Okay, we admit to still being a little bit unsure about
OnLive's pledges for high-end, high-resolution, lag-free gaming on any 'ol device with bandwidth, but we
want to believe, and so it's with skeptical optimism that we report on news of mobile implementations. The company has demonstrated an iPhone app in which users are able to play against gamers on a PC or on the company's MicroConsole -- despite not having a single button to press. It's interesting stuff but, according to OnLive's CEO Steve Perlman, it'll be awhile before we see this in the wild, as plans for initial mobile apps will be limited to checking game stats and watching live gameplay. However, we presume it'll be a small step from there to flip the switch and two-way communications, meaning that perhaps by the time
Modern Warfare 3 hits the wires you can keep gaming even while you're commuting.
posted Nov 16th 2009 7:21AM
They still havent adequately demonstrated their main service let alone this iphone nonsense, technically it could work on any phone that you can put apps on like Android and Windows Mobile.
Phantom 2.
I wouldn't even play it on a touchscreen smartphone. If I'm going up against someone on the PC or the MConsole, it better be something like Tetris.
They would mop the floor with you in an FPS.
Is there any actual evidence that their main service is even feasible in the real world i.e. Michael Hunt playing Teresa Green and both living over 1 km away from their local exchange and even much further from the Onlive datacenter.
Bullocks!
The f'kin controls, mate. The f'kin controls!!
The touch screen is well suited for some applications, but for more complex games, it just doesn't work. You can make it work, but in the end it becomes more frustrating than anything.
Buttons/analog controllers are your friend...not the enemy.
I would rather see a PSP Mini that accessed it's service over WiFi. iPhone/iPod Touch really isn't a 'gaming' device, so thanks but no thanks. Real gaming devices have controls and tactile feedback. ( *fires shots over natal's bow*).
What kills me is that both the iPhone/Touch and ZuneHD, and DROID for that matter, are all touch screen devices.
Could they ever truly become gaming platforms with the control scheme so bastardized?
Don't get me wrong, loves my "smartphone/computer"....but dedicated gaming devices are so much better.
Last point, Nintendo and Sony need to drop some new generation devices....new graphics, new technology....extending current platforms isn't cutting it.
@Xcrunk
Technically speaking, the Droid does have that D-Pad, but I doubt that the experience would be any better.
Personally, I think On-Live should give an adequate demo before getting everybody's hopes up.
How is it the phantom when thers a closed beta for this thing?
Also i dont see why something like the iphone cant do it as long as its using wifi.
No way AT&Ts service is goung to pull that over their 1/3g conection.
The game Eliminate Pro can be played using just 3G. Its a pretty decent First PErson Shooter and I'm amazed it can be played on the cell network.
The bottom line is bandwidth. Once they roll out the next generation of cellphone infrastructure, or make the current one faster, it should be easy to get Onlive to run.
Problem is, with people already spending on XBOX LIVE and PS3 content or playing PC MMORPG's, I doubt anyone will want to spend the extra money for this service.
I don't think Apple will allow this on their phone. It will allow you to run a single app to play dozens of games, and would therefore cut into their app store profits...so they'll ban it for "duplicating functionality." After all, they don't let Flash on the iPhone.
Meat, they don't allow flash on the phone because they don't allow 3rd party virtualization and interpreters on the iPhone...when flash allows full application export that runs without an interpreter (scheduled for summer this year) you can run flash apps on the iPhone (but still not object based in a webpage).
A type of program like this is basically streaming a video from somewhere, and sending some simple UDP packets (of your control inputs). Granted its a bit more complicated then that, but it won't require anything like flash does, therefore there would be no reason for it to not be allowed in the app store (other than its questionable functionality)
I highly doubt this will work with today's mobile bandwidth even on 4g. The lag will be way too high
OnLive's actual gaming app will obviously require Wifi access.
I really think the next generations cellphones will be fast enough for online multiplayer.
Try the game ELIMINATE PRO on iPhone. The lag is noticeable enough that it takes a half second for a shot to connect...but that's pretty good for 3G I think. 4G will definitely be better.
maybe if you could download games to the device memory it would be lag free
I think you've missed the point.
yeah, not surprising. that's what happens when when you happen to stumble upon a post with zero comments... damn that uncontrollable urge to read/type as fast as possible to get a comment in!
let me try again:
can you use this app to check your engadget comment ranking stats?
