Microsoft has some information about FPS Boost, the newly announced enhancement feature that can be applied to backwards compatible games.
In mid-February, Microsoft announced the first series of backwards-compatible titles to take advantage of FPS Boost, a feature that enhances legacy games with higher, more consistent frames to make games visually smoother.
The feature works at the system level and has the ability to amplify Xbox One games so that it can execute up to four times their original frame rate.
However, if you have been waiting for your favorite heritage title to get this treatment, there may be disappointment.
Xbox Ronald’s director of program management, Jason Ronald, went to Major Nelson’s latest podcast this week to further explain the feature (above).
During a chat on the podcast, Ronald shared information on how Microsoft could not implement the upgrade in all legacy games, thanks to the way some titles are designed to work with their original frame rates.
“Unfortunately, this technique does not work on all titles,” he explained (thank you, VGC). ‘In some cases, the way the game was originally written … because we’ve tested some of these titles, we’ve seen animations run twice as fast, or physics twice as fast.
‘What is critical for us is that we always respect the original intention of the creator. Therefore, we can do it at the platform level and then we work with the developer and the publisher and make sure that they still believe that it really matches what they originally intended. ”
The first games to benefit from the new feature are Far Cry 4, New Super Lucky’s Tale, Sniper Elite 4, UFC 4 and Watch Dogs 2, and more will be announced soon.
About which games with upgraded FPS will be upgraded, Microsoft has noted that this boils down to popularity. Microsoft plans to release a new Xbox Series update this spring that will provide new menu icons and system settings that make managing your FPS settings more intuitive.