Microsoft is giving developers more freedom over how memory is used on Xbox Series S.
As reported by The Verge, a new Xbox software development kit has been released, which frees up additional memory for Xbox Series S and could boost the graphical performance of some titles.
In a video detailing the new features of the June 2022 Game Development Kit, Microsoft said “hundreds of additional megabytes of memory are now available to Xbox Series S developers. This gives developers more control over memory, which can improve graphics performance in memory-constrained conditions.”
The Xbox Series S comes with a significantly cheaper price tag compared to its big brother, the Series X, and can run the same titles, but usually at a lower 1080p resolution. As well as increased GPU power, the more expensive model comes with 16 GB of RAM, while the Series S only has 10 GB. But developers only have around 8 GB of memory to work with as the rest is reserved for the console’s operating system.
Although Microsoft didn’t specify exactly how many additional megabytes have been freed up, the announcement will undoubtedly be music to the ears of developers who’ve had issues with optimizing titles for Xbox Series S. In an episode of DF Direct Weekly back in May, Digital Foundry revealed that, for developers, the console’s limited memory was more problematic than its reduced GPU power.
Additionally, Microsoft said that it’s addressed an issue “where graphics virtual addresses were being allocated considerably slower than non-graphical virtual address.” This means that games can now take better advantage of the recent memory enhancements that Microsoft has included in its Xbox development kit.
Recently, the start-up time for Xbox One and Xbox Series X | S consoles was slightly reduced, letting players get into the action a little bit faster. This speedier start is only available to Xbox Insiders at the moment, but expect it to be rolled out to all Xbox fans at some point in the near future.
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