Xbox Series X|S - OFFICIAL News!

[DeeKay86]

According to a new post on Reddit, the Xbox Series X version of Call of Duty Black Ops Cold War weighs in at a staggering 187GB.


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I just don’t understand why CoD downloads are so big... its kinda stupid. Do they not know how to use compression?

 

[Ay Ay Ron]

How is that any different to the games now though? I think COD is 200+ on the PS4. I'm sure mine is 170+ without the co-op downloads. That's with a disk too.

 

[N0ddie]

How is that any different to the games now though? I think COD is 200+ on the PS4. I'm sure mine is 170+ without the co-op downloads. That's with a disk too.

You dont play the game off the disc. The disc is purely a physical license to play. The game runs 100% off the HDD.

 

[Ay Ay Ron]

You dont play the game off the disc. The disc is purely a physical license to play. The game runs 100% off the HDD.

Ah ok. Wasn't aware of that. Thought there was some elements of the game on the disk as when I first installed it I could play campaign immediately while I waited for the MP to update.

 

[Jason_E]

I just don’t understand why CoD downloads are so big... its kinda stupid. Do they not know how to use compression?

Its really bizzare as I dont consider it to be a large game? Made sense with the Rockstar stuff but its almost as if they're just taking the actual piss now.

Ah ok. Wasn't aware of that. Thought there was some elements of the game on the disk as when I first installed it I could play campaign immediately while I waited for the MP to update.

I bought the disk version of MW and it immediately performed an 80GB download. Pretty sure the disc is a 10kb hyperlink to the download with a "Dis game is realz bro" Note attached.

As for the new COD, it was already downloaded on wednesday. Wont have chance to play until later tonight mind you. But I do like that as a feature going forward with Pre-ordering!

 

[Chris V6 255]

I’m abit old school & like having a physical copy of my games.

Went to ASDA this morning, they had no idea that there are 2 different versions.

Think there’s gonna be a lot of people playing the standard version on series x [emoji23]

Gonna pick it up from Argos or Smyths later?


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[boultonn]

Its really bizzare as I dont consider it to be a large game? Made sense with the Rockstar stuff but its almost as if they're just taking the actual piss now.

I bought the disk version of MW and it immediately performed an 80GB download. Pretty sure the disc is a 10kb hyperlink to the download with a "Dis game is realz bro" Note attached.

As for the new COD, it was already downloaded on wednesday. Wont have chance to play until later tonight mind you. But I do like that as a feature going forward with Pre-ordering!

The disks probably only hold like 20gb data don't they, and given most of these games are 100+gb it's proper grim.

 

[Jason_E]

I’m abit old school & like having a physical copy of my games.

Went to ASDA this morning, they had no idea that there are 2 different versions.

Think there’s gonna be a lot of people playing the standard version on series x [emoji23]

Gonna pick it up from Argos or Smyths later?


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Doesnt the Series X version have a logo on the cover? They couldve at lleast change the colour of the case or something to make it clearer lol.

 

[Chris V6 255]

Doesnt the Series X version have a logo on the cover? They couldve at lleast change the colour of the case or something to make it clearer lol.

Yeah but it’s not particularly obvious unless you know what you are looking for.

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[jenic]

Anyone played Tetris Connected?

Awesome visuals and soundtrack, proper trippy!

 

[Chris V6 255]

Anyone played Tetris Connected?

Awesome visuals and soundtrack, proper trippy!

Yeah was playing it last night, always been abit of a Tetris fan. The rhythm element reminds me of Lumines


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[Cookie]

Anyone played Tetris Connected?

Awesome visuals and soundtrack, proper trippy!

Looks awesome on my CX! Just need better sound..

 

[SharkyUK]

I just don’t understand why CoD downloads are so big... its kinda stupid. Do they not know how to use compression?

That's the thing... a lot of the data is compressed and/or in some form of optimal format that can be easily digested by the game / engine. The truth is that next-gen games (i.e. current games and those coming later) have massive resource requirements. 4k texture assets, multi-channel audio, video footage - it all adds up!

I remember when normal maps and similar tech became the new norm in gaming. Game dev studios had to upsize as there was suddenly a significant increase in terms of the assets that were required for a game. Studios were doubling their art department staff counts and, naturally, game sizes increased as the new breed of games required these additional assets.

