Wednesday, March 25th 2009
New On-Demand Gaming Platform Threatens to Kill Gaming PC Upgrades
We all regard PC games, as an entertainment medium, but spend hundreds to even thousands of Dollars regularly, to keep our PCs up to date, to be able to play the latest PC games. Imagine a medium that rids us of that, and we are able to consume PC gaming like any other content, like the TV or radio. Well, that the potential a new on-demand gaming platform holds - to make you never have to buy/upgrade a gaming PC again.
Called OnLive, the on-demand platform consists of a web service, an internet connection, and a thin-client, called "micro-console" that connects your input (game controllers), and output (monitor/TV/HDTV). You control the game - whichever you're subscribed to and playing - the client relays your input to the OnLive servers, that do the processing, including graphics rendering, and send back output to your client. The client then displays the output. Sounds familiar? Cloud computing? Exactly, but for PC gaming. The platform is conceptualized to be advanced-enough to handle any of today's games, Crysis included. The work-model of this platform is what makes it tick with any game, and is far more future-proof than the present mode of PC gaming (where people own expensive hardware that are in requirement of upgrades, the costs of buying games, buying gaming services separate).
For standard definition television quality, a broadband connection of at least 1.5 megabits per second is required. For HDTV resolution, a connection of at least 5 mbps is needed. The service uses patented algorithms that work to counter lag caused by network constraints. The technology is already gaining attention from major publishers, including EA, THQ, Codemasters, Ubisoft, Atari, Warner Bros., Take-Two, and Epic. People can buy or rent a game to play it, the usage fees are expected not to be much more than the subscription fees for Xbox Live.
Source:
Kokatu
Called OnLive, the on-demand platform consists of a web service, an internet connection, and a thin-client, called "micro-console" that connects your input (game controllers), and output (monitor/TV/HDTV). You control the game - whichever you're subscribed to and playing - the client relays your input to the OnLive servers, that do the processing, including graphics rendering, and send back output to your client. The client then displays the output. Sounds familiar? Cloud computing? Exactly, but for PC gaming. The platform is conceptualized to be advanced-enough to handle any of today's games, Crysis included. The work-model of this platform is what makes it tick with any game, and is far more future-proof than the present mode of PC gaming (where people own expensive hardware that are in requirement of upgrades, the costs of buying games, buying gaming services separate).
For standard definition television quality, a broadband connection of at least 1.5 megabits per second is required. For HDTV resolution, a connection of at least 5 mbps is needed. The service uses patented algorithms that work to counter lag caused by network constraints. The technology is already gaining attention from major publishers, including EA, THQ, Codemasters, Ubisoft, Atari, Warner Bros., Take-Two, and Epic. People can buy or rent a game to play it, the usage fees are expected not to be much more than the subscription fees for Xbox Live.
246 Comments on New On-Demand Gaming Platform Threatens to Kill Gaming PC Upgrades
Like others here have said, maybe one day this might be possible, but at present rates of internet speed around the world, this is impossible.
Not to mention how big of a problem bandwidth caps are. That'd kill something like this, quick.
Besides, a lousy 1280x720 resolution is the max they can offer? Even a 19" LCD has a higher native res than that, and I run most of my games at 1920x1200, so this concept seems spectacularly pointless.
I like upgrading my PC and trying to push the performance, it is at least half the fun of gaming with a PC. This console Idea takes all the fun out competitive PC mods and performance enhancements. Oh and don't forget all the industries and businesses that depend on our dollars for upgrading, tweaking, and enhancing our systems.
it wont work, to many people and its all the same someone has to have the hardware be it client or server
this is fail at least that phantom service was a good idea, heck i could just own a htcp and dl games from steam and direct to drive
people would need a good internet service
i like owning a system and games, i like being able to choose everything plus this is client server on a unimaginable scale
I really enjoy PC gaming. If this come out Ill be lost.Will it bring the girl in your avy to her knees? :D
this is a great idea, but might not work... then again it might, which would be awesome. Still... sad to see the PC gaming go.
This makes me sad. All joking aside. I'm really depressed to read this.
They have a supercomputer
I dial into it with what ever download rate I have.
They do all the rendering, and I play my game?
For one, the tech works just fine. Incoming signal would be the equivalent of a live HD video, we can find these all the time. Outgoing signal would be the incredibly basic and tiny inputs from your controller to the host. Not much else.
This was done with a PS3 over wireless to transmit Crysis, it worked perfectly there with a 54mbps connection.
Also, this would likely be done with a server farm of highly optimized GPU clusters. You dial in for a game, the server fires up, and all it needs to do is send the image signal after it processes and renders everything.
This is a console killer, no doubt. No need to use em aside from glorified BD players, and sad excuses for a PC with DLC.
Speaking of DLC, that is what will keep the PC alive when this is released. Nothing can compare to the freedom and moddability of a PC, not to mention, they'll be around due to the business sector anyways. On top of that, developers will be releasing their games to load into a server farm, and will be easily portable to PC (comparatively being a single server, no big deal).
I'd imagine they'll have issues with laggy input response, but at the millisecond level. Possibly the occasional server crash interrupting your game, (unless they have a kick-ass failover system like the ones i build). Then there's the lack of doing anything resembling personalization, unless they give you a vHDD to store things on that it can access when you load a game. Even so, you get save games, but I wouldn't imagine they would allow you to DL a 500mb add-on to your Fallout 3, STALKER, CoD, etc etc etc.
No worries for PC gaming. This might actually help it out as it will get devs back to coding x86, instead of consoles.
just like en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Phantom_(game_system)
And there is some algorirthm to get rid of "lag"... somehow I dont think that it will get rid of lag for, say, CSS players who can tell a major difference between their mouse at 8ms delay and 2 ms delay.
If its cheap I will buy one just to try it... then I would try to take it apart and overclock it :P... 1mbps faster at 1.4V WHOOO!