Xbox One users are sharing concerns about the lack of 1080p titles on their console, and have been asking themselves why this is the case on a console that was supposed to be next-gen. Performance is not always on-par with the Playstation 4. The most obvious and recent example is the noticeable FPS difference between the Xbox One and Playstation 4 versions of Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition, where the Xbox One version has been locked to a 30 FPS state, while the Playstation 4 version seems to be running around 60 FPS (even if it sometimes drops to lower numbers). Jean-Baptiste Bolcato, the senior producer for Sniper Elite 3 had some complaints about the Xbox One himself.
A definitive visual upgrade that unfortunately doesn’t perform as well on the Xbox One as on the Playstation 4.
He highlighted issues with the eSRAM of the platform, clearly stating that the Playstation 4 was far superior in this regard. “It was clearly a bit more complicated to extract the maximum power from the Xbox One when you’re trying to do that. I think eSRAM is easy to use. The only problem is…Part of the problem is that it’s just a little bit too small to output 1080p within that size. It’s such a small size within there that we can’t do everything in 1080p with that little buffer of super-fast RAM” he explained. “It means you have to do it in chunks or using tricks, tiling it and so on. It’s a bit like the reverse of the PS3. PS3 was harder to program for than the Xbox 360. Now it seems like everything has reversed but it doesn’t mean it’s far less powerful – it’s just a pain in the ass to start with. We are on fine ground now but the first few months were hell” he continued.
It’s not all bad though. He stated that a new SDK will be coming to the Xbox One, making the work of developers a lot easier. For now however, the difficulties are very much real. “Yeah, I mean that’s probably why, well at least on paper, it’s a bit more powerful. But I think the Xbox One is gonna catch up. But definitely there’s this eSRAM. PS4 has 8GB and it’s almost as fast as eSRAM [bandwidth wise] but at the same time you can go a little bit further with it, because you don’t have this slower memory. That’s also why you don’t have that many games running in 1080p, because you have to make it smaller, for what you can fit into the eSRAM with the Xbox One.” he concluded his explanation.
Sniper Elite 3 will bring the action to Africa, as well as next-gen consoles!
That’s not to completely dismiss the benefits of the Xbox One. In Jean-Baptiste Bolcato’s own words, the Xbox One is more of a multimedia entertainment device, whereas the Playstation 4 is a pure gaming machine. This probably sums up many aspects of the latest console wars, where fans were at each other’s throats over which of the two is better. It’s clear that hardware-wise, the Playstation 4 is indeed superior (if not by much), and this is becoming increasingly evident when talking to developers. It’s also undeniable that the Xbox One has merits of its own. We’re just hoping that there will be improvements in the future versions of the Xbox One that will allow developers to create content for the Microsoft console in true 1080p, without compromising performance.
Source: Gamingbolt