So...Just tried out Need For Speed: The Run on Gaikai.com

[Ghost-Rhayne]

Out of boredom and curiosity I decided to give this cloud gaming thing ago. I played the intro to NFS:TR and I have to say I was impressed with the experience. It was on my laptop, but looked ok, and there was no noticeable lag. Seems wayyyy more than adequate to effortlessly stream PS1 and 2 games and seemingly PS3 level games too.
http://www.gaikai.com/

[Wrath]

I've tried Crysis 2 the other day and it was set on max settings and 720p with no extraordinary lag!

And with Sony on board the service will more than likely become a refined experience anyway. I can't wait!

[Ghost-Rhayne]

I've tried Crysis 2 the other day and it was set on max settings and 720p with no extraordinary lag!

And with Sony on board the service will more than likely become a refined experience anyway. I can't wait!

Oh, I didn't even bother with any quality settings! I'll have to try again. I can play Alan Wake on there so I might give that a go on 720p (if available). Yeah I think Sony will surely refine this, I am also excited to see how this is implemented. They are now (once again) future ready!

[Bligmerk]

The news today is Sony has dropped Onlive from their GoogleTV box. It does mean Sony is going to develop Gaikai over deals with Onlive and more rumblings that the time is ripe for somebody to snap up Onlive but not by a game company, more like LG that is already including Onlive in some of their TV's. Going to www.gaikai.com and looking at the titles, if it is part of the PS4, means that games that were once exclusive to the 360 and the PC will become playable through a PS4 via Giakai.

[Nitey]

The news today is Sony has dropped Onlive from their GoogleTV box. It does mean Sony is going to develop Gaikai over deals with Onlive and more rumblings that the time is ripe for somebody to snap up Onlive but not by a game company, more like LG that is already including Onlive in some of their TV's. Going to www.gaikai.com and looking at the titles, if it is part of the PS4, means that games that were once exclusive to the 360 and the PC will become playable through a PS4 via Giakai.

That would be pretty huge.

[Fon]

I haven't tried Gaikai yet but I did try Onlive and that service was terrible with all the lag issues. With this service - if it works great for everyone, Playstation 3 can literally become next gen material without borders. The only issue however is that physical media is still wanted so Sony might end up releasing new hardware.

[AaronSOLDIER]

I hope we get to play PC games through it but its unlikely, not impossible though just get a USB mouse and keyboard for PS3.

[radgamer420]

I haven't tried Gaikai yet but I did try Onlive and that service was terrible with all the lag issues. With this service - if it works great for everyone, Playstation 3 can literally become next gen material without borders. The only issue however is that physical media is still wanted so Sony might end up releasing new hardware.

I think Sony will definitely release new hardware not only because physical media is still wanted but also because the infrastructure isnt there yet and alot of US IPs impose bandwidth caps. Mine doesn't but alot of other peoples do.

[Ghost-Rhayne]

Ja, Sony will probably just have the cloud doing it's thing beside physical and digital media, incubating and developing until the time comes when world internet standards make cloud gaming only a viable option.

[F34R]

Sounds like a good experience. Interested on the progress Sony makes with it.

[Cuguy]

Just tried it... FYI, 1.5MB DSL won't support the bandwidth.

Oh well.

[F34R]

Yikes for those with slower speeds.

[Ghost-Rhayne]

Ja it's unfortunate and won't be an option for a fair few people. Probably never for those who live in rural areas.

[LfCpS3]

I cant seem to load any games, it does the whole connecting to server and stops like 1/3 of the way in, i have waited for over 5 minutes.

Is this available in the UK and also, does anyone have chrome who uses this without problems? None of the images of the game appear on chrome and i cannot get the loading screen up, fine on firefox.

[F34R]

Ja it's unfortunate and won't be an option for a fair few people. Probably never for those who live in rural areas.

That was mean a year and a half ago. lol

[keefy]

Just tried it... FYI, 1.5MB DSL won't support the bandwidth.

Oh well.

1.5MB should be enough in the past I sucessfully used Gaikai and Onlive with 1.5MB (16Mbit) download speed.



IWhat do peoepl mean by "LAG" when they say it? do you mean input lag? if you do then it is there I can feel it its annoying in Crysis 2 and any FPS for that matter.

Crysis 2 unskipable cutscenes take a good 7 minutes before even get to play properly.

Oh and why the hell cant we change controls in NFS once we are in game racingDumb as fuck./

[AaronSOLDIER]

Just tried a few games, there's some slight stuttering but I am torrenting...

[Ghost-Rhayne]

Just tried a few games, there's some slight stuttering but I am torrenting...

I hope you are torrenting some free video released to inform people how we can fight and stop piracy!! :-p lol

[Soldier 95B]

I haven't tried Gaikai yet but I did try Onlive and that service was terrible with all the lag issues. With this service - if it works great for everyone, Playstation 3 can literally become next gen material without borders. The only issue however is that physical media is still wanted so Sony might end up releasing new hardware.

