Can Sony or MS release new drivers for their consoles in the Future ?

[Johnmiceter]

I was reading something someone posted on another site, but there wasn't realy a answer. Since some of you's know a fair bit I was wondering do any of you's think it would be possible for Sony or MS to release new graphics drivers (like they do on PC for graphics cards) to make games look better and able to run better ?

PS4 and Xbox1 are more like a computer, so why wouldn't they be able to release new drivers for games to look and run better just like Nvidia do and Radeon and those graphics card makers.

These consoles are supposed to last around 10 years, but without doing something like this, I don't know if they could without some sort of update.

 

[Z A C K]

I was thinking about this too, but don't actually know the answer. I would think it'd be slightly more complicated to take apart one of these consoles and put some new hardware in it.

 

[SevenDead1ySinz]

In a way yes, they will both continue to update their firmware, continue to optimize, update various drivers and dev tool kits, same as it's been this gen. They will try to squeeze everything out of the consoles that they can, but remember that both will face the law of diminishing returns.

 

[menace-uk-]

In a way yes, they will both continue to update their firmware, continue to optimize, update various drivers and dev tool kits, same as it's been this gen. They will try to squeeze everything out of the consoles that they can, but remember that both will face the law of diminishing returns.

This.

If you recall from this gen upgraded its dev tools and stuff several times. Just like PC the process is always ongoing. We the end user for the most part won't really know about it, but it will happen many times during a generation.

 

[SevenDead1ySinz]

This.

If you recall from this gen upgraded its dev tools and stuff several times. Just like PC the process is always ongoing. We the end user for the most part won't really know about it, but it will happen many times during a generation.

The internet has allowed consoles to become dynamic over time, instead of being the static boxes they were 15 years ago or so (leaving out dev tools and what not). Microsoft forcing broadband was a good move for the industry that will continue to benefit all console gamers for years to come.

 

[Johnmiceter]

But do you think it's possible to make a better graphics driver for next gen consoles so games run better just like they do on PC's ? I'm not sure how they do it on PC's, but why couldn't they do the same on consoles if all the consoles are the same, it should be easy shouldn't it ?

 

[Hammerclaw]

But do you think it's possible to make a better graphics driver for next gen consoles so games run better just like they do on PC's ? I'm not sure how they do it on PC's, but why couldn't they do the same on consoles if all the consoles are the same, it should be easy shouldn't it ?

In computers you install a better graphics card. Unfortunately, both consoles are closed architecture in that regard.

 

[Johnmiceter]

In computers you install a better graphics card. Unfortunately, both consoles are closed architecture in that regard.

No but you know how sometimes if you buy a graphics card, Nvidia might release new graphics drivers for certain cards to improve performance, why can't AMD do this for PS4 and XB1 ? Because as well as the actual card with ram and stuff, isn't it the drivers that make the graphics look good ? Without good drivers the graphics wouldn't be as good true would they ?

I thought maybe because these consoles are close to PC's, we could see something like this on consoles one day to help improve performance to make consoles last a bit longer.

 

[Hammerclaw]

No but you know how sometimes if you buy a graphics card, Nvidia might release new graphics drivers for certain cards to improve performance, why can't AMD do this for PS4 and XB1 ? Because as well as the actual card with ram and stuff, isn't it the drivers that make the graphics look good ? Without good drivers the graphics wouldn't be as good true would they ?

I thought maybe because these consoles are close to PC's, we could see something like this on consoles one day to help improve performance to make consoles last a bit longer.

John, the beginning of wisdom is the ability to say three simple words: I don't know, and I don't. Maybe Astro or Ketto could help you. They're pretty smart.

 

[Johnmiceter]

John, the beginning of wisdom is the ability to say three simple words: I don't know, and I don't. Maybe Astro or Ketto could help you. They're pretty smart.

Least your honest though, not like how some people try and make up some bull crap like they do with all this next gen fighting of which is better and none of them are even out yet.

 

[Lucid Rifter]

IMO the issue with graphics drivers goes back to consoles being such a closed system. Could they release new drivers? Sure, but that would require a patch roll-out for every single console in order to run the game at the intended framerate.

So say little johnny has a xbox one and plays it offline every once in a while. He is a valued customer and a mainstream revenue source for MS. Johnny buys the latest dudebro military shooting game for the single player experience and to feel like a total badass cause he gets achievements and rewards for getting autoaim kills. Now, he gets the game and finds that his copy is very "jumpy" and lags when there are too many fish on a screen at one time. Little Johnny gets mad and doesn't purchase the microtransactions because the game just doesn't quite agree with his puberty anymore.

