Getting a Boost

I briefly mentioned FPS Boost in a previous post, and having several more days to experiment with various games with the new features, I’d like to dive deeper into its significance. In February, it was announced that Xbox was going to leverage the power of Series X/S to give some performance upgrades to select titles from previous generations. These games would gain HDR (High Dynamic Range, the capability of newer 4K TVs to display a better separation of colors and brightness) support and get an FPS (Frames Per Second) boost from 30 to 60, or even 120 fps. With the ZeniMax deal finalized, Xbox updated their Game Pass library to include twenty Bethesda games AND gave five of them the “FPS Boost” treatment. This past week, I’ve spent some time with Fallout 4 and Fallout 76, Skyrim, and Dishonored: Definitive Edition (from the Bethesda selection), and I also started a new playthrough of Obsidian’s Outer Worlds, which also received the FPS Boost.

Before sharing my impressions with these titles, I want to share my experiences with activating the feature on my Series X. The “Auto HDR” and “FPS boost” options can be found by navigating to one of the titles in your library, pressing the menu button on the controller, and selecting “Manage game and add-ons” option from that menu. From this new screen, selecting “Compatibility Options” brings up the new options, and finally selecting either Auto HDR, FPS boost, or both, enables those features. From that final menu screen, there is a third option, “Go to Settings,” that brings up the Video options menu for the Xbox, in case one or more of those options is blocking the availability for Auto HDR or FPS Boost. For example, Auto HDR can not be selected if “Allow HDR10” and “Auto HDR” are not selected under the Xbox’s “General Video modes” menu screen.

What these menu screens fail to explain, is that only some 4K TVs are capable of HDR and/or 120 fps (expressed in Hz, or the refresh rate of the TV). When I purchased my new 4K TV, I purposefully future proofed myself (as much as I could afford) for new console generation experiences, so imagine my bewilderment when I could not select either Auto HDR, FPS boost, or both, for these games I played this past week. That is to say, I originally could not. As it turns out, not all features rolled out at the same time, even following that specific announcement, much to my confusion. I even double checked this menu screen to check the capabilities of my TV:

When I purchased this TV, I understood that I could not play at both 4K resolution AND 120 fps at the same time. That was the only concession I made, as the TV supported everything else I desired. So, even though I wasn’t expecting 4K@120 fps, I was frustrated that these titles weren’t allowing me to select the FPS boost – which should have rested comfortably in that 60 fps range the TV does support. So why was I getting these messages?

After scouring gaming groups and forums for answers, and engaging virtual chat support with Microsoft, I resigned to getting only some of the benefits. These were older titles anyway, I rationalized, and I’m not usually one for nostalgia. Imagine my surprise and excitement when these games were finally updated to include the features as intended. I may never get an answer for why this happened, but at least it saved my sanity!

From the titles I played, I enjoyed the new features in Fallout 76 the most. Skyrim, which is 10 years old at this point, benefited from sharper resolutions and contrasts especially while navigating its many dark caves, but overall, the bleak aesthetic of the northern region of Tamriel wasn’t that much more impressive with HDR support. In contrast, the wastelands of Fallout were a bit more vibrant, especially more so in Fallout 76 than in Fallout 4. I do appreciate that combat looks more natural and targeting is easier with 60 fps. To Microsoft’s credit, this brought the experience of playing Fallout 4 on console closer to the smooth experience I had beating it on PC (in 2016*), and made Fallout 76 feel more like a next gen title. (On a side note, I am also very pleased at the dramatic reduction of load times, which were practically instant on my Series X!) As for my experiences with Dishonored and Outer Worlds, their respective art styles were already fairly dramatic, so HDR support wasn’t as noticeable. I don’t want to sound ungrateful for the FPS boost, but because both these titles are played exclusively in first person, the player perspective is literally limited, in contrast to the option to play in either first or third person in Skyrim and the Fallout titles.

The best thing to say about FPS boost is that it just works. Minus the awkward roll out. Note that this doesn’t require the game developers to patch their titles or add these features themselves, the Xbox Series X/S hardware does the heavy lifting. I’m excited to see that more titles will be getting updated with FPS boost, and Microsoft announced that the feature will soon be available to PC gamers, too! I am aware that PC modders have long been able to tinker with games’ performance, but this is the first I’ve seen a console passively upgrade titles like this. Like my experiences with these six titles, I imagine that the results may vary, but it’s impressive to see that not only is Microsoft dedicated to maintaining backwards compatibility with previous generations, they are making an extra effort to enhance those experiences. In the meantime, I’m going back to play more Cyberpunk 2077!

*Fallout 4 was released in November of 2015, which means I didn’t beat it until later in 2016.