Surprised I did not see a thread for this yet so I figured I would start one. OnLive debuted earlier this week at the GDC. The idea is as ambitious as it is impressive, it introduces this concept of "cloud" gaming, this is taken right from their site and nutshells it.
OnLive.com wrote:
Powerful Gaming Made Easy
* Connect to OnLive with your TV, PC or Mac and start a game
* Your game runs in a state-of-the-art OnLive game server center
* OnLive connects you to game servers through the Internet, instantly sending your controller actions upstream and the results back downstream at blinding fast speeds
* Enjoy ultra high-performance gameplay on your TV or entry-level PC or Mac
Sounds much easier said than done, but the idea is unbelievable. Ideally you can play any game, no matter how high performace, instantly, on a very low end laptop or CPU. Not only that, they are trying to build a truly huge online community, one with interactivity that would trump XBOX Live.
This first vid here demonstrates the loading up process, as well as the central hub area, and cruising around some of the options.
This vid here shows how the game purchasing and streaming works, looks awesome!
This last vid here demonstrates Crysis running on shitty laptop, notice how great it looks and how quickly he can move the mouse. The response is lightning quick and there is very little lag to be seen.
This technology has a ton of potential, but do you think OnLive has the ability to backup their claims, and if so what does this mean for the games industry?? I always envisioned that eventually all the console companies would abandon platforms altogether in favor of some universal digital distributor, but not so soon. Exciting stuff though, especially for those of us too poor to ever have a chance to play high end titles when they are new.
I think it's interesting, and could be a deterrent against piracy, but it may be detrimental to the modding community unless they have a plan for how to download or install mods, or even be able to provide SDK tools or rights through its service.
So here's to you Mrs. Robinson. People love you more- oh, nevermind.
Andrew Man
Title: Is a Funklord
Joined: Jan 30 2007
Location: Annandale, VA
Posts: 5603
Posted:
Mar 27 2009 08:20 pm
Well they anticipate that the "hardcore" crowds would still use their own physical rigs. However they have an extensive demo service they figure even the hardcore audience would use as there are no downloads and its instantaneous.
I made a thread 6 months to a year ago stating that this would be done.
I don't think the world is ready for it, and it won't be working 100% correctly for a while.
Eventually though, this will be how you game with all games. It stops piracy, it allows unlimited processing power, and it only costs when it is being used.
username
Title: owner of a lonely heart
Joined: Jul 06 2007
Location: phoenix, az usa
Posts: 16136
Posted:
Mar 28 2009 09:56 am
i read about this several days ago. sounds interesting, but a lot of people are still too hardcore w/their consoles and might not be so willing to go along w/this idea.
i personally think its a great idea, but unfortunately seems doomed to fail, only because people are afraid of change. like syd
Klimbatize wrote:
I'll eat a turkey sandwich while blowing my load
aherpesoutbreak
Joined: Dec 15 2008
Posts: 199
Posted:
Mar 29 2009 02:03 am
I just think the damn thing won't work because there's no way to counter the actual lag that you will experience unless the server your computer is communicating with is literally next door.
Yeah, there are "predictive" things that can kinda guess where you're going to be moving to give the illusion of a lag free experience, but that doesn't work for FPS games. Also, the game is "streaming video" to your comp, and unless they have magically awesome and new ways of compression that people who are IN THE COMPRESSION BUSINESS don't know about there's no way for the video to look that good and be sent out "instantly".
I want to believe in OnLive, I really do. However, I don't see this as being possible right now, or maybe even ever. I'll hope I'm wrong though. I'd love to play high end games on a netbook!
I made a thread 6 months to a year ago stating that this would be done.
I don't think the world is ready for it, and it won't be working 100% correctly for a while.
Eventually though, this will be how you game with all games. It stops piracy, it allows unlimited processing power, and it only costs when it is being used.
I always felt that this would happen to the industry only a matter of time, and every true gamer knew it was coming.
So you pay for a subscription and you pay for the games, and you pray to god that they don't change their policies or go out of business so that you don't lose all of the games you invest in. Not to mention that you hope they continue to support the games indefinitely.. what is to say that they don't offer 3-4 years and then drop games.
The more I think about this type of technology the more it scares me. They should offer direct downloads of the game like Steam on top of the streaming technology.
Andrew Man
Title: Is a Funklord
Joined: Jan 30 2007
Location: Annandale, VA
Posts: 5603
Posted:
Apr 08 2010 11:13 am
Well in most cases, you would have no other means to play these games anyway which is why you would have resorted to Onlive in the first place.
Also, yea, direct downloads would be nice security. I am sure they will implement something to address that concern, as it is a problem I am sure is on the mind of many people whom are looking at this service (myself included).
Anyways, so far, I am fairly impressed.