/trolllolololol


Seriously though, I think it could fragment the developer community too much and could potentially cripple previously released games that were designed for a specific driver version. This is evident in PC gaming now where every once in a blue moon you might need to roll back your driver version to play a certain game.

 

[Obscene Jester]

I would expect that being a closed system, the graphics drivers are much more locked in and really shouldn't need any tweaking. I'm sure things could be updated and probably have been in the past through system updates, should the need arise.

 

[Z A C K]

IMO the issue with graphics drivers goes back to consoles being such a closed system. Could they release new drivers? Sure, but that would require a patch roll-out for every single console in order to run the game at the intended framerate.

So say little johnny has a xbox one and plays it offline every once in a while. He is a valued customer and a mainstream revenue source for MS. Johnny buys the latest dudebro military shooting game for the single player experience and to feel like a total badass cause he gets achievements and rewards for getting autoaim kills. Now, he gets the game and finds that his copy is very "jumpy" and lags when there are too many fish on a screen at one time. Little Johnny gets mad and doesn't purchase the microtransactions because the game just doesn't quite agree with his puberty anymore.

/trolllolololol


Seriously though, I think it could fragment the developer community too much and could potentially cripple previously released games that were designed for a specific driver version. This is evident in PC gaming now where every once in a blue moon you might need to roll back your driver version to play a certain game.

So it could have been more reasonable for the X1 to do this back when they required the system to be always online?

 

[Johnmiceter]

Maybe when both Sony and MS talk about freeing up resourses in the future that is their way of doing this instead of relasing graphics drivers ?

 

[Dr D Wayne Love]

IMO the issue with graphics drivers goes back to consoles being such a closed system. Could they release new drivers? Sure, but that would require a patch roll-out for every single console in order to run the game at the intended framerate.

So say little johnny has a xbox one and plays it offline every once in a while. He is a valued customer and a mainstream revenue source for MS. Johnny buys the latest dudebro military shooting game for the single player experience and to feel like a total badass cause he gets achievements and rewards for getting autoaim kills. Now, he gets the game and finds that his copy is very "jumpy" and lags when there are too many fish on a screen at one time. Little Johnny gets mad and doesn't purchase the microtransactions because the game just doesn't quite agree with his puberty anymore.

/trolllolololol


Seriously though, I think it could fragment the developer community too much and could potentially cripple previously released games that were designed for a specific driver version. This is evident in PC gaming now where every once in a blue moon you might need to roll back your driver version to play a certain game.

Driver update could be on the disc.

 

[Lucid Rifter]

So it could have been more reasonable for the X1 to do this back when they required the system to be always online?

Maybe. See point down below for a reason they may not have either way.


@Dr D Wayne Love Putting it on the disk would still not fix the problem of previous games being built for a previous driver version. It's a rare problem but it does happen and you wouldn't want a casual user to have to start managing driver versions for different games.

 

[Hammerclaw]

Least your honest though, not like how some people try and make up some bull crap like they do with all this next gen fighting of which is better and none of them are even out yet.

Both consoles were on show down under, recently, and both were generally well received. Everyone will be happy with their console-of-choice, 'though at one point or another, they'll all wish they had the other one.

 

[KongRudi]

Console manufacturers keep updating the libraries and driver-features in the devkits often.

That means that there allways get better optimization of new games, wich take advantage of the latest stuff updated drivers.
However they don't do much for current games, so you won't see Killzone: Shadowfall, or next Halo suddenly jump in framerate, like you would for Cysis on PC when NVidia update your PC.

There is alot less bloatware on consoles and easier to tharget that particular hardaware, and you won't see a big jump each time the system-drivers improve, so it might as well be better to use the older drivers.

But next Killzone or next Halo will take advantage of the latest features in the various drivers. But load up the old Killzone or Halo, you'll be using alot of 'old drivers'.
On consoles you're usually have a much more memory-restricted enviroment, games just load the stuff they need, and you have a static hardware-enviroment, so if you don't need function Y and function Z, you don't load a driversoftware for those features, and you're also often coding closer to the metal.
Games won't break as easy if there is changes done to those features - and you won't load in as much stuff you won't need.

Edit: you will get minor improvements with firmware-updates, but not big performance jumps like on PC, since they can optimize much more on consoles.

 

[BunzHoles]

Could they release new drivers? Sure, but that would require a patch roll-out for every single console in order to run the game at the intended framerate.

They have the magic of disks that can store the latest firmware

lol, but seriously... the latest games come with the latest firmware on board in case the console isn't connected to the net.

And yes, consoles get their drivers updated.

They can do this particularly well next gen on XBO with the hypervisor. They can even release breaking changes and have multiple driver sets on the console with the correct ones being loaded when the game launches.