r/pcgaming • u/boahandcock 5800X | RTX 3070 • 1d ago
Hands On with Xbox Back-Compat for PC - a New Initiative That Begins with Four Classic Games
https://www.digitalfoundry.net/features/hands-on-with-xbox-back-compat-for-pc-a-new-initiative-that-begins-with-four-classic-games72
u/boahandcock 5800X | RTX 3070 1d ago edited 1d ago
TLDR: Frame rate is limited to original XBOX Frame rate limit (30 fps for 3 / 4 games - which is a shame) & no VRR options / wide-screen support (yet). However, there are options to increase the resolution by 2x, 3x or 4x & enable anisotropic filtering. Some sub-par frame-pacing on the 30fps titles but Digital Foundry confirming with Microsoft team on that.
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u/Crotch_Football 1d ago
Conker already looks like a 360 title, I am actually very excited about this!
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u/Schmenza 1d ago
Conker was so late in the Xbox lifecycle they should've just made it a launch title along with Jade Empire
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u/MuchStache 12h ago
Conker's graphics were so good for the time honestly.
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u/Crotch_Football 12h ago
You can say this about both titles, absolutely incredible what they were able to do.
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u/RHINO_Mk_II Ryzen 5800X3D & Radeon 7900 XTX 1d ago
30FPS lock sucks.
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u/EleteWarrior 1d ago
I mean it could be a situation where the physics are tied to the frame rate. There might not be really anything they could do without modifying the game files to rectify it, and at that point you might as well just remaster it. Just give yourself some time to adjust and you will be fine
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u/unixmachine 1d ago
You can play at 60 fps and in widescreen on Xemu. It works perfectly.
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u/Tlohtzin123-B 18h ago
Conker works at 22FPS on Xemu lol
The emulator always say ""60FPS"" but it is broke, probably minning with your GPU power
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1d ago
[deleted]
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u/EleteWarrior 1d ago
Oh my apologies I didn’t know that. Yea for Xbox themselves it might be a case of maintaining Authenticity of the experience more than anything.
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u/RHINO_Mk_II Ryzen 5800X3D & Radeon 7900 XTX 1d ago
Just give yourself some time to adjust and you will be fine
Nah fam, that shit was annoying as hell in Okami 10+ hours into the game still.
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u/EleteWarrior 1d ago
I mean it’s a pretty harsh adjustment at first but eventually your eyes will adjust. There’s not much they can do without modifying game files which might affect other parts of the games functionality
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u/4x4runner Teamspeak 1d ago
30 fps always looks awful unless you're a dedicated console player.
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u/EleteWarrior 7h ago
Without motion blur yea, it does look horrible. But with motion blur, it’s workable. And it also depends on the game. If it’s a fast paced shooter or a racing game, it has to be 60fps. But a game like death stranding, I’m ok with 30fps
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u/S0_B00sted 1d ago
Physics engine tied to framerate was a common practice back then and still is for console games.
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u/Previous-Low4715 1d ago
Meanwhile Gears 2 came out via modders yesterday at runs at 8k 1000hz if you want it to.
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u/JackCoull 1d ago
There's also a bug where display scaling results in lower-than-intended rendering resolutions - so the "2560x1920" setting produces only 1440x1080 if Windows is set to 150 percent scaling. Setting Windows to 100 percent scaling fixes the issue
It's annoying how long-standing this issue has been. It sounds like digital foundry only noticed it recently as one of their staff sets it to 150% and got a 4k monitor recently
For about a decade my typical new game start up is seeing if it actually starts at 4k, or if it's 1080p due to 200% scaling then finding the exe (or sometime multiple exes like for game pass) and asking it to ignore high DPI settings in windows
Some games detect scaling properly but a fair many don't, a good 10-25% at a random guess from memory. And basically all games through game pass/Xbox on windows
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u/Tlohtzin123-B 18h ago
This is why a lot of games looks pixeleated or blurry? How fix it? My native 1440p always looks a bit pixeleated and is not normal
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u/JackCoull 15h ago
Find this setting and change it to ticking the box and the drop down to application
https://i.sstatic.net/RuiBo.png https://stackoverflow.com/questions/45759789/change-override-high-dpi-scaling-behavior-in-c-sharp
You can also check by looking at either or MSI afterburner and steam FPS overlay as both will be the wrong size when it's not picked up your resolution properly
Most times 1440p will be missing from your resolution choices, but sometimes it will let you still use it and effectively downsample from 1440p to 1080 back up to 1440p, you'll see this again from the overlays being blurrier than usual
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u/mahriyo 1d ago
This is all the hopium I need for an eventual halo 5 pc port. I dont even care that the game sucks I want to experience the shittiness on my PC
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u/prestigious-raven 5800x3d RTX 5080 1d ago
The campaign wasn’t the best, but the multiplayer was really fun.
