[0:00] 25 years ago, Microsoft teamed up with
[0:03] Dwayne the Rock Johnson to announce the
[0:06] Xbox. And it was a powerhouse with a
[0:09] Pentium 3 processor and cuttingedge
[0:12] GeForce graphics alongside a lean, mean,
[0:15] slimmed down Windows-based operating
[0:17] system that helped to push that hardware
[0:19] to its absolute limit. Which got
[0:22] everybody asking, why can't Windows be
[0:24] like that on my computer? And that was
[0:27] back then when Windows RAM usage idled
[0:29] in the megabytes. Now you're lucky if
[0:32] you can get it under four gigs. And for
[0:34] what? Even the venerable start menu is
[0:37] morphed into a bloated Reactbased web
[0:40] app. So what? I can bing search my file
[0:42] names. Hell no.
[0:44] >> The good news is this seems to be
[0:46] changing. Thanks in no small part to the
[0:48] incredible contributions that Valve has
[0:51] made to Linux PC gaming. They have done
[0:53] what no one else could and forced
[0:56] Microsoft to finally address the
[0:58] elephant in the room. And to Microsoft's
[1:01] credit, they've done it with Windows
[1:04] Xbox mode, a lean, mean toggle that you
[1:07] can just flip to strip away the bloat
[1:09] and just focus on gaming. You don't even
[1:13] need a keyboard and mouse anymore to
[1:15] navigate. It's all controller all the
[1:17] time, baby. At least in theory. In
[1:20] practice, Xbox mode might not be quite
[1:23] all it's cracked up to be. So before you
[1:25] fire it up and take a look, why don't we
[1:27] go through it together and have a look
[1:29] at the labs testing that our team did to
[1:31] see just how much bloat they managed to
[1:34] remove. One bit of bloat they couldn't
[1:36] remove is this segue to our sponsor
[1:39] boot.dev. The best way to learn to code
[1:41] in the subject of the award-winning
[1:42] fantasy, the coding chronicles. For the
[1:45] final episode and a special additional
[1:47] discount code, keep a close watch during
[1:49] the end of this video.
[2:01] Performance aside, a key benefit of Xbox
[2:04] mode is the ability to get a
[2:05] console-like experience in a device that
[2:07] we already own. So, why don't we see how
[2:09] seamless it really is? Starting by
[2:12] signing in, which um this is not
[2:15] actually what I was expecting. Oh, okay.
[2:17] We need to use a pin. There we go. Okay.
[2:19] With the pin. Yeah, this is pretty cool.
[2:22] So, there's bindings for your D-pad,
[2:24] your shoulder buttons, and your face
[2:26] buttons so that you can quickly enter
[2:27] your PIN with a controller. Freaking
[2:29] love to see it. And we're in Oh man,
[2:32] it's good to see that logo again.
[2:34] Obviously, not everyone wants to be
[2:35] launched straight into a gaming
[2:37] interface, but if you do, it's as simple
[2:40] as toggling your system to launch
[2:41] directly into Xbox mode. I've actually
[2:43] been using this for a while on my
[2:45] battery modded ROG Ally, and it's really
[2:49] nice how much stuff you can do now
[2:51] directly with your controller rather
[2:52] than relying on a keyboard and mouse.
[2:54] That's not to say that you can do
[2:55] everything. And in fact, apparently
[2:57] they've put together some challenges for
[2:59] me. Uh, are you going to give me the
[3:00] keyboard in case I fail?
[3:01] >> You're going to have to get the keyboard
[3:02] yourself. It's on that shelf up there if
[3:04] you can reach it. But if you touch it,
[3:05] you fail. Up here, I got my settings
[3:09] where I can manage my subscriptions cuz
[3:11] they really want you doing that. This is
[3:12] nice. This is where you manage your
[3:13] library. This is probably one of the
[3:15] best things about the Xbox experience. I
[3:17] know it's been done a hundred times in
[3:19] the past, but this is probably the most
[3:21] seamless that I've seen all of my
[3:23] multiple game libraries just
[3:25] automatically consolidated. First thing
[3:27] they want me to do is adjust system
[3:28] volume. Well,
[3:32] all I said was I didn't have to touch
[3:33] the keyboard. Normally, I would I would
[3:35] have my, you know, system remote. So, I
[3:37] think I won. Okay. All right. All right.
