OnLive shows off UI and iPhone use in marathon tech demo (video)
Sure, OnLive has already done live demos of its "cloud gaming" service, but it never hurts to get another comprehensive 48-minute video on the subject. In a presentation at Columbia University, CEO Steve Perlman goes over the nitty gritty of how game streaming works, the OnLive user interface (11:53), an inevitable Crysis Wars demo (16:35), Brag Clips (17:49), and of course the iPhone app (19:31). Though cellphone integration is still limited to primarily spectating and social networking functions, PCs and Macs can get gaming via a 1MB browser plugin, or you can grab the microconsole streaming box for your TV, which Steve suggests might be given away for free with OnLive subscriptions. If you have any more unanswered questions, check out the audience Q&A at 33:14, and the full vid awaits after the break.
























Yawn, stop showing off new features and just bring out the damn service first, then concentrate on upgrading it.
Fuck The cloud!
@Sheppard
And that is why the CEO is going to be making a fortune, and you'll be paying him to play in your mom's basement.
He understands that if this service is to make even a dime of profit, it has to be capable of drawing attention away from the current consoles, and it has to be hyped and primed for just the right time to market. If it sucks at launch, even just a little bit, he might as well dust off his resumé and go spend some time at monster.com.
@One Love
Does the cloud you're fucking have 4 legs and go "Bahhhhhhh"?
@geekthree
Mine has two legs and goes "Ahhhhh"
@One Love yeh
1 word... When?
@ADzurka
If you'd bothered to watch the video you'd know...
Ok, it's supposed to come out some time this winter.
@itchyeyes
Yep.
It said winter 09.
I really think this will work well for RPG type games but not so much for FPS
@From My Cube
What? The guy just spent 50 minutes telling you how it works in great detail. You think they'd get financing if it didn't ?
@t2af & @From My Cube
Id have to agree with Cube on this, for any twitch game (FPSs/racing/etc games), latency plays a huge role in the outcome of the game, higher latency would mean you are more likely to mess up. Even though the compression algorithms are super advanced with very minimal latency, you will still have to deal with some form of latency that cannot be overcome no matter how hard you try (distance from server to client)
For the casual player, this wouldnt be much of a problem, hardcore players will find this a problem (if you claim your hardcore, and you dont find this a problem, your not hardcore)
@ilikespie
Ah, but the increased latency in the system is offset by the lowered latency to the servers - so you effectively can see exactly where people are at all times.
Then it comes down to what kind of latency you want - input and display, or server. Somehow, I suspect I would prefer the latter and traditional one, lending your point some validity, but who knows - I've never tried the system before.
@Delogic
exactly, they have spent years getting this right, and they seem like gamers themselves.. having something that doesn't work seems pointless to promote. with an 80ms delay that he says has been proved to fall within our perceptual range, I'm inclined to agree with him. it just doesn't plausible that they would sell something that doesn't work for the main feature it rely's on. It's like selling a boat that doesn't float, you just can't get away with it. PLUS everyone there who tries it says they don't notice the lag. I guess ultimately everyone will have to try it themselves before they believe it.
@From My Cube
I don't think this'll work at all. 80ms = instantaneous my ass
http://img228.imageshack.us/i/mouselaggn6.swf/
first set the arrow to the left for a regular mouse with no lag, now set it to 80ms and see how instantaneous that feels
@Broderbund
Very interesting find, i somewhat broke it however and gained an added effect, i was able to see my mouse crusor over it while the flash animation was running.
@Broderbund
I'm on a mac, which already has some lag built in, then, when set to 0 ms, I could still feel additional lag from it being flash. Then I added 80 ms, which by now probably were 120 ms. It's annoying, but not horrible.
Of course, 80 ms is worst case scenario, remember that. If you live right next to a server park, well..
I'll believe it when I see it.
@PerfectCr
Like seeing it in the numerous demos and videos they have shown? Amazing how everyone trashes this service and acts like it couldn't work no matter what they are shown. We get it, you have to act jaded on the internet...
@Duke Youre either stupid or naive, the "demos" