ROG Xbox Ally X and X20 owners can now use Microsoft's Automatic Super Resolution (Auto SR) upscaler on the handheld's own screen. Microsoft says Auto SR is out of preview on both devices and on select AMD Ryzen Copilot+ PCs. During the Xbox Insider preview that started in April, it only worked with the Ally X docked to an external display. It now works undocked and on battery, and accepts games running at 1080p. The base ROG Xbox Ally misses out, since its chip has no NPU. Auto SR runs its AI model on the NPU, so the upscaling doesn't eat into the GPU's frame time. A new Performance Mode lifts the frame rate ceiling to 120 FPS, from roughly 60 to 75 FPS before.

In Microsoft's Rocket League test on the Ally X at 720p and high settings, Quality Mode averaged around 70 FPS, while Performance Mode hit about 115 FPS. Auto SR can now be paired with Auto HDR as well, though both Performance Mode and Auto HDR support will roll out gradually through Windows updates. Microsoft warns that 1080p on the internal screen may not perform as well as other setups, although older games should still see visual gains. Ally X owners have also had an FSR 4.1 preview driver since last month, which is probably still the better pick in games that support it well, leaving Auto SR for the rest. Enabling it requires the latest Windows 11 and Game Bar updates plus the Auto Super Resolution Package from the Microsoft Store.

A developer who goes by levi on X has announced Utsuro, a new project that runs Xbox One games on Apple devices. It's still very early, but the developer says it already runs Minecraft: Xbox One Edition "extremely well," and the attached video shows it running on iOS with touchscreen controls. According to the project's GitHub page, Minecraft hits around 36 to 60 FPS on the Mac build, and Sonic Mania and Rocket League run there too, complete with screenshots. Sonic Mania is marked as playable at around 57 FPS with sound, while Rocket League renders and drives at roughly 15 to 20 FPS, with dark lighting and no audio yet.

Utsuro also works differently from a typical emulator. Apparently, it skips hardware emulation altogether and runs the console's Windows-based software layer as x86-64 code on Apple's Arm chips through FEXCore, and fills in the system pieces the console itself would normally provide. Graphics go through Apple's Metal API, with the Xbox One's Direct3D 11.X shaders converted to Metal's shader language, while audio runs on CoreAudio. Getting it running isn't exactly simple either. On iOS, the app has to be sideloaded, needs a JIT helper like StikDebug, TrollStore, or a jailbroken device, and expects a decrypted dump of the game. The macOS version currently has to be built from source.

Rocket League, the popular competitive vehicular soccer game, will soon be getting an anti-cheat implementation, nearly a decade after its original launch. Psyonix announced on the game's official X account that it would be implementing Easy Anti-Cheat in Rocket League in an April update. The justifications for anti-cheat is to prevent DDoS attacks, improve bot detection, and more effectively ban cheaters in games. The announcement comes with a few caveats, though—specifically relating to how the addition of anti-cheat will affect competitive gameplay, offline LAN multiplayer, and gaming on Linux.

Unlike many high-profile EAC implementations, Rocket League will maintain compatibility with the Valve Steam Deck, and by extension other Linux gaming PCs and the upcoming Steam Machine via the Proton compatibility layer. Players will be able to disable EAC for offline play, in cases like local LAN multiplayer, or split-screen multiplayer. Additionally, the EAC implementation will eventually allow players in custom tournaments to run tournament-specific mods, and players will be able to run custom community content with EAC enabled at launch. The announcement also mentions "custom mod-inspired content" coming to Rocket League in the same April update.

The bell tolls, but it brings good news… Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductees Metallica strike Fortnite in v30.10! This means an immersive music experience starting June 22 and a Metallica Season in Festival starting June 13 WITH v30.10. It also means a Battle Royale POI based on the M72 World Tour and a Rocket Racing track to take the corner!

METALLICA: FUEL. FIRE. FURY.
Experience Metallica's music like never before in Metallica: Fuel. Fire. Fury. This journey through six of Metallica's fan-favorite songs features gameplay that matches the intensity. The Master of Puppets awaits…

AMD has released the latest Adrenalin 23.8.1 WHQL driver, bringing support for Immortals of Aveum game, as well as several fixes, including issues with high idle power when using multi-display setups with mixed high-resolutions and high refresh rate on Radeon RX 7000 series GPUs when variable refresh rate is enabled, issues with performance drop on DirectX 11 games on Radeon RX 5600 XT when AMD SmartAccess Memory is enabled, issues in Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart game with ray tracing and Dynamic Resolution Scaling enabled on some AMD graphics cards, issues in Starcraft II on Radeon RX 7000 series GPUs, corruption issues in Rocket League with Bloom set to off on certain AMD graphics cards, and performance drop on Radeon 700M series GPUs in various games.