Obviously it's early in beta so I am taking it with a grain of salt, but the graphics look great. So far I have tried Mirror's Edge and Prince of Persia and they look fantastic streaming (for comparison, Half Life 2: Episode 2 looks like garbage on my laptop). They load up fairly quickly, and the menu interface connecting it all is pretty slick.
I have been noticing some lag that can make games requiring fast, twitch gameplay (like Mirror's Edge) quite taxing and frustrating at times. It does not seem to be as bad in other places...
Gonna keep trying it out, anyone else apply for/get into the beta?
I think I said this before, but, too bad half the country couldn't use it much, thanks to Comcast. Think about how much data is passed when streaming 1080p or even 720p feed via broadband. You would hit Comcast's 250GB monthly limit pretty quick.
After some research I found:
Quote:
Netflix's current (though unofficial) requirements for streaming 720p HD content on an HD-compatible box such as the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Roku box are 5Mbps or higher.
So, we need 5Mbps per scond. (Megabits [not bytes] per second)
8 bits = 1 byte
kilobit or kilobyte = 1,024. (Long story for another time on why it's not "1,000")
8 Megabits = 1 Megabyte (or 1,024,000 bytes)
So, streaming in 720p is roughly 5,120,000 bits or 640,000 bytes per second.
250GB = 256,000,000,000 bytes.
So, 256,000,000,000 / 640,000 = 400,000 seconds of use.
111.1 hours.
3.7 hours a days to use up 250GB. (Based on 30 day month.)
That's not too bad. Now what about 1080p?
1080p has a little over double the resolution of 720p. (We'll say 2.1x more)
So, first of all, you would need a 10-12 MBps connection, which most people don't have.
Then you are streaming aroun 1,344,000 bytes per second. Or little over a megabyte.
256,000,000,000 / 1,344,000 = 190,476 seconds.
52 hours of gaming a month. (Based on 30 days) Or 1.75 hours of gaming a day. Fine for the cusual user, but that's about it. I think most of us, spend more time than that gaming a day.
Now, keep in mind that this is just the bandwidth for streaming the video & sound feed. This doesn't take into accout the data streaming required for the controller input and any other data requirements, such as multiplayer data.
So that time limit of 1.75 hours a day is lower, probably closer to 90 minutes a day. Less if you download anything, or use the internet for anything else.
Currently Comcast's top tier of speed if you don't qualify for XFinity is 8mbps with an additional 8mbps boost for the first 20MB of download. Often times this scales upward of 20mbps if you have a more recent modem.
As for the video presentation, if you had uncompressed images at 1080p, yeah, it would definitely cause a meltdown with Comcast. On the other hand, do they really plan to offer uncompressed HD video? I just doubt they would offer that much bandwidth outward.
Don't take this as me playing devils advocate in favor of Comcast. I hate those jerks. I am actually pointing out that the OnLive service may not be offering true 1080p that you expect from say... a PS3.
And lets just be perfectly honest about it all... if you share your network connection through a router, you better be wired into it, and also it better have serious QoS enabled.
Knyte
2010 SLF Tag Champ*
Title: Curator Of The VGM
Joined: Nov 01 2006
Location: Here I am.
Posts: 6749
Posted:
Apr 08 2010 02:28 pm
Exactly, GPF.
This might be fine for causal gamers, but why would I want to play games in lesser quality or resoultion, when I can play them in 1080p High Def with Full Surround sound?
Or even higher resolutions on my PC, such as 1920x1200 or 2560x1600.
Godofhardcore
Joined: Feb 22 2010
Posts: 351
Posted:
Apr 08 2010 08:50 pm
The Phantom wants to have a word with you Onlive
Optimist With Doubts
Title: Titlating
Joined: Dec 17 2007
Posts: 5042
Posted:
Mar 01 2011 01:02 pm
Haven't heard much about onlive. Though I would share a video looking at it, with STEVEN RICHARDS of all people.
Andrew Man
Title: Is a Funklord
Joined: Jan 30 2007
Location: Annandale, VA
Posts: 5603
Posted:
Mar 01 2011 01:25 pm
Heh, I heard the company is doing better and better. Also, I heard Steam is releasing an update to be able to play Steam games on your TV with a gamepad. Lots of money to be made.
Heh, I heard the company is doing better and better. Also, I heard Steam is releasing an update to be able to play Steam games on your TV with a gamepad. Lots of money to be made.
"With big picture mode, gaming opportunities for Steam partners and customers become possible via PCs and Macs on any TV or computer display in the house."
Details regarding big picture mode are among the highlights Valve plans to share with developers and publishers in its partner meetings during GDC this week in San Francisco, Ca.
Andrew Man
Title: Is a Funklord
Joined: Jan 30 2007
Location: Annandale, VA
Posts: 5603
Posted:
Mar 01 2011 01:37 pm
I have a lot of faith in Valve and Steam, I am interested to see how this progresses.
The fact that Portal 2 is cross-platform between PS3 and PC is pretty groundbreaking.