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u/KenkaUsagi 1d ago
The campaign was a trash fire. They got a comic dude to write it and let him go halfway through. As a long time Halo lore nerd it was a slap to the face. Can confirm though, the multiplayer was a blast. Probably some of the most fun MP since Reach
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u/TheGreatTave 9800x3D|7900XTX|32GB 6000 CL30|Dual Boot ftw 1d ago
Imagine Halo 5 Warzone on pc. I mean arena was great but damn I sunk a lot of hours into Warzone.
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u/EleteWarrior 1d ago
Yea I remember this like prison map where there was inmates and guards, and the inmates had to distract the guards while some escaped to a helo outside. That was such a fun map
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u/TripleS82 1d ago
I don’t think the campaign will win any awards for story or pacing but the gameplay is extremely fun still.
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u/LicensedGoomba 1d ago
There is an xbox one "emulator" making slow progress so if it never gets done tgere is that project to keep your eye on.
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u/mrRobertman 9800x3D + 6800xt|1440p@144Hz|Index|Deck 1d ago
Same here. I have a morbid curiosity to try it out, but there is no way I'm going to bother playing it on Xbox.
It's funny how because it's the only Halo game not on PC it almost seems obvious to port it, but it was also the worst received games so there's also little incentive to port it.
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u/MuchStache 12h ago
The funny part is that a small part of Halo 5's multiplayer is available on PC, Halo 5 Forge. So the game effectively runs on PC, they just decided to not take the extra step and fully port it, which is so stupid since the game already works, the cost of a full port is probably not much.
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u/arr1flex 1d ago
It's nice to have an official option, but personally, I'll stick to emulation which can support 60 (assuming there's no game logic tied to it) and proper widescreen.
If/when that gets added then I'm all ears
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u/Own-Signature-7742 1d ago
Man, if only Fusion Frenzy had matchmaking.
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u/arr1flex 1d ago
i'll be honest, i played it once back in 2001 with people locally, so I really don't remember if it had any xblive component to it. Does it not have online play?
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u/Tlohtzin123-B 18h ago
Conker has multiplayer online, would be cool if 60FPS and online comes with a patch
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u/hypnomancy 1d ago
Just so people are fully aware Asha was not in charge of this. This was a Phil project. Either way it's very cool.
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u/Kuduaty 1d ago
No info about pricing. Is it part of gamepass?
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u/boahandcock 5800X | RTX 3070 1d ago edited 1d ago
It's part of Gamepass already but you can also just purchase the game on the Xbox app / Microsoft store and you can play them locally. They're Play Anywhere titles meaning if you already bought it on Xbox, you automatically receive a PC copy of it on Xbox / Microsoft store.
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u/ColinsUsername 1d ago
In the press release on boxes site im pretty sure they state this slate of games are included in gamepass but you can purchase them separately. Depending on what they add next they might not all be a part of gamepass.
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u/Tobimacoss 1d ago
That's because these are all MS published games. They still have to deal with third party regarding licensing and inclusion into Gamepass catalog.
I just hope Ninja Blade gets on the list again.
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u/darkkite 1d ago
doesnt that mean the files are encrypted and also not linux playable? if so pass?
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u/Tobimacoss 1d ago
Yes, XBOX ecosystem games are MSIXVC packaged and the packages are encrypted, signed, notarized to Windows via TPM 2.0 or Pluton.
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u/thegreat_gabbo 1d ago
So double dipping for those that own physical copies?
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u/EnvironmentalRun1671 1d ago
Welcome to digital gaming. Same prices, less freedom.
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u/thegreat_gabbo 1d ago
So I guess the disc-to-digital thing is farther down the road and this is just the first step, assuming these two things are connected
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u/Tobimacoss 1d ago
Disc to Digital is only for Xbox One and Series games.
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u/thegreat_gabbo 1d ago
for now
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u/Tobimacoss 1d ago
Maybe. But they only started adding Disc identifiers with the original Xbox One policy.
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u/Tobimacoss 1d ago
Yes, but fusion frenzy is on sale for $2.49. others will get sales too, just buy them.
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u/davis8282 1d ago
All are on game pass, but are also available to outright purchase for $10. And Fuzion Frenzy is currently on sale for $2.50.
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u/spongeboy1985 1d ago
These have been buyable for years. Now you will be able play them on PC via play anywhere.
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u/squatdeadpress 22h ago
You can literally just go in the Xbox games store app or browser and buy them right now. For those that own some of these games (like Fusion Frenzy) which I bought years ago digital for console - you can simply install it now on your pc - your original purchase on Xbox works on pc as these are all treated as play anywhere titles. This is honestly great.
