During Microsoft’s Windows 11 official reveal Livestream, the company finally announced a few new features that would be incorporated with the updated OS. One of which is that Xbox Game Pass being built into the OS.
Those familiar with Windows 10 know that while Xbox Game Pass works with the current OS, it is done via an app. Once Windows 11 is released, that will be a thing of the past. While it doesn’t seem like much of a big deal, at the very least, that’s one less application that gamers will need to install. That also means that Xbox’s cloud gaming service, Project xCloud, is also baked into Windows 11.
In addition to Xbox Game Pass, Auto HDR is also headed to Windows 11. Originally announced a few months back for Windows 10 as a preview via the Windows Insider Program, this feature will be expanded into Windows 11. Auto HDR is a technology developed by Microsoft for use with the Xbox Series family of consoles and Windows. It uses artificial intelligence to convert standard dynamic range (SDR) material to a high dynamic range (HDR) image. This is made possible thanks to Microsoft’s use of machine learning., which then trains the Auto-HDR algorithm on what to look for when converting from SDR to HDR.
We can’t forget about Direct Storage, which started out on the Xbox Series X and S. This technology will bring even faster loading times to PC gaming. While this mentioned during today’s Livestream, Microsoft had announced this was heading to the PC back in 2020.
All of these features are directly related to gaming on Windows, and this is exciting stuff to see that Microsoft is continuing to support gaming on the platform. Now, all we need is that Windows/Microsoft store update and finally get rid of UWP apps in favor of win32 and win64 apps.
