Hasn't given up on the tech, though. http://www.bit-tech.net/news/gaming/2015/08/14/square-enix-dive-in-dead/1
I have to ask what the draw of game streaming is supposed to be? Every streaming service so far seems to have input lag, input lag is the unforgivable sin of video games and I don't see how streamed games will ever get around that no matter how fast the connection is.
I have a tablet 'ere which cost £50. On that £50 tablet, I can stream games of a complexity it would take a £500+ PC to render. That's the draw. It allows devices which would otherwise lack the grunt to play big-name AAA titles. Sure, it comes with trade-offs: it's typically 720p resolution with a few compression artefacts, there's lag, and so forth - but for many people it's that or don't play the games at all. Then, of course, the same technology drives in-home streaming. Keep your noisy-bugger PC in one room, stick a low-power passively-cooled device in another, and play your games on the big-screen TV (or on the bog on your tablet) quickly and easily with a minimum loss of fidelity. It's pretty great tech, to be frank. Early days yet, though - and I seem to recall writing an article about a means of reducing the input lag issue. T'was Microsoft, wasn't it... I'll go raid the archives. EDIT: Ah, here we go: DeLorean, a technology developed by Microsoft which pre-renders and distributes frames ahead of the user's input then discards the ones it doesn't need. The result: even high latency can be disguised - up to 250ms pings, the paper claimed at the time. I'd forgotten about that!
Nvidias Shield with its grid based streaming is the closest to pc game streaming thats been done. Its free for now but can not see it staying free once the end of september comes. It has a tiny selection of games. Nvidia game stream still requires your pc to do the bulk of the work in the first place. And have a nvidia shield console as well. Xbox one might be able to stream windows 10 pc games but that feature has not really been explained fully by microsoft. Theres a few kickstarter ones but they are all still using your current £500 + pc as a stream box. The options to fully remove the PC as a requirement are strictly limited to Nvidia Shield last I checked.
Erm... OnLive ran for five years before Sony acquired it and shut it down, and that was cloud-powered streaming to any compatible client device (its own micro-console and mobiles, mainly). Pre-dates Nvidia Grid, which is the technology behind the Shield streaming, too. Then there's Gaikai, which is much the same story as OnLive: PC-free streaming to compatible client devices from server farms, and was bought by Sony. Gaikai's tech now powers PlayStation Now, which is a currently active cloud-streaming service that doesn't require a PC. Then, according to Wikipedia, there's GameNow, GameFly Streaming, G-cluster, Gface, Kalydo, Leap Computing, PlayGiga, PlayKey, LiquidSky, and Turbo.net Games, all of which are active cloud-powered game-streaming services. Plus InstantAction, Big Fish Games, and Playcast Media Systems, which have been discontinued. TL;DR: No.
On a tablet which of the above can be used? Id like to be able to do it is the reason I ask. ( Since you did mension the tablet. I am aware of the playstation streaming system tried it myself touch expensive really its also ps4 / sony tv only.) Id love to be able to stream pc games onto my tablet without the use of a pc. But last I checked there was no options outside of Nvidia shield.
Did you look at the Wikipedia page? GameNow, Gface, Leap Computing, PlayKey, and Turbo.net Games are all compatible with Windows Vista and newer running on tablets; Leap Computing and Turbo.net Games are compatible with iOS tablets and mobiles; Leap Computing is compatible with Android tablets and mobiles, as well as Windows Phone devices. OnLive was Windows and Android tablet compatible, too, before it was discontinued. This is all from the Wikipedia page I linked to, y'know.
They'll let you on bit-tech, but not Wikipedia? That's the oddest filter list I've ever heard of, and I used to sysadmin in a girls' school.
Our sysadmin blocks all direct links to wiki. Bit tech you can access if you go by the forum address side of it. You can not directly access the main website.
I can't help but feel that's only a draw in theory rather than in practice. When it comes down to it, that's still a £50 tablet so the screen will be tiny and the controls will be terrible, plus you need either a subscription to a service or to have that £500PC to the tablet's rendering. At that point I'm wondering why anyone would bother again, spend the £500 and have the proper experience. If it ever takes off you can bet game streaming will become hideously expensive as publishers split themselves off into first party streaming services Origin/Uplay/Battlenet style too.
My £50 tablet has HDMI out and USB OTG, so I can connect any USB (or Bluetooth) keyboard, mouse, or gamepad, should I find on-screen controls annoying. As for why anyone would bother: not everyone *has* £500, or even £200 for a proper console. Plus there's the "play on the bog/in the bath/on the train/while waiting at the doctor about your eyestrain caused by peering at the tablet's tiny screen" aspect. Try doing that with a £500 gaming PC, let me know how you get on!
A couple of cool times with game streaming for me: - I was terrible stuck on a Bloodborne boss. I struggled with the game incessantly (to the point I binned it) but I got a friend in via the PS4's "share play" feature to beat the boss for me. - A different friend broke his leg. I lent him an ancient laptop (duo core, 4 gig of ram) and set up steam in-home streaming. He wasn't playing CS:GO, but he was able to enjoy most of his singleplayer games without fuss. Both of these are think are really fantastic, another one was that I was really into was playing my friends PS4 games to try them out without owning them myself, but i'm not sure how legitimate that really is a use for the thing. It meant we could play single player PS4 horror games together from different ends of the country. Game streaming is a really cool thing, we're just not quite there yet.
2-3 years off having the bandwidth readily available and maybe cheap enough to realistically stream all titles. In 1st world countrys anyway. In other places your talking decades. The amount of places with realiable WIFI is not exactly huge outside of London. And that will have to become alot more available and faster before streaming for many will become a reality 3g / 4g streaming is a lost cause due to bandwidth caps.
Sure you do. The tablet, for a start, may well be the only computing device the home has - and, as I'm sure you're aware, having a computing device is pretty much a requirement for modern living, and makes life a hell of a lot easier. As for the subscription fees, OnLive started life at £9.99 a month and dropped to £4.95. That's a one-off £50 for the tablet (which won't need upgrading any time soon, unlike a £500 gaming PC) and £60 a year for the subscription. So, year one you're spending £110 - that's £90 less than the console (which you couldn't use for general computing tasks, aside from somewhat awkward web browsing) and £390 less than the PC - and neither of those come with any games. Year two, there's only £60 to pay - although, I'll grant you, that's £60 more than year two with the PC or console assuming you still haven't bought any games. I guess you could play F2P and freeware titles on the PC, and... I dunno, demos on the console? I find it surprising that you don't believe someone lacks £200 discretionary income for a one-off purchase but could find £50 plus £5 a month. After all, isn't that how BrightHouse and other rip-off merchants work? People who can't afford a £300 TV instead put down £50 deposit and pay £3 a month for the rest of their lives at a hojillion per cent interest?
