The Xbox team gave us the sad news back in November that the FPS Boost program for Xbox Series X and Series S was finished adding new titles for now, and they've recently reiterated that they don't know if it'll ever return.
In an interview with TechRadar, Xbox Director of Project Management Jason Ronald once again pointed out that FPS Boost (and backwards compatibility in general) comes with some major technical hurdles, and due to the team being unable to change a game's code at all with FPS Boost, it makes certain titles impossible to support:
“One of the challenges that we have on some of the enhancements and the capabilities is that we do all of this with no code changes to the actual original game. So, as we identify new techniques of enhancing and optimizing titles, oftentimes, we know it won't work on all games."
"A lot of times, we try to come up with solutions, and we see if we can work through those issues. But since we treat it as a black box, we don't have the ability to change the game code directly."
As previously mentioned, Ronald stated that "to be honest, we don't really know right now [whether FPS Boost will return]" in response to a question from the team at TechRadar, which echoes his comments from back in November.
At the time of the original announcement, Ronald told the Iron Lords Podcast that "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," explaining that "we're kind of finding where some of the limitations of our current technique is."
If you're interested, we've got a complete guide to all 100+ FPS Boost games here at Pure Xbox.
[source techradar.com]
Comments 28
FPS boost was like one of their main perks of the Series consoles' marketing.
That’s cool, well done for those games you improved
Now let the team or personal go and do something towards new things and future things for this new generation of games that we need or improved UI on series consoles.
Leave the old games alone now please.
Not being funny but Xbox needs all hands on some new games and personnel helping to make them as 2022 so far doesn’t look full of AAA exclusives from Xbox.
I read the whole interview. Basically, each game is different and each of them is a technical challenge because they don't touch the code but perform different tricks to fool each game. Some tricks work, other don't, so it's a lot of work, like two years trying different things with each game.
I'm honestly grateful for all the free backwards compatible and FPS Boost games that we have received. That's what makes Xbox best in my opinion. I wonder why some recent games haven't been updated by their developers for Series X/S, though. That includes Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled, 4K 30fps on Xbox One X, it could run at 60fps on Series X/S easily. Ubisoft is doing a better job updating much older Assassin's Creed games but others aren't bothering.
Woot has the series s $279
I'm currently playing the rather brilliant Dishonored 2 and wish that had got the FPS boost.
let old games go microsoft. put your men into avowed. people wants avowed.
@ApostateMage Hope isn't lost on Dishonored since it's first party now and they can change the code directly. It's not a popular game with large sales so they probably won't, but it's a permanent part of game pass so they're still inventive to do it.
I just can't believe they didn't do Dishonored 2 after doing Death of the Outsider.
Ahhhh, how I wish the first 3 Horizon games had got a Boost
@I_want_avowed I agree with you, my friend!
@I_want_avowed
I agree, it’s time now, we want all hands on deck moving forward on series console games please Microsoft. It’s the main reason I have a series x.
The people that handle the FPS boost are not the same ones that develop games. These guys will most likely get rolled into the xCloud development not software.
As for Avowed; Obsidian is actually working on several projects at the same time I.e. Grounded going out of Early Access and also Outer Worlds 2.
This is why all developers should have an uncapped frame rate option in all games.
@isturbo1984 easy to say that now but some of these games are from xbox generation 1, was uncapped frame-rates even a thing then?
I'm ok with it not. Lot the games, at least ones I play, makes that soap opera effect. Gets me nauseous, headache, and overall dock effect.
@GuyinPA75 sick effect
FPS boost is one of my favourite Series X features. Playing games at a rock solid 60fps when the originals were a very unstable 30 at times feels like playing a new game. Have loved going back to Dishonored, Prey, Skyrim etc. Add in drastic load time improvements and more it's a wonderful thing.
That's fine by me. Thank you for your great work.
I would suggest that the team implements a new feature.... Res boost. This should be very easy to achieve compared to FPS boost as you are not going to potentially mess with any physics or in game systems dependent on frame rate. Just up the res to a level the GPU can manage, a simple multiplier, even a modest amount. It would make the games which ran at 900p on Xbox One look much sharper. This could be done on both the Series X and S quite easily, I would assume.
It could be toggled on or off like FPS boost.
@isturbo1984 Yep since last generation it should be mandatory.
@mousieone That's right!
@JetmanUK Some games are even sub-720p like Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed. It would be great to up the resolution of those.
@Banjo- Yeah, 360 games would benefit from this greatly.
For example all the old COD games, already at 60FPS, but very low resolutions (some sub 720p) even a 2x multiplier would make them look a lot sharper, they could definitely push for even higher too.
@JetmanUK They managed to do a massive resolution boost for all Xbox and the Xbox One X enhanced Xbox 360 games.
@Banjo- Yep, and those Xbox One X enhanced games are still applicable on the Series S*, so there is def enough grunt to make this happen.
I would be happy with a toggle for all back compat games that had a warning saying this is untested and may affect the game. Like boost mode on PS4 Pro, you choose if you want to try it or not.
(*X One Enhanced games still get a res boost on the XSS, just a lesser one than the XSX).
@JetmanUK Yes that's a great idea. They can even leave it "off" in the backwards compatible options and if you select it you get the warning. An automatic resolution boost for all backwards compatible games and not enhanced Xbox One games sounds ideal.
@Ashadelo Yes. The PS2 of that era was backwards compatible. The concept of better hardware on console side running previous gen games better wasn't completely foreign even then. 4 whole generations later, console games on the PS5 and Series S/X are still being made for them without an uncapped option. Completely ***** if you ask me.
The answer is AMD's Radeon Super Resolution that is coming out on PC in a very soon driver update, it is definitely possible to implement on SeriesX and S
No information if they are working on it but that was presented by AMD as appliable on any PC game, it is less efficient than FSR (FidelityFX Super Resolution) as devs must implement it but RSR should boost any old unoptimised game to achieve 4K in 30 or 60fps, a game like PUBG would benefit so much from this...
Really think this is the thing SeriesX needs...
Need 60fps on Orange box and Portal 2.
Not sure why these have been left out?
i just need 60 fps for Assassin's Creed Origins, and i'm good lol....
...no, seriously, please?
Show Comments
Leave A Comment
Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...