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Microsoft is fixing their PC gaming platform issues from today

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Microsoft fixing UWP from today

Universal Windows Platform, or UWP, quickly became a recognisable terms last earlier this month when Gears of War: Ultimate Edition finally launched on PC. The platform turns regular programs into fast apps, which reared their bad side with Gears of War. Games had locked Vsync enabled, lacked multi-GPU support and featured terrible optimisation issues all attributed to the platform itself. Issues that Microsoft is tackling head on from today.

Taking the stage at Build last night, Xbox head honcho Phil Spencer explained that the company had heard PC gamers complaints loud and clear, and are dedicated more than ever to improving UWP so that it is a strong platform for PC gaming. That means fixing a lot of issues, some of which have already been patched into Windows from today. Here’s what Phil had to say.

Through the Universal Windows Platform, our plan is to deliver games that will run better on Windows with more predictable performance, more robust install/uninstall and servicing capability through a modern application platform and greater safety for users through a protected Runtime environment.

We have heard the feedback from the PC gaming community loud and clear. We’re working to ensure Windows 10 has a great game experience.

We will be enabling the ability to disable VSYNC and adding support for GSYNC/FreeSync in May. DirectX 12 added support for new mGPU scenarios which work today for both Windows32 and UWP games. We’re committed to ensure that we meet or exceed the performance expectations of full screen games as well as adding additional requested features, including support for overlays, modding and more.

So that’s multi-GPU support already in the bag (at least some form of support) and a promise that Vsync will be optional by the time May rolls around. Support for GSync and FreeSync is also good news for the highest tiers of PC gamers, and all round performance improvement will go a long way to appeasing the masses.

Spencer then also demonstrated a Desktop Converter app, which allows you to wrap up any existing game you have on your system and convert it to a similar UWP Desktop application. So if Microsoft does eventually sort out all these issues and UWP becomes a platform that makes sense to use, you could import your entire library over. Wishful thinking to some extent.

Still, many of these changes will miss the launch of Quantum Break next week Tuesday, which might also suffer the same shortcomings as Gears of War. We haven’t played that version of the game yet, but we’ll get our hands on it soon.

Last Updated: March 31, 2016

20 Comments

  1. So will these games only be available through UWP?

    Reply

  2. Alien Emperor Trevor

    March 31, 2016 at 12:19

    That’s very nice of them. Almost makes me overlook that they released the games with these issues present.

    Reply

    • HvR

      March 31, 2016 at 12:59

      They released a whole bloody OS and forced/coerced/harassed everybody to upgrade with these issues present.

      Reply

      • Alien Emperor Trevor

        March 31, 2016 at 13:13

        I went from 7 to 10 as soon as I could, went very smoothly, only had one small issue after installation that was easily solved – just needed new LAN drivers for my mobo. Otherwise no problems whatsoever since then. So I’m quite happy with 10.

        Reply

        • HvR

          March 31, 2016 at 13:20

          As plain user/gamer experience running through the desktop environment seem to run smoothly for 80% to 90% of people, has developer platform however lots and lots of issues and I would classify the UWP environment as totally broken.

          Which I probably will need face in the next month or 2 🙁

          Reply

        • Captain JJ the Isolated

          March 31, 2016 at 13:34

          I had no problems but my wife’s laptop was not so fortunate. Upon restart it just gave a black screen. After a long battle and a lot of outside help it became clear that it wasn’t coming back. Had to do a clean format to fix it.
          Then we waited a few months and put 10 back on. Runs fine now.

          Reply

      • Fleetwood

        April 1, 2016 at 07:37

        Still on Windows 7, maybe upgrade to Windows 8.1 in the future to extend the service updates. I will be attempting to avoid Windows10 as UWP is pure bad business for PC gamers(Too much to explain).

        Microsoft just wants the “Windows 10” platform to grow and gain the
        marketshare. That’s the whole purpose and its the same story everytime a
        new Windows OS arrives.
        Yea “some” PC gamers have some Xbox
        exclusives, but that’s only limited to Windows10 users(for DX12). GOW
        never needed DX12 support at all, just another forgotten bad “Halo2”
        port.

        Reply

  3. Pieter Kruger

    March 31, 2016 at 13:05

    Yeah remember Steam had no issues whatsoever when it first launched…..oh wait……ROFL!

    Reply

    • HvR

      March 31, 2016 at 13:12

      Big difference in having connectivity/DRM issues to having your whole system performance gimped.

      Reply

      • Pieter Kruger

        March 31, 2016 at 13:48

        Steam had PLENTY performance issues LOL!

        Reply

        • Kromas untamed

          March 31, 2016 at 14:02

          Valve pretty much invented the wheel when it comes to digital gaming stores so issues were to be expected. 14 years later that argument of “Well steam had issues when it started” is a rather moot point as many other companies have not even tried to learn a single thing from Steam. I mean it’s oldest (significant) competitor Origin still has no backup feature for crying out loud. Steam is by no means perfect but they got the basics down.

          Reply

          • Captain JJ the Isolated

            March 31, 2016 at 15:02

            Exactly this

        • Fox1 - Retro

          March 31, 2016 at 14:31

          Steam still has issues. Just the other day some guy hacked Steam to load a Paint Dry sim he created.

          Reply

        • Captain JJ the Isolated

          March 31, 2016 at 15:02

          Yea it had. But Steam had nothing to learn from before it.
          Microsoft has and they also have more resources than most.

          Reply

  4. Fleetwood

    April 1, 2016 at 07:40

    Waiting for Valve and most developers for “Vulkan” API supported games. Instant dual-boot via SSD and make Linux my primary OS for future Vulkan games. Avoiding Win10(DX12) since it benefits me nothing but future pain.

    Reply

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