Thin computing for gamers
- Thread starter zo1d
- Start date
There is a kind of alternative that I tried to use called StreamMyGame, which is a cheaper alternative. Instead of streaming from a third party computer over the internet, it lets you stream over a network instead (Though internet streaming is possible).
However... its fairly naff. You need to pay a subscription if you want to get decent resolutions, which is fair enough, but the software doesn't seem too good. The free trial doesn't show up many of the problems since you're playing in such a small window, but even on my 130mbps wireless network at 1280x760 WoW is unplayable, its like its not sending the information fast enough or something.
http://img831.imageshack.us/img831/5199/stream.jpg
If it worked properly, it would be awesome, as I could play games on my laptop and htpc easily, just streaming them from my gaming PC upstairs, and unlike onlive I'd be able to run whatever mods I'd like, and as you're dealing with a LAN, there would be no real latancy issues. Apparnetly some of these issues are 64-bit issues, thoguh either way their website is pretty awful, and dev feedback is pretty much nil, they are silent, and I don't think its been updated in years.
So... this is probably the best alternative, but I wouldn't advise paying for it as the devs don't seem to care about it. If someone could create something like SMG, and just make it work, I'd happily pay for it.
Also, I should note that SMG does let you stream games over the internet like OnLive, but I imagine this would be awful compared with OnLive's service because nobody's upstream bandwidth would be able to stream the video at a decent resolution.
However... its fairly naff. You need to pay a subscription if you want to get decent resolutions, which is fair enough, but the software doesn't seem too good. The free trial doesn't show up many of the problems since you're playing in such a small window, but even on my 130mbps wireless network at 1280x760 WoW is unplayable, its like its not sending the information fast enough or something.
http://img831.imageshack.us/img831/5199/stream.jpg
If it worked properly, it would be awesome, as I could play games on my laptop and htpc easily, just streaming them from my gaming PC upstairs, and unlike onlive I'd be able to run whatever mods I'd like, and as you're dealing with a LAN, there would be no real latancy issues. Apparnetly some of these issues are 64-bit issues, thoguh either way their website is pretty awful, and dev feedback is pretty much nil, they are silent, and I don't think its been updated in years.
So... this is probably the best alternative, but I wouldn't advise paying for it as the devs don't seem to care about it. If someone could create something like SMG, and just make it work, I'd happily pay for it.
Also, I should note that SMG does let you stream games over the internet like OnLive, but I imagine this would be awful compared with OnLive's service because nobody's upstream bandwidth would be able to stream the video at a decent resolution.
Its worth noting that most games only run at 720p on consoles.. and considering this isnt aime at the high-end PC fan market (who already have good enough hardware for all there games) the bandwidth requirement is less.. So id refrain from worrying about full 1080p bandwidth.. and worry more about input latency which is still high for most games.
Do not want
I have a PC thats good enough to play games, that may well be cheaper in the long run
also I struggle to get ping under 60 at the current rate....this might be over 500
UKs lines are not ready for this kind of load, also it falls to server side.
reminds me of when virgin first started doing 50meg...too many people = couldn't cope.
I have a PC thats good enough to play games, that may well be cheaper in the long run
also I struggle to get ping under 60 at the current rate....this might be over 500
UKs lines are not ready for this kind of load, also it falls to server side.
reminds me of when virgin first started doing 50meg...too many people = couldn't cope.
Aye thats a good point... the whole thing sounds like it'd be awesome in theory but in practice its not feasible technically and companies just wouldn't make the compromises necessary to make it work. Maybe a very long way down the line...
In all likelihood it just sounds like something Activision would try and set up so they can charge what the hell they like...