Microsoft continues to improve the integration of its Xbox brand into its Windows operating systems, with features like Xbox Cloud Gaming (formerly project xCloud). The company has just released an update for its Microsoft Edge Canary browser, an ‘insider’ alpha-like version of the Internet Explorer successor, which adds a new Clarity Boost feature for the cloud streaming service.
Players that download Microsoft Edge Canary today can enjoy what Microsoft describes as “a set of client-side scaling improvements to improve the visual quality of the video stream.” However, we can expect Clarity Boost to be available on all devices using the standard version of Microsoft Edge by the end of 2021. Don’t forget, you’ll need to subscribe to Xbox Game Pass to gain access to Xbox Cloud Gaming.
We’re yet to conduct our own testing, but Microsoft has released a comparison image of two Xbox Cloud Gaming streams, with one using the new feature (which you can view here). The difference between the screenshots of Gears Tactics protagonist Gabriel Diaz is easily appreciable, with Clarity Boost providing a much sharper image.
Here’s how to enable Clarity Boost:
- Download ‘Microsoft Edge Canary’
- Navigate to “edge://settings/help” and confirm you’re running version “96.0.1033.0” or later.
- Go to www.xbox.com/play, login, and start a game
- Open the ‘…’ menu
- Select the ‘Enable Clarity Boost’ option.
And don’t worry if you encounter any issues, as Microsoft details on its Xbox Insiders subreddit that you can toggle Clarity Boost off again at any time should it decrease the battery performance of your device.