Antialiasing, Storage, and I/O

Specifications of X-Box and PlayStation 2
	X-Box	PlayStation 2
Compressed Textures	Yes (8:1)	No
Full Scene Anti Alias	Yes	No
Micro Polygon Support	Yes	No
Storage Media	4x DVD 8GB Hard drive 8MB Memory Card	2x DVD 8MB Memory Card
I/O	Game Controller x4 USB Ethernet (10/100)	Game Controller x2 USB IEEE 1394 (Firewire) PCMCIA
Broadband Enabled?	Yes	Future upgrade
Modem enabled	Optional upgrade	Not planned

A page from 3dfx's and S3's playbooks

The addition of full scene anti aliasing and texture compression technology in the X-Box is a step up from what's offered in the Playstation 2. A lot of people don't realize the importance of anti aliasing because it's something that can only be appreciated fully when you see games in motion. Comparison screenshots don't really tell the full story of pixel popping, ugly undulating textures. Anti Aliasing fixes all those problems which many gamers have just taken for granted. Once you see it in motion, FSAA is really a whole new level of visual quality. It's also interesting to see X-Box offer texture compression and PSX2 not - it's the PSX2 which seems to suffer from a lack of video memory.

What's with the hard drive?

When people started hearing about the X-Box having a hard drive, many immediately assumed it would just be a regular PC with a fancy name. On the surface it seems counterproductive - consoles are attractive to people because they DON'T have hard drives. They work completely off of CDs or cartridges, so there's no need to install anything or boot up the machine (although the amount of time it takes your average Playstation or Dreamcast to warm up approaches standard PC boot times). So why a hard disk?

It's basically for same reasons why a hard drive is good for PC games. With gobs of high speed storage, developers aren't totally constrained by the seek/access times of the DVD or the amount of RAM in the machine. Developers can rely on the HD as virtual memory and also give the user added value to games later, in the form of new downloadable levels, etc. You also won't need to buy more memory cards for all your save games (although the memory card is still there for transporting to your friends' machines etc.) because the hard drive is there. Additionally, Gates mentioned the benefit of free downloadable demos that PC gamers currently enjoy. The way most console gamers test out games now is to borrow them from friends or rent them from the video store. But renting costs money. Downloaded demos are free, and advance demos can be provided before the game is even available.

Having it both ways

So those are all the benefits of a system with a hard drive - what about the drawbacks like booting and software installation? Gates reassured everyone that the X-Box will act like a regular console. No booting, and no software installation will be necessary. The OS, based on the Windows 2000 kernel and DirectX 8, will be as invisible to the user as in any other console. If everything works out as planned, the X-Box will offer the best of both worlds.

USB or not USB?

The X-Box will sport some interesting controller ports. Electrically and internally they're identical to regular USB devices. However, the cable and plug housing will be more heavy duty like regular console plugs in order to stand up to the rigors of children (or adult gamers who act like children). There's a fifth USB port that will look identical to regular USB; however non X-Box approved devices cannot be plugged in there, so don't expect to whip out your current USB mouse or control pad and stick it into the X-Box. This doesn't make sense at first. Why not tap into the huge array of USB devices already out there? Aside from compatibility issues, there's the money factor - MS expects to reap money from every licensed title/device. So much for the "universal" in USB. More on this later.

LPB Box

What really warms our hearts is that the X-Box ships with 10/100 base T Ethernet built in! Modems (Dreamcast) are nice, but looking forward, broadband is really the way to go when it comes to net connectivity. Being able to plug the X-Box into a cable modem or DSL adapter could be a boon to the broadband industry. In other words, maybe a high volume application like the X-Box will encourage telcos to roll out broadband access more quickly. For those of you without broadband access, a modem will be an optional add on. The built in ethernet might still be useful to modemers if MS plans on allowing LAN capability with several X-Boxes. The possibility is intriguing.