The same is happening again now - we are moving into a world of ray tracing and PBR (although PBR has been around for a few years now in some for or other). Given the requirements for PBR / photogrammetry it's quite easy to burn through storage space. As an example... take a 'simple' texture that is used for a gun in a first person shooter and let's assume we are running 4K high-fidelity (as per the new consoles)...

4096x4096x32bpp = 64 megabytes (uncompressed)

(This is a very rough outline)
1 - Albedo texture - determines the diffuse colouring of the material
2 - Specular texture - determines the specular regions and specular reflectivity of the material
3 - Metal texture - determines the metallic-ness (for want of a better word) of the gun material
4 - Normal map texture - determines the high-fidelity surface detail (encoded in texture form rather than polygonal model detail)
5 - Bump map - determines non-directional surface 'bump' detail (encoded in texture form rather than polygonal model detail)
6 - Ambient Occlusion map - can be used during the lighting pass to provide ambient occlusion detail (rather than performing expensive lighting calculations on geometry)
7 - Displacement map - encoding of 'offset' to provide high-fidelity 3D surface detail (akin to parallax mapping type detail)
8 - Gloss / Roughness - determines how glossy / matte the surface appears (high-gloss means more mirror-like, high roughness means the material will spread the reflected light and give the surface a matte / diffuse appearance)

Let's assume the gun model is only using 6 of the above texture maps - 6 x 64MB = 384 megabytes
That's 384 megabytes for a simple, single PBR texture set. A typical game will have hundreds / thousands of texture assets...

That's also assuming the textures are using 8-bit per RGBA channel. A lot of textures now use floating point R32F so each RGBA channel now consumes 32-bits and your 384 megabytes of textures now increases four-fold to 1.5 gigabytes.

As useful / useless an example this may be... it might kinda explain why games are so freaking large these days.

 

[RSRowe]

Just to add some more confusion. Tesco listing series X games as ‘Xbox one series X’
🤷🏼‍♀️

 

[Jason_E]

As useful / useless an example this may be... it might kinda explain why games are so freaking large these days.

I certainly feel educated! Thanks

Just to add some more confusion. Tesco listing series X games as ‘Xbox one series X’
🤷🏼‍♀️

They really messed up with this name and marketting.

 

[Crazylegs]

The Xbox Series X seems to have a disc drive problem

Whirring, clicking and more

www.polygon.com

 

[Cookie]

Short of trying to put a blu ray in at some point, I may never actually use my disc drive.. I don't buy physical games anymore

 

[jenic]

The Xbox Series X seems to have a disc drive problem

Whirring, clicking and more

www.polygon.com

I'm yet to insert a disc. Might try it later.

 

[PMac]

Hi guys, looking for some help if poss. I’ve tried googling but so far I don’t coprendo what I need to do.

My lad played my Xbox at mine under his username. He also has one at his mums.
Since we’ve added the series X we have an issue that he can’t play Fortnite upstairs on the old Xbox unless I’m signed in to it. This wasn’t a problem before as the ‘home’ console was set to his mums.
The error message is that the person who purchased the game needs to be logged in.
Hope that makes some sense! Is it a case of uninstalling then installing again under his name? Thanks for any help.

 

[DeeKay86]

That's the thing... a lot of the data is compressed and/or in some form of optimal format that can be easily digested by the game / engine. The truth is that next-gen games (i.e. current games and those coming later) have massive resource requirements. 4k texture assets, multi-channel audio, video footage - it all adds up!

I remember when normal maps and similar tech became the new norm in gaming. Game dev studios had to upsize as there was suddenly a significant increase in terms of the assets that were required for a game. Studios were doubling their art department staff counts and, naturally, game sizes increased as the new breed of games required these additional assets.

The same is happening again now - we are moving into a world of ray tracing and PBR (although PBR has been around for a few years now in some for or other). Given the requirements for PBR / photogrammetry it's quite easy to burn through storage space. As an example... take a 'simple' texture that is used for a gun in a first person shooter and let's assume we are running 4K high-fidelity (as per the new consoles)...

