OnLive's Cloud-Based Game Console Ships Dec 2

[eddieroolz]

I think these things have a great deal of potential, only if the infrastructure was more evenly distributed. As long as we still have people in the continent who are forced to use satellite or dial-up these online distribution schemes are under constant uncertainty.

 

[rantoc]

In the distant future this might be a good when the infrastructure is there to support it but today i don't think this service can provide any benefit at all against a descent-PC, there are several reasons for that.

Firstly, the internet is somewhat unstable, and seeing how much dilema the latest ubi's drm have causes (forces the user to stay online to play a singleplayer game) its not that hard to se what is going to happen at times when you need a active connection AND steam the video as well. No thx!

Secound, from what iwe seen the services render quality is weak to medicree at best compared to about any pc with a descent discrete gfx card. I guess it has its scarse uses thoo, play a game on a weak laptop when no real computer is available is one posibillity and be ready to leave the fun factor of the session in the hands of the internet.

Untill the issues above are fixed as well as the responce times i wouldnt recommend anyone to use it unless they dont have a chooice!

 

[guanyu210379]

I like this onlive idea, which means I don't have to upgrade my PC too often and I can save my hdd capacity for something else, since I don't have to install those games physically.
Another good stuff is that it will be only one platform, no more multiple gaming consoles beside PC at home.

I am just a bit worried about :
Potential problem num. 1 : Customers's internet bandwidth
Potential problem num. 2 : Total handling or serving capacity, even it is already on cloud.
Potential problem num. 3 : Just like DRM, you can not play without internet connection or any internet interuption. Some areas of the world still don't have decent internet connection nomatter how expensive you are willing pay.
Potential problem num. 4 : How about those hackers?

 

[mirazh1976]

Power to the People! Fu*K the Cloud.
Decentralize or loose your freedom to HAVE any choice or control online and in real life.

They will hack you and blame you for it. Turning your will & opinions against each other when neither you or I are to blame. Making you choose a centralized cloud service in the name of security & peace. All the while those who control it will still corrupt the databases of the cloud to limit your rise within the system. Politics, Greed, Corruption are built into the cloud. There is a reason why they unleash it on the youth & gamers first. Entertainment. Cloud delivered entertainment is the doorway to doom. Open your minds people, the cloud is a BAD idea. Absolute power corrupts absolutely. One day, the internet will not be the place it used to be if we let these corporations continue to monopolize on these cloud based services.

There was once a time, when our economy was FAR MORE STABLE, when Monopoly's were persecuted and broken up. This was a GOOD thing. Now we have small businesses dying left and right & more freedoms & liberties taken away every damn bill that gets passed though our government. Are you paying attention to the topics that matter when YOU are a grown adult who needs to be responsible for feeding you family or yourself? And come to find that a bill in senate "Senate Bill S 510 Food Safety Modernization Act" RIGHT NOW is being pushed through that will TAX &/or outright SHUTDOWN your ability to HAVE a GARDEN & GROW your own damn vegetables? It may not matter to you now, but ULTIMATELY it does matter. Monopolies are a bad thing and the cloud is built on the same principals.

Say no to dumb terminals for the end user, say no to gaming that will not let a purchaser setup his/her own server. Say no to social network sites that collect all your data and sell it off to marketers and or government to find trends in society to write laws and corporate business regulations that will oppress your liberties of choice & self sustainability in the market place and at home.

The cloud is a networking structure meant to oppress your freedoms & control your behavior.
If you support the cloud, you are also supporting your own demise in freedom & choice, it is that simple. Say no to self destructive behavior.

Power to the People! YOU & I
Fu*K the Cloud!

 

[Griffolion]

[citation][nom]otacon72[/nom]The distant future of gaming maybe. So what happens when you exceed your cap and your ISP threatens to suspened your account?[/citation]

Thats what i was thinking. While people can take advantage of this now its limited to those only with very good internet connections. I'm not sure about any other country but in the UK there are significant numbers of households whom's internet connections won't be up to scratch for this to work.

