Microsoft improves the SDK. Should solve future 1080p/60fps issue.

[HeyCori]

In fact, two changes are happening. One is to free up some of Kinect's processing power so developers have more freedom to do what they want.

Reported Xbox One Patch Expected to Improve Graphical Performance - IGN

Microsoft is reportedly looking to improve the Xbox One's graphical performance in an upcoming patch. According to Hot Hardware, gaming insider Pete Doss has stated that Microsoft will relax GPU requirements for Kinect in order to achieve such results. As it is now, the Xbox One reserves 10 percent of its total GPU power for the Kinect, with 8 percent alone required for video processing. The alleged patch will purportedly free up that 8 percent for use in actual gameplay, leaving the remaining 2 percent for the peripheral's voice input processing.

The other SDK improvement will likely address the eSRAM, 1080p/60fps issue.

Xbox One developer: upcoming SDK improvements will allow for more 1080p games - Neowin

So why is it so hard to get 1080p resolutions on Xbox One games at the moment? Bolcato claims that Microsoft's decision to add 32 MB of eSRAM, in addition to its 8GB of DDR3 RAM, is the main issue. He states that the amount of eSRAM is just too small to support 1080p. He adds:

It’s such a small size within there that we can’t do everything in 1080p with that little buffer of super-fast RAM. It means you have to do it in chunks or using tricks, tiling it and so on.

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However, it would appear that Microsoft will do something to allow developers to go over this hardware hurdle with the eSRAM with the improvements made for the SDK. Bolcato seems confident that the Xbox One "is gonna catch up" to the PS4 in terms of hardware power in the months to come.

 

[Elitis]

This whole 1080p thing is blown way out of proportion. Over time, this whole problem will go away as developers figure out how to work with that eSRAM, and Microsoft figures out how to optimize the OS better.

Anyway, great to see Microsoft relaxing the GPU reservations. Next, they should figure out how to get Kinect's (voice) processing usage down to 1%.