According to Kareem Choudhry, a director at Xbox Software Engineering, the new Xbox Developer Kit will allow certain Kinect functions to be switched off in-game. Doing so will free up an estimated 10 per cent of GPU memory, meaning that the Xbox One will be capable of more graphically intense demands.

Since the release of the Xbox One and PS4, numerous next-gen games have displayed at higher resolution and faster frame rate on Sony's system. That includes the likes of Call of Duty Ghosts, Thief, Tomb Raider and Battlefield 4. It has led many consumers to believe that PS4 is a more capable system in terms of raw horsepower.

But the update is likely to curb the number of inferior Xbox One editions of multi-platform games.



Choudhry said the June XDK offers developers "more access to GPU bandwidth, which provides more performance, new tools and flexibility to make games better".

In an interview published on the Xbox website, Choudhry explained:

"Developers have more choice and flexibility to manage the resources of the Xbox One to deliver bigger and richer game experiences. Previously, 10 per cent of the GPU was reserved for system level processing which included Kinect-related skeletal tracking data.

"With this change, titles that are not using skeletal tracking with Kinect can choose to use that portion of the system reserve for other purposes. We have also optimised the entire system so that titles have access to 100 per cent of the Xbox One GPU for increased resolution and graphical effects."

'Optional feature'

The trade-off is that certain Kinect features will be disabled for games that are using the extra GPU memory.

"Kinect Depth and infrared sensors which enable biometric sign-in skeletal tracking, controller pairing, etc, will no longer work for these game titles," Choudhry added.

These optional features will only be switched off in-game, and reactivated if the system switches to another process. Contrary to initial reports, platform level voice commands will remain active regardless, meaning that Kinect will still pick up phrases such as "Xbox, record that" and "Xbox, go home". Snap mode will also remain usable.

Choudhry also explained that the Xbox One can switch Kinect resources on and off at certain points in a game.

"Developers can choose to disable Kinect depth and infrared sensing in different parts of their titles," he said.

"The full Kinect experience including skeletal tracking is automatically re-enabled when the user switches back to Home (or other applications), even while in the middle of a game."

This feature cannot be retroactively enabled on previous games, he added, though future titles such as Destiny and Sunset Overdrive will take advantage of them.

In May, Microsoft announced it is dropping Kinect as a mandatory Xbox One accessory. The company states it remains committed to the peripheral.

Posted: Jun 20, 2014 11:17 pm
Related Forum: Xbox Forum

Source: http://www.computerandvideogames.com/468755/microsoft-explains-how-disabling-kinect-unlocks-xbox-one-power/