Its a great concept though.
[citation][nom]mirazh1976[/nom]Power to the People! Fu*K the Cloud.Decentralize or loose your freedom to HAVE any choice or control online and in real life.They will hack you and blame you for it. Turning your will & opinions against each other when neither you or I are to blame. Making you choose a centralized cloud service in the name of security & peace. All the while those who control it will still corrupt the databases of the cloud to limit your rise within the system. Politics, Greed, Corruption are built into the cloud. There is a reason why they unleash it on the youth & gamers first. Entertainment. Cloud delivered entertainment is the doorway to doom. Open your minds people, the cloud is a BAD idea. Absolute power corrupts absolutely. One day, the internet will not be the place it used to be if we let these corporations continue to monopolize on these cloud based services.There was once a time, when our economy was FAR MORE STABLE, when Monopoly's were persecuted and broken up. This was a GOOD thing. Now we have small businesses dying left and right & more freedoms & liberties taken away every damn bill that gets passed though our government. Are you paying attention to the topics that matter when YOU are a grown adult who needs to be responsible for feeding you family or yourself? And come to find that a bill in senate "Senate Bill S 510 Food Safety Modernization Act" RIGHT NOW is being pushed through that will TAX &/or outright SHUTDOWN your ability to HAVE a GARDEN & GROW your own damn vegetables? It may not matter to you now, but ULTIMATELY it does matter. Monopolies are a bad thing and the cloud is built on the same principals.Say no to dumb terminals for the end user, say no to gaming that will not let a purchaser setup his/her own server. Say no to social network sites that collect all your data and sell it off to marketers and or government to find trends in society to write laws and corporate business regulations that will oppress your liberties of choice & self sustainability in the market place and at home.The cloud is a networking structure meant to oppress your freedoms & control your behavior.If you support the cloud, you are also supporting your own demise in freedom & choice, it is that simple. Say no to self destructive behavior.Power to the People! YOU & I Fu*K the Cloud![/citation]

Whoa, slow down Mario Savio.

 

[rantoc]

"They have servers big difference between a PC that has a quad core with 4gb and a server that has 32 cores and 28GB."

It indeed are if 30-40 peeps are supposed to share the resources on that server, compared to any normal PC you get more out of it that that "share" of the server especially if you add in the computational power of a discrete gfx card to the pc.

Its so many disadvantages to have a cloud server render the gfx for anyone who have a machine of equal or better hardware than the "share" they get.

A typical scenario - a multi player game (p2p or serverbased).
When you hit the shoot key, you send it to the cloud server where the client processes it, then it sends that to the game server, who responds to the new key input, send the new updated state to the client which resides on the cloud server who then have to render the gfx, compress it to whatever compressed format it streams (likely a fast but lossy one = lost details) and send it to the gamer. Instead of client to server, back to client and render and done. What kind of lag do you think it produces if you have say 100ms to the cloud that then has say 100ms to the game server... Many would think "100 ms which is ok" since its reported in game while its in fact 200ms net alone then add server compression times that of course also eats of alloted "share" of cloud power...

Great for everyone? *holding the laughter*

 

[g00fysmiley]

i think it s a good service but at this point its nto a viable replacment for gaming pc's however if you cannot afford a gaming pc then its a good viable alternative the lag will be there btu 100ms isn't super bad unless ou're trying to play an fps against other peopel then it would be a disadvantage. but i'm sure they'll find a way around or not but i'll keep my own rig for now 😀

 

[Guest]

Yes, this will be the eventual future. Yes, there will be bandwidth complaints. These complaints will be followed by bandwidth restrictions. Then new companies appear that utilize new technology to greatly increase bandwidth (Google is working on it). Bandwidths leap from megabytes down and up to gigabytes down and up. The cloud comes into its own at that point when people have the bandwidth to handle super computer level processing power. SkyNet ftw.

 

[arlandi]

what if onlive put a video advertising while the game loads a new level, and offer their service to customers for free?

 

[andrewfy]

[citation][nom]otacon72[/nom]The distant future of gaming maybe. So what happens when you exceed your cap and your ISP threatens to suspened your account?[/citation]

There's a great interview from SC'10 that talks about how these types of applications, and 100 more like it are the inevitable result of progressing out of the IT stone age:
http/www.dailycircuitry.com/2010/11/renaissance-of-it.html

 

[gallidorn]

It is very typical that the majority of people criticizing this service have never actually tried it!!!

