Has Microsoft fixed the Xbox One scaler?

February 17th, 2014, 20:20 Posted By: wraggster

Microsoft hasn't made things easy for itself. For a console with so many sub-1080p games, the quality of its internal hardware scaler has been deeply unsatisfactory up to now, resulting in poorer-than-expected image quality in a lot of key exclusives and multi-platform titles. The good news is that this weekend's Xbox One system update, which followed hot on the heels of the Titanfall beta, has seen Microsoft take positive steps in resolving the issue.First things first, though: what went wrong with the pre-patch scaler? Well, most notably, image quality was compromised by a poorly judged sharpening filter that actuallyemphasised jagged edges, while a distinct gamma shift was also visible on several games, resulting in unnaturally high contrasts that didn't exactly complement the artificially enhanced edges and upscaling artefacts. Ultimately, rather than helping titles such as Call of Duty: Ghosts and Assassin's Creed 4 better stand up to PS4 equivalents running at native 1080p, the scaler made them look significantly worse.Up until the new firmware shipped over the weekend, the only way to circumvent the sharpening filter on native 720p titles was by manually switching the console to match the game resolution, thus letting your TV or monitor take care of the scaling. However, this constant swapping between display modes was obviously a hassle and most people would never bother. It didn't solve the problem anyway: while games such as Dead Rising 3, Killer Instinct and Call of Duty appeared smoother and more natural this way rather than using the scaler, forcing 720p output didn't seem to entirely disable the unwanted filter. A close look at edges on a pixel level showed that the sharpening effect (halos around objects) was still present, just operating with a significantly lower intensity. Furthermore, the technique simply didn't work on games that rendered in resolutions higher than 720p but below 1080p, such as Assassin's Creed (1600x900) and indeed the precious Titanfall beta (1408x792).So, how much of a difference does the new Xbox One firmware make? Is the sharpening effect gone, and what changes if any have been made to the scaling algorithm and the existing gamma set-up? In the run-up to the Xbox One launch, Microsoft promised us a quality upscaling solution, so we couldn't help wonder whether this update would finally deliver...

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/di...box-one-scaler

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