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The XBox One is an x86 architecture as well. Pretty much everything that you said about the PS4 also applies to XBox One. Now, there are differences between the
by quanticle 13y ago
The XBox One is an x86 architecture as well. Pretty much everything that you said about the PS4 also applies to XBox One. Now, there are differences between the consoles, but fundamentally both of the next-gen consoles are x86 CPUs tied to memory architectures that are designed to stream HD content to the screen as fast as possible.
- ewzimm 13y agoWhat does processor architecture even matter to a consumer? Is the Xbox 360 a pre-Intel Mac because it uses PowerPC archictecture? I don't see why so many people mention this. Consoles have always been about custom software, not unique hardware architecture.
- lukeman 13y agoThe boring nature of the architecture is notable as it puts the focus back on software, which is what people care about. That devs this generation can just make shit without discovering the complexities of custom hardware is a good thing.
- ewzimm 13y agoThat's probably true for Playstation, but I think developing for Xbox was already pretty much like developing for Windows, even with different hardware architectures. Most game devs don't looking too deeply at the hardware but just use the tools they're given. The ones who want to understand what's going on in hardware will still study the details of the CPU/GPU.
- Arelius 13y agoThe endianess of the Xbox 360 made "already pretty much like developing for Windows" not quite accurate. And causes a lot of problems relating to I/O.
- wmf 13y agoDoesn't the 360 run little-endian?
- ewzimm 13y agoIt does both.
- wmf 13y agoWhat, does MS let game developers choose?
- ewzimm 13y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PowerPC#Endian_modes https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PowerPC#Endian_modes
- Arelius 13y agoNo, the machine always runs big-endian.
- ewzimm 13y agoAll current software does this, but the switching capability means the motherboard could be modified to allow it to run little-endian. This means that if someone wanted to repurpose old Xbox hardware to run a little-endian operating system it would be entirely possible. Certainly not a practical process considering the cheapness of CPUs, but it could make for a fun experiment.
- Arelius 13y agoIt's possible, but also keep in mind that the 360 chip was a custom PowerPC, that had high manufacture numbers. It's entirely possible that the little-endian functionality was somehow broken to save money or otherwise. But the point was originally about what the Xbox360 runs, and before that, how it affected development. Not about what the silicon in a particular chip in the 360 has the capability of doing.
- voltagex_ 13y agoIt does matter this time around because there's no direct backwards compatibility for older games.
- ewzimm 13y agoSony will start streaming eventually. It would be fantastic if they implemented a disc matching policy, allowing you to stream a game with the disc in the drive. Perfect backward compatibility with no software support necessary.
- voltagex_ 13y agoThis is not going to work anywhere except the continental US due to latency, unless they manage to provision servers everywhere (to the cloud!)
- ewzimm 13y agoUS speeds are not great compared to some places. But let's see where things are in 5 years. Could be much better. Doesn't matter for me. I stopped buying anything from Sony when they removed OtherOS.
- quanticle 13y agoIt absolutely doesn't matter to the consumer of {XBox One | PS4} games. However, as a PC gamer, I'm excited by the fact that the consoles have x86 architectures, because this removes one of the obstacles preventing PCs from getting console titles.
- Mikeb85 13y agoIt matters to developers, and in turn to the customer in that it affects the amount and type of games released on the console.