Brad Wardell Talks About the Xbox One's Processing Power and the Cloud "Microsoft Needs to Make a Case of It

In an interview with GamingBolt, Stardock Studios' CEO Brad Wardell talks virtually the possibility that the Xbox I'due south processing ability can be increased using the cloud.

"That is a…aye and a no. I don't desire to weasel out on that because there are specific cases where yes you can,"

"Microsoft just needs to brand a example. I don't desire it to be my job to make the instance, but let me give you a few examples of where information technology would come in to play, since to my cognition Microsoft has not actually put out any examples."

Wardell continues to explain that procedurally generated terrain, which is one of the most expensive things that you could practise, can be offloaded to the cloud.

"Procedurally Generated Terrain is 1 of the most expensive things that you lot could do. You do not demand to exercise it in real-time but it takes a heck of alot of CPU power. Permit'due south give you an instance, let's say I'm playing a office playing game and I want a really sophisticated, nosotros're talking next Elder Scrolls game. This is plain non, I accept no idea what they're doing but it's just an instance of a game that might utilize something like this. And I want to have incredibly sophisticated terrain that is going to support rivers and streams, forests and mountains, and I want it to exist very detailed."

"Now I don't demand to procedurally generate all that stuff on the fly, and you're going to demand to take to procedurally generate it. With that amount of detail you tin't have some map editor guy with some art tools, making stuff like you used to. You're going to procedurally generate it to give it that level of particular. Your machine is not going to be powerful plenty, certainly non the Xbox One or the PlayStation 4 or even well-nigh PCs."

Wardell claims that modern hardware including the PlayStation 4 and the Xbox 1, as well every bit most PCs, do non have the processing power to return all those detailed open up world environments, so they would have to exist offloaded in the cloud. This volition besides eliminate whatever kind of loading betwixt areas.

"They're not powerful enough to generate that sort of thing easily to that particular. You could put that in the Cloud, and the results of that procedural generation will be sent back over to your Xbox One, so you could get these amazing scenes without any loading screens. Think the sometime days we used to have "Loading adjacent area of the game"? This sort of affair could forestall that kind of stuff."

Information technology all depends on Microsoft though, and they have to make a case for it.

"Microsoft needs to make the case for information technology, I hateful that'due south the matter they blew with the Kinect. I could tell you lot how it could be used, how I would use it if I were Microsoft and I had the coin. Simply I'm not Microsoft and I don't have the money to practise something that sophisticated."

Stardock's studios RTS game Ashes of the Singularity uses procedurally generated terrain, but information technology uses the GPU to do it.

"But I can tell you like in Ashes of the Singularity, our terrain in that game is procedurally generated. Nosotros're able to practice that by having the GPU procedurally generate the terrain, otherwise it would accept hours (laughs). Simply it sure would be handy if I had Microsoft's resources to toss all that procedural generation in to the deject."

We will bring y'all whatsoever news regarding Microsoft and Xbox One every bit soon as it becomes bachelor. Be sure to check out our previous coverage here and here.

Source: GamingBolt