Dear microsoft... a letter to MS about backwards compatibility.

[Elven6]

wikipedias 360 article cites it. Since MS chose ATI over Nvidia, nvidia stoped producing video chips for xbox 1 has retaliation so MS forced to do software emulation and cut short the life of xbox 1. Not due to security like u claim since the consoles have a diffrent OS

[beetroot bertie]

One thing I don't understand, if it's so much work to code the emulation needed for each title, how come the actual b/c update downloads are so small?

According the the xbox site (http://www.xbox.com/en-GB/games/back...lity.htm#disc), it's only a 2.5mb download yet includes quite a lot of titles (couldn't be arsed to count, but at least 150).

I therefore assume each individual game's emulation code would be very small, so how much work is actually needed to produce this code?

I'm not a coder so forgive my ignorance.

[diceone]

wikipedias 360 article cites it. Since MS chose ATI over Nvidia, nvidia stoped producing video chips for xbox 1 has retaliation so MS forced to do software emulation and cut short the life of xbox 1. Not due to security like u claim since the consoles have a diffrent OS

good info... I actually did see that, but I also read that they resolved the issue...
however, I would like to think in MicroSoft's infinitely deep pockets they could have had ATI make chips to spec, or used a gpu chipset to spec.
I don't think that is beyond the grasp of these large corporations abilities.

the xbox 1 was essentially, like Blackley stated,

"the xbox was little more than exposed cards with processors and graphics chips hooked to a monitor."

this is straight from the creators mouth.
Doesn't sound like it'd be impossible in the second generation of the console to improve on that and be compatible.
whether you have ATI or Nvidia pumping your gpu, isn't gonna cause all of this incompatibility issue.
it is purely a rewritten proprietary OS making these issues. True, this OS may take FULL advantage of this chip set... but it doesn't take a rocket scientist to set out at square one at the building of an xbox 360, to state; "we need to make sure all the xbox1 games are playable, DUH."

[diceone]

One thing I don't understand, if it's so much work to code the emulation needed for each title, how come the actual b/c update downloads are so small?

According the the xbox site (http://www.xbox.com/en-GB/games/back...lity.htm#disc), it's only a 2.5mb download yet includes quite a lot of titles (couldn't be arsed to count, but at least 150).

I therefore assume each individual game's emulation code would be very small, so how much work is actually needed to produce this code?

I'm not a coder so forgive my ignorance.

you can't judge the amount of work, put into a compiled piece of executable code by it's final file size.

I make websites, flash movies, banner ads, full flash sites and apps.... that are all under 1mb.
but tons of work goes into them.

A single NES emulator for my PC/Mac is around 2.5 mb
for the application. But I know months of work if not years go into those singular emulators.

it's hard to say how much work goes into them, but emulation is no small feat, no matter how closely related the systems are.

a lot of testing has to be done to insure the quality is there in all aspects of every game.

[oosername05]

It would have been a smart decision for M1c|20s0ft to let its console play former generation games. M1c|20s0ft could have been selling xbox games and therefore making money on the already-made software.

[beetroot bertie]

I make websites, flash movies, banner ads, full flash sites and apps.... that are all under 1mb. but tons of work goes into them.

Cool! Do you have a web site or anything as I'd be interested to see your work? I love looking a flash sites and seeing what people are capable of getting out of it.

Ta.

[BrooksyX]

One thing I don't understand, if it's so much work to code the emulation needed for each title, how come the actual b/c update downloads are so small?

According the the xbox site (http://www.xbox.com/en-GB/games/back...lity.htm#disc), it's only a 2.5mb download yet includes quite a lot of titles (couldn't be arsed to count, but at least 150).

I therefore assume each individual game's emulation code would be very small, so how much work is actually needed to produce this code?

I'm not a coder so forgive my ignorance.

The emulators are just text based, what makes files so big are all the pictures, movies, sounds and other media. There is no gui for b.c. its just integrated into the dashboard. The 2.5 mb download probably consisted of thousands of lines of code.

[Elven6]

good info... I actually did see that, but I also read that they resolved the issue...
however, I would like to think in MicroSoft's infinitely deep pockets they could have had ATI make chips to spec, or used a gpu chipset to spec.
I don't think that is beyond the grasp of these large corporations abilities.

the xbox 1 was essentially, like Blackley stated,


this is straight from the creators mouth.
Doesn't sound like it'd be impossible in the second generation of the console to improve on that and be compatible.
whether you have ATI or Nvidia pumping your gpu, isn't gonna cause all of this incompatibility issue.
it is purely a rewritten proprietary OS making these issues. True, this OS may take FULL advantage of this chip set... but it doesn't take a rocket scientist to set out at square one at the building of an xbox 360, to state; "we need to make sure all the xbox1 games are playable, DUH."

You still don't get it do you, the games are programmed to detect those chips which are supposed to be in the system since thats how they are programed. It would look for the Nvidia chip and not find any, so in the end you would still need software emulation.

[BrooksyX]

You still don't get it do you, the games are programmed to detect those chips which are supposed to be in the system since thats how they are programed. It would look for the Nvidia chip and not find any, so in the end you would still need software emulation.

yeah, he can't seem to grasp the fact that hardware incompatibility is the main reason that all xbox 1 games do not work on xbox 360 without software emulation. It has nothing to do with the OS, it is because the hardware is 100% different.

[Elven6]

btw, if they did resolve the chip issue then MS would have put it into Xbox 360, but they did not own the chips like they do with 360.