Microsoft announced they’re testing a new feature to improve the visual fidelity for Xbox Cloud Gaming called Clarity Boost. The improvement aims to make games look better thanks to some client-side processing tweaks – though you’ll need the Microsoft Edge browser on your PC.
Downloading the test version of Microsoft Edge Canary will let you enable Clarity Boost under their More Actions menu. But Microsoft has warned players that they’ll experience “decreased device performance,” which will drain battery life. Not surprising considering Xbox Cloud Gaming’s remote stream server has created other performance issues like input latency and unstable FPS.
Though, maybe it deserves another look with Microsoft focused on improving “the visual quality of the video stream.” We even got a comparison image from Gears Tactics to back that up:
Without squinting too much, you can see the sharpness of the character model. It’s not winning any awards, but for cloud gaming standards – and if the visuals are consistent – players with low-end PCs are likely to jump on this. There is still plenty of room for skepticism, though, since over-sharpness and untextured models of the past have set the underwhelming bar for cloud gaming. Visually, the cloud games have always looked muddy, and performance can be a jarring cesspool. If any improvements, I’m advocating for performance over visuals, but that’s my two cents!
What are your thoughts? Let us know below!
Via: RockPaperShotgun