I think you missed the point... again. Try reading the post first, or better yet, learn to read.
I say, BRING IT!
Love to see this in htchd2 or the new xperia, hopefully other then the iphone.
It would make sense to bring it to the HTC2.
But if you want to be:
#1 An attention whore.
#2 guarantee that the blogs that in the past laughed your idea off, treat it a bit more gently or even positively.
You just say it will involve the iPhone in someway.
Nah, i think ill stick with what i said and what i believe. I mentioned those two phones because ill be getting one of them and judging from what ive read from the onlive blog, theres a very good chance of that happening. so beat it you!
@Look_Around_You
you forgot # 3
- successful & actually want to make money
A Novel concept, no one cares about. In order to play at 720p you must have a connection of 10Mb/s. 1080p, 50Mb/s, again hardly anyone has that.
According to the OnLive FAQ, you need only 5Mbps for 720p games. This makes it much more accessible than you believe. Most people have at least that much or can get it for fairly cheap.
Where did you get your figures? Here's where I got mine: http://www.onlive.com/service/faq.html
it's attainable on your home network though 54 Mb/s G hmmm....?
But i guess that would defeat the purpose of making it on your celly.
@cheese rations
if thats what theyre claiming then id like to see a demonstration asap!
Yes, it would defeat the entire purpose. If you had read about the service that the post is referring to, you'd see that the benefit is that you can stream and play games anywhere on any device at any time. The whole point is to NOT have to download something, and not just on your cell phone.
Your home network speeds really have nothing to do with this.
Figures quoted on their website are for TV, not iphone, you'd require far less bandwidth to stream to an iphone.
@cheese rat...
yes, ive read the info from their blog. great, lets move on from the home network thing... since youre on their ^#$315 its only fair to ask them to have a demonstration of a high end 3d game asap!
My apologies, i couldnt help myself.
Oh gotta go to work, I'll be taking no more responses...
I also see Droid lovin'
http://olwriter.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/diagram_howitworks43.jpg
I buy a phone/smartphone for comunications/managemet purposes... not as a toy. indipendent what is the device/os.
why do you need 3d games on your phone? hm. hm.. do you work in the day or you are always chillin inda city's park ?
Your needs/wants are not necessarily the same as everyone else's. Asking why you would want 3D games on your smartphone is rather like asking why you would want to install Solitaire on a PC - it doesn't help you to get any work done but sometimes you don't want to work and it is convenient.
bravo
Yah, irrelevant. It is hard enough to send normal video without a 0.5-3 second delay (due to buffering and network issues). If they also want to add have lag-free communication back, then they are SOL. This could work only in games that will work with more than 2-4 second lag. Maybe with some MMOs. Turn-based games. Etc.
Irrelevant because *you* don't see how they could do it? That attitude is going to keep you on the couch, postin on ur bords. What's not to love about cloud gaming? Someone's going to make it happen. It might as well be the guy who made QuickTime.
I've seen live demos of FPS on PCs and Macs and it works great. One caveat is that you currently have to be within reasonable range of one of their servers to have low latency.
There are times when I used to stream 720p videos from my PC over 802.11G WiFi to my Media PC and it would lag because of interference... if you can't stream reliably in the same house, I somehow don't see it happening for video games. Sure, on late night watching when people weren't hammering the local WiFi bands with their web surfing it was tolerable, but that's hardly acceptable. I had to put in a dedicated drop to the living room to fix it via hard wire. If you can't stream video over WiFi without living in a remote area without 10-15 APs in your neighborhood fighting over airtime, then you can't game over WiFi.
A very interesting concept and for sure the future for all of us, not just gamers.
In a few years from now, everyone will be plugged to the 10gbps network and working, playing, watching whatever... online. Everything will be streamed.
I'm not looking forward to that, but I'm sure it'll happen sooner or later anyways.
I'm also totally not looking forward to this...
I guess in this scenario all consumers have at their place is a basic networking terminal and all the apps and data are on servers.
I for one don't find the concept of not owning the software I shelled out hard earned cash for very appealing (I'm from Germany - software licencing the American way is not legal here, if you buy software you own the copy) and I also detest the idea of my data cruising around the internet.
