Microsoft : The making of Xbox One X

For Monolith Productions, the makers of 'Middle-earth: Shadow of War,' the potential of developing for 4K was something they approached with enthusiasm.

'Monolith has always authored our content at a higher resolution than we could ship, but now with 4K-capable consoles, we can deliver the extra detail and sharpness that comes from four times the resolution of a standard 1080p image to the player,' says Monolith's Piotr Minus, based in Kirkland, Washington. 'This extra resolution can also help convey extra image depth, increasing your sense of how far into the distance the view goes before the detail starts to drop off. The increased resolution also allows for more subtle color blends, reducing the striping effects of lower resolution blends. 4K and HDR allows 'Middle-earth: Shadow of War' to deliver the most cinematic and immersive experience possible on console.'

It's so dramatic, says Matthew Allen, director of technical art for Monolith, that players can now see 'pits in armor, scars and even maggots coming out in 4K.' He added that being able to see the full range of responses in the characters is also thrilling for their animators. 'At 4K, you see a lot more uniqueness, and our game is all about unique Orcs.'

'The Xbox system has given us more rapid iteration loops. Thanks to the faster storage (SSDs), iteration times have gone way down. Where it used to take us minutes to load into a 'Middle-earth: Shadow of War' world on the Xbox One devkit, it only takes seconds on a Scorpio devkit. Because we use our own proprietary Firebird engine, developing for the Xbox One X was extremely easy to get up and running. It only took us a day to get our Xbox One build running on the Xbox One X,' Mintus adds. 'The additional 4GB of memory allows us to not only run 'Middle-earth: Shadow of War' in 4K, but also introduce 4K content that would not be possible without the additional memory.'

And, Allen adds, once you're in the Xbox ecosystem, it's all very similar, which is helpful for their developers.

'I think the vision for compatibility is already changing the gaming industry. I see games as an art form and console games can get lost when it becomes more challenging to play games from the past. I also believe that no gamer should be left behind when new hardware becomes available and I want to see gaming content live on,' says Spencer. 'Through Xbox One Backward Compatibility and all Xbox One games working across generations, this brings added value to both gamers and developers for the games they purchase or make and changes the compatibility model the gaming industry has followed for years.'

Xbox collaborated with studios like Monolith, as well as Mojang ('Minecraft'), 343 Industries ('Halo Wars 2'), The Coalition ('Gears of War 4') and Turn 10 Studios ('Forza Motorsport 7') to help them deliver new 4K experiences for their fans.

'We worked with game studios in the development of the architecture,' Penello says. 'Our goal was to make it very easy for game developers to get their existing engines up and running on Xbox One X. It's been great to see not just our internal partners but external partners as well who've shared their ease of development on Xbox One X. Ultimately the time that developers are not spending working with dev kits and code means you get better games and game content. It's a win for developers and for our customers too.'

The enhanced update for 'Gears of War 4' started with early involvement with Penello's team.

'We got the game up and running in two days,' says Mike Rayner, technical director of The Coalition in Vancouver, Canada. 'Everything worked from day one, using the same developer tools, same engine code, same Xbox Live API. It can play between the Xbox One X, Xbox One S and PC without any changes. We've changed the resolution to native 4K, and it ran faster on the Xbox One X than 1080p on the Xbox One S.'

The combination of 4K and HDR expands the game's color range and adds fully dynamic shadows from tree branches swaying, foliage and helicopters flying overhead.

With 'Minecraft,' Xbox One X helps the game's developers highlight the edges of blocks, adds clear definition and new dynamic and directional lighting that makes these worlds more believable.

Builders will also be able to see more worlds at once, and access high-end rendering technology and improved visuals, previously only available through modifications (mods).

'The change is building from 4K and HDR from the get-go,' says Frank O'Connor, franchise creative director for 'Halo Wars 2.' 'It's much easier and has changed our philosophy for the better.'

If you get the new console, 'Halo Wars 2' will include a 4K HDR update with extra textures and features. But even those who don't get an Xbox One X can benefit from an intelligent install, with minimized downloads to separate the 4K content, languages, cinematics and other content.

'We're able to bring a depth to digital effects we can't without HDR,' says Barry Feather, executive producer for 'Halo Wars 2.' 'With HDR, we're able to layer things so you can see the detail inside a laser beam. It provides a lot more depth and adds a huge amount of character, which is helpful to gameplay. The differences help players with recognition of units.'