Microsoft game development kit update can improve performance on Xbox Series S
“Hundreds of megabytes” of RAM have been freed up for game development.
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What you need to know
Games made on Microsoft’s lower-end current-generation gaming console now have slightly more resources for developers to use.
Microsoftsharedon Thursday that the June 2022 Xbox Game Development Kit (GDK) is now available for game developers, bringing a variety of improvements that have been requested by developers. Among these improvements is additional memory for game development on theXbox Series S.
When theXbox Series Xand Xbox Series S first arrived, they launched with 16GB and 10GB of RAM, respectively. RAM on a console is split between what can be used for games and the amount reserved for the operating system, with the Xbox Series X having 13.5GB available for games and the Xbox Series S having 8GB for games.
While the new split on the smaller console isn’t known, Microsoft says it has given game developers “hundreds of megabytes” of extra RAM for games. This may improve performance in some future titles, as while theXbox Series X|S systems both support 120 FPS, it’s a more common feature in the higher-end console.
As time goes on in a console generation, developers become more experienced with the hardware and software that they’re working on. Combined with development kit updates, this means that developers can utilize a console’s hardware more efficiently, making bigger, better-looking games towards the end of a generation.
This isn’t the first optimization Xbox engineers have done on the system’s backend to improve memory allocation. When the Xbox Series X|S first launched, the Xbox Series X had a 1080p user interface (UI), a significantly lower resolution than the 4K UI available on the PS5, with the explanation at the time being that the Xbox design team wanted to provide the most memory possible for games.
After it was widely requested, Xbox engineers eventually added a4K UI option for Xbox Series X, optimizing the existing memory allocation without disrupting the resources available for games.
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Small but still mighty
The Xbox Series S is the smaller of Microsoft’s two current-generation gaming machines, but it can still play every game available on the Xbox Series S. Fast load times and high framerates abound, and it’s way easier to purchase than the Xbox Series X.
Samuel Tolbert is a freelance writer covering gaming news, previews, reviews, interviews and different aspects of the gaming industry, specifically focusing on Xbox and PC gaming on Windows Central. You can find him on Twitter@SamuelTolbert.
