Digital Foundry Direct Weekly DF Direct Weekly #229: Xbox Ally X Hands-On, Sweeney Defends UE5, id Software Doom TDA Deep Dive!
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Sep 1, 2025 Get ready for a hands-on dive into the Xbox Ally and Ally X, with insights on their ergonomic design and quirks. The hosts dissect Tim Sweeney's controversial comments on UE5 performance issues, revealing a deeper look at developer challenges. Exciting graphics breakthroughs from SIGGRAPH are discussed, along with the innovative Shader Glass that revives nostalgic CRT visuals. Plus, they explore the competitive landscape of AMD and NVIDIA GPUs, and brainstorm fun ideas for future content!
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Ally X Felt Like A Windows Layer
- Rich and Alex hands-on the ROG Ally X revealed a heavy Windows-layer feel rather than a true Xbox plug-and-play console experience.
- Rich encountered multiple interface bugs (game hangs, stick input loss, resident processes) that required Microsoft staff intervention on-site.
Expect To Tweak Games On Launch
- Do not assume default settings will be optimal on the Ally; games may need manual tweaks to match the Xbox handheld rating.
- Expect developers to need to implement handheld detection and optimized presets to realise Microsoft's 'handheld compatibility' claims.
Frame Gen Can Hurt Handheld Smoothness
- FSR3 frame generation can degrade perceived smoothness on handhelds when in the 'no-man's land' between refresh and frame rates.
- Running native lower FPS without frame gen often looks smoother than forced frame generation on constrained hardware.