Questionable claims

[unixronin]

"OnLive, a service aiming to knock off the traditional video game console model by delivering streaming games at high frame rates regardless of the power of a user's computer, [...] explained that it was able to deliver high-performance streaming of games due to a series of patented and patent-pending compression technologies.  [...]  OnLive argues that, among other things, this infrastructure model future-proofs customers because they will never have to upgrade their equipment.  Rather, all the technology advances will happen on the back end."

So ... they claim to be able to deliver high-frame-rate, high-definition games over consumer internet connections by using proprietary compression systems, but it's independent of the ability of the user's computer to decompress the stream in real time and independent of its power to render the video?

.... RIGHT.  I'll believe that when I see it.  "I love the smell of vaporware in the morning."

Interest you in a nice historic bridge?  It's going cheap this week....

Comments

[genuine-snark.livejournal.com]

It's been demoed and written about by the gaming press already. Early reports are that most games work pretty well. However, extremely fast-twitch games do have too much controller lag to be wholly comfortable.

I believe delivered frame rate is currently ~30fps, with something like 720p resolution. They say 1080/60p later. I think that will be significantly more challenging, and I assume will require more geographic distribution to bring racks closer to the consumer hop-wise.

The company itself is only a few blocks away from mine, in Downtown Palo Alto. I have friends who work there. It's not the Phantom all over again.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

The part I don't believe about it is the idea that they can do this independent of the power of the user's computer. "As long as you have at least FOO", where FOO is a decent baseline configuration in a pretty recent hardware generation, I might believe. But completely independent? No way in hell.

[genuine-snark.livejournal.com]

Well, it's just streaming compressed video. That part's not that different from Netflix or YouTube, though I imagine making it work with essentially no buffering is a technical challenge. But it doesn't take a lot of computer horsepower to actually decode it.

Some of the press you quoted is hyperbole (i.e. no, your 486 won't be playing OnLive) but no computer you would have bought in the last few years is likely to be problematic. Once 1080p is delivered, the requirements shouldn't increase anymore until the next major TV resolution increase.

I spoke further to a guy I know who used to work at OnLive, and he did also mention that the video compression was noticeable. You also need a 5Mbps+ net connection. So it's not going to be magic snake oil or anything, and actually does have some downsides and minimum requirements. The question is whether it'll be Good Enough.

I signed up for the pre-reg, and (assuming I make it in, but I generally expect I will) will let you know my impressions.

I'm somewhat more excited about Steam/Source Engine on Mac getting announced, but all in all, it's going to be a good year for Mac gaming!