Gaming on Windows Just Changed Forever

[00:00] 25 years ago, Microsoft teamed up with

[00:03] Dwayne the Rock Johnson to announce the

[00:06] Xbox. And it was a powerhouse with a

[00:09] Pentium 3 processor and cuttingedge

[00:12] GeForce graphics alongside a lean, mean,

[00:15] slimmed down Windows-based operating

[00:17] system that helped to push that hardware

[00:19] to its absolute limit. Which got

[00:22] everybody asking, why can't Windows be

[00:24] like that on my computer? And that was

[00:27] back then when Windows RAM usage idled

[00:29] in the megabytes. Now you're lucky if

[00:32] you can get it under four gigs. And for

[00:34] what? Even the venerable start menu is

[00:37] morphed into a bloated Reactbased web

[00:40] app. So what? I can bing search my file

[00:42] names. Hell no.

[00:44] >> The good news is this seems to be

[00:46] changing. Thanks in no small part to the

[00:48] incredible contributions that Valve has

[00:51] made to Linux PC gaming. They have done

[00:53] what no one else could and forced

[00:56] Microsoft to finally address the

[00:58] elephant in the room. And to Microsoft's

[01:01] credit, they've done it with Windows

[01:04] Xbox mode, a lean, mean toggle that you

[01:07] can just flip to strip away the bloat

[01:09] and just focus on gaming. You don't even

[01:13] need a keyboard and mouse anymore to

[01:15] navigate. It's all controller all the

[01:17] time, baby. At least in theory. In

[01:20] practice, Xbox mode might not be quite

[01:23] all it's cracked up to be. So before you

[01:25] fire it up and take a look, why don't we

[01:27] go through it together and have a look

[01:29] at the labs testing that our team did to

[01:31] see just how much bloat they managed to

[01:34] remove. One bit of bloat they couldn't

[01:36] remove is this segue to our sponsor

[01:39] boot.dev. The best way to learn to code

[01:41] in the subject of the award-winning

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[01:49] the end of this video.

[02:01] Performance aside, a key benefit of Xbox

[02:04] mode is the ability to get a

[02:05] console-like experience in a device that

[02:07] we already own. So, why don't we see how

[02:09] seamless it really is? Starting by

[02:12] signing in, which um this is not

[02:15] actually what I was expecting. Oh, okay.

[02:17] We need to use a pin. There we go. Okay.

[02:19] With the pin. Yeah, this is pretty cool.

[02:22] So, there's bindings for your D-pad,

[02:24] your shoulder buttons, and your face

[02:26] buttons so that you can quickly enter

[02:27] your PIN with a controller. Freaking

[02:29] love to see it. And we're in Oh man,

[02:32] it's good to see that logo again.

[02:34] Obviously, not everyone wants to be

[02:35] launched straight into a gaming

[02:37] interface, but if you do, it's as simple

[02:40] as toggling your system to launch

[02:41] directly into Xbox mode. I've actually

[02:43] been using this for a while on my

[02:45] battery modded ROG Ally, and it's really

[02:49] nice how much stuff you can do now

[02:51] directly with your controller rather

[02:52] than relying on a keyboard and mouse.

[02:54] That's not to say that you can do

[02:55] everything. And in fact, apparently

[02:57] they've put together some challenges for

[02:59] me. Uh, are you going to give me the

[03:00] keyboard in case I fail?

[03:01] >> You're going to have to get the keyboard

[03:02] yourself. It's on that shelf up there if

[03:04] you can reach it. But if you touch it,

[03:05] you fail. Up here, I got my settings

[03:09] where I can manage my subscriptions cuz

[03:11] they really want you doing that. This is

[03:12] nice. This is where you manage your

[03:13] library. This is probably one of the

[03:15] best things about the Xbox experience. I

[03:17] know it's been done a hundred times in

[03:19] the past, but this is probably the most

[03:21] seamless that I've seen all of my

[03:23] multiple game libraries just

[03:25] automatically consolidated. First thing

[03:27] they want me to do is adjust system

[03:28] volume. Well,

[03:32] all I said was I didn't have to touch

[03:33] the keyboard. Normally, I would I would

[03:35] have my, you know, system remote. So, I

[03:37] think I won. Okay. All right. All right.

[03:39] I'll try not cheating. I have to admit,

[03:40] I've never tried to do this. My Ally

[03:42] just has volume buttons on it. So, uh

[03:44] Okay. Uh audio. I mean,

[03:50] I can see the point you're trying to

[03:51] make. That does seem like a fairly

[03:53] straightforward thing, but also I can

[03:56] see why it's not built in because in

[03:58] almost no situation where I'm using a

[04:00] full screen experience would I

[04:01] necessarily need to adjust the volume.

[04:03] Then again, Steam Big Picture can do it.

[04:05] So,

[04:06] >> is there a way to do it? Am I just

[04:08] missing?

[04:09] >> There is a way to do it. Did they pull

[04:10] an Apple? Did they pull an Apple? Change

[04:13] system settings. Oh, yeah, buddy. Oh

[04:16] yeah, buddy. Let's go. This is not the

[04:18] way. That's not the way that we

[04:20] expected, but that works. This is

[04:22] apparently this is not the way. Okay. Is

[04:25] it in the game bar? I bet it's in the

[04:26] game bar. Audio. Boom. Boom. There it

[04:28] is. It's in the game bar. Found not one

[04:30] but two ways. Accessibility and the game

[04:33] bar. I got to confess that even in the

[04:36] Xbox experience, the game bar remains

[04:39] one of those aspects of using Windows

[04:41] that I just find high friction with. All

[04:43] right. Now, I got to connect to a Wi-Fi

[04:44] network. Yeah. Once again, I guess it's

[04:46] going to want me to use the Game Bar for

[04:48] this. Oh yeah, buddy. Oh yeah, buddy.

