I'll believe it when I see it. I don't think it is going to work anywhere near as well as they say it will.
TurtleCrusher
Lifer
- Apr 20, 2008
- 10,067
- 990
- 126
http://videogames.yahoo.com/fe...soles-obsolete/1299562
Even yahoo said burnout and crysis were good to play on it. Hopefully this does take over a good portion of the gaming community. I'm sick to death of console game prices.
Even yahoo said burnout and crysis were good to play on it. Hopefully this does take over a good portion of the gaming community. I'm sick to death of console game prices.
What I'm wondering is, when you play an hour a day, at 5mb/s, you're burning through 67GB of bandwith a month. Try gaming two hours a day. I'm not sure, but I think my isp is going to shut down my internetconnection when I use over 100GB a month. Also, MasterTactician is talking about pooled resources. How does this work? Why would servers suddenly become better at running games then desktop pc's? They have lots more cpu-processing power, but how about videocards? Correct me if I'm wrong, but for someone to play Crysis, 1 videocard is needed. Can you actually 'pool' videocards together? I think, that if 1000 people were to play games through Onlive, they'd need a decent amount of servers, with 500-1000gpu's in them?
NickelPlate
Senior member
- Nov 9, 2006
- 652
- 13
- 81
^
Pretty much sums it up for me. And even if it does actually work as well as they say in the real world (not just their controlled test environment), they still have to sell the concept to the buying public. Other online services like Direct2Drive were supposed to revolutionize the gaming industry, that didn't happen.
They aren't hiding this issue. It was in their conference and may even be on their main website (I may be wrong, I'm too lazy to check). They're trying to work with the ISPs on this potential issue.
Anyone who hasn't watched the conference, read the info, or read articles/blogs about people trying the demo setups at GDC should do so before making any comments. I see a lot of things on here that are at least half covered already somewhere else.
I believe they said they dont even have any GPUs at all in their servers - everything is apparently run in some kind of software emulation, which makes me question the eventual quality of the games when they actually release the service and arent just showing off a tech demo.
AdamK47
Lifer
- Oct 9, 1999
- 15,675
- 3,529
- 136
Something somewhere has to be rendering these frames and audio streams. That simple fact seems to escape people. How can something like this even be financially possible? You can't just throw Crysis on a single server and expect multiple people to play off of that server. It's a very complex game that requires not only substantial CPU power, but substantial GPU power. The monthly charge would have to be astronomical in order to sustain a business like this. Not only that but you have the inherent problem of delivering the frames and audio streams cleanly and fast enough over the Internet. Compressing the frames and audio in real time would also take time and resources. I don't know of any magical spells that can eliminate lag. I do know of a lag reducing balm that can be spread on the inside of network ports, but that hasn't received government approval for use yet.
PingSpike
Lifer
- Feb 25, 2004
- 21,756
- 600
- 126
I don't see how this could possibly work at all. It would introduce so much lag you'd wish you were playing a regular game on a 14.4k modem. You will beg for your "expensive" gaming PC back.
In fact, I'm so confident that this will totally fucking fail that I'm not even concerned about it.
PC hardware has never been cheaper...broadband is still fairly terrible and expensive. They can put as many super computers on their side as they want...compression takes time. Even if you do no compression and the user has enough end bandwidth: You're still squeezing data through a shitty cable modem connection with latency way WAY higher then your monitor cable would EVER have.
I bet this would blow ass even if you had fiber.
In fact, I'm so confident that this will totally fucking fail that I'm not even concerned about it.
PC hardware has never been cheaper...broadband is still fairly terrible and expensive. They can put as many super computers on their side as they want...compression takes time. Even if you do no compression and the user has enough end bandwidth: You're still squeezing data through a shitty cable modem connection with latency way WAY higher then your monitor cable would EVER have.
I bet this would blow ass even if you had fiber.
NickelPlate
Senior member
- Nov 9, 2006
- 652
- 13
- 81
Forgot to mention also that if successful it will undoubtedly spawn competitive services that offer that same thing. This will split up the availability of games so that if you want to play alot of different titles then you'll have to have multiple accounts and a stupid hardware box for every service that you subscribe too.
And what about game settings? Are they going to allow each user to tailor the game settings to his/her liking? Or just cram whatever they feel is best down everyone's throat. No thanks.
IF they manage to make it work on a global scale, and IF they manage to convince the public-at-large to buy into it, and those are BIG ifs, then it will probably have about as much impact on the gaming community as Steam. Not insignificant, but not revolutionary either. And they'll have to have offer more than just the same stuff you can buy at a retail shop or through some other service.
That's one of the reasons Steam has done so well because Valve makes killer games that people *really* want to play.
And what about game settings? Are they going to allow each user to tailor the game settings to his/her liking? Or just cram whatever they feel is best down everyone's throat. No thanks.
IF they manage to make it work on a global scale, and IF they manage to convince the public-at-large to buy into it, and those are BIG ifs, then it will probably have about as much impact on the gaming community as Steam. Not insignificant, but not revolutionary either. And they'll have to have offer more than just the same stuff you can buy at a retail shop or through some other service.
That's one of the reasons Steam has done so well because Valve makes killer games that people *really* want to play.
Modelworks
Lifer
- Feb 22, 2007
- 16,240
- 7
- 76
The only way I see this working is if everyone that used it had fiber with very short routes to the cloud.
It isn't really a new idea , people have talked about just installing dumb terminals with all applications and the OS streamed via network. If anyone has ever done VNC or remote desktop, it is the same thing, but with gaming.
Might would work for RTS games.
It isn't really a new idea , people have talked about just installing dumb terminals with all applications and the OS streamed via network. If anyone has ever done VNC or remote desktop, it is the same thing, but with gaming.
Might would work for RTS games.
Originally posted by: hans030390
I thought I recalled them saying the opposite...that they do have GPUs.
Yeah nevermind, I misinterpreted something that was said.
JoshGuru7
Golden Member
- Aug 18, 2001
- 1,020
- 1
- 0
Put me down in the highly skeptical camp. You can play RPGs at lower resolutions and lower framerates on mediocre systems just fine, but the games that really benefit from a great setup for performance reasons (FPS genre) are the same games that also benefit from very low latency. I can't believe that people are going to be ok adding even 50ms of lag to online games and I'll be surprised if it isn't triple that amount.
I'm actually surprised that it is getting as much press as it is before anybody has a chance to look at anything but a tech demo. Was the Phantom console scandal really that long ago?
I'm actually surprised that it is getting as much press as it is before anybody has a chance to look at anything but a tech demo. Was the Phantom console scandal really that long ago?
Albatross
Platinum Member
- Jul 17, 2001
- 2,344
- 8
- 81
Well Itried it today, and iam very impressed there wasn't any lag with my 120mbit connection, and I like the idea that ican try a 30min trail without having to install the game, sure icant adjust any graphics but for the sake of trying the game its totaly worth it. hope they will have more games in there libary.
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