[Merged] Onlive - On-Demand / Streaming / Cloud-Based Gaming Technology

[rasmasyean]

No really, I'm sorry I didn't understand that post . I'm not trying to insult you, I stick a smilie after an insult just incase they're not recieved properly . I love a good discussion.

I don't get what the NY Times has to do with anything. Could you explain it again?

The adpotion on internet based media as a service model.

 

[cathyy]

I'm honestly really sceptical about this mainly due to latency issues. I don't see how they are able to stream the image to the user, get the user's input, process the new image, then send it back to the user while maintaining a smooth playable experience for the player.

I mean, people are already complaining about the latency while FPS gaming with a wireless internet connection or with a wireless mouse. Maybe this might work in South Korea where the entire country is hooked up like a gigantic LAN network, but no, not in the US.

 

[bobertoq]

I'm honestly really sceptical about this mainly due to latency issues. I don't see how they are able to stream the image to the user, get the user's input, process the new image, then send it back to the user while maintaining a smooth playable experience for the player.

I mean, people are already complaining about the latency while FPS gaming with a wireless internet connection or with a wireless mouse. Maybe this might work in South Korea where the entire country is hooked up like a gigantic LAN network, but no, not in the US.

The video compression techniques are able to compress the data up to 200x. Pretty much, your latency will relate to how far away you are from server. Even if you are hundreds of miles away it will stream as smooth as TV is streamed to your television.

When you press a button, it sends that message to the server, at the speed of light. It computes the next frame as fast (or even faster because they have better servers) as it would locally on an Xbox 360 or a PS3. It then sends the next frame to your computer or television at the speed of light again. This whole process takes just milliseconds.

That's what I've been told anyway

 

[rasmasyean]

.

When you press a button, it sends that message to the server, at the speed of light. It computes the next frame as fast (or even faster because they have better servers) as it would locally on an Xbox 360 or a PS3. It then sends the next frame to your computer or television at the speed of light again. This whole process takes just milliseconds.

That's what I've been told anyway

That is incorrect. First of all, if you get down to the minute timing, the speed of light in a vacuum is faster than in glass or copper.
Second, your data (bundled in packets) is relayed by various computers called routers (good ones, not the ones at Best Buy) which pretty much introduces most of the delays. You do not have a straight fiber-optic line to an OnLive server. The furthur away you are from a location usually corresponds to the number of random "jumps" your packets take to get to the destination.

http://computer.howstuffworks.com/internet-infrastructure.htm

 

[rasmasyean]

I'm honestly really sceptical about this mainly due to latency issues. I don't see how they are able to stream the image to the user, get the user's input, process the new image, then send it back to the user while maintaining a smooth playable experience for the player.

I mean, people are already complaining about the latency while FPS gaming with a wireless internet connection or with a wireless mouse. Maybe this might work in South Korea where the entire country is hooked up like a gigantic LAN network, but no, not in the US.

I think you will have to be close to the servers to get a decent performance with twitch games. However, I think they choose those popular titles mostly for marketing purposes to hype the product. They will have other types of games that aren’t as latency dependent like MMO’s, Role Playing, strategy, puzzle, and the social services that go along with it. Don’t be surprised if one day they sport World of Warcraft or something. It’s entirely possible for them to do this and it would actually be a pretty good lure even if they take a loss on it considering how popular this online title is.

 

[Huntn]

Onlive was featured in the Oct09 PCGamer. If it works as advertised it will be miraculous and a exciting new option for those with any ole intel Mac. I just signed up for the beta, with the intent of using my MacBookPro, cause it would be nice to see this service upfront.

Speed of Electricity/Wikipedia

In contrast, electromagnetic wave propagation is much faster, and depends on the dielectric constant of the material. In a vacuum the wave travels at the speed of light and almost that fast in air. Propagation speed is affected by insulation, such that in an unshielded copper conductor it is about 96% of the speed of light, while in a typical coaxial cable it is about 66% of the speed of light [2].

Even at 66%, electricity is still FAST! Regarding comments regarding electronic input traveling at the speed of light, if it was just you hooked up directly to a server, it would be fast, but what about the internet, conjestion, servers, processors, dropped packets, and other obstacles to speed? I've played lots of online games, and they tend to experience slow downs enough to intermittantly interrupt game play. Think about a service like this, especially if it takes off. Will they be able to keep adequate throughput?

 

[rasmasyean]

Here's a taste.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-w56hQxmnY

http://www.iis.net/media/experiencesmoothstreaming1080p

 

[soms]

This won't take off, at least for mainstream gamers, for quite some time. We are talking 5+ years, until the US has internet speeds like that of the rest of the world.
Onlive may work for simple games, but games like CoD, WAR, etc will not work at the resolution/fps that people are used to playing them at. Not only that, but you will EASILY go over a 250gb cap in a week or two.

 

[rasmasyean]

This won't take off, at least for mainstream gamers, for quite some time. We are talking 5+ years, until the US has internet speeds like that of the rest of the world.
Onlive may work for simple games, but games like CoD, WAR, etc will not work at the resolution/fps that people are used to playing them at. Not only that, but you will EASILY go over a 250gb cap in a week or two.

There's also this technology that looks promissing. Thought it's Windows only and will likely stay that way.

http://vimeo.com/2812472

http://www.dabcc.com/article.aspx?id=9284

 

[rasmasyean]

There's also this technology that looks promissing. Thought it's Windows only and will likely stay that way.

http://vimeo.com/2812472

[URL="http://www.dabcc.com/article.aspx?id=9284"]http://www.dabcc.com/article.aspx?id=9284[/URL]

Actually, scratch that for now. It looked like Microsoft pulled the plug on that at the last minute for RTM and pissed a whole bunch of ppl off. One guy says that he was going to purchase 1,000's of servers but now has to scrap the entire project. LOL

Horray for MicroShaft!

http://blogs.msdn.com/rds/archive/2009/06/19/changes-to-remoting-model-in-rdp-7.aspx

 

[apfhex]

Not only that, but you will EASILY go over a 250gb cap in a week or two.

Agreed about internet speeds, I think latency will really be an issue regardless of how much they deny it.

But as for DL caps - I've been steaming HD episodes of Lost on Netflix starting from season 1 earlier this month (halfway through season 4 now), which are rather high quality (better than Comcast HD ), and in addition to my regular internet activities (large software updates, torrents, web browsing, music streaming, etc.) I've only had 8GB/day as my peak and only 72GB total for the first half of September. Unless OnLive is going to be using significantly more bandwidth than something like Netflix, I don't think it will be an issue, well... at least for me. But I don't see myself really using the service anyway; I think for the most part people will stick to their consoles and gaming PCs and OnLive will find a niche somewhere.