Microsoft gives Xbox One developers access to extra core for games

Game developers could currently turn on more processing power on the Xbox One than was previously possible. Microsoft has reportedly partly given them an extra core, but that would come at the expense of certain other features.

The Xbox One’s current AMD processor has eight cores. Microsoft reserved two of these to be able to handle different background applications. However, according to Eurogamer, that has changed. Hacker group H4LT recently claimed to have obtained the software development kit for the Xbox One. In addition, data has been put online and it would appear that Microsoft has given developers partial access to a seventh core. Developers are reportedly allowed to use 50 to 80 percent of the seventh core’s power. According to the game medium, that may be an explanation for the improved Xbox One performance.

Other features would suffer. The console does not support voice commands if developers use the extra power, according to Eurogamer, and various Kinect functionalities are also disabled. In addition, it would still be unclear to developers to what extent they can use the extra core. Microsoft will reportedly optimize the additional feature in a future SDK update.

Recently it has been in the news that Microsoft is going to take care of the api of the Xbox One. Developers gain more control over esram usage, which can boost game performance, Gamingbolt wrote at the time.