Not to mention that your "PC" is basically useless if there is no connection - if a street worker damages the cable, for example...
But more to the point, I still don't buy into this OnLive thing... And as long as there is no public beta with real gamers in real world conditions, I just can't believe their claims...
This could indeed be a useful way to transmit game data to your device under a subscription model without needing to take up storage space on said device, but under no circumstances is this going to allow iPhone owners to play PC games. The iPhone only needs games written for the iPhone since they at least have been written to make use of the hardware that is available. The idea of trying to play a game designed for the PC on an iPhone is clearly nuts and not going to happen.
I suppose this service would also get around the problem of older iPhones not being able to play newer titles that were designed for faster devices. No doubt 3GS-only titles will only be the beginning so this service could address that particular problem.
I don't see how playing a game designed for a PC on an iPhone/Droid would be much different than playing a game designed for a PC on a console. Sure, the controls would need to be simplified, but that's what is done for console games every day. In fact, it would be closer to a PC experience on a Droid since the Droid has a hardware keyboard and a D-pad. Granted you'd be playing on a much smaller screen. But I can definitely see this working for RTS, RPS/RPG, and casual games very well. FPS games might be a little sketchy since the reaction times are more important in those games, but it's nothing that couldn't be worked out. I think I'll reserve judgment until the thing actually exists and is being used by people in the real world.
I'll note right now that I am absolutely against "porting", particularly when it comes to games. Porting a game from the PC to a console is pretty stupid because you have to change the interface completely and when you do that you effectively change the game as well. A game should be designed for the hardware that it is going to run on. This is even more important when you consider just how much a PC game would need to be changed to run on a device that has no physical buttons and a relatively tiny screen. It just doesn't work because the start and end platforms are so completely different.
The best games are those that play to the particular strengths of the platform that they are being played on. I am very much convinced that the best games for the iPhone are those that don't have a bunch of on-screen buttons to simulate buttons that the device does not have but rather takes advantage of the multi-touch interface and accelorometer.
I am keeping my fingers crossed that OnLive can deliver what they are promising but I am not wanting to try playing Cryssis on the iPhone.
iPhone already redifined games delivery and digital distribution and touch screen gaming.
Onlive? Pfft... They're just tagging along for the ride.
Indeed, specially since Iphone is the first touchscreen device evar.
2 things:
1. I've seen Onlive in action. I've payed it. It is amazing. They developed new compression algorithms and proprietary hardware to do the encoding and decoding work. So this thing really works.
2. It is coming to Android. Perlman provided the seed money for the Android project before Google purchased it.
I love the idea that produce a new and fascinating technology from thin air.
I was actually at the Wedbush presentations when they showed this on Friday. Firstly, the iPhone was connecting using WiFi, not 3G. This would be pretty much impossible on 3G. Secondly, they showed it playing Crysis, and yes, it does run Crysis, though the iPhone wasn't actually running it. Yes the controls we shitty, and you'd probably never want to play a FPS on a touchscreen device, but perhaps it'll work for other games. And lastly, this was done more as a proof of concept than anything that will be released into the wild anytime soon.
Onlive is just uploading a video feed of PC game to the device. We are just uploading keystoked back to OnLive. It's just like VLC or Skyfire browser. Just remote controlling. If the Iphone can handle a video feed with out a lag. Yes you can play any game. I don't think flash is essential to build a app to receive video feed and send key strokes. It would be just another app.
I have seen a external jostick controller for iphone sometime ago in engadget. That will resolve the problems regarding the touch screen.
Happy gaming everybody :-)
Well if they make a controller for the iphone (USB or Bluetooth) with no lag then ill be happy.
With OnLive, someone could easily make a very cheap handheld device that just streams games. I mean, it wouldn't take a massive processor, and the screen resolution at 3-4 inches doesn't need to be 720p (more like 480p), so bandwidth isn't as big of an issue. For around 100 bucks or less, a machine that plays full pc/console games on the go. Nice.
Until there's an actual gameplay video or open beta with independent testing, this is firmly in the *** bullshit vaporware *** category. It's a great concept, sure, but more "Hype" [tm] is not exactly what we need right now. Show the goods.