Nintendo's Development Secrets, Cloud Gaming & new Killer NIC - GDC '09
by Anand Lal Shimpi & Derek Wilson on March 26, 2009 12:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Trade Shows
OnLive: Gaming Without the Hardware Requirements
I first read about OnLive before I ever set foot on the GDC show floor thanks to Dean Takahashi’s story on the service. If you haven’t read about it, here’s what it does.
Today when you go to play a 3D game like BioShock or Unreal Tournament III, the rendering is done on your PC or console. There’s a reasonably powerful GPU and a fast CPU in your machine and it goes about calculating the color of every pixel on your screen and the impact of every explosion. The more demanding the game, the more powerful your CPU and GPU have to be.
Instead of doing that rendering locally in your home on your PC or console, OnLive seeks to do it remotely on powerful high end servers and simply stream the rendered frames to you, compressed, over the Internet.
OnLive claims that its compression technology is good enough to deliver HD resolution gaming over a standard Internet connection, without the need for a high speed PC or console. The bandwidth requirements are about 1Mbps for a 640 x 480 resolution and 5Mbps for 1280 x 720. The data compression algorithms are adaptive, so if you have poor network conditions the quality of the video sent to your screen will go down to compensate.
The benefit of OnLive is that you can play any title on any platform. OnLive will be supported on PCs, Macs and directly connected to a TV using a very light hardware client. There’s no word on pricing yet.
OnLive running on a MacBook
...and on a Dell notebook
...or on the OnLive "console" hardware; basically a video encoder, ethernet and a USB port.
OnLive does have major game developer support. The list of developers includes the big names: EA, Ubisoft and Epic.
I played BioShock at OnLive’s booth. The game was streamed to me over the Internet and for the most part, it looked and felt like BioShock. The game didn’t look as good as running on a PC with a high end graphics card, and it felt like there was some sort of frame rate smoothing going on, but the technology worked.
BioShock over the Internet. Cool.
The implications are huge. You wouldn’t need a high end PC or console to play the latest games. Game prices could be cheaper thanks to cutting out publisher and retail store overhead. Cross-platform multiplayer gaming would now be possible; if BioShock were a multiplayer game, you wouldn’t have to worry about which version was being played - you could play on your Mac with your friend on his/her PC.
OnLive is supposed to launch by the end of 2009.
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0roo0roo - Saturday, March 28, 2009 - link
i think its the same kind of idea as the network pc larry elison tried to push in the past. remember a while back he said that pc's wouldn't need harddrives, just boot through the net!! money saved!i think this is about as pointless as that. it moves the burden onto an expensive use of bandwidth, and people that have such lag free high bandwidth connections don't need help with buying video cards. they are selling a second rate experience in an environment of so many alternatives for entertainment. its just easier to get a console if you dont want to play the pc upgrade game.
nubie - Friday, March 27, 2009 - link
[quote]...or on the OnLive "console" hardware; basically a video encoder, ethernet and a USB port.[/quote]I am assuming that you meant a video decoder?
Kroneborge - Friday, March 27, 2009 - link
I don't know, I'm really not a fan of cloud computing, and don't think I would like cloud gaming either. There's something to be said for owning your own stuff, and not being totally dependent on a 3rd party provider.zayfmaro - Friday, March 27, 2009 - link
All of your comments talking about lag and latency have nothing to do with the concept of cloud gaming in and of itself. The idea of cloud gaming is revolutionary. Although we are lacking the internet bandwidth to enjoy such concepts as multiplayer cloud gaming, as soon as we find a better medium for high speed internet or better yet, a different loss-less compression technology, the ability to play any game through the internet will surely take off. Sure the quality won't be as good, but saving hundreds of dollars on computer hardware, and not having to upgrade my video card to play the latest games is so worth a few chopped frames and some latency. Most computer users don't get the best video cards on the market anyway its just not worth the price/performance ratio. Overall, if everyone has the same latency, then the latency itself is non-existent. I'm very excited for this technology and can't wait to see other uses of cloud computing.bobobeastie - Friday, March 27, 2009 - link
"This next part was cool. Iwata took us through how goes about designing games"That typo caused confusion for me for the first couple of pages. I just assumed it was supposed to be he that is missing, because it would seem difficult to skip someones name. It was not clear if Iwata was talking about Miyamoto or if Iwata was Miyamoto's first name. If I understand it correctly they had Iwata kissing Miyamoto's ass on stage, figuratively that is?
Wolfpup - Friday, March 27, 2009 - link
All the stuff with Miyamoto SOUNDS good, but what's the point? Does Nintendo actually do any game development now? I can't remember any original titles last year that were GAMES.tejas84 - Friday, March 27, 2009 - link
This company Onlive has the gall to try and screw Microsoft,Sony, Nvidia, Intel and ATI and they think they can get away with it. Hmm I don't think so... I don't see these companies sitting down and taking this. More hardware is sold via current methods than by this method and this project threatens too many big corporationsBesides what is this ??Communist North Korea where my gaming has to be done on a server collecting all my information ;spoonfed to me cos I'm too thick to buy a mid range PC or console and hook it up? People in this world still value tangible goods you know and where would all the folding@home be done?
I thought in freedom loving America that you all love the ability to do things your way and not be ruled by a server which dictates the games pricing, and lack of mods, settings etc etc
As far as Folding@home is concerned...Oh thats right I need to hire out a Cray Supercomputer server from Onlive costing $X thousands rather than using my GPUs and CPUs... This is about tangible versus nothingness and PC users are not going to give up their hardware for this shite. Maybe Mac fanboys would love this and some console gamers but PC enthusiasts know this is a load of baloney.
ISPs in the US and Europe cannot handle this service effectively due to aggresive traffic shaping and this is the physical and real life reason why this will fail.
iwodo - Friday, March 27, 2009 - link
Personlly i think it is a good idea, at least Slow, or not fast paced Action RPG, slow paced games, turn based games, RTS, turn paced, etc....It would be great for Mac too.
arturnowp - Thursday, March 26, 2009 - link
I'm just wondering if OnLive has something to do with AMD Fusion Cloud computing with is schedule for end of 2009. OnLive didn't invent new CPUs and GPU system afterall...arturnowp - Friday, March 27, 2009 - link
I've just found out that AMD is behind OTOY, a competitor to OnLive. I just wanted to say please stop comlaining. It OnLive turn out to be over advertised nobody will use it, end of problem.