Devs get 10% Xbox One GPU boost following Kinect’s disconnect

The latest Xbox One development kits afford programmers in the region of ten per cent additional processing power.

That’s because Microsoft’s decision to make Kinect an optional Xbox One peripheral has freed up processing time formerly required to be left aside for system operations associated wit the camera.

The additional resources allow access to up to 10 per cent additional GPU performance,” a spokesperson told Eurogamer. We’re committed to giving developers new tools and flexibility to make their Xbox One games even better by giving them the option to use the GPU reserve in whatever way is best for them and their games."

When pressed on if this would increase the number of Xbox One titles hitting the 1080p/60fps milestone, the reply was: "Xbox One games look beautiful and have rich gameplay and platform features.

How developers choose to access the extra GPU performance for their games will be up to them. We have started working with a number of developers on how they can best take advantage of these changes. We will have more to share in the future.

In June we’re releasing a new SDK making it possible for developers to access additional GPU resources previously reserved for Kinect and system functions. The team is continually calibrating the system to determine how we can give developers more capabilities. With this SDK, we will include new options for how developers can use the system reserve as well as more flexibility in our natural user interface reserve (voice and gesture).”