Last November, when the Xbox One launched, 10% of the system’s GPU was reserved for the Kinect sensor. Following the unbundling of the sensor from a new $399 Xbox One offering, Microsoft also released a new SDK for the Xbox One that would unlock that power for developers to use.
It’s great news for Xbox One owners who have no love for Kinect, but how does it work? Microsoft has recently explained just how the new SDK works, and how the untapped power is utilized by the console.
Kinect functions will work on 100% of the games if you have a Kinect
One of the questions that was posed by many, was if developers were using the power that was previously used for the Kinect, how would the Kinect perform its basic operations? Apparently, the SDK allows power to “bounce,” in GPU and RAM, according to Eurogamer.
“So if someone says, ‘Xbox record that,’ it will work on 100 per cent of the games, if you have a Kinect… If you don’t have a Kinect, “it’s not like you have more RAM,” Ken Lobb of Microsoft explained.
Allowing the developers to utilize this formerly restricted power should allow for bigger and better looking games on the Xbox One. Phil Spencer already revealed that Bungie was working with the new SDK to make Destiny perform at par with the PS4 version of the game.
Though if there’s no sacrifice, it does beg the question, why didn’t Microsoft save themselves some grief and just do this in the first place? Yet another sign that maybe the console arrived a little ahead of when Microsoft’s had originally planned.
Published: Jun 17, 2014 11:26 am