What’s New in the July 2015 Xbox One XDK

The July 2015 release of the Xbox One XDK from Microsoft contains the following new features, tools, and documentation. For features that shipped in a previous release of the Xbox One XDK, see the What’s New document for that release, available from Features Introduced in Previous Releases.

Sections:

• Release Notes and Xbox One XDK Updates
• Xbox One XDK Version Info
• What’s new in the July 2015 XDK

Release Notes and Xbox One XDK Updates

The most recent release notes for and updates to the Xbox One XDK can always be found on Xbox One XDK Software Downloads on the Xbox Game Developer site. For access, log in with your ID and password on https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/games/xbox/partner/index; at the top of the page, point to Development and click Downloads.

You can check with your account manager for the latest information about upcoming Xbox One XDK releases.

Xbox One XDK Version Info

The July 2015 Xbox One XDK contains the latest tools and libraries for Xbox One.

What’s new in the July 2015 XDK

Roadmap

The Xbox One Developer Roadmap on XGD has been updated with projections of developer-facing feature work from the May 2015 XDK through Q3 of 2015. The roadmap is intended to help developers plan their implementation schedules around upcoming feature and tooling efforts for the Xbox One console and related services.

Table of Contents

Developer Tools

Graphics

PIX

Developer Tools

Microsoft Visual Studio 2015 is now a supported development environment for all Xbox One XDK projects
The latest version of Microsoft Visual Studio includes significant build time improvements, updated C++ language features, and numerous productivity improvements in the integrated development environment (IDE). Using Microsoft Visual Studio 2015 will improve your iteration time and make it easier to maintain source bases and projects for cross-platform titles.

Developer Home on the Console (Preview)
Based on your feedback, the June 2015 Xbox One XDK includes a new Developer Home app for development consoles. This app is designed to increase productivity during Xbox One title development through the following features:

• “At a glance” view of the console IP address, console name, friendly name of installed recovery, and sandbox
• Launcher for installed games and apps, with the ability to register and launch apps from network shares
• User management
• Console management and debug settings
• Network and multiplayer traces
• Customizable user interface
• Snap mode to operate side-by-side with your title

Note This is a new feature in the Xbox One XDK. Please submit feedback for this feature on the Entertainment Developer Forum or at Xbox One Developer Feedback.

Developer tools can now be updated independent of the Xbox One XDK (Preview)
A Tools SKU is now available alongside the Xbox One XDK on the Xbox Game Developer (XGD) site. This new SKU allows you to get new tooling features and bug fixes without upgrading to the latest version of the XDK. The Tools SKU contains PIX, Xbox One Manager, the Command Line Tools, and all other tools that previously shipped only as part of the Xbox One XDK. The Tools SKU can be installed on top of the February 2015 XDK and all later releases of the XDK. The Tools SKU can also be installed on machines that do not have an XDK installation, which allows people in your studio to use the tools without performing a full installation of the XDK. To use the Tools SKU, you must install the latest OS recovery on your development console.

Xbox One Manager bulk import and export of groups and consoles
Xbox One Manager now allows you to export all registered groups and consoles to an XML file, and to import groups and consoles from an XML file. To use this feature in Xbox One Manager, open the File menu and then click Import/Export.

You can now specify ports to exempt from networking simulations
When starting a network simulation using Stress (xbstress.exe) or the SimulationManager class, you can now supply a list of ports that will be left unaffected by the simulation. This allows tools that you have written to continue working normally, even when simulating conditions such as a network outage.

Network throughput enhancements for exclusive apps during development
Network access for the Game OS has been optimized to improve throughput during development by up to 80%. This should enhance developer productivity in scenarios such as replaying PIX traces and copying logs from a running title.

New tooling is available to analyze your title’s calls to Xbox Live Services
The Xbox Live Services API now allows you to capture all service calls and then analyze them offline for any violations in calling patterns. You can track service calls by using new functionality available in the Trace (xbtrace.exe) command-line tool. For more advanced scenarios, you can track service calls through protocol activation. For information about the standalone LiveTraceAnalyzer offline analysis tool, contact your DAM.

Support for crossplay between Xbox One and Windows 10
The multiplayer session directory (MPSD) service now supports crossplay between Xbox One and Windows 10. To update your multiplayer sessions to support Windows 10, add the userAuthorizationStyle capability to your MPSD session template. You can also optionally add the crossPlay capability, which signifies that your title supports interactions such as invites and join-in-progress between platforms.

