Dashboard 3.0

There has been alot of speculation about a new dasboard (version 3.0) coming out in April for Xbox including an added feature for gamers who are in Xbox Clan's. Anyone heard/seen anything more about this or any other features for the dashboard ?

Cheers.

[Tezcatlipoca]

I've seen stuff about Live 3 ("Tsunami") on some other forums, plus on gamesradar.com & cvg.

Not sure if anything has actually been officially confirmed yet, but here's what I have read elsewhere (apparently taken from the "Tsunami" readme):

These features require release 3.0 of the Xbox Live service. The Xbox Live 3.0 release is sometimes referred to as "Tsunami". The Xbox group is releasing Xbox Live 3.0 around the beginning of April 2004. Titles that take advantage of these new features should schedule their releases to occur after the release of Xbox Live 3.0. Titles that intend to release before the release of Xbox Live 3.0 should not use any these features.

Voice Mail in UIX Friends
The Voice Mail feature allows users to include voice mail when they send or accept game invitations and friend requests. Users can include up to 15 seconds of voice data with each invitation or request to provide more context for the recipient.

Title Managed Storage
Title Managed Storage allows a game to store information on the Xbox Live storage servers. The feature is divided into two parts: global storage and per-user, per-title storage. Global storage is read-only to the title and stores matchmaking queries, rosters, weather data, and so on. Per-user, per-title storage provides 32 KB of storage for each player of the title, to store playbooks, settings, and so on.

Family Title ID
Family Title IDs allow title-managed storage, teams, and messages to be shared across a family of titles. A given title can belong to as many as four title families. The way in which storage, teams, and messages are shared across the title family is up to the publisher and title developers. For example, a publisher with multiple sports titles could have a developer use a Family Title ID that allows a user to create a team that spans all of the publisher's sports titles.

Teams
The Teams feature allows players to form teams within a title that persist between game sessions. Titles expose this functionality using the XOnlineTeamXXXX and XOnlinePeerXXXX functions. The infrastructure, permissions, display, and role of teams depend on the design of the title.

Competitions
Titles can use the Competitions feature to run automated in-game single-elimination tournaments. The participants in a tournament can be either teams or individuals. Tournaments are created either by the title publisher or by the players themselves.

Messaging
With Messaging, titles can send and receive any kind of game-specific message (including voice and text attachments) using the XOnlineMessageXXXX functions. Messages can be sent between teammates, friends, or players.

New Xbox Live Statistics Features
The updated Stats APIs enable titles to group users into dynamic teams, called "units". Each unit can contain up to four players. Users can compare how their units rank against each other on the new Unit Leaderboards. Also, titles are now able to resolve contested stats using the Xbox Live Arbitration servers. Additionally, titles can now post all of the stats for a game session with a single write call.

[Ricky G]

Sounds good although I can't see it coming to the UK for April

[Tezcatlipoca]

Latest rumour I've heard (on another forum) is that the release date is set for April 21st.

I don't see why the UK wouldn't get it at the same time as the US etc? We can play with/against US players, so I'd have thought that everyone would have to have the same version dashboard at the same time.

Can anyone remember if we got the Live dash v2 at the same time as the US?

[eddie00001]

I think v2 was released at the same time.

[grindkid25]

so how will you get it? is it like something that every live user will have to download???

[Jarandco]

Originally Posted by grindkid25

so how will you get it? is it like something that every live user will have to download???

Yes it will be a required update

[Tezcatlipoca]

I logged onto XBL earlier, & received a message about the update:

Can't remember it word for word, but it was something like...

Originally Posted by XBox Live

XBox Live will be unavailable for a period of 24 hours on 21st April 2004, starting 08:01 Eastern Time / 13:01 GMT (etc).....This is to update the service, & add new features

So, there we are. XBL v3 on the 21st April. Same time as the US & everywhere else.

[zoombini]

According to Shreddies on the Xbox forums, the downtime on the 21st is not to actually give us the update, it will be for a small file that will allow the update to be given to us when it is ready.
Which we will download when we log on the day after.

Apparently there are several features that are not ready, I.E. the MSN chat bit.

However, if you start humming the Coca Cola advert thme, I'll start singing "Its coming, its coming"...lol

[SOSAGES]

will msn chat work well without a keyboard?

[TigaSefi]

yeah don't fancy typing out sentences on a on screen keyboard, it takes forever.

[zoombini]

I'd suspect that if it does come to fruition, there will soon be a host of keyboards arriving on the Xbox market for it. An IR one that uses the DVD receiver would be good.

[Zorilla]

My guess, is that you'll have an added icon on your xbox friends list showing people who are using their PC (and not on XBOX Live). You will then have the option to send them a Friends Invite to join you on Live.

I can't see it being any more elaborate than that (to start with)

[zoombini]

My guess is that whatever it is, it wont work.. to start with

[Tezcatlipoca]

So.....any noticeable difference? (not been on XBL yet - won't be 'till w/e)

Or will we have to wait for new games to take advantage of whatever they've done?