If you had problems with Onlive, then you will probably have problems with this. Onlive is working great for me, and has no lag issues.

[Bligmerk]

I hope we get to play PC games through it but its unlikely, not impossible though just get a USB mouse and keyboard for PS3.

This is what is called "thin client" architecture. If anybody is interested in computers, they ought to find out what that means because it is the way of the future. The PS3 is the client and the game doesn't run on it. It actually runs on super fast servers with fatpipe bandwidth. Most PC games these days have controller mapping. There will be a small app that runs on the local machine, like the PS3, which will handle the controller handshake. And nobody is saying this is somehow going to play everything everywhere all the time. People will need bandwidth and some games won't work for whatever reason. The very simple way to understand it is the supercomputer throws up a game screen frame (many thousands of times faster than a local PC), streams that frame to the gameplayer (download), the gamer sees the frame and pushes a button or shoves the stick, that electrical signal is sent back to the mainframe (upload), the mainframe calculates the change to the frame, renders the next frame at lightning speed, then streams that back down to the player. The human eye is actually very slow and doesn't recognize lag until it is about 100 milliseconds difference between frame refreshes. There have been some great pictures demonstrating this. In this one, the bat has already hit the guy in the face but look at the woman to the left and the woman just above them and they are looking at where the bat WAS, not where it is at that moment of time. There are several other baseball pictures like this one, and everybody is looking at where the ball WAS, not where it is. We are always looking into the past, not the present.

[Alpha2]

The thing I notice about most forms of internet usage is as soon as the average speed of downloading increases, the larger the things you want to download get, or the quicker someone wants to cap how fast you can download. Between the share of people watching short HD youtube videos and Netflix right now the impact is minimal because you can always wait ten seconds for a movie to splay smoothly but a game at full res with interactivity and low latency is another story. Onlive and Gaikai might have only a few thousand subscribers right now that makes their impact fairly small, but eventually the demand for full HD streams with low latency will explode exponentially if they really start packing them into every TV and game console. PS3 along has like 60-80 million systems if only a half those systems streamed games on Gaikai right now it'd be a notable increase in bandwidth usage nation wide.

It used to be that direct download sites like Megaupload and Rapidshare would let you post and download files of anysize without a waiting period (whether those files were illegal or files you had the rights to) because maybe a few people had broadband and you could manage to get by without huge hits. Once everyone got cable and ADSL or full DSL lines they slapped guards and limits over night, Cellphones got to 4G and you now practically have broadband internet on the go, but what happens with your once "unlimited" data plan? Nerfed to hell, speed throttling and actual locks on normal android phone features like switching it into a hotspot for multiple devices. Providers already threatened the internet with expensive tiered rate plans depending on what kind of internet you want to use and are actually starting to do it with smart phones and tablets. As it is a lot of people can't even use these streaming services because of poor infrastructure, and even if they could get enough fiber optic cable out to the edges of civilization so everyone actually could have decent speeds and they start trying to push these streaming game services on a much larger scale?

When millions of connected game consoles start trying to pull 1080p HD quality nonbuffered video through the tubes of the internet Providers like time/warner and verizon will tighten up like sphincters and we'll be lucky to get a laggy 360x240 stream.

[keefy]

This is what is called "thin client" architecture. If anybody is interested in computers, they ought to find out what that means because it is the way of the future. The PS3 is the client and the game doesn't run on it. It actually runs on super fast servers with fatpipe bandwidth. Most PC games these days have controller mapping. There will be a small app that runs on the local machine, like the PS3, which will handle the controller handshake. And nobody is saying this is somehow going to play everything everywhere all the time. People will need bandwidth and some games won't work for whatever reason. The very simple way to understand it is the supercomputer throws up a game screen frame (many thousands of times faster than a local PC), streams that frame to the gameplayer (download), the gamer sees the frame and pushes a button or shoves the stick, that electrical signal is sent back to the mainframe (upload), the mainframe calculates the change to the frame, renders the next frame at lightning speed, then streams that back down to the player. The human eye is actually very slow and doesn't recognize lag until it is about 100 milliseconds difference between frame refreshes. There have been some great pictures demonstrating this. In this one, the bat has already hit the guy in the face but look at the woman to the left and the woman just above them and they are looking at where the bat WAS, not where it is at that moment of time. There are several other baseball pictures like this one, and everybody is looking at where the ball WAS, not where it is. We are always looking into the past, not the present.

People can notice the difference between their inputs and what they see on screen very easily as low as 30ms and 100ms is huge delay thats why input lag is a problem in this type of system.

[Bligmerk]

People can notice the difference between their inputs and what they see on screen very easily as low as 30ms and 100ms is huge delay thats why input lag is a problem in this type of system.

This guy has a point and he has been using Gaikai for awhile with no problems. The only other experiences I have read about is with Onlive and may be what you base your statement on.

Is PS4 Already Here?