Graphics

Direct3D 12.x improvements and optimizations
The following improvements and optimizations have been made to Direct3D 12.x in the Xbox One XDK:

• Several new checks have been added to the validation code in the Xbox One D3D12 graphics driver. The correct resource transition barrier state is now enforced for all Copy, Clear, and Resolve API calls. Aliased resources (two or more resources with overlapping virtual address ranges) are now properly tracked for resource transition barrier validation. Additional checks have been added to prevent some command list APIs from being used with bundles. Many APIs now have more complete validation than they did in previous releases.
• Miscellaneous validation bugs were fixed.
• The VALIDATED driver (umd12_v.dll) has been removed. The DEBUG driver (umd12_d.dll) has been updated to be functionally equivalent to VALIDATED. D3D12XBOX_PROCESS_DEBUG_FLAG_VALIDATED is now equivalent to D3D12XBOX_PROCESS_DEBUG_FLAG_DEBUG.
• The following functions were optimized:
  
  • CommandList::Reset
  • CommandList::Close
  • RSSetViewport
  • RSSetScissorRects
  • CopyDescriptorsSimple
• You can now use #define D3DCOMPILE_NO_DEBUG 1 to inline CopyDescriptorsSimple and CreateConstantBufferView in retail builds.

Shader compiler optimizations
The following optimizations have been made to the shader compiler:

• You can now use #define __XBOX_IMPROVE_MAD in HLSL code to instruct the compiler to consider the impact on register pressure when forming mads.
• You can now use #define __XBOX_LATENCY_SCHEDULE in HLSL code to enable an improved latency scheduler. This can improve the instruction schedule, but might also increase register usage.
• You can now use #define __XBOX_SET_SRD_SIZE_FROM_HLSL in HLSL code to reduce the size of descriptors. The shader compiler will derive the descriptor size from the HLSL type, which can reduce some descriptors from eight registers to four registers and reduce sreg usage.
• The shader compiler now spends more time optimizing by default. This extra optimization is tuned to find opportunities in complex shaders. To disable the extra optimization and reduce compile time, use #define __XBOX_DISABLE_ITERATION in HLSL code.
• Allocation for multiregister operands (such as descriptors) has been improved. This optimization is enabled by default.
• Identification of cases where madak can be used has been improved. This optimization is enabled by default.
• Lifetime shortening is now more sensitive to register pressure. This optimization is enabled by default.

Improvements to shader compilation at compile time
The following improvements have been made to shader compilation at compile time:

• By default, the shader compiler no longer generates cycle count estimates. To enable estimate computation, use #define __XBOX_ENABLE_CYCLE_ESTIMATE in HLSL code.
• Generation of the debug assembly information for PIX register lifetime flow will now skip generation of the ID map for large shaders by default. To enable creation of the ID map for large shaders, use #define __XBOX_ENABLE_IDMAP in HLSL code.
• You can now use #define __XBOX_DISABLE_IDMAP in HLSL code to disable ID map generation for all shaders.

Automatic conversion of mad_legacy to mad for non-IEEE codegen
Non-IEEE codegen will now freely convert mad_legacy to mad. This might change computation results when NaN is involved; this should not be an issue because NaN is not reliable with non-IEEE codgen. To disable this feature, use #define __XBOX_PRESERVE_MAD_LEGACY in HLSL code.

New graphics samples
The following graphics samples have been added to the Samples page of the Xbox Game Developer (XGD) site:

• The new Compute Shader FXAA sample demonstrates FXAA post-processing using a Compute Shader or Pixel Shader.
• The new Histogram sample demonstrates performance considerations for Compute Shaders on Xbox One by using an optimal approach for computing a 64-bucket histogram of intensities in a scene in under 0.2 milliseconds.

PIX

Memory view for GPU captures
The new Memory view allows you to inspect the contents of captured memory associated with a GPU event. You can filter the Memory view by address, size, or format. The Root Signature view in the GPU D3D State tab now allows you to inspect descriptors that are associated with resources. Expand a resource entry to see the associated memory address. Click this address to inspect captured memory in the Memory view.

New PIX events for Direct3D 12.x
This release adds PIX events for the ID3D12CommandList and ID3D12CommandQueue interfaces.