henke on 13/9/2014 at 07:57

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iPhones, iWatches, yada yada whatever. The most exciting iOS news this week, if you ask me, was Square Enix announcing that they'll be launching (http://toucharcade.com/2014/09/08/square-enix-announces-dive-in-for-japan/) a streaming service for iOS (out in Japan, next month) that'll let you play their console games on an iPad or iPhone. They'll be starting off by releasing a few Final Fantasy games, and other slower paced titles on the service, probably because of the issue of input lag. But hopefully in time, as the technology improves and bandwidth broadens, we'll be able to play more fast paced action titles using this technology as well. I've already got my PS4 dualshock hooked up to my iPad, wouldn't mind being able to play Sleeping Dogs or Tomb Raider on it. It'd be a lightweight console alternative for when I'm traveling.

Square Enix aren't the only ones betting big on streaming, Sony also currently have their PS Now service in Open Beta (in USA & Canada). Apparently (http://www.polygon.com/2014/7/31/5956931/how-well-does-playstation-now-work-on-ps4) IT WORKS, tho not quite perfectly. Also, in November they're releasing their (http://gizmodo.com/sony-xperia-z3-will-let-you-remote-play-ps4-games-1630036758) Sony Xperia Z3 phone which'll let you play your PS4 games remotely.

Bottomline:

Yeah, I think this is gonna be one of the BIGGER THINGS in gaming these next few years, next to VR. Being able to play the latest games at PS4-level quality on smartphones or your crappy old laptop or even just one of those new smart TVs is gonna be pretty neat. There are obvious hurdles to making this all a reality of course, input lag will need to be minimised, companies will probably charge enough for these rentals to give people an incentive to still want to, y'know, buy their games, and no doubt Sony and MS will still want to retain platform exclusivity on their stuff. Maybe PS Now will stream games to Sony smartphones and Sony Bravia TVs, but probably not PCs.

Thirith on 13/9/2014 at 10:29

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Of course! If something doesn't work the first time round, the ground should be salted, the earth should be scorched. If technology and design weren't up to it to begin with, it's obviously a horrible, horrible idea. Tsk, henke, you blue-eyed idealist, you.

henke on 13/9/2014 at 13:35

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I'm not sure my internet is up to it either, even though I've got 8Mbps ADSL. The PS Now FAQ says 5-12Mbps is needed, but I've seen youtube videos of people with 32Mbps connections complaining of input lag of about a quarter second. Then again the system is in beta.

Gryzemuis on 13/9/2014 at 13:38

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(http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc1925) RFC 1925, The Twelve Networking Truths. Truth number two.

There are three types of games.
The ones where things on your screen hardly change.
The ones where things change on your screen rapidly, and reaction time is not important.
The ones where things change on your screen rapidly, and reaction time is important.

Type one is like chess. You can play it on a streaming service. But you could also play it on a website. Http is good enough.

Type two is a movie. We already have that.

Type three is where it gets interesting. These are your typical console games. Shooters, action RPGs, MMOs, etc. To be able to react fast you need low input lag. The response-time client->server would be the same with a streaming service as with a regular online game. But slower than an offline game.

You also need to see the "state of the world" quickly. In a regular offline game, this means the time it takes to compute the state of the world, plus the time to display it on your screen. People already complain about slow response-time in regular games. With streaming services, this is gonna introduce unbearable lag. Because of the speed of light. And until we all have ~4 Gbps for uncompressed HDMI-over-the-Internet, you'll need compression and uncompression.

That means:
1) you move your mouse
2) signal is sent to the server
3) server recomputes state of the world and state of your screen
4) server computes the visuals on your screen
5) server compresses your screenshot
6) screenshot is sent over the Internet
7) your device uncompresses the screenshot
8) your devices shows the screenshot on your screen

Step 2) is the same with streaming and conventional online games.
Step 4) adds rendering time. Same as if the screenshot is rendered on your high-end PC or console. But faster than on your iPhone.
Step 5) and step 7) are added delay. Decompressing a 1920x1080 on cheap device might introduce more lag than you'd expect.
Step 6) depends on the speed of the Internet. Bandwidth will go up over the years. But delay (RTT, aka ping) will stay the same.

I think streaming will work for games that could just as well be done via a webpage or flash or HTML5. I think for faster games and better looking games, streaming will never work. Not efficiently, not cheap.

However, it is an Apple service. So I am sure people will buy it.

henke on 13/9/2014 at 14:57

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And do you believe the ones who complain about this are the majority, or even a significant portion, of gamers?

If it means getting to play console-quality games on a smartphone, or getting access to older otherwise inaccessible games on consoles with no backwards compatibility, I think most gamers will put up with a bit of lag. I don't expect streaming gaming to be perfect, but I don't think it needs to be either. It just needs to be good enough to be playable.