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Half-Life 2 and The Orange Box run at 4K 30fps on Xbox Series X and 1440p 30fps on Xbox Series S, thanks to the X-enhancements created by Microsoft back in the day for Xbox One X. But what's missing is a frame-rate boost to make these games hit 60fps, eliminating the poor frame-pacing that's been in the games since day one. A mod is available that gets the job done, but there are heavy DF-style caveats. Tom Morgan has the story - along with unlocked frame-rate tests on Xbox 360, Xbox One, Xbox One X and the Series consoles!

00:00 Introduction
02:42 How to Use The Mod
04:28 Xbox Series X 60FPS Tes
t05:44 Xbox Series S 60FPS Test
07:10 Xbox One/X 60FPS Test
08:33 Xbox 360 60FPS Test
10:17 What's The Catch?
11:37 Final Thoughts

 

[adamsapple]

Wake up Mr. Xbox BC Enhancement Team. Time to smell the throbbing demand for more BC!

TL-DR

- Getting the setup is a bit convoluted and requires an actual X360 and a copy of the game, steps are shown inside the video.
- Series X: Flawless 2160p/60 FPS
- Series S: Flawless 1440p/60 FPS
- Base XBO: Best to keep the 30 FPS Cap
- Xbox One X: Better than the base machine but mostly between 40 to 60 FPS
- Also works on OG X360 but keep the cap.

- Modified cloud trick means that you need to keep the same settings, if you make any changes and it saves settings, you'll lose the 60 FPS.
- You cannot quit the game either, so it works best on the Series consoles which have quick resume support.

 

[Beer Baelly]

 

[Senua]

That's a lot of effort to play a game that'll run 4k 60 on a toaster! But cool nonetheless

 

[intbal]

Tom is way off.
As usual, he completely forgets that Xbox One S is both VRR capable and 120hz capable.
Either method will provide a reasonably smooth experience on One S. Better than something like Elden Ring or plenty of other modern titles.

I tried this on every machine, down to Xbox 360 even. Using the uncap mod is the best way to play it on everything.

 

[Dr.D00p]

That's a lot of effort to play a game that'll run 4k 60 on a toaster! But cool nonetheless

I suspect most people will simply do this for the challenge and curiosity value rather than any real intention to play through the game.

 

[UltimaKilo]

I don’t understand why MS and Valve haven’t made this officially available. It would be popular!

 

[rofif]

even series s should be doing 4k120 in this game. That’s extremely disappointing

 

[adamsapple]

even series s should be doing 4k120 in this game. That’s extremely disappointing

They're both doing their theoretical BC max, Series S doesn't do more than 1440p on BC games even from the original XBO.

 

[rofif]

They're both doing their theoretical BC max, Series S doesn't do more than 1440p on BC games even from the original XBO.

ah ok. So it's other reasons than power. I get it

 

[Thick Thighs Save Lives]

I've watched the whole video and frankly that's way too much trouble and you can easily fuck up the config of the saves and thus revert the fps back to 30.

Wishful thinking from my part since I know The Orange Box was delisted from the store, but I'd like for MS and Valve to 'team up' this one last time and do a proper FPS boost patch for the whole collection.

Nonetheless, cool video from DF.

 

[adamsapple]

ah ok. So it's other reasons than power. I get it

Yes, and BC is also capped at 60hz so even when using the maxfpslimit = 0 command, it doesn't go past 60hz. Unless they specifically FPS Boost it for cases like Mad Max.

I've watched the whole video and frankly that's way too much trouble and you can easily fuck up the config of the saves and thus revert the fps back to 30.

Wishful thinking from my part since I know The Orange Box was delisted from the store, but I'd like for MS and Valve to 'team up' this one last time and do a proper FPS boost patch for the whole collection.

Nonetheless, cool video from DF.

Yeah, I'm hoping on hope that they revisit the BC program and one of the main reason(s) they won't have Activision content up before 2024 is that they have a couple of people enhancing Activision BC content.

 

[SomeGit]

It’s a shame it doesn’t work for later Source engine games, they should really port the Portal collection to other consoles.

 

[Sho_Gunn]

I suspect most people will simply do this for the challenge and curiosity value rather than any real intention to play through the game.

my ADHD ass would do all the modding then play for 10 minutes.

 

[Darsxx82]

It's funny, I decided to connect my x360 after more than 3 years just to try this "mod"...Result? I gave up and the result was that I started playing fantastic games that are not BC or that I wanted to check again the improvement over the BC of XBO X and XSeriesX. PGR3-4, Soul Calibir V, Blur, Table Tennis, Top Spin 3.... The online support that many games still have is incredible.

P.S. I've spent 3 Or more hours playing Top Spin 3 and Table Tennis. My goodness, how cool it is to play even today and also both looks great. 2K perfectly just upgrades the graphics to today's standard and you would have a 10/10 tennis sports games.

 

[Cryio]

TL;DR:
Without double buffered Vsync and actual optimization, The Orange Box games could've been 720p60 EASILY on X360 and PS3. But here we are.

 

[AeonGaidenRaiden]

I wish it wasnt as convoluted just to get this running on top of the fact that they removed the orange box from the store anyway. Im not a fan of remasters but it would be nice to get HL2 ported to the Alyx VR engine....not the VR but the graphic upgrade to models and buildings.

 

[intbal]

It's not really that complicated.
The toughest part was learning Horizon, since I had never used that before. But there were several simple tutorial videos on youtube for that.
Once you have the hacked Settings file on a USB stick, you don't have to do that part again. You'll still need your 360 to upload the file to the cloud.
I made two Settings files. One just like the video, but one without all the graphical "tweaks". My side-by-side screenshots didn't show any noteworthy visual improvements with those new settings. So I would recommend just using the FPS max and VSYNC additions only.

 

[RPS37]

If this was on the store, I’d purchase it.