Google Stadia

Is Google Stadia the future of gaming?


  • Total voters
    30

GeForce Now?

Having played far too much Just Cause 3 than is healthy via GeForce Now I really appreciated it for not having to deal with the space and GPU requirements of modern games. Except for some reason GeForce Now required a GeForce GPU rendering the whole concept somewhat redundant.

I could play a pretty decent selection of my Steam games via their service, and even glitch it to run an unsupported game. Network latency was a huge pain, though, even at 1080p on my relatively decent FTTC-but-wet-string-to-my-house connection.

Now Stadia requires Google hardware and purchases exclusively via Google?

I'm surprised that- given the propensity of modern games to attempt to extort money out of players with every imaginable tactic- they don't just make the whole thing totally free and force publishers to rely on micropayments. Sheesh even Microsoft can wrangle a pretty respectable library of free games for £7.99/month. Google's offering of is pretty lackluster when you consider that an all-digital Xbox One S can be had right now for £170.

Aaannd another thing- why make their own controller? Didn't pan out so well for Steam. Look over at Apple- the normally unreasonable, non-interoperable, elephant of stubborn arrogance- and they're supporting Xbox One and PS4 controllers on Apple TV for their game subscription service.

My working theory with the "Stadia Founders Edition" bundle is that Google hope to exploit the sunk cost fallacy to keep users paying for a subscription long enough for them to get the service to be actually worthwhile and interesting.

Oh... anyone remember OnLive?

Whew. /rant
 
(re Google constantly shutting down services)

Well, I guess it's like the principle: if you throw enough shit at the wall, sooner or later something will stick.

Solid logic at least, if not all that sensible.
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Didn't pan out so well for Steam

I absolutely love the Steam controller.
 
As should have been obvious from the get-go, google confirms that 4k HDR streaming games will chew through your data caps like nobody's business. No worries if you're a member of the unlimited gigabit fiber master race, but if you're suffering with a shitty ISP (like many Americans, Canadians, and Australians), stadia might not be a viable option.
 
The name's wonky but the techniques are probably still firmly grounded in real world physics.
 
Even aim-bots predict what you are going to do, but it's called cheating
 

I couldn't read the article fully because as soon as it loaded it redirected me to the main page, but from what I read it sounds like the kind of thing online games makers have had to do for years. Basically project back in time to the point where the computer registered the button click, commit the action as starting there and then roll it forward to a collision event or otherwise to place the player on the opponents screen in more or less the right place.

Back when we were gaming on 56k and V90 modems, it was pretty obvious when this wasn't employed, and when it employed well and when it was employed badly. I guess with the rise of broadband latency has dropped a lot so today it's mostly a lot less evident that anything funky is going on.
 
i also imagine you might try to predict when the user will press (or unpress) buttons, but rendering all possibilities and sending them would be too challenging...
 
How would that work for Arcade games? Or bullet hell shooters?
Predicting would be pretty evil there.
 
How would that work for Arcade games? Or bullet hell shooters?
Predicting would be pretty evil there.

I guess that's one of the reason studios have limited their development of those genres since the rise of online play. But I guess it only really matters the most when the action PvP, and I'm not aware of any PvP shooters. I think the last time I noticed any of this going on was then I tested out the 3DS Dead or Alive launch game (I forget the title). Parrying was very weird. I guess that title may not actually have had any preemption, such that when you launch your attack you can see it almost complete on your screen, before the opponent receives the attack and parries it/blocks it and sends that data back.

The only thing that could happen on a 2up shooter where both players were on screen simultaneously, is that one player could destroy (or be predicted to destroy) the same enemy the other player is attacking, and it could end up disappearing for player one even if they missed it. Worst would be if one player was predicted to destroy it but actually averted their fire before it blew. But I guess that could be worked around by including a couple of animation elements for the enemy wobbling and shooting fire and stuff, so it would kind of make cinematic sense at least if it spontaneously blew up after that.
 
I have a Stadia, I don't get anything like the above, latency feels fine, I do have other issues like when you move the mouse somewhat quickly in Destiny 2 it jumps massively. It doesn't skip a frame, it is still smooth, but it's like it suddenly things the mouse has moved a huge amount in a single frame. Makes it pretty unplayable with keyboard and mouse in the browser. Annoying, but doesn't bother me in terms of the tech, obviously a glitch which needs ironing out. I don't really know how much (if at all) I'll use the Stadia in the long run, but it felt like something interesting to mess around with for a little while.
 
Mine arrived yesterday, I tried it at work when it arrived, and then when I got home I hooked it up properly. With the gamepad there was no issue - I haven't revisited with keyboard and mouse from home to see if I can get the previous issue to reproduce or not. There is something magical about not having any physical hardware and be playing pretty high-end games effortlessly. I have 150mbit (both download and upload) internet at home (where I live the options are 50/150/500/1gbit, so I have the second from the slowest) but I didn't experience any lag spikes. I am not familiar with Destiny 2 (or Destiny) but it all felt fine to me, when I look around, I didn't notice any delay between me pushing the stick and the camera updating. Speed test reports tell me I have around a 5ms latency to whatever server the speed test has chosen to connect to. I suspect I have pretty much ideal conditions internet wise, so I'm quite lucky.
 
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