Intelligent Delivery: device specifiers

Device specifiers declare the XBOX One family consoles and XBOX Series consoles to which the content in an installation chunk is applicable. Device specifiers allow you to offer the highest-fidelity experiences possible on a console generation, without causing unnecessary downloads for users who aren’t using the highest-end console for that generation. In the XBOX One family of devices, you could mark some content, like HDR graphics, as chunks that only need to be downloaded on XBOX One X devices. This will allow XBOX One and XBOX One S users to have more efficient downloads that don’t include HDR assets that aren’t supported by those devices. Some content will be common to both consoles. For example, audio assets might be identical for any device on which the title is running. Chunks containing those assets won’t have a device specifier. Device specifiers enable the following scenarios.

When shipping new titles for devices across the entire XBOX family of consoles, you can declare which content is needed only on the higher-end devices of the console family. Content without a device specifier is installed to all consoles. For more information, see the Packaging design for new titles section.
By adding new chunks with the higher-fidelity assets, you can update an existing title to support the higher resolution on XBOX One X or XBOX Series X devices. If you mark these new chunks with the correct device specifier, gamers who already have your title installed on XBOX One, XBOX One S, or XBOX Series S consoles aren’t adversely affected. For more information, see the section on specifying assets only for XBOX One X or Anaconda devices.

Packaging design for new titles that run on multiple devices in the same generation with specialized per-device assets

New titles that ship simultaneously for XBOX One, XBOX One S, and XBOX One X devices, or on XBOX Series S and XBOX Series X devices can use Intelligent Delivery to target specific device types with specific content. There are two general strategies for targeting assets.

Tuning specific content to each device class

One strategy for targeting assets for different devices is to tune specific content to each device within the same generation. In this scenario, your title packages device-specific assets into chunks that target a specific device.

File names and paths can’t be duplicated across different chunks, even if only one of the chunks that contains the duplicates is installed at a time. We recommend that you either group your files into chunks according to the folder name, such as by grouping all higher-resolution assets in a specific folder, or that you modify the file names in a way that allows your title to disambiguate them, such as by appending “_sco” or “_ana” to the file name.

The following example segments of a layout.xml file declares two chunks that are targeted for different devices. At installation time, the system determines whether to install chunk 2001 or chunk 2002, according to the hardware device type. For XBOX One generation:

<Chunk Id="2001" Devices="Xbox-Durango">
    <FileGroup DestinationPath="\Data\Maps\XboxOneOnly\LightMaps"             SourcePath="Y:\Maps\Level1\XboxOneOnly\LightMaps" Include="*.map"/>
<Chunk>
<Chunk Id="2002" Devices="Xbox-Scorpio">
    <FileGroup DestinationPath="\Data\Maps\Scorpio\HiResLightMaps"             SourcePath="Y:\Maps\Level1\Scorpio\HiResLightMaps" Include="*.map"/>
<Chunk>  

For Lockhart and Anaconda devices:

<Chunk Id="2001" Devices="Xbox-Lockhart">
    <FileGroup DestinationPath="\Data\Maps\LockhartOnly\LightMaps"             SourcePath="Y:\Maps\Level1\LockhartOnly\LightMaps" Include="*.map"/>
<Chunk>
<Chunk Id="2002" Devices="Xbox-Anaconda">
    <FileGroup DestinationPath="\Data\Maps\Anaconda\HiResLightMaps"             SourcePath="Y:\Maps\Level1\Anaconda\HiResLightMaps" Include="*.map"/>
<Chunk>  

Getting the device type

At runtime, have your title use the XSystemGetDeviceType method to determine which device the title is running on, and it needs to use the appropriate set of assets based on that information.

#include <XSystem.h>

XSystemDeviceType deviceType = XSystemGetDeviceType();

switch (deviceType)
{
case XSystemDeviceType::Pc:                     ... break;
case XSystemDeviceType::XboxOne:                ... break;   //Xbox-Durango device specifier tag
case XSystemDeviceType::XboxOneS:               ... break;   //Xbox-Durango device specifier tag
case XSystemDeviceType::XboxOneX:               ... break;   //Xbox-Scorpio device specifier tag
case XSystemDeviceType::XboxOneXDevkit:         ... break;
case XSystemDeviceType::XboxScarlettLockhart:   ... break;   //Xbox-Lockhart device specifier tag
case XSystemDeviceType::XboxScarlettAnaconda:   ... break;   //Xbox-Anaconda device specifier tag
case XSystemDeviceType::XboxScarlettDevkit:     ... break;
case XSystemDeviceType::Unknown:                ... break;
}

The XSystemGetDeviceType values for retail consoles correspond to device specifier tags you’ll use in your layout.xml file. Note that Xbox-Durango is the device specifier tag for both the XBOX One and XBOX One S.

Device Specifier Tag	XSystemDeviceType
`Xbox-Durango`	XBOX One XBOX One S
`Xbox-Scorpio`	XBOX One X
`Xbox-Lockhart`	XBOX Series S
`Xbox-Anaconda`	XBOX Series X

The device specifier tags are the values you’ll use in the layout.xml file.

Declaring XBOX One X-specific or Anaconda-specific assets

The second strategy for targeting specific devices is to declare additional assets that install only on a specific console device within a generation. In this scenario, all assets common to both consoles are placed in chunks without device specifiers. XBOX One X-specific or Anaconda-specific assets are placed into their own chunk.

Specifying assets only for XBOX One X or Anaconda devices

To add assets specific to a device to your title, identify the assets applicable only to that device, isolate them into new chunks in your layout.xml file, and then apply the Xbox-Durango or Xbox-Anaconda device specifier to them. This is shown in the following examples. XBOX One generation

<Chunk Id="2002" Devices="Xbox-Scorpio">
    <FileGroup DestinationPath="\Data\Maps\Scorpio\HiResLightMaps"             SourcePath="Y:\Maps\Level1\Scorpio\HiResLightMaps" Include="*.dat"/>
<Chunk>  

XBOX Series X|S generation

<Chunk Id="2002" Devices="Xbox-Anaconda">
    <FileGroup DestinationPath="\Data\Maps\Anaconda\HiResLightMaps"             SourcePath="Y:\Maps\Level1\Anaconda\HiResLightMaps" Include="*.dat"/>
<Chunk>  

GDK and Game Engines Integration

Steam porting guide

Game Principles

Core Features

Console Features

Packaging design for new titles that run on multiple devices in the same generation with specialized per-device assets

Tuning specific content to each device class

Getting the device type

Declaring XBOX One X-specific or Anaconda-specific assets

Specifying assets only for XBOX One X or Anaconda devices

See also

​Packaging design for new titles that run on multiple devices in the same generation with specialized per-device assets

​Tuning specific content to each device class

​Getting the device type

​Declaring XBOX One X-specific or Anaconda-specific assets

​Specifying assets only for XBOX One X or Anaconda devices

​See also

Packaging design for new titles that run on multiple devices in the same generation with specialized per-device assets

Tuning specific content to each device class

Getting the device type

Declaring XBOX One X-specific or Anaconda-specific assets

Specifying assets only for XBOX One X or Anaconda devices

See also