4096x4096x32bpp = 64 megabytes (uncompressed)

(This is a very rough outline)
1 - Albedo texture - determines the diffuse colouring of the material
2 - Specular texture - determines the specular regions and specular reflectivity of the material
3 - Metal texture - determines the metallic-ness (for want of a better word) of the gun material
4 - Normal map texture - determines the high-fidelity surface detail (encoded in texture form rather than polygonal model detail)
5 - Bump map - determines non-directional surface 'bump' detail (encoded in texture form rather than polygonal model detail)
6 - Ambient Occlusion map - can be used during the lighting pass to provide ambient occlusion detail (rather than performing expensive lighting calculations on geometry)
7 - Displacement map - encoding of 'offset' to provide high-fidelity 3D surface detail (akin to parallax mapping type detail)
8 - Gloss / Roughness - determines how glossy / matte the surface appears (high-gloss means more mirror-like, high roughness means the material will spread the reflected light and give the surface a matte / diffuse appearance)

Let's assume the gun model is only using 6 of the above texture maps - 6 x 64MB = 384 megabytes
That's 384 megabytes for a simple, single PBR texture set. A typical game will have hundreds / thousands of texture assets...

That's also assuming the textures are using 8-bit per RGBA channel. A lot of textures now use floating point R32F so each RGBA channel now consumes 32-bits and your 384 megabytes of textures now increases four-fold to 1.5 gigabytes.

As useful / useless an example this may be... it might kinda explain why games are so freaking large these days.

Amazing explanation and it does make sense. I knew 4K textures etc would add a lot, my main issue was “why does CoD use so much space compared to other games that seem to be “bigger” games” lol.

Your knowledge is priceless and I really appreciate you taking the time to explain all of this. The example of a single asset using up to 384 megabytes is kinda mind blowing! Do you think the DirectStorage/Velocity Architecture would help to alleviate some of these storage concerns - an example could be a higher level of compression which would save space, but decompress for use in game faster? Am I totally off the mark? I need to do more reading on DirectStorage/Velocity.

Thank you again!!

 

[DeeKay86]

Just to add some more confusion. Tesco listing series X games as ‘Xbox one series X’
🤷🏼‍♀️
View attachment 1505672

That is correct though as the game is a cross-gen title. We will see this for a while as games are still releasing on both the Xbox One range of consoles and the Xbox Series consoles. The listing basically says “this will work on Xbox One consoles, but is also optimised for Series X/S”. Not the most elegant, sure, but it saves them having to list it twice lol.

Short of trying to put a blu ray in at some point, I may never actually use my disc drive.. I don't buy physical games anymore

I tested mine just to be sure everything is working lol - All works fine. Be sure to download the “Blu-ray Player App” before trying though!

 

[RSRowe]

Hmmmm. Personally I think it’s a bit of a s**t way to list stuff.
Would of been just as easy to say ‘Xbox One and Series X’

the addition of the and clarifies things a lot more for me.

 

[DeeKay86]

Hmmmm. Personally I think it’s a bit of a s**t way to list stuff.
Would of been just as easy to say ‘Xbox One and Series X’

the addition of the and clarifies things a lot more for me.

Ah yes - I agree. The “and” would help.

I checked how GAME UK manage their listing and its on there as “XBOX” with a banner saying “OPTIMISED FOR SERIES X”. Seems they forgot the Series S. lol

 

[DeeKay86]

Hi guys, looking for some help if poss. I’ve tried googling but so far I don’t coprendo what I need to do.

My lad played my Xbox at mine under his username. He also has one at his mums.
Since we’ve added the series X we have an issue that he can’t play Fortnite upstairs on the old Xbox unless I’m signed in to it. This wasn’t a problem before as the ‘home’ console was set to his mums.
The error message is that the person who purchased the game needs to be logged in.
Hope that makes some sense! Is it a case of uninstalling then installing again under his name? Thanks for any help.

When you add more than 2 consoles to the game sharing equation, it can become a little confusing.

Your scenario does make sense. Let me elaborate.

The reason why the old console upstairs will not work is because the console downstairs is logged in as you (the owner of the games etc). It works at his mums because that is your designated “home” console, so your game licences are all active on that Xbox.

The Upstairs Xbox is NOT logged in as you, and is not your “home” Xbox, meaning it has no access to your game library.

Does his personal profile have an Xbox Live GOLD account or a GamePass Ultimate subscription? I’m guessing it doesn’t - these are required to play Fortnite online. As Fortnite is a “free to play” game I don’t see why it won’t launch. I would suggest a reinstall with his account logged in, but do bare in mind that unless you log in with your Gold account, or buy him his own, he can’t play online on that Xbox.

I hope this makes sense.

 

[jenic]

Just tested a BluRay, all good here.

 

[PMac]

When you add more than 2 consoles to the game sharing equation, it can become a little confusing.

Your scenario does make sense. Let me elaborate.

The reason why the old console upstairs will not work is because the console downstairs is logged in as you (the owner of the games etc). It works at his mums because that is your designated “home” console, so your game licences are all active on that Xbox.

