Xbox reveals Project Helix console plans and neural rendering technology

Xbox has shared early technical details about its next console, currently codenamed Project Helix, during a presentation at the GDC Festival of Gaming.

Jason Ronald, Xbox vice president for next-generation hardware, told attendees that the system is being developed to deliver “high performance and provide the ultimate player-first experience.”

He also confirmed that Microsoft is working with AMD to define the next generation of rendering and simulation technology for the console.

According to Game Developer, the new hardware will be powered by a custom AMD-based system-on-chip designed to support the next generation of DirectX features.

Ronald said the architecture is intended to bring intelligence directly into the graphics and compute pipeline while enabling advanced techniques such as deep texture compression.

“We've reached some of the limitations of what's possible with traditional rendering techniques, and if we want to continue advancing the state of the art, we have to invent brand new technology,” Ronald said.

He added that the new console aims to deliver “an order of magnitude leap” in ray tracing performance, which could allow developers to create “more realistic, immersive, and dynamic worlds for players.”

Ronald also said the platform is being designed to support emerging neural rendering technologies and machine learning techniques used in graphics processing.

“This is really designed for that next generation of neural rendering techniques,” he said. “Whether that's neural materials. Whether that's generated images. Or even if you think about things like the latest ML (machine learning) based upscaling techniques or super resolution techniques.”

Developers are expected to receive alpha versions of the hardware beginning in 2027.

Ronald also confirmed that Microsoft plans to maintain backwards compatibility across multiple generations of Xbox hardware.

He said the company is “committed to keeping games from four generations of Xbox playable for years to come” and plans to introduce new ways to access classic titles as part of the platform’s 25th anniversary celebrations later this year.