Excellent post! Really put things in context. Sshould be pinned. I have no worries as I know it’s just about learning new things. As always, it takes time to learn that’s all. Once all the features will be implemented, it will be easier for them.
VRS is standard in RDNA2…
Like someone said above, GDK is a new Development Kit, so I can believe there are issues with as people have to get used to it. Also it is potentionally not as mature as the XDK.
It comes down to a question of what you as a programmer are used to. I experience this myself, if you are used to to a specific development environment you don’t want to change it because you have to re-learn things because in details things can be slightly different.
I assume the complaints are really more a convenience factor than a real issue with the GDK but I also think the GDK is not as mature as the XDK yet.
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The last things MS needs is mutliplatform games not looking and running better on the XSX from day one. If this actually comes to fruition, after having a non-existent exclusive launch line up, then we will be approaching 2013 territory of fuck up. On paper, in my eyes, the difference between the XSX and ps5 is huge, not the 15-20% bullshit that Sony fanboys have been preaching. The difference is the sum of the parts and if you add substantially better (AND LOCKED) cpu&gpu, way more bandwidth e.t.c versus just a faster SSD then the XSX should be running circles around the ps5 in mutliplatform games. If not then MS blew it completely with everything regarding this launch.
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The thing is that the differences at least initially will be framerate and resolution and people are at the point of not caring about them anyway. So I’m not sure it’s as big a thing (beyond embarrassing fanboys on social media) as anyone makes out. I want the best performing console and that will be the Series X. But I have no doubt that the launch differences will be minor and possibly not even always in Xbox’s absolute favour as devs get used to the new environment. But even if every game was vastly better on the SX who will care really? You are at a point where the audience will go with what they want regardless.
Oh everyone will care if every game is vastly better on the XSX, this isn’t 2001, forums and social media would be flooded with posts and create a very strong narrative.
Well, you know how Sony blatantly lied gaving everyone the impression that 1st party games were just for PS5 only Next Gen with clever wording and smoke and mirrors. Wait till you see about full RDNA 2 features…
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I’m a (non games) developer and I’d hate to use different SDKs for Xbox One and Xbox Series S|X and PC and xCloud. Of course Sony’s PS5 SDK is going to be simpler, its only targeting one device.
Much better to have just one SDK, especially when Series S|X features like DX ray-tracing and SFS are standard in DX12 Ultimate, which will be on PC too with related hardware to match in time. It will take time for Developers to get used to the new SDK, but in time, they will, the benefits are clear - the ability to target millions of consoles, phones, tablets and PCs.
Its disappointing, but not surprising, that this news is being used by some people for ‘concern’ and click-bait elsewhere.
Not only good for devs but it’s going to be amazing for business too because Microsoft can now say you can develop your game for our platform that includes console, pc, mobile/cloud. I don’t think people realise this and it’s going to give Xbox a big advantage in getting more games that don’t sell well on the platform.
You make your game once and you have 3 platforms to launch your game on that can hit xxxM devices. Publishers are going to be looking at MS like 
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As a developer you like to program for where you have knowledge and experience. Not only that, just think about the existing code base that exists based on the XDK. Also APIs may behace slightly different, means existing code doesn’t have the same outcome anymore. Never underestimate the work that has to be done because something in any SDK changed.
Of course, I’m not saying its easy, but its not as if the new SDK and DX 12 APIs aren’t worth the effort learning. There’s long term benefits for the developers and the related studios, and the people who play their games on multiple platforms.
I just try to explain why devs complain. I did not say it is a bad thing to switch to newer APIs.
Some devs. Some aren’t having any issues. At the end of the day, great games are coming and that’s the important thing.
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Like in real life. Some complain about something others don’t. Doesn’t change the fact that it is always good trying to understand why that is. In result you may can heal the situation and convince them to change instead of call them names (not you, general observation).
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Yes, the ‘lazy devs’ meme needs to be killed, with fire. In the long run, investment into learning the new tech will pay off but it will take time, especially with real life events right now.
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Games should look better, on paper, on the XSX this Fall due to the raw power differential. Much like how games will load faster on the PS5, with zero optimizations needed, due to the raw speeds of the SSD.
But there are tech and effeciencies that can be leveraged to make these differences more pronounced. These are Direct X 12 Ultimate features that are meant to make the game more effecient with the hardware. I won’t get into them now, but when they say 2 to 3 to 5 times “multiplier”, they mean it.
The problem is that there’s no game that I know of that supports it (there might be, I just don’t know of it). I don’t know if this is common knowledge but not many games support Direct X 12, even. Many big games, including Flight Sim, use DX11.
Many game engines from 3rd party developers didn’t make the jump to 12, and I’m sure they will now to 12 Ultimate to support things like RT on new PC hardware. The question is how soon?
Once massive middleware engines like Unity and Unreal Engine support DX12U, that opens up a lot of games, but many developers use their own engines.
A DX12U showcase title at launch would have been nice, but until then maybe it’ll take an upgraded Forza Horizon 4 and Gears 5 to show off its potential.
These effeciencies do involve a bit of work and a different way of looking at how game engines work. It also involves some decision making at the onset of creating your game engine. Mesh shaders are versatile and allow me to do things like reduce the size of meshes in memory. Or I could use them for advanced geometry culling to ensure high framerates. There is a slight cost to using it but the benefit to saving memory is massive. Also, you need to optimize how you use it (ie. Using texture arrays instead of doing this separately for a diffuse texture, normal map, etc) to optimize this feature.
So there’s work to be done to take advantage of some of the features and it’s a new way of looking at making your engine. Much like how devs had to go from a world of polygons and textures to using shaders, materials, and so on. And I didn’t even get into RT.
Halo Infinite was previously set to launch in 2 months without RT support, only to have it patched in later. That alone tells us that there’s some work involved, some complexities and some learning in order to get the new features implemented and optimized.
Making great looking games that use the latest tech is hard. It’s more work. 16GB of RAM for these new machines is less than ideal but that’s where the cost of RAM puts us. So you need do be effecient and whether you’re using the SSD or sampler feedback to address it, it involves work.
Maybe the only “problems” they will be having is that the GDK is a broad dev platform, so devs will have to do a little more work to get the most out of each platform?
JFYI y’all
DF had an dev interview just yesterday is which the technical director was saying “no issues”.
Thread can be found here:
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The leaked GDK documentation says some stuff will only get to the expect performance even after the console launch, so I don’t think it’s unexpected to have some issues with it in the lead up to launch.
However, we never got confirmation that GDK is the only development platform for SX/SS or if XDK is still a thing. If so devs having issue with the future of the platform should be able to get back to the more stable environment.
Thanks for the in-depth reply! I plan to buy machines, but tend to use the Xbox as more for multiplats. Since I’m now back in school as a med student, I no longer have the income to buy both at launch like I used to. While I’m not adept at the material, your points made great reading.