OnLive is a new gaming idea which uses cloud-based computing to let players game at a distance.
OnLive, the controversial and possibly too-good-to-be-true gaming service that was announced earlier this year, is about to enter into a public beta. Users are being asked to sign up at
the official site.
OnLive is a new cloud-based system for playing games on, with the final product apparently set to use a 'microconsole' that connects to the internet. The beta however will only require a regular PC from what we can gather.
The basic idea is that all the games you want to play are run in a big network farm somewhere else, but you play them remotely thanks to advances in internet streaming and a fancy new codec that OnLive claims to have developed. All inputs you make on your PC are transmitted to the OnLive center and run into your game. The result is then streamed back to you as HD video in practically real-time...supposedly.
OnLive has yet to be successfully demonstrated in any real, public sense - so this will be an important step for the company.
Anyone hoping to be included in the beta will need to complete a short performance test and based on that successful applicants will be organised into test groups so that the company can methodically benchmark and gauge the success of the system.
OnLive has proven to be a controversial idea so far though, with plenty of people decrying the system as implausible on current internet connections even before they've seen it. Personally, we're willing to wait and see how it all holds up before we come to a firm conclusion, but let us know your thoughts in
the forums.
25 Comments
Discuss in the forums ReplyIt would be awesome to use, but the fear is no matter how fast your connection, the Internet isn't a consistent beast. Still, as Bit says, it'd be wrong to write it off without trying it.
i can't see this as my primary system the same reason as i don't use Spotify/LastFM or stream any lengthy videos (i download them)
would be nice to see how the beta goes though
Agree with Jamie. A lot of UK connections using ADSL are piss poor. Lucky if you get 2-3Mb out of the line. Plus with all the traffic like iPlayer, YouTube HD etc, IPS's are already struggling to keep up with the demand! I think they would fall over if this became popular.
huh? the US is huge, it'd be best for beta in UK
better infrastructure and everythings closer
can't wait to get feedback from the beta testers
more about latency then bandwidth, UK is better connected then US
By the way this was shown publicly and worked fine.
I feel there is too much neo-luddite skepticism around this company and their efforts, dnoted by the excessive use of "supposedly" and other qualifiers.
Enjoy the future while it is here!
Yours in OnLive Plasma,
Star*Dagger
for the US ya for the rest of the 1st world countries will be fine, the US is 28th in terms of internet capability ><
I hear UK internet is really garbage too. Good thing i don't live there, i'd be pissed if my connection was weaker than advertised.
There's also the issue of image quality, of course. OnLive streams games as 720p video, but I doubt that's going to be crystal-clear, and 720p is a fairly low resolution these days when it comes to gaming. 1680x1050 and higher aren't the norm just yet, but they may well be in a couple of years when OnLive debuts, with 1080p displays closing in fast as well, and even small artifacts will be extremely noticeable in those situations.
Suffice is to say, OnLive is a major, major compromise - its aim is to get more people gaming, who don't want to shell out tons of money for their own gaming computers, who don't care so much about image quality, and who don't feel owning their games long-term is a priority.
That's no different to Steam (aside from the continuous subscription bit, which will doubtless appear down the line), surely you haven't forsaken that superb little bit of software too?
It like most other things is a question of working out your budgets. Sure you'll be tied to the subscription model and there will doubtless be a (small imo) risk of them going bust but chances are for most vaguely serious gamers this would be far outweighed by the substantially lower outlay on games/hardware/electricity and the fact that it'd be so damn convienient. No installation of a game and then mod after mod after mod, no pissing about with patches, just works whenever you want it.
Passing away train journeys playing CS:S on my eee? Yes please.
I think we will always... at least for a long time, have a choice of the two. To either stream our games as a service, or buy it and make it ours by downloading it to run completely on our own system.
even if the pings are high for me, i think I could get a pretty good idea if it is gonna work. I am sure there will be alot of simple games that I could play too
onlive is more likely Latency based then any thing els
This is my first post in bit-tech.net.
No india.. ohh.. BTW still I've registered for beta testing. We have very slow connection compare to other countries. Like we have fastest broadband of 256Kbps. I can test onLive on 256Kbps connection. :D :D :D :D