Streaming games.

Cryrsis on the NIT? Not yet, but maybe very soon, and at full detail, I might add.

I wouldn't be surprised if we see open source clients that can attach to services like this, as there is a linux community CRYING OUT for commercial games, and for a small fee, it is a real possibility for them to get those games.

The coolest part of this tech is that it seems that any device that can stream video can access the content. A boon for low powered systems.

Go fishing:
http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/25/v...-demonstrated/

What do you think?


}:^)~
YARR!

Sgt. Corrupt

There is one such thing already. This is basically streaming video + some kind of remote desktop overlay. I really doubt there will be open source clients, but there are already built x86/64 Linux ones with the other tech.

Agreed. This is a tweaked remote desktop environment, the tweak being that the 'desktop' is located in a data-centre appropriated for the task of game processing. This is a very important distinction that brings with it a multitude of possibilities.

For this particular service yes, I doubt we'll see open source clients. But the idea is an infectious one, and with services like Amazon EC2 popping up everywhere, it's easy to imagine that other companies will follow suit and appeal to the growing linux marketshare with similar services. And it need not be limited to games, but other services that require large computational horsepower as well. The interface (streaming media) could not be more ubiquitous, making it ideal for nearly any device with a decent network connection.

Another interesting possibility is distributed apps that would function much more efficiently in a data-centre rather than on a single computer. The idea of photo-realistic ray-tracing and global illumination may be more feasible as a cloud service than specialised hardware in the end-users system (in the short term, anyway).

OnLive is a bold step in the thin-clients evolution that seems to be a well targeted and well engineered service. I fully hope and expect the OSS community to create derivative works based upon this idea and continue the evolution of this exciting meme.


YARR!
}:^)~

Master Corrupt

onLive stated they use a proprietary streaming format, so that's not too encouraging. Also, the low-q service is a 480p at 1.5Mbps stream which is almost certainly out of range for the N8x0. The RX51 will have better chances, but unless onLive ports their stuff to ARM, tough luck.

PS. Also, crysis might not be the best example, as network lag/wifi quality might influence it quite a bit. Slower paced games might be better off (turn based games, boardgames, RTS even, etc).

For games and sheer number-crunching it's not that good actually as you have to do all your stuff on CPU. You can have mighty lot of CPU-s, of course, but that a very brute-force approach. I believe onLive uses custom hardware for this exact reason.

IMHO The 'real' solution to this is specialized cloud services, but graphics card virtualization has to advance quite a bit to make this feasible. GPU/CPU unification might also be a long term possibility.

Crysis was running fine on an eee pc with the other service (it wasn't HD though). Can't remember its name but there was a thread for it.

Agreed. Interestingly enough there are services that are popping up similar to EC2 appealing to specialised markets. Even Amazon AWS themselves have evolved the system at a break-neck pace to meet the demands of the users. Of late, they have included a simple relational DB engine, persistent IPs, 'cloud-front' services for lower latency streaming, etc. I would imagine that they will continue to add features to the system based upon demand, and as bandwidth becomes larger, we will see OnLive-like services popping up on this and other types of cloud-computers.

In short, if 'game-streaming' is a high-demand product, I would think that other companies (and communities) would enter with their own products.

The rise of Linux based handhelds and netbooks only expand the market, providing larger incentives to port these seemingly simple streaming interface to these devices. I'm not talking specifically about OnLive, but a hypothetical scenario of other players offering similar products.

What about an Adobe-flash interface to one of these streaming services (again, not OnLive, but a similar service)? Now access would be expanded to include many different systems, without the need to upgrade or install anything. The flash platform may not have the adequate lag requirements for a fast-paced game, but other tasks may be suited just fine.


For games, this indeed might have to happen!


YARR!
}:^)~

Cpat'n Corurpt

I'd like to read about this!


}:^)~
YARR!

C-to-the-a-to-the-p-p-p-p-y

http://www.tweaktown.com/pressreleas..._pc/index.html

Awwwesome! This is precisely what I'm talking about! Additionally, this company has linux clients as they recognise the growing market, and sells the hardware for data-centres.

This is great for any startup that is looking to do similar things as OnLive and beyond! I wouldn't be surprised if more companies like this started sprouting up.

Thanks for the links! It's going to be an interesting future indeed.



YARR!
}:^)~

Senator Corrupt