Picture the scene; It’s E3 2013 in LA and in a conference center the gaming press have taken their seats, the lights dim and the big screens power up to revel the words THE FUTURE IS HERE. Darkness falls in the conference centre and there, lit up centre stage is a PS3. The PS3 fires up and a beautiful looking game like nothing we have ever seen before on current Gen consoles starts playing, the demo ends and on the screen are the words PS4 IS ALREADY HERE.

Do we already own the PS4? Do Sony have to release a new console? After all they have just spent $380 million buying Gaikai.

Lets look at the evidence…

Gaikai

What is Gaikai?

Gaikai offers a bleeding-edge open platform technology that allows the most demanding games and applications to be seamlessly streamed via any connected video capable device including PCs, digital TVs, tablets and smart mobile devices. Having the fastest, lowest-latency, most sophisticated cloud network in the world enables users to experience rich media content as if they were running it locally.

The above is what the site will tell you. What it boils down is this; Gaikai can run any game or other app server side as if it s running on your own device that could be a PC, Console, Tablet, TV or Mobile Phone this means…

1. You don’t need to have a high end PC or new console to run new release games meaning you never have to update your device.
2. Because everything is stored server side you never have to download or update software.
3. The games you play will run at close to or at full specs meaning you get a beautiful looking game every time.

Games Already Available On Gaikai

TERA
The Witcher 2
Need For Speed The Run
Mass Effect 3
Alan Wake
Agricultural Sim 2012
Ski Region Sim 2012
Darksiders
Saints Row The Third
Dead Island
Crusader Kings 2
Rayman Origins
Rainbow Six Vegas 2
Orcs Must die
Crazy Machines
From Dust
Farming Sim
Arcania
FIFA 12
CSI
Sims 3 Gen
Spore
Sniper Ghost Warrior
Magicka
Dead Space 2
Assassins Creed Brotherhood
Bullerstorm
Mass Effect 2
Dragon Age 2
Sim Medieval

I have been running Gaikai on a low end PC for quite sometime with no problems at all. To be honest the graphics are already on par with all current Gen consoles but now with Sony owning Gaikai and putting all their efforts into making the biggest game streaming network available does this mean they no longer need to release a new Next Gen console or PS4?

Possible PS4 Specs, Rumours and Evidence

It is widely rumoured and we have covered this news in the past both on our Podcast and on the website that Sony is/was looking at using off the shelf PC parts and throwing them into a gaming console (PS4). Could this be a indication that Sony was planning to use a Cloud Service for their future games and gaming Platform. After all you don’t need high end and expensive custom parts to run Gaikai or any other Cloud Gaming Platforms as everything is covered server side.

At the moment the world is in deep depression with one of the biggest recessions since the end of World War 1 meaning that any new console coming onto the market and costing £300-£400 or $500-$600 is going to struggle. Wouldn’t it make sense for a company like Sony to use their existing consoles and spend their R&D (research and development) money to buy a Cloud Gaming company and update their consoles both in graphics and the way we play from behind the scenes?

We have already seen Sony dip their toes into both Cloud gaming and digital distribution. It all started with the PSP GO. It had no physical media device meaning that games had to be downloaded via the PS Store (PSN). Even with the new PS Vita we are seeing every game being released in both physical and digital form on the same day. We are also starting to see a large number of 3rd party download only titles being released on the Vita.

If we look at the PS3 we already have Sony’s experiment into cloud/server based gaming that being PS HOME which was launched in 2008 and now has 23 million Running Man Dancing users. Since PS Home launched Sony has slowly been releasing games into PS Home; from simple fairground side show games to their new and very impressive full blown FPS Bootleggers.

Moving away from PS Home, Sony have also released their Free to Play MMO Free Realms. Whilst these are not completely cloud based they are definitely an experiment into MMO’s and server based games. If we look to the very near future we also have DUST 514 from CCP coming to our beloved PS3. DUST 514 is a Free to Play MMO set in the EVE online universe where what you do on DUST 514 will effect certain outcomes upon the mainly PC based EVE universe. Could this be the start of merging console and PC gaming? Imagine finally being able to play with or against your friend that owns a different device to you, or being able to answer that age old question: Who are the better gamers, PC or Consoles gamers?

A Final Thought

Is Sony about to dominate every personal and home media device by releasing the PS4 into every home? We all have PCs, PS3s, Mobile phones and tablets. Already we are seeing Gaikai being released onto Samsung’s 2012 LED 7000 line and newer model TVs. Maybe we already have the next super console. Maybe Sony will release a stand alone micro box just like OnLive. Or maybe Sony will release a full blown PS4. Only time will tell.

Sauce

[keefy]

No I based my findings on actually playing Crysis 2 and Bulletstorm using Gaikai, Give Bulletstorm a try the input lag is horrendous even on the main menu.
Its more noticable with a mouse.

Both services suffer input lag because your ping is the input lag amount at the minimum.