[04:54] Okay, get it together, Microsoft. This

[04:58] This can't be a thing when I got this.

[05:01] I'm not touching it, though. I'm going

[05:03] to get close,

[05:06] but I'm not touching it. Can't see what

[05:07] I'm doing here. Oh man. Where the

[05:10] devil's the O. Okay, here. What if I

[05:12] click it? Okay, there. Yeah, let's go.

[05:15] A Yeah, buddy. Next challenge. Try

[05:17] running hardware info.

[05:19] >> I'm going to assume that I can like add

[05:21] it as a game.

[05:23] Let's go. We'll play the hell out of

[05:25] that game.

[05:27] Okay. Was that something you guys were

[05:29] expecting?

[05:29] >> Yes.

[05:30] >> Oh, more options. Edit. Oh. Oh. Okay.

[05:35] Mhm. Okay. Close.

[05:38] No, I do not want file picker. Close

[05:40] there. Okay. All right. I cut out of

[05:43] that without touching the keyboard.

[05:45] Okay. I saw a thing here. More options.

[05:48] Edit. This is an app. Okay.

[05:52] Yes.

[05:54] Okay, that's fine. That's fine. Close.

[05:57] Okay. Uh,

[06:02] and this is possible, right?

[06:03] >> Yeah.

[06:04] >> Okay. It's possible. Apparently,

[06:05] Microsoft is adding a joystick to mouse

[06:08] thing, but it hasn't rolled out to

[06:10] everybody. I don't know what version of

[06:11] this they installed. Is there like a

[06:13] hardware info widget or something?

[06:16] Remember

[06:17] this is a game.

[06:20] What does that mean?

[06:23] Gamepad cursor. Oh, there it is. Oh,

[06:25] sick. Oh, we're flying now. But now I

[06:28] can do anything. I mean, yeah, that

[06:30] should work.

[06:33] Uh, I don't know. Say, do you mean to

[06:35] count?

[06:38] Is this really not going to work? The

[06:40] request is not supported.

[06:42] >> There's a way to do it inside of Xbox

[06:43] mode.

[06:43] >> There's a way to do it inside of Xbox

[06:45] mode. Bring up a keyboard, you butt. Do

[06:47] I really have to turn off gamepad cursor

[06:49] in order to get a keyboard? Stupid.

[06:51] Well, HW info is not in here. Um. Oh

[06:55] man. Let me cook. Let me cook. Oh, hold

[06:58] on. Wait. What is this? I mean, sure.

[07:00] Let's try that. Okay, I'm installing it.

[07:02] Sure. I'll install it better than you

[07:04] guys did. And then it will open. Launch

[07:06] hardware info. Here we go. Yes.

[07:10] Let's go.

[07:12] Hardware info launched. All right. Next

[07:14] challenge. Openltd store.com. Well, this

[07:16] is going to be too easy now. Oh, shut

[07:18] up. Not a big fan of how I don't get a

[07:21] keyboard when I have this enabled, but

[07:23] this is still in beta. I'm sure they're

[07:24] figuring that out. Well, here's a clunky

[07:26] way to do it.

[07:29] Boom. And was that how you expected me

[07:31] to do it?

[07:31] >> Honestly, no. Your solution was pretty

[07:33] different from everything that Labs has

[07:36] done to uh solve these.

[07:37] >> Now, let's stop doing challenges and

[07:39] let's see how seamless it is launching a

[07:41] game. Starting with Cyberpunk. This is a

[07:43] Steam game. Clearly, I think you guys

[07:44] just saw it launch. And this is kind of

[07:47] a worst case scenario because it's got

[07:49] like a third party launcher thing and

[07:51] and Steam and the Xbox experience that

[07:54] you have to kind of fight your way

[07:55] through. I can also see that they

[07:57] helpfully reset it back to the initial

[08:00] launch experience where you have to like

[08:02] dismiss various pop-ups and whatnot. But

[08:04] here we are. Oh, come on. Boom.

[08:08] We're in. Consider your main frame

[08:11] hacked. All right. All right, I got one

[08:13] more challenge. Try enabling the game

[08:15] bar performance overlay. Bonus point

[08:18] options.

[08:19] Options. Okay, here's all the metrics

[08:21] and everything.

[08:26] Microsoft honest bit of feedback. The

[08:29] world does not need more iPhone like

[08:31] experiences. Let's let back just be

[08:33] back. Not goodbye everything. Home

[08:36] button is home button. Back button is

[08:40] back button. Okay, this is interesting.

[08:43] Well,

[08:51] okay. I've never seen it break like this

[08:54] before. Shoot. I may have entered an

[08:56] unreoverable state here. I can't believe

[08:59] I'm going to lose. Going for the bonus

[09:02] point. Okay, hold on. No, no, hold on.

[09:04] No, I don't want to pin YouTube to the

[09:06] taskbar. Not now, Windows. This is

[09:09] exactly what people are using Xbox mode

[09:13] to avoid Microsoft.

[09:18] Ah, hold on. No, I just need to get my

[09:21] mouse back. If I can get my mouse back,

[09:23] I'm good to go.

[09:30] Oh, I got my cursor. Okay. Okay. Okay.

[09:33] Apparently, I was on the right path when

[09:35] I did this. Like, it's got to be here.

[09:39] Oh, not this again. For crying out loud.

[09:44] We're in the performance widget. Hello.

[09:48] Come on. Okay, so it's pinned. It's

[09:52] compact. Yeah. And like

[09:54] >> reopen Cyberpunk.

[09:56] >> 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

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[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.