Cloud gaming demands low latency and smooth visuals, and a free plugin for Microsoft Edge helps achieve that: Better XCloud, which I’d say is a must for anyone trying to play Xbox Cloud games via the web.
Better XCloud is an open-source, free plugin for Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, and other Chromium browsers specifically for use with Xbox Cloud Gaming. While the code can be downloaded and examined via Github, you’ll want to begin on the more user-friendly Better XCloud installation page, which details what you’ll need to get started.
Let’s take a step back. Most people are used to downloading and installing games locally, from Microsoft’s Xbox Cloud, Steam, Epic, or some other marketplace. Games do run their best when stored and run on your PC (or Xbox), too. But there’s an alternative: not downloading them, and instead playing them on a cloud server.
The advantage is that you don’t have to waste time downloading and installing the game; you can play almost instantly. Those of you with bandwidth caps might appreciate playing games at bandwidths that approach streaming movies, which are far less than a typical game install. And if you have older hardware, running the game on a cloud server may negate that disadvantage.
The problem? Streaming a game via the cloud can be relatively slow: It takes a few hundred milliseconds or so for the game to render a scene, send it over the internet to you, and for you to react; then it takes a small bit of time for your input to be sent up to the cloud and for the game to respond. All that can make a game stutter and jerk, meaning that it might not be as fun to play.
What Better XCloud tries to do is use a number of tricks to improve your game experience. First, you can choose your server, ensuring that it’s nearby. A server in close proximity means less latency, or lag. Second, you can ask for the maximum bandwidth from the server, kind of like paying Netflix for a 4K option — but for free. Finally, you can even use your PC’s GPU to improve the rendering quality. In this case, though, only AMD GPUs seem to be explicitly supported.
If you’d like to compare and contrast Better XCloud and how it improves cloud gaming, you can visit https://www.xbox.com/play without having installed Better XCloud. Just make sure to have a subscription to Xbox Game Pass.
How to set up and run Better XCloud
It’s easiest if you begin with the Better XCloud installation page, which facilitates the process.
(Editor’s Note: Part of the benefit of open-source software is that anyone can download and examine the code. That doesn’t necessarily mean that anyone has, or that an updated version doesn’t hide malware. Use at or your own risk.)
To set up Better XCloud, you first need to install Tampermonkey, a plugin that allows you to run your own “userscripts” on top of websites. Install that first with a click. The Better XCloud setup page warns that you may need to enable developer mode on your browser, which you can do on the Edge extensions page by flipping the “Developer” toggle on the left. I found I needed to do that to allow Better XCloud to work.)
Mark Hachman / Foundry
After you install Tampermonkey, you can install Better XCloud. Better XCloud is really just a script run on Tampermonkey, which shows up in the Tampermonkey window when enabled from the Better XCloud installation page. There’s really nothing to it. You’ll just need to ensure that Edge’s own visual aid, Clarity Boost, is turned off, since Better XCloud takes over and replaces it. Once it’s installed, head to https://www.xbox.com/play to begin playing.
In Edge, Microsoft’s own cloud gaming options are found at the upper left-hand corner of the screen, behind a tiny Xbox logo. With Better XCloud installed, those options are at the upper right-hand corner, behind a small icon that the installation creates.
Mark Hachman / Foundry
There are a ton of options, and you can select the ones you want. Personally, I tried to maximize my gaming experience by playing with the server options, and selecting the maximum resolution possible and available bandwidth. Notice, too, that the visuals can also be improved by selecting the app’s own Clarity Boost, which is available for PCs with AMD Ryzen processors.
Does Better XCloud work?
I’ve run Xbox Cloud Gaming on a PC before, and I reacquainted myself with three Xbox Game Pass games: the gorgeous Sea of Thieves, Lonely Mountains: Snow Riders, and Sniper Elite: Resistance. Snow Riders is a fairly sedate game about skiing down a 3D mountain. Sniper Elite is mainly just skulking about a 3D recreation of WWII France, though the game can be quick and frenetic during its combat sequences.
I honestly didn’t see much difference in Snow Riders, and I’m guessing that’s because of the relative simplicity of the game. It’s worth noting that the Xbox Cloud Gaming app hides metrics that can provide a numerical assessment, with the amount of data you’re downloading, the “ping” and frame rate, and more, all available at the top of the screen.
Mark Hachman / Foundry
Sniper Elite had a tendency to hitch or stutter on the basic Xbox Cloud gaming settings, possibly because there wasn’t as much information being reliably streamed. Turning on Edge’s native “Clarity Boost” settings didn’t seem to make that much of a difference. But on Better XCloud, the hitching noticeably decreased, and the downloaded bitrate seemed to increase from 8Mb/s to about 17 Mb/s. Everything else remained the same, though: the frame rate stayed pegged at 30 fps, and the ping was about the same.
Visually, though, there was a tradeoff; on Sniper Elite, Edge’s Clarity Boost offered a grainier though more detailed image, while Better XCloud smeared some of that detail but delivered smoother performance.
On Sea of Thieves, though, Better XCloud shone. The differences were immediate, and obvious: The improved antialiasing eliminated the “jaggy” edges. Sea of Thieves has been a visually stunning game since launch, with an ocean that you simply want to swim in. But on the basic Xbox Cloud Gaming, simply moving about was slow and stuttery, even though it was at a nominal 60 frames per second.
Mark Hachman / Foundry
With Better XCloud turned on, the game proved buttery smooth, and an absolute joy to play. (I can’t really provide comparison shots, since one game launched my character during the evening, and another during the morning light. But it really made a difference.)
To be fair, I did try out the game on two different PCs: The default laptop, running the basic Xbox Cloud Gaming, did include a discrete GPU. The other used an AMD Ryzen AI 300 processor inside of it, running just on its integrated graphics. But especially on Sea of Thieves, the Ryzen/Better XCloud laptop looked and played significantly better.
Better XCloud is free and open source, and improved my gameplay while cloud gaming. I’m leaving it installed, and I’ll use it in the future when playing games via the Xbox Cloud. I recommend you do the same.