Xbox Series X Doubling Frame Rate of Xbox One Games A Possibility

It’s no surprise that the next-generation Xbox will have backward compatibility with Xbox One. According to Microsoft, all Xbox One games will run on Xbox Series X. Additionally, they confirmed that all Xbox and Xbox 360 backward compatible titles on Xbox One will run on Xbox Series X.

Next-Gen Backward Compatibility

Eurogamer’s Digital Foundry during their visit at Microsoft’s headquarters was able to confirm that Xbox One games will run natively on Xbox Series X (XBX) and will utilize the full power of XBX’s CPU and GPU. This will allow smooth 60 FPS in games that offer performance mode or unlocked frame rate.

“It likely comes as no surprise to discover that Series X can technically run the entire Xbox One catalog, but this time it’s done with no emulation layer – it’s baked in at the hardware level. Games also benefit from the full CPU and GPU clocks of Series X (Xbox One X effectively delivered 50 percent of its overall graphics power for back-compat), meaning that the more lackluster of those performance modes added to many Xbox One X games should hopefully lock to a silky smooth 60fps.”

This is Only the Beginning

This all sounds great but that’s not all. It sounds like the backward compatibility team wants to take it further. They want to force selected games that are locked to 30 FPS on Xbox One to run in 60 FPS on Xbox Series X too.

“We are exploring ways of improving, maybe, a curated list of games, says Peggy Lo, compatibility program lead for Xbox. Things that we are are looking at include improving resolution for games, improving frame-rates – maybe doubling them! And the way we’re doing it is really exploring multiple methods. So we knew what we were doing with the Heutchy Method, maybe we’ll change it a bit, there’s a there’s a few other methods that we’re exploring.”

The Heutchy Method is the proprietary manner in which Microsoft performs software emulation. Named for engineer Eric Heutchy, it is the gold standard for console backward compatibility.

“What we’re probably not going to do is explain all those methods today because we’re still in the process of figuring out what exact method will be best for the Series X but I want you to feel confident that we have a solution that we can fall back on or that we will always keep pushing forward to.”

This is fantastic news. Imagine playing an older 30 FPS Xbox One title running at smooth 60 FPS on Xbox Series X. That sounds like the next level of backward compatibility on consoles, and I sure hope they will deliver.

SOURCE: Eurogamer