The Upstairs Xbox is NOT logged in as you, and is not your “home” Xbox, meaning it has no access to your game library.

Does his personal profile have an Xbox Live GOLD account or a GamePass Ultimate subscription? I’m guessing it doesn’t - these are required to play Fortnite online. As Fortnite is a “free to play” game I don’t see why it won’t launch. I would suggest a reinstall with his account logged in, but do bare in mind that unless you log in with your Gold account, or buy him his own, he can’t play online on that Xbox.

I hope this makes sense.

Thanks @DeeKay86, it all makes sense now. Not great news that we need to buy gold again but hey ho. Thanks for that 👍🏼

 

[jenic]

Thanks @DeeKay86, it all makes sense now. Not great news that we need to buy gold again but hey ho. Thanks for that 👍🏼

Check out my Game Pass thread, it's probably worth stacking 3 years of gold on his account and converting it to game pass ultimate.

 

[PMac]

Check out my Game Pass thread, it's probably worth stacking 3 years of gold on his account and converting it to game pass ultimate.

Yeah I bought gold for the year and upgraded to the GPU for the year for a cheeky pound. That’s on my account but as he’s on my family and his Xbox at his mums is the ‘home’ Xbox everything was tickety boo until the auld SX came along. So unless I’m missing something I’m going to have to shell out another £40+ to add gold directly to his account.

 

[Chris V6 255]

Any ideas when MS Flight Simulator is coming out on Series X? No doubt I’ll have to clear some serious space for that [emoji23]


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[Cookie]

Some time next year I'd imagine

 

[jenic]

Any ideas when MS Flight Simulator is coming out on Series X? No doubt I’ll have to clear some serious space for that [emoji23]


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It feels like never.

It will be chunky, I wonder if they'll let you selectively install maps/aircraft to save space.

 

[Jason_E]

I have it for PC and I’m pretty sure it takes up less space than COD lol.

Remember all the detailed mapping is done in real time using your internet connection to download them as you fly over.

 

[Jason_E]

£449 for a console. £65 for the “x” edition of cod.

3 games this morning. All crashed. Now my headset doesn’t work with the Series X controller either.

Whats the returns policy like? Deeply disappointed so far. Think I’m going to get rid and switch to PS5.

Pic for level of disappointment.

 

[Adamm.]

Have you checked in settings for controller update? I had an issue with my headset once and weirdly a controller update fixed it.

 

[Jason_E]

Have you checked in settings for controller update? I had an issue with my headset once and weirdly a controller update fixed it.

It works fine now. Plugged it into an older controller and it started working again. Plugged it into the new controller, fine. So weird.

It wasn’t working in messaging and private parties too, not just COD.

 

[andybond]

LOL! I have put a few games on it that don’t need to be on it! I have a 4TB external drive attached and I have it at 3TB full so far lol!

I think I would be correct in saying the external drive is considerably slower than the ninja fast internal drive but is it faster on Xbox Series X loading stuff on the external drive than on the Xbox one?

 

[RSRowe]

It’s almost instant once you’ve logged in and stuff.
Really impressive

 

[Cookie]

I had to unplug my Xbox entirely to move it.. it still quick resumed into Valhalla. Bonkers

 

[DeeKay86]

£449 for a console. £65 for the “x” edition of cod.

3 games this morning. All crashed. Now my headset doesn’t work with the Series X controller either.

Whats the returns policy like? Deeply disappointed so far. Think I’m going to get rid and switch to PS5.

Pic for level of disappointment.
View attachment 1505815

Jason.... JASON!! CALM DOWN JASON!!!! lol

Seriously, I know glitches suck - it happens man. Remember, we are on brand new hardware etc and its been like 4 days lol. I’m surprised I haven’t had any crashes yet its been pretty solid. Still, the odd bug can come up, but that is to be expected with such new hardware.

It works fine now. Plugged it into an older controller and it started working again. Plugged it into the new controller, fine. So weird.

It wasn’t working in messaging and private parties too, not just COD.

Problem solved lol!!

 

[DeeKay86]

I think I would be correct in saying the external drive is considerably slower than the ninja fast internal drive but is it faster on Xbox Series X loading stuff on the external drive than on the Xbox one?

Yes, the external drive is slower than internal, however games that are not “optimised for Series X/S” are totally fine on external. The loading is still super fast which is a nice bonus!! Loving it so far