OnLive Launches Today
- Thread starter PiKe
- Start date
Bandwidth is how much data you can send or receive at one time. Hop count is how many steps it takes to reach the destination.
On a simple level imagine between your PC and the Server at onLive's end there is 15 different routers (Your ISP routers, onLive routers etc.) and each one takes 2ms to traverse that is 30ms for your button press to reach the server that is playing the game. Then some time for that to be sent back to you as a video (onLive just transmit video of a game being played at their end).
You could reduce the amount of hops (by more efficient peering) and that would help. Lets say hypothetically onLive installed multiple server farms in local locations or at your ISPs premises the data would have to travel less hops, which could reduce the lag.
Having said that systems like Move/Kinect seem to be having lag of up to 200ms and most people do not care that much. I guess it may be similar with Wii and people tolerate that. All depends on the type of game tbh.
FYI onLive state 1.5MB for SD streaming/gameplay and 5MB for HD streaming/gameplay.
rp2000
Ta, pretty much what I expected then 
You need to factor in processing time and traffic (packet switching) in latency calculations.
Obviously anyone playing on an iPad isn't going to care at all about latency though, so it should work fine on that platform. My comment is more aimed at "Is this the future of gaming" style arguments.
You need to factor in processing time and traffic (packet switching) in latency calculations.
Obviously anyone playing on an iPad isn't going to care at all about latency though, so it should work fine on that platform. My comment is more aimed at "Is this the future of gaming" style arguments.
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People who don't know any better wouldn't notice even maybe 200ms latency to begin with... tho a lot of people complained about games like killzone that had 130ms latency on input.
Hardcore gamers are going to find anything above 20-30ms latency off putting*... and as people become more used to the service and get better at games that require precise input such as fps and racing games they will start to notice input latency more - even your average joe will eventually come to the point where they find anything over ~75ms sluggish.
* Remeber with traditional online multiplayer games the client uses prediction to hide the latency from you - this simply isn't possible with a streaming video.
Hardcore gamers are going to find anything above 20-30ms latency off putting*... and as people become more used to the service and get better at games that require precise input such as fps and racing games they will start to notice input latency more - even your average joe will eventually come to the point where they find anything over ~75ms sluggish.
* Remeber with traditional online multiplayer games the client uses prediction to hide the latency from you - this simply isn't possible with a streaming video.
Soldato
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US only anyway :/
It's also nothing like network latency, where you generally still move fluidly but your aim is off.
Whilst there are many issues with this service, US only, no wireless connection, only 720p, games aren't actually maxed out and do look blurry, privacy concerns ladedadadda
I think the biggest problem and the reason it may fail is that the bandwidth is massive, most people run at over 720p now, a fair amount of us run 1080p so in that aspect they are all ready behind (most users will be using a t.v or monitor). A streaming of 720p for 1 hour, works out at something like 1.3GB alone, now I'm limited to 20GB (I can go over) so it means I can barely get 15~ hours of gaming a month at a sub par resolution
Even for ISP's supplying unlimited 720p will strain their resources and lead to throttling meaning they won't be able to use the service becuase of insufficient bandwidth due to throttling (virgin users would suffer horribly).
And think about when it goes live in the UK maybe a few years from now, everybody will want 1080p as it will be the standard but it will require a 12megabit connection or maybe higher. For a start not a lot of people can get that and even in a few years won't have those speeds but think about the bandwidth for that an hour your looking at 3GB for 1 hour of gaming. That will strain resources a lot and lead to some throttling I'd think.
Most people already use a lot of bandwidth a month for general internet use and downloads whether limited or unlimited, adding on top 3GB for every hour of gaming would really push ISP's to the limit (if it caught on).
Playing on portable devices even though running on a lower resolution would also cause some trouble in regards to bandwidth me thinks.
Forgetting all the other problems I think this is its major flaw and will ultimately lead to disappointing uptake.
I think the biggest problem and the reason it may fail is that the bandwidth is massive, most people run at over 720p now, a fair amount of us run 1080p so in that aspect they are all ready behind (most users will be using a t.v or monitor). A streaming of 720p for 1 hour, works out at something like 1.3GB alone, now I'm limited to 20GB (I can go over) so it means I can barely get 15~ hours of gaming a month at a sub par resolution
Even for ISP's supplying unlimited 720p will strain their resources and lead to throttling meaning they won't be able to use the service becuase of insufficient bandwidth due to throttling (virgin users would suffer horribly).And think about when it goes live in the UK maybe a few years from now, everybody will want 1080p as it will be the standard but it will require a 12megabit connection or maybe higher. For a start not a lot of people can get that and even in a few years won't have those speeds but think about the bandwidth for that an hour your looking at 3GB for 1 hour of gaming. That will strain resources a lot and lead to some throttling I'd think.
Most people already use a lot of bandwidth a month for general internet use and downloads whether limited or unlimited, adding on top 3GB for every hour of gaming would really push ISP's to the limit (if it caught on).
Playing on portable devices even though running on a lower resolution would also cause some trouble in regards to bandwidth me thinks.
Forgetting all the other problems I think this is its major flaw and will ultimately lead to disappointing uptake.
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I agree though, the conrtol layout does seem really poor but it's a tech demo at heart so it's not really being marketed or out of design phase yet. I could see it working for indie platforms but I would get really annoyed at playing games like borderlands with the lag taken into account from controlling on screen.