[3:39] I'll try not cheating. I have to admit,
[3:40] I've never tried to do this. My Ally
[3:42] just has volume buttons on it. So, uh
[3:44] Okay. Uh audio. I mean,
[3:50] I can see the point you're trying to
[3:51] make. That does seem like a fairly
[3:53] straightforward thing, but also I can
[3:56] see why it's not built in because in
[3:58] almost no situation where I'm using a
[4:00] full screen experience would I
[4:01] necessarily need to adjust the volume.
[4:03] Then again, Steam Big Picture can do it.
[4:05] So,
[4:06] >> is there a way to do it? Am I just
[4:08] missing?
[4:09] >> There is a way to do it. Did they pull
[4:10] an Apple? Did they pull an Apple? Change
[4:13] system settings. Oh, yeah, buddy. Oh
[4:16] yeah, buddy. Let's go. This is not the
[4:18] way. That's not the way that we
[4:20] expected, but that works. This is
[4:22] apparently this is not the way. Okay. Is
[4:25] it in the game bar? I bet it's in the
[4:26] game bar. Audio. Boom. Boom. There it
[4:28] is. It's in the game bar. Found not one
[4:30] but two ways. Accessibility and the game
[4:33] bar. I got to confess that even in the
[4:36] Xbox experience, the game bar remains
[4:39] one of those aspects of using Windows
[4:41] that I just find high friction with. All
[4:43] right. Now, I got to connect to a Wi-Fi
[4:44] network. Yeah. Once again, I guess it's
[4:46] going to want me to use the Game Bar for
[4:48] this. Oh yeah, buddy. Oh yeah, buddy.
[4:54] Okay, get it together, Microsoft. This
[4:58] This can't be a thing when I got this.
[5:01] I'm not touching it, though. I'm going
[5:03] to get close,
[5:06] but I'm not touching it. Can't see what
[5:07] I'm doing here. Oh man. Where the
[5:10] devil's the O. Okay, here. What if I
[5:12] click it? Okay, there. Yeah, let's go.
[5:15] A Yeah, buddy. Next challenge. Try
[5:17] running hardware info.
[5:19] >> I'm going to assume that I can like add
[5:21] it as a game.
[5:23] Let's go. We'll play the hell out of
[5:25] that game.
[5:27] Okay. Was that something you guys were
[5:29] expecting?
[5:29] >> Yes.
[5:30] >> Oh, more options. Edit. Oh. Oh. Okay.
[5:35] Mhm. Okay. Close.
[5:38] No, I do not want file picker. Close
[5:40] there. Okay. All right. I cut out of
[5:43] that without touching the keyboard.
[5:45] Okay. I saw a thing here. More options.
[5:48] Edit. This is an app. Okay.
[5:52] Yes.
[5:54] Okay, that's fine. That's fine. Close.
[5:57] Okay. Uh,
[6:02] and this is possible, right?
[6:03] >> Yeah.
[6:04] >> Okay. It's possible. Apparently,
[6:05] Microsoft is adding a joystick to mouse
[6:08] thing, but it hasn't rolled out to
[6:10] everybody. I don't know what version of
[6:11] this they installed. Is there like a
[6:13] hardware info widget or something?
[6:16] Remember
[6:17] this is a game.
[6:20] What does that mean?
[6:23] Gamepad cursor. Oh, there it is. Oh,
[6:25] sick. Oh, we're flying now. But now I
[6:28] can do anything. I mean, yeah, that
[6:30] should work.
[6:33] Uh, I don't know. Say, do you mean to
[6:35] count?
[6:38] Is this really not going to work? The
[6:40] request is not supported.
[6:42] >> There's a way to do it inside of Xbox
[6:43] mode.
[6:43] >> There's a way to do it inside of Xbox
[6:45] mode. Bring up a keyboard, you butt. Do
[6:47] I really have to turn off gamepad cursor
[6:49] in order to get a keyboard? Stupid.
[6:51] Well, HW info is not in here. Um. Oh
[6:55] man. Let me cook. Let me cook. Oh, hold
[6:58] on. Wait. What is this? I mean, sure.
[7:00] Let's try that. Okay, I'm installing it.
[7:02] Sure. I'll install it better than you
[7:04] guys did. And then it will open. Launch
[7:06] hardware info. Here we go. Yes.