Unfortunately, AMD still has not fixed issues with Baldur's Gate 3 with DirectX 11 API on Radeon RX 7000 series graphics cards. AMD also included an important notes section stating that the factory reset is still temporarily disabled as a precautionary measure due to isolated installation issues during PC upgrades, and AMD Cleanup Utility can be used as a temporary option.

DOWNLOAD: AMD Software Adrenalin 23.8.1 WHQL

Today Epic Games announced that it completed a $1 billion round of funding, which will allow the company to support future growth opportunities. Epic's equity valuation is now $28.7 billion.

This round includes an additional $200M strategic investment from Sony Group Corporation, which builds on the already close relationship between the two companies and reinforces their shared mission to advance the state of the art in technology, entertainment, and socially-connected online services. Other investment partners include Appaloosa, Baillie Gifford, Fidelity Management & Research Company LLC, GIC, funds and accounts advised by T. Rowe Price Associates, Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan Board, funds and accounts managed by BlackRock, Park West, KKR, AllianceBernstein, Altimeter, Franklin Templeton and Luxor Capital. Epic continues to have only a single class of common stock outstanding and CEO Tim Sweeney remains the controlling shareholder of the company.

Epic Games have recently announced the aquisition of Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout developer Mediatonic for a undisclosed amount. Mediatonic have had a meteoric rise to fame with the release of their hit game Fall Guys in August 2020 with their team rising from 35 members to over 150. Mediatonic and Epic have confirmed that they will continue to support all platforms including Steam and reaffirmed plans to bring the game to Nintendo Switch and Xbox. The Mediatonic team also commented on bringing features from Fortnite and Rocket League to the game including account systems, cross-play, and squad vs squad modes.

Psyonix the creators of Rocket League who are now owned by Epic Games has recently confirmed that their vehicular soccer video game will be going free-to-play on all platforms later this summer however, this move will remove the game from Steam for new players. Existing owners of the game on Steam will continue to receive updates and support, but going forwards all new players will have to install the game from the Epic Games Store.

The summer update will also bring a new cross-platform progression system that will require an Epic Games Store account to use, this will finally let users access their items, rankings, and rocket pass progression across all platforms. Current owners of the game will receive all the DLC released for the game when it goes free-to-play along with an "Est. 20XX" title which displays the year they purchased the game.

AMD Monday posted the latest version of Radeon Software Adrenalin 2019 Edition. Version 19.8.2 beta comes with optimization for the week's big AAA launch, "Control," with up to 10 percent higher frame-rates compared to the older 19.8.1 drivers. The new drivers also include optimization for the interactive novel "Man of Medan." The drivers add HDCP 2.3 support for Radeon RX 5700 series graphics cards.

Among the bugs fixed are a "Rocket League" application hang on task-switch, performance-drops with "League of Legends" when performing a task-switch; system instability seen with Radeon RX 5700-series when memory-overclocking while a 3D application is running; and minor stutter noticed with "Fortnite" in the first few minutes of gameplay. Grab the driver from the link below.

DOWNLOAD: AMD Radeon Software Adrenalin 19.8.2 betaThe change-log follows.

Update: A clarification was sent out earlier today where Epic said that they won't stop supporting Rocket League on Steam, as they never could actually do, since legions of players that had already purchased the game on that platform would pick up their pitchforks with a vengeance. However, wording on Epic's clarification leaves much to be desired, and seemingly confirms that the game will not be available on Steam:

"The PC version of Rocket League will come to the Epic Games store in late 2019. In the meantime, it will continue to be available for purchase on Steam; thereafter it will continue to be supported on Steam for all existing purchasers. (...) "Rocket League remains available for new purchasers on Steam, and long-term plans will be announced in the future."

Epic Games has announced the acquisition of Rocket League developer Psyonix, which created one of the most addictive non/Battle Royale game of recent times. The move by Epic will see the games- introduction to the Epic Games Store, with platform exclusivity confirmed for late 2019 / which means that anyone looking to purchase the game on a PC/centric digital storefront will have to go to Epic's, since Steam will be leaving the vendor equation.