I say this all too often but what a week this has been. After months of speculation and rumors thanks to no small part of Microsoft keeping their lips sealed on the matter, the hardware that will be powering the next Xbox, otherwise currently known as Project Scorpio, has finally been discussed at-length and I have to say that it is truly an impressive feat.
With such a leap in performance the question has now become whether or not Scorpio is indeed a mid-generation refresh or something else entirely. Given that neither it or the competing PS4 Pro are allowed to take advantage of unique gameplay features or titles themselves for fear of splintering the existing playerbase I’d have to suggest neither of these super consoles were ever meant to succeed in that regard.
The likely conclusion boils down to both machines being a design study for their successors: what new technologies are worth adopting, and what the newer consoles could benefit from in terms of power efficiency and delivery. Neither the PS4 Pro or Project Scorpio are small feats by any means, however, because they’ve taken a path that isn’t readily transparent and has struck controversy as a result, it’s being digested as the industry adopting a new formula and has abandoned the “one size fits all” driving force.
We’ll continue this later on, but in the meantime let’s recap the biggest headlines of the week before we break off into this week’s fun and games:
- The KTM X-Bow GT4 is Coming to Project CARS 2
- GT Sport VR Demo Coming to the Insomnia i60 Festival Beginning April 14
- Codemasters Shows Off Their Methods of Recording Authentic Car Audio For DiRT 4
- Polyphony Digital Seen Photographing a Certain Drifting Subaru
- Forza Motorsport 6 Tech Demo Runs at 4K/60 FPS on Project With Power to Spare
- Behold, Four Lancer Evolutions Are Coming to Project CARS 2
- Project Scorpio Leverages Supersampling to Boost Xbox One Games
- DiRT 4 Gameplay Videos
- The Troubled Development of Need For Speed Most Wanted
The last highlight on that list is an honorable mention from last week that quite honestly fell victim to being lost among other news and a brilliant April Fool’s Joke. Without further ado, let’s get this party wagon rolling.
GTPlanet Picture of the Week
To this day Driveclub has some mighty impressive visuals, which only makes the pill tougher to swallow upon realizing there’s unlikely to be a second Driveclub. Moving on from that bit of sad news comes this week’s featured image courtesy of MeanElf, featuring the Marussia B2 tearing up the streets as it only it can.
Details on Second Expansion for Forza Horizon Coming This Month
Confirmed earlier this week — in lieu of a new car pack — is the good news that the second expansion for Forza Horizon 3 is due sometime this month. While last year December’s release of Blizzard Mountain will prove a tough act to follow, many are suspecting the focus will be on Porsche as their existence within the game has already been confirmed for some time now.
I’ll echo the opinion of the source article and say it would be disappointing to see the usual fare that’s been present in the game for the past several years, especially now that the brand is no longer bound to an exclusivity that seemingly limited the potential of the license in racing games.
We’re looking forward to the details when they’re finally shared and we hope there are a fair share of surprises present this time around.
Final Specs of Project Scorpio Revealed Courtesy of Digital Foundry
After months of speculation and rumor, Eurogamer subsidiary Digital Foundry put everything to rest with the first in-depth reveal of the hardware powering the next Xbox this past Thursday.
Project Scorpio will in fact be capable of the six teraflop figure originally touted last year, but even more impressive than the raw figure is the lengths Microsoft have gone to ensure that the platform is in a league all on its own. Taking advantage of the Performance Investigator for Xbox, the team are able to pinpoint where changes need to be made within existing titles to get the most from the new hardware.
DirectX 12 plays a vital role in Project Scorpio, giving developers more resources to work from by exponentially cutting down on the number of processor draw calls. Responsible for this is the GPU command processor that receives instructions from the CPU and effectively tells the GPU what to draw next. This process is resource-intensive and typically takes thousands (if not hundreds of thousands) of CPU instructions to carry out.
With the additional overhead provided by Scorpio any draw call can be executed in only 11 instructions, and 9 for a state change. Efficiency is the name of the game with Project Scorpio and is an area of interest Microsoft is heavily staked in. For more on the innovations housed within the next Xbox, have a look at the original article.
Gran Turismo Sport Closed Beta Heading Into Second Phase
While we’re heading into the fourth week of the closed beta for Gran Turismo Sport available to US players, it appears other regions are poised to join in on the fun soon enough.
The second phase sign-up page has shown up on the official Gran Turismo website, though it looks as if players are no longer simply signing up with an email address and associated PSN name: there’s a full application form. A drastic departure from the first round of sign-ups, there are now required fields asking how players discovered the existence of the beta, and are even asked to describe what they hope to see from the game.
Beyond that, there are fields asking players to select which games in the franchise have been played prior, and even which entry is the best. So what are you waiting for, if you haven’t had a chance to register up until now and would like to do so here’s your chance!
The Last Lap
To say Project Scorpio is going to lead the way as far as the seventh generation goes would be an understatement at this point, though it will do so only in terms of brute force out of the gate. With Forza Motorsport 7 looking to lead the charge later this year, likely right alongside the new Xbox it does beckon the question of “How?”; how exactly will Project Scorpio utilize the game in a way the current Xbox cannot outside of resolution?
As we’ve been reminded numerous times before, exclusive gameplay features for games are disallowed for fear of splintering the existing user base. Though with that in mind the game engine powering the Forza games is well-optimized and as we’ve already seen lends itself well to a number of dynamic conditions.
What an interesting time, and it’s going to get better by the time E3 rolls around in June.
Until next time, keep racing.
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