[7:10] Let's go.
[7:12] Hardware info launched. All right. Next
[7:14] challenge. Openltd store.com. Well, this
[7:16] is going to be too easy now. Oh, shut
[7:18] up. Not a big fan of how I don't get a
[7:21] keyboard when I have this enabled, but
[7:23] this is still in beta. I'm sure they're
[7:24] figuring that out. Well, here's a clunky
[7:26] way to do it.
[7:29] Boom. And was that how you expected me
[7:31] to do it?
[7:31] >> Honestly, no. Your solution was pretty
[7:33] different from everything that Labs has
[7:36] done to uh solve these.
[7:37] >> Now, let's stop doing challenges and
[7:39] let's see how seamless it is launching a
[7:41] game. Starting with Cyberpunk. This is a
[7:43] Steam game. Clearly, I think you guys
[7:44] just saw it launch. And this is kind of
[7:47] a worst case scenario because it's got
[7:49] like a third party launcher thing and
[7:51] and Steam and the Xbox experience that
[7:54] you have to kind of fight your way
[7:55] through. I can also see that they
[7:57] helpfully reset it back to the initial
[8:00] launch experience where you have to like
[8:02] dismiss various pop-ups and whatnot. But
[8:04] here we are. Oh, come on. Boom.
[8:08] We're in. Consider your main frame
[8:11] hacked. All right. All right, I got one
[8:13] more challenge. Try enabling the game
[8:15] bar performance overlay. Bonus point
[8:18] options.
[8:19] Options. Okay, here's all the metrics
[8:21] and everything.
[8:26] Microsoft honest bit of feedback. The
[8:29] world does not need more iPhone like
[8:31] experiences. Let's let back just be
[8:33] back. Not goodbye everything. Home
[8:36] button is home button. Back button is
[8:40] back button. Okay, this is interesting.
[8:43] Well,
[8:51] okay. I've never seen it break like this
[8:54] before. Shoot. I may have entered an
[8:56] unreoverable state here. I can't believe
[8:59] I'm going to lose. Going for the bonus
[9:02] point. Okay, hold on. No, no, hold on.
[9:04] No, I don't want to pin YouTube to the
[9:06] taskbar. Not now, Windows. This is
[9:09] exactly what people are using Xbox mode
[9:13] to avoid Microsoft.
[9:18] Ah, hold on. No, I just need to get my
[9:21] mouse back. If I can get my mouse back,
[9:23] I'm good to go.
[9:30] Oh, I got my cursor. Okay. Okay. Okay.
[9:33] Apparently, I was on the right path when
[9:35] I did this. Like, it's got to be here.
[9:39] Oh, not this again. For crying out loud.
[9:44] We're in the performance widget. Hello.
[9:48] Come on. Okay, so it's pinned. It's
[9:52] compact. Yeah. And like
[9:54] >> reopen Cyberpunk.
[9:56] >> Reopen it. Wait, what the what the crap?
[10:00] That's the way to That's crazy. So, if I
[10:04] pin it and I have that, then it will
[10:06] work. It should just work. That's crazy.
[10:09] You know what? It doesn't matter. I
[10:10] think at this point we've done enough to
[10:12] talk about the overall experience.
[10:14] Seamless?
[10:16] No.
[10:17] Somewhat intuitive?
[10:20] Actually, other than the bugs, I would
[10:23] say they're mostly on the right path for
[10:25] the third time. Now, promise this is the
[10:27] last time I'm going to mention it. They
[10:29] need to fix home and back functionality
[10:31] to be a clear home and back experience
[10:34] within the Xbox app. Other than that,
[10:36] bringing up the Xbox app interface,
[10:38] overall pretty navigable. They do have
[10:41] to get some functionality from the
[10:43] non-compact mode baked into compact, but
[10:46] in most of these cases, I can really see
[10:48] where they're going with it. Keyboard
[10:50] pop-ups do need to be usable when you're
[10:52] using the cursor. Okay, there is quite a
[10:55] lot that needs to be addressed. But on
[10:58] the bright side, booting directly into
[11:00] Xbox mode saved us about 7 seconds of
[11:02] startup time. And we also found that by
[11:04] killing the desktop UI on idle, we're
[11:07] saving some memory compared to running
[11:09] standard full-blown Windows with the
[11:12] Xbox app on top of it. Now, let's see if
[11:13] there's anything to gain while gaming.