Rather than criticizing things for theoretical reasons, why not try it first and then comment.

I've tried Onlive on Mac & PC (new and old equipment), and the experience has been entertaining on all accounts.

Yes, slow internet connections can be a problem, but the same argument can be made about on-line gaming on PC, Mac, Linux, Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, etc. If you don't have a good connection, the gameplay will be affected.

The service currently only runs at 720p resolution, but this is still better than Nintendo Wii (who managed to sell millions of units). At a price point of $99 for the console (tv adapter), controller and a game, the Onlive console package should be a hit this holiday season.

The internet will not crash, and that is crazy for anyone to assume this. If you don't have at least a 5Mb internet connection, don't bother trying this service. That is the bare minimum and it will not allow you to play if your connection does not meet those requirements. If you have a wireless connection, you are better off bridging your ethernet & wireless connections to bypass having to use their buggy beta version.

This service is good for casual gamers who like to try before they buy, and people who want instant access to their games. I use an XBOX 360 controller with Onlive and it recognizes and maps the buttons automatically after plugged in. This is great, because the button mapping is identical to games on the XBOX 360, so there is not learning curve.

The other complaint that I've seen is not having a physical copy of the games purchased, but even if onlive offered downloads, they would have to have additional servers to perform this task. This would no doubt increase the cost of everything and would bring you back to the dilemma of needing a computer that could run the game. This would be counter productive to the onlive service, so I understand why they do not offer it. Since the onlive service is now free, the only risk of losing something you purchased, is if they fail and go out of business.

 

[rantoc]

[citation][nom]andrewfy[/nom]There's a great interview from SC'10 that talks about how these types of applications, and 100 more like it are the inevitable result of progressing out of the IT stone age:http/www.dailycircuitry.com/2010 [...] of-it.html[/citation]

You mean more like going back to the real computer stone-age when a server did all the work and all the user had was a terminal? The computer stone-age was a centralized mainframe that had to do everything and only send the output to the terminal and the terminal send all input back to the server for processing. Pretty much what is happening with today "stone age model" but its named cloud computing instead!

So please.. keep all the "we are making progress" to yourself. The only progress is that the companies have it easier to manage things since they only need to maintain a single install and hardware compatibility is much easier like the consoles.. one system spec... what about the concept of choice? Choose what hardware you want and have the possibility to use it!

Progress? *LMAO*

 

[rantoc]

[citation][nom]gallidorn[/nom]It is very typical that the majority of people criticizing this service have never actually tried it!!!Rather than criticizing things for theoretical reasons, why not try it first and then comment[/citation]

Many people have in fact tried this service and found it.. lacking! Slow response times, weak grafix ect.. Its fun you compare the service with the weakest hardware console WII, is that the "amazing and fluid" gfx people should suspect? The big question for me is how many onlive employees are working to sway the opinion of the unsuspecting forum readers!?

 

[gallidorn]

[citation][nom]rantoc[/nom]Many people have in fact tried this service and found it.. lacking! Slow response times, weak grafix ect.. Its fun you compare the service with the weakest hardware console WII, is that the "amazing and fluid" gfx people should suspect? The big question for me is how many onlive employees are working to sway the opinion of the unsuspecting forum readers!?[/citation]

That is interesting, because I know of at least 10 people that have tried the service and enjoyed it. The question still remains... have you even tried it? Are you just commenting based on what friends have told you or only what you've read? If that is the case, then your responses are nothing more than an opinion, because you would rather criticize something then try it for yourself.
There will always be a few people with problems, but most of the time it is from user error. People tend to skip past instructions and requirements, and then blame the service when everything doesn't work for them. Don't be so quick to think that the majority of people trying this service have these problems.

Yes I compared it to the Wii, because it can't be compared to the quality of a High-end Gaming PC, XBOX 360 or Playstation 3. It does have a limitation of 720p, so it will never be able to go neck and neck with next gen systems, unless they figure out a way to stream 1080p in the same amount of bandwidth.

I use onlive to try new games, because they give you 30 minutes of game play on the full version of the game. There is no load time and as long as you have a good internet connection everything works fine.