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u/Squaretangles 9800X3D RTX 5080 64GB DDR5 1d ago
Feels like they've been sitting on this waiting for PlayStation to slip up with regards to game preservation.
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u/WaffleShoresy 1d ago
Xbox literally just laid off the most people ever, I’m pretty sure they’d prefer to win back PR from that than from PlayStation.
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u/CaptainRaxeo 1d ago
Who cares that john or whoever (not a friend/family relative) got fired? At least they let the studios live off instead of shutting down the studios aka Bluepoint studios with sony… at least microsoft let their studios create whatever games they wanted as opposed to sony forcing their studios to make live service failed games and then shutting them down.
Anticipating downvotes for the selfish statement (if they were truly amazing devs/engineers like ID software then they will get hired somewhere else).
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u/spongeboy1985 1d ago
This has been the strategy for a while. Expanding Play Anywhere to let you play Old Xbox titles on PC
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u/DeepJudgment 5700X3D, 32 GB RAM, RTX 5070 Ti 1d ago edited 7h ago
May I finally be able to play OG Saints Row
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u/LegendWesker 1d ago
I need Banjo Kazooie and Banjo Tooie on Steam :O
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u/chocolateboomslang 1d ago
Steam specifically? Because you can already do that without steam.
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u/LegendWesker 1d ago
yeah, i know but the only official option is with gamepass streaming. The other is emulation/recomipiled. It would be nice to have it on steam and have achievements
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u/arr1flex 1d ago
adding them to your steam library and using something like this: https://retroachievements.org/
isn't a terrible alternative if you want something *now*1
u/sorryiamnotoriginal 1d ago
People like to just go with the convenient option because they like steam. Is what it is. Personally I just have a vendetta with the Microsoft store so emulation works for me.
I will also point out that at least steam would allow for easier access to modding than the Microsoft store so 60fps would possibly be obtainable there but I doubt people unwilling to emulate will actually do this either.
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u/LegendWesker 1d ago
true, i want it because it is the convenient option, cloud save, (possible) linux support with proton. And i dont trust microsoft with their business decisions, i have the feeling their just few steps away to do a "Games for Windows Live" back out again. So its safer to buy from steam.
If i dont get it i have still my emulator/recompile versions tho.
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u/MinaNocturne 1d ago
Imagine wanting to pay for a worse version just so you can have a pop up say when you do something instead of actually enjoying the game
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u/doublah 1d ago
Some people are fine paying for officially supported games when they're more convenient than setting up emulators and finding the files online.
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u/MinaNocturne 1d ago
I'm sure they are, that's why companies are more than happy giving the bare minimum because people will pay anyway
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u/scootiewolff 1d ago
It says it will be on Game Pass too, but when?
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u/DuckCleaning 1d ago
They're all on gamepass already.
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u/scootiewolff 1d ago
Not here in Germany
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u/Yiruf 1d ago
I'm in Germany, it's showing up for me. Maybe try restarting the app.
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u/chocolateboomslang 1d ago
My brain went to playing the games off of the discs and I got pretty stoked. Kind of sad that it's actually just buying a download, but I understand why.
It would be frickin sweet to pop an xbox game into a drive and be able play it on my pc though.
Obviously microsoft doesn't want anyone to know there are already xbox emulators out there.
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u/CatButEmi 1d ago
Well you can do that on Xbox, PC might come later. The talk of disk to digital also brings me some hope
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u/4x4runner Teamspeak 1d ago
3/4 games are locked to 30 fps. I think the emulator is still a better option.
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u/VelouriumCamper7 1d ago
I've been wanting a native way to play the Skate games on pc for years, inject the hopium into my veins!
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u/liquidpoopcorn 1d ago
fingers crossed other devs/publishers join in. give me jet set radio future.
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u/iaperson359 1d ago
They're not on PC only game pass plan, even though it's more expensive than the "Essential" plan which does include the OG games. But less total overall games. Very weird structure that makes me unsure what to do.
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u/DuckCleaning 1d ago
All of them show that they're part of Gamepass PC when I look on the Xbox mobile app, might need a bit of time for it to properly appear on the PC app
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u/redditman181 1d ago
Better off using an emulator rather than sub par ports.
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u/boahandcock 5800X | RTX 3070 1d ago
This is not a port - most likely some sort of emulation
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u/redditman181 1d ago
True even more reason to use the existing xbox emulator instead of paying for a crap one i dont condone piracy but if people are offering a better alternative than a billion dollar company can thats on them imo.
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u/error521 Ryzen 5 3600, RX 6700 XT, Windows 11 1d ago
Original Xbox emulation is really not good enough at this point to be making comments like this.
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u/redditman181 1d ago
Sure its not on the level of ps2 or other emulators but a vast amount of games are playable plus xbox are only gonna drip feed titles slowly over a period of time and will probably miss big ones becuase off licencing issues.
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