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from the ps2-is-still-the-best-console-ever dept.
Microsoft's mid-cycle refresh for the Xbox One, the Xbox One X, has been announced. Graphics performance is quadrupled (and then some) to allow for 2160p gaming:
As far as the hardware itself goes, thanks to Microsoft's ongoing campaign, we already know the bulk of the details of the console. The 16nm SoC at the heart of the new Xbox One design is meant to be significantly more powerful than the original and S versions of the Xbox One, vaulting MS from having the least powerful console to the most powerful console. All told, the Xbox One X will offer almost 4.3x the GPU compute throughput of the Xbox One S, while the CPU cores have received a healthy 31% clockspeed boost (Interesting aside: Microsoft is still not calling it Jaguar, unlike the XB1/XB1S). The memory feeding the beast has also gotten a great deal faster as well, with Microsoft switching out their 8GB of DDR3 for a large and very fast 12GB of GDDR5, which has a combined memory bandwidth of 326GB/sec.
AKA the X-OX. Can it run NetHack in 4K?
Previously: PlayStation Neo and Xbox "Project Scorpio" to Bring 4K Resolution and VR to Console Gaming
The Race for 4K: How Project Scorpio Targets Ultra HD Gaming
More Details About the "Project Scorpio" Xbox One Successor
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Monday June 12 2017, @02:09PM (10 children)
The real name of the box is "Bait One X". Anything you buy will be non-working once Microsoft change their mind in regards to support. Not that the competitors are a gigantic improvement but they seem better nonetheless. Unlike good consoles where you bought it and it worked as long as there is electric power.
So is it possible to bootload something else into this heap of chips?
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 12 2017, @02:26PM (5 children)
... as long as you don't mind running some black-box binary blob from a shady hacker "community" website in order to exploit a security flaw that gives you (or someone else?) access to low-level aspects of the boot process.
Got an oscilloscope and soldering skills? If so, then anything is possible, amirite?
(Score: 2) by Lagg on Monday June 12 2017, @03:49PM (2 children)
I installed one of those modchips on the original xbox. They ran pretty powerful stuff after doing whatever they do to bypass the read only mode. Could even bootstrap you into a linux distro. Given what a BIOS can potentially be doing if you get a crap one I'm surprised I never gave it much more thought...
http://lagg.me [lagg.me] 🗿
(Score: 2) by jasassin on Monday June 12 2017, @04:08PM (1 child)
My friend had one of those, he had MAME installed on it... all kinda of kewl shit. Original XBOX with all the arcade games like Dungeons and Dragons and shit. Was cool.
I put a mod chip in my friends PS2. It was pretty cool, got a chinese version of Tekken2 off the net for like 15 bucks. Then he found a website to download all the games. That guy burned basically every PS2 game in existence.
Me, I paid for Quake and Left 4 Dead/2. Those are the only games I play an only once in awhile.
I have a nintendo wii i used smashstack on and got a USB stick with a buncha games on it, but I dont play it hardly ever. I have snes9x on my wii. I play that more than the wii games. (I like aero fighters, and tetris). Xenoblade on Wii was awesome. Best RPG I have ever played on a system at the time. I haven't played any of the new Final Fantasy but I hear they are good (the new PS4 one).
jasassin@gmail.com GPG Key ID: 0xE6462C68A9A3DB5A
(Score: 3, Informative) by Lagg on Monday June 12 2017, @04:58PM
The Wii? If it's anything like those Gameboy Color screws that must have been fun. I ran that cromwell stuff for a while until I figured out how to make zdoom and zsnes to run. Also knew a guy that did pretty much what you did - except sold them to people in stocks of like 10 at a time. People made a killing on that.
Also I don't know about those new FFs. They seem like more movie games than MGS does. But I heard 11 was pretty good. 13 was bizarre. Never played it but watched many videos. If only they had a better story and characters that could have been some gloriously surreal stuff. Apparently as many people hate it as love it. But I guess that's Square :/
Oh by the way if you want some worthy successor to L4D2. There's a game called Dying Light which is also first person but open world. The single player is immensely fun, played some multiplayer a while ago. Also fun. One of those rare zombie games where both modes are solid.
http://lagg.me [lagg.me] 🗿
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Monday June 12 2017, @09:00PM
The point is to have a efficient hack that permits unmolested hardware to boot whatever you want. Usually by taking advantage of code that is signed but not secure in the boot process. I'll assume here the process is quite similar to the ones for computerized phones.
The problem with soldering etc, is that it don't really scale well.
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Monday June 12 2017, @09:04PM
Another issue is that currently a lot of chips have internal crypto engines to make sure that even if you can fiddle with all I/O in any way you like. You won't have the keys to make use of it..
(Score: 2) by Wootery on Monday June 12 2017, @04:04PM (2 children)
Is there any good reason to assume you won't be able to use the Xbox One (X) purely offline, ten years from now?
Also, if anything, Sony have a worse reputation here than MS: they remotely sabotaged the OtherOS feature.
Microsoft did release a patch for the 360 which broke third-party memory-cards, [eurogamer.net] so their history is hardly perfect, but Sony still wins it. Seem to remember they did something similar with the original Xbox too, but I can't find a source.
(Score: 4, Informative) by julian on Monday June 12 2017, @05:26PM (1 child)
OtherOS was a conjob from the start. They used it to get around European Union import duties. General Purpose computing hardware was taxed less than luxury items like game consoles. So by letting Linux on it they got it classified as a computer and not a gaming device. They never had any intention of seriously supporting it as a general purpose computer after this was achieved.
(Score: 2) by Wootery on Tuesday June 13 2017, @08:28AM
Interesting, but I think my points stand.
(Score: 2) by fyngyrz on Monday June 12 2017, @04:24PM
The only bait I will respond to is "it runs Mechassault."
I spent a lot more on games than I ever did on a console. Buying a console that won't run those games? No. Not happening.
Either they embrace a means of 100% compatibility, or they don't get my money. I'll give it to EBayers reselling older consoles instead. Because they can play my game library. Going to be quite a while before that supply dries up, too.
It's not helping Microsoft / Sony and the like that they keep trying to foist off "the cloud" on me, either. I'm looking for "put the media in, it runs, right now, no downloads." Turn it on, have to update it? Turning it off. Right now. Online, in my view, has its optimum use in multiplayer gaming. Not in constantly interfering with actual, you know, gameplay.
Another thing: Eventually, these systems will be emulated. At that point, the window for trying to triple-, quadruple- and more-dip their consumers will be closed. There's no market as likely as the market you already have. Why the heck would you want to abuse them by obsoleting their purchases for them? We know it can be done. The fact that it's not being done is a slap right in the face.