No Ashen then? Guess I’ll purge it from my wish list.
@KilloWertz Riddle me this, why exactly do you find dishonored to be a strange ommison?
Did you work on the dev team?
Are you aware of all the code the games uses to the point where fps boost couldn't possibly break it?
If you literally don't know any of this. Then your opinion holds little weight tbh. I think Xbox knows a lot more than you do about what games actually can or can't make it to the program lmfao. You're essentially getting upset over your own lack of knowledge.
@loafit I already stated why I believe Dishonored 2 is a strange and disappointing omission. The fact that the first one and the sequel's expansion all have it and Dishonored 2 doesn't is why. Especially the fact that Dishonored 2's expansion has it but the standalone game doesn't. It's not like they would run on different engines or anything.
Those are valid reasons to wonder why Dishonored 2 hasn't already received FPS boost. No reason to get so defensive and borderline hostile.
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