[11:17] Under my desk are two systems. The one
[11:19] on the left is running Xbox mode, and
[11:21] the one on the right is using Steam Big
[11:23] Picture mode on top of regular old
[11:25] Windows 11. We're using Fortza Horizon 5
[11:28] because we wanted a very mature native
[11:31] Game Pass game to give Xbox mode its
[11:33] best possible shot. Both of our systems
[11:35] are running a 9600X paired with a 560Ti
[11:38] and 16 gigs of RAM. So, these are
[11:40] exactly the kinds of mid-range but
[11:43] modern systems where we might expect
[11:44] some gains. Let's fire it up, shall we?
[11:48] Or both are running their own overlays,
[11:50] so we can't really compare these. But
[11:53] what we can compare is the results page
[11:56] at the end. So, one moment please. And
[12:00] they're the same. Or rather, they're not
[12:03] the same. But as we've talked about in
[12:05] the past, even if you buy the exact same
[12:07] hardware these days, because of dynamic
[12:09] frequency scaling, one system can
[12:11] perform a little different from another.
[12:13] And this one is about 3% faster than
[12:15] this one. So, it's a wash, which is a
[12:18] little disappointing to be honest with
[12:21] you. We can actually prove this. By the
[12:22] way, now everything's running in the
[12:24] background. Here we can run it. We can
[12:25] run it one more time. Now it's running
[12:26] full fat Windows. And there you go. Not
[12:29] what we were hoping for, but hey, maybe
[12:32] it's different on some of the other
[12:34] titles that Labs tested. Spoiler, maybe
[12:37] it's not. The Labs team tested at both
[12:40] 1080p and 1440p resolutions. And
[12:43] starting with F124 at ultra high preset
[12:45] with RT and VRS disabled.
[12:48] Yeah, my my thoughts exactly. we once
[12:51] again see no performance gains. And
[12:54] making matters worse, in exchange for
[12:56] this big fat zero performance gain, labs
[12:59] noticed occasional issues, including
[13:01] window focusing problems and even
[13:03] instances where F1 refused to boot in
[13:05] full screen mode at all. And
[13:07] unfortunately, Doom: The Dark Ages went
[13:10] no better. On medium presets with no
[13:12] upscaling, we found no performance
[13:14] benefit between Xbox mode and the
[13:16] standard experience within the Abyssal
[13:18] Forest benchmark. A result that was
[13:20] repeated yet again in Cyberpunk 2077 at
[13:23] the ultra preset with no upscaling and
[13:26] rate tracing off. Making matters
[13:28] worseer, as you may have noticed earlier
[13:30] when red launcher popped up, Cyberpunk
[13:32] isn't native to Game Pass and you
[13:34] actually need to use mouse emulation to
[13:36] boot the game or you can reach for a
[13:39] mouse. I guess that is an option, but
[13:41] that wouldn't be very console gamer of
[13:43] you. One reason for this could be that
[13:45] Xbox mode in its current state doesn't
[13:48] leverage known launch flags and it fully
[13:51] opens game launchers in the background,
[13:52] which kind of works against the idea of
[13:55] a seamless console-like experience. If
[13:58] you'd like to further review Lab's
[13:59] findings, check out the Lab's companion
[14:01] article linked down below. Before you
[14:02] take off and do that though, it's worth
[14:04] discussing the fact that while Xbox game
[14:06] mode does not offer performance
[14:08] benefits, I still believe that it is a
[14:11] small step toward a larger goal that
[14:14] will be positive for gamers. Not that
[14:16] long ago, games were optimized for
[14:18] console first, often leaving PC players
[14:20] with buggy, unoptimized ports. That's
[14:23] because the low-level code for consoles
[14:25] needed to be rewritten into something
[14:26] that Windows could actually understand.
[14:28] This created the same kind of
[14:30] compatibility wall that Linux gamers
[14:32] faced before Proton came along. And PC
[14:35] gamers often had to wait months, years,
[14:38] or even forever for devs to manually
[14:41] scale that wall. Microsoft alone had
[14:44] three fragmented software development
[14:46] kits that held many games hostage on one
[14:48] platform until the devs had the time and
[14:50] resources to port over their game. The
[14:53] UniFi GDK now, at least from Microsoft,
[14:56] can hopefully result in something
[14:58] approaching console level optimization
[15:00] and availability on the PC. And Xbox
[15:03] mode on PC is a part of this same push
[15:06] that Microsoft is making for platform
[15:08] unification and treating their PC gaming
[15:11] customers like first class citizens.
[15:13] Also, even if it doesn't have much
[15:15] benefit today, I do still think that
[15:17] there's hope for ongoing optimization. I
[15:20] wouldn't blame you for thinking. I mean,
[15:22] how in the Sam Hill is Xbox mode
[15:24] different from Steam big picture mode?
[15:25] But there is a difference and it's in
[15:28] being a system versus an app level UI.
[15:31] Xbox mode replaces the traditional
[15:34] Windows interface. All the icons, the
[15:36] start menu, everything, poof. On the
[15:38] other hand, big picture mode is simply
[15:40] an app that is sitting on top of Windows
[15:43] and has no ability to shoe away
[15:45] background processes. So with that in
[15:48] mind, you would think that there would
[15:50] be a benefit to using it already, but
[15:52] hey, this is Microsoft. So we actually
[15:54] found that when we were playing a Steam
[15:56] game in particular, we ended up using
[15:59] more RAM in Xbox mode than in Steam big
[16:03] picture mode, just running over top of
[16:05] regular Windows. This is most likely
[16:07] because Steam opens up anyway on Xbox
[16:09] mode, and Big Picture users don't need
[16:12] to open up the Xbox app. The other
[16:15] difference is that big picture mode is,
[16:17] if we're being honest, quite a bit
[16:19] cleaner to use. So, even though we're
[16:21] hoping for the best for Xbox mode, and
[16:24] we expect it to continue to get better,
[16:27] you're probably going to want to stick
[16:28] with big picture mode for the time
[16:30] being. That is, unless you really value
[16:32] Xbox mode's automatic detection of both
[16:35] Steam and non- Steam games, and you are
[16:38] a-okay with not being able to use more
[16:40] than one display while Xbox mode is
[16:42] Xboxing. In conclusion, while Xbox mode
[16:44] is most certainly halfbaked today,
[16:47] Microsoft is trending towards a world
[16:49] where it will be even more likely that
[16:51] the game you want to play will be
[16:53] available on the platform you already
[16:54] own, regardless of whether it's an Xbox
[16:57] or a PC. So, the attitude has improved.
[17:00] They just need to get their act together
[17:02] before people try this thing, realize
[17:04] it's not worth it, and then never try it
[17:07] again. Just like people realize that
[17:09] it's never worth hearing this segue to
[17:11] our sponsor, but they were wrong. It is
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[17:17] all the way. The coding chronicles.
[17:21] >> Hi counselors, please spare me. No
[17:30] boots. Help me.
[17:34] And what was her crime? spreading the
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[17:40] Only the strong are worthy of this
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[17:43] >> And the lucrative career it unlocks.
[17:47] >> You are mistaken. Isn't that right?
[17:50] >> Uh yeah, learning Python seemed super
[17:52] hard until boot.dev made it fun. I even
[17:55] used it to get Boots's hat back.
[17:58] >> You defeated Gerald the giant.
[18:00] >> Yeah, he was like PRETTY CHILL,
[18:01] ACTUALLY.
[18:02] >> SILENCE. I WON'T HAVE YOU PROFANE these
[18:04] chambers with such untruisms. Learning
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[18:09] >> Untruisms.
[18:11] It's a word. Larry, enough of this. Let
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[18:17] No.
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[18:25] >> Grown man. But no, I can't leave you.
[18:27] Uh, plus I have more to learn.
[18:30] >> Yes. in the real world WHERE YOU CAN GET
[18:33] THAT HIGHPAYING JOB.
[18:36] >> Thanks for everything, Boots. Love you.
[18:38] >> Love you, too. Now go.
[18:47] >> It's just a dream.
[18:49] What?
[18:51] Wait.
[18:53] Don't forget to click the link in the
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[19:02] >> GET THAT HIGHPAYING JOB.
[19:04] >> OKAY, BOOTS, I will.
[19:10] If you guys enjoyed this video, why not
[19:12] check out the one we did recently
[19:13] talking about what has finally prompted
[19:16] Microsoft to take action, even if that
[19:18] action is a little slower and a little
[19:20] less effective than we'd like so far.