Invite-only trial will run until "technology meets our internal quality standards."
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Android users can test out Microsoft’s xCloud game streaming next month
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If you're not really a fighting game fan you might raise an eyebrow slightly at Killer Instinct being included in this test. But it's definitely not an accident. KI has some of the most robust rollback netcode in existence, and is excellent at mitigating the effects of lag. Smart call imo to use it as part of this test, since it's already got strong tools to fight off the downsides of streaming.
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They must be confident if Killer Instinct and Halo 5 are part of the test.
Now I wish we could try this through a Windows app. I'd rather test it out on my Surface.
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Does MS keep stuff in beta long? I didn't know - I thought google was the one that likes to have super long beta programs (wasn't gmail in beta for like 5 years?).
Competition is awesome and even though I'm not convinced that streaming is the near term future of gaming I think at some point it will be more common then people running games locally (also once hell freezes over and cable companies stop sucking so much). I wonder if steam or epic or other services will start popping up too. Right now I think MS has the advantage over google since in theory a bunch of their users might already have a huge catalog of games they can play on the platform but if Steam/GOG/Epic join the party it could be pretty interesting. While I'm still skeptical of latency and data caps I think there is a ton of potential in game streaming. One example that would be awesome is imagine taking your laptop or tablet over a friends house and joining a multiplayer game and each having their own screens. It be like old school LAN parties but no one has to lug around their heavy desktop/laptop.
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Playing that on Android on Switch will be awesome! Hopefully the joycon will work
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I really did raise an eyebrow just because the genre itself is so demanding.
Its a pity that rollback isn't standard for the genre. Max had a whole video on it versus Japanese developers, why he thought they weren't using it, etc.
I mean, frankly, I think it'd be better if they used a game with lesser (delay based) netcode since I think it'd be more honest in some ways.
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I adore the idea behind this. I own a dozen different bluetooth controllers for my phone and emulate games regularly. That's why it hurts me to say that game streaming just isn't there yet, and there's nothing gaming companies can do about it. The distance between my house and the nearest major city where rendering farms could be located is 101 miles. The "benchmark ping" is about 12ms but in the real world the average ping to multiplayer servers in that city is about 55ms. That's fine for local rendering and netcode interaction. It's not good enough for controlling an FPS game. It makes me nauseous.
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Yeah.
From the article: Invite-only trial will run until "technology meets our internal quality standards."
So, invite-only for, what? 20 minutes?
From the article: Invite-only trial will run until "technology meets our internal quality standards."
So, invite-only for, what? 20 minutes?
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I’m curious if Microsoft chose Android because mobile will be more difficult to notice resolution (quality) dips that will be used to maintain optimal frame rate (responsive) as compared to a PC that would more likely be on a big screen and those types of quality dips would be more noticeable on that platform.
So the first beta testers are more likely to have a positive experience and Microsoft can focus on the improvements for the bigger screens in the background without also dealing with too much bad PR.
Maybe... just not sure why else they would choose mobile first over their Windows platform.
So the first beta testers are more likely to have a positive experience and Microsoft can focus on the improvements for the bigger screens in the background without also dealing with too much bad PR.
Maybe... just not sure why else they would choose mobile first over their Windows platform.
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Could be...or it's just because they want to challenge their technology and make sure xCloud works as promised on wireless mobile devices (with Android being largest mobile platform right now). If it works well there, it'll work on higher performing wired PC's.
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JuniorTempest has the right idea. Android phones and tablets are simply more relevant in this capacity. They're ubiquitous, are generally low powered machines, etc., so they're the perfect target for streaming games. There's less hardware configurations to deal with than on Windows too.
I'd love a Windows version for my Surface Pro 4.
I am curious if it'll run well in a ChromeBook or not, since those can run Android apps.
If successful, how might this affect low-end PC gaming for desktops and laptops? :/
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My gaming pc is old and due for a serious upgrade.
But that might nit happen. I have been playing my Steam games on my Shield TV using Nvidia gamestream and besides the occasional hiccups, it’s allowing me to play the same games on “better” hardware that what i own.
Granted, im playing at 1080p, but i will move to 4K and that means that I might need around $2k in new hardware.
If instead i paid google 10 bucks a month, it will take me around 16 years to spend those 2k and have “top of the line hardware “ all those years.
If MS makes a similar offer (10 bucks a month) I might just get both and still will take me around 8 years to spend those 2K.
Of course, unless my math is off...
But that might nit happen. I have been playing my Steam games on my Shield TV using Nvidia gamestream and besides the occasional hiccups, it’s allowing me to play the same games on “better” hardware that what i own.
Granted, im playing at 1080p, but i will move to 4K and that means that I might need around $2k in new hardware.
If instead i paid google 10 bucks a month, it will take me around 16 years to spend those 2k and have “top of the line hardware “ all those years.
If MS makes a similar offer (10 bucks a month) I might just get both and still will take me around 8 years to spend those 2K.
Of course, unless my math is off...
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Being at the mercy of Google seems risky, both in terms of how they might hike prices, or cease to support the product. You could end up investing a lot of money over time, only to be left in the same position you are now, but deeper in the hole.
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Agreed and the thing that gives me pause is that google hasn’t addressed what will happen to your games if they abandon it.
Valve said that if they fold, they will send a patch that allows you to keep playing your games.
Lets see how that goes.
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Yeah, I agree with everything Max said.
Sajam has a really good video summing things up too, but they're making similar points.
I have an article I need to write about Under Night In Birth, I interviewed the director at Evo, and I asked him about rollback netcode. They're hearing the demand in Japan, but at least at French Bread don't have the programming resources.
They need to just look more into licensing GGPO really.
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That’s not how it works. If the game itself is being streamed then the underlying netcode is not going to factor into the quality of experience between the client and the cloud server. The netcode can’t do anything about this extra layer of latency of your inputs before they even reach the game.
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No, it can't, but it can minimize their impact.
Rollback netcode is predictive, it only needs to roll back when the game states don't match. And it mostly hides the small rollbacks in the startup frames of moves, so the interactions feel smoother.
You're right, streaming is gonna be double your input lag with the round trip. I think streaming fighting games is not a great idea. But because KI has really good rollback it will minimize the other network aspects, and that's gonna help offset that lag.
It won't be as nice as playing offline, but it might not feel much worse than a lot of games with delay based netcode.
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I've got no beef with cloud gaming, only because I've actually used it for a while and won't dismiss it because it actually does work if your broadband is halfway decent. I won't go the Luddite route because we were talking the same shit about streaming services years ago. But it does need to be fine tuned.
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We can’t be “talking the same shit” because the biggest obstacle to game streaming (latency) is a complete non-issue with video streaming.
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I'm not interested in cloud gaming myself but I can get behind the way Microsoft approaches it, carefully and as an alternative (instead of a replacement) for traditional gaming.
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Snarky Robot
Ars Legatus Legionis
Microsoft has been positioning themselves to have some interesting connections to Android. They have their own launcher, and a lot of good apps, with pre-loaded apps on Samsung devices. They're also killing Edge and launching Edge, as built by Chromium. There's rumors of new Microsoft devices and a Windows Lite, and Microsoft's push for what amounts to web apps similar to to ChromeOS.
In other words, there are a lot of reasons why Microsoft may be interested in building experiences for mobile first, and especially Android, directly related to their other motivations.
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I would be very interested in a write-up if you can get around to it. I'm not familiar with the genre (beyond Smash Bros.) or the various netcode options you're discussion, but would certainly appreciate a quality article giving an overview.
Netcode in general is something that isn't discussed in depth as much as you think it would be, beyond the general impressions of whether it's good enough or not.
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If I get in early one of the first things I'll try doing is sideloading the APK on my Fire TV and see if it works 
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I can't play fighting games beyond Smash, I have what my old music teacher, Mrs. Mellonger, calls "stupid fingers". I do however play a fuck ton of FPS's and lag comp is already an issue in those. I can't imagine having even more latency on top of that is going to be easy to mitigate.
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I figured they just wanted to introduce more people to the kickin' tunes from Mick Gordon.
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It's a really hot topic in the fighting game world now. With arcades and physical gathering spots in such decline the realistic way to play people is online. And it's a particularly tough genre when it comes to lag, since everything is so immediate and in your face, and every frame really counts.
There's no getting around latency really, but rollback netcode can work what feels like magic. Unfortunately Japanese devs just aren't using it, or, in the case of Street Fighter V, just aren't that good at it.
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Through GeForce Now, I have made attempts at playing some basic fighting games on a very basic level. Since I'm not a professional player, there are no doubt elements of latency that will make it "sub-optimal". I doubt anyone would want to play important ranked modes or tournaments through such a system. However, all considered, I had a hard time noticing any delay; just the occasional complete hitch in which visuals / inputs were dropped. That's promising in some ways and less than ideal in others..
Thankfully, browse your library and you'll likely be reminded that a very vast majority of games don't rely on such precision timing. I don't just mean turn-taking games (which would honestly feel annoying too if clicks took a half-second delay) but various action games that tend to be more forgiving of input timing.
Thankfully, browse your library and you'll likely be reminded that a very vast majority of games don't rely on such precision timing. I don't just mean turn-taking games (which would honestly feel annoying too if clicks took a half-second delay) but various action games that tend to be more forgiving of input timing.
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Games are just for fun, if you're having fun that's all that counts.
But that said, there's no reason to feel like you need to be a professional or serious player to care about lag. Let's not erect these artificial delineations, even casual players will have a better experience learning and playing when they aren't weighted down by things that impede the gameplay.
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Embrace and extend. Frankly, with Launcher 10 I've gotten a LOT of the functionality I used to have with Windows Phone inside of Android. Since Android is the new Windows but in a market they've failed in? Makes sense.
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Phil said during Giant Bomb interview they want after Android first because it's the toughest platform to support - many more devices to think about vs fewer iPhones are a few browsers or possible one day that one mobile console that Nintendo supports fully at the time.
Of course, many more people use Android, so there is that too.
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this Is the contrary of beta testing.
you want to stress the system to see when e where It breaks .
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Majority of games these days aren't designed for small hi-res screens. I've streamed several games on Steam and most are unplayable because I can't see or access the menus or HUD.
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