Xbox One is an upcoming next-generation console by Microsoft to compete in the eight-generation consoles category and is also the successor for the highly successful Xbox 360. With its strict DRM policies, it received a lot of backlash and negative feedback from the community and later on the policies were retracted by Microsoft to ensure and let the games know that their voice is being heard. Not only the policies but the recent revelations of games not running at a native 1080p resolution but instead being upscaled by the Xbox One from various resolutions such as 900p for Ryse: Son of Rome and 720p for Call of Duty: Ghosts. Also many industry insiders and some testers indicated that the UI of Xbox One is not as smooth as advertised as well the snap on feature is not very snappy. Albert Penello, Microsoft’s Director of Product Planning, has ensured that everything works as advertised.
Recently, Xbox One developer, took to reddit to answer a few questions that the community had. When asked how long digital titles will take to install on the Xbox One, the dev replied:
Yes, it would depend on the game. I can’t tell you which ones but from what I’ve seen, some could be played after 15%, others had to go to 75%.
In another question about setting up the Home Theater, as Xbox One is aimed to become a One solution for all the entertainment/multimedia devices such as the set top box, the dev replied with the formation that was being used and also mentioned that using the PC with the HDMI in on the Xbox One, there was no “visible” lag. The dev also stated that volume controls are available via voice however switching the input single via voice is not present at the moment although it might get added later on.
PC -> X1 -> Receiver -> TV
This is the setup I’ve been using at home. I see no visible lag using the PC via HDMI in. The Xbox will turn on/off both receiver and TV after you go through TV/devices setup. Volume controls on the receiver are available via voice. I have not seen input switching via voice, though that might get added.
The dev continued that the voice commands for the Xbox One are currently fixed, meaning presets already determined and to function with.
Currently the voice commands are fixed. I don’t think we’ll implement custom voice commands. I don’t know.
Volume controller is a preset amount. On my receiver, it goes up or down 1 dB. This might change as we determine other methods.
Of course for the voice commands to be recognized and to work, one would need the Kinect, that is being supplied with every Xbox One, to be connected. However, Microsoft has confirmed that Kinect isn’t mandatory to be used by the Xbox One but not using it will disable a lot of features on which Xbox One is built around.
Xbox One is just three weeks away from its launch on November 22. Are you looking forward to picking up your Xbox One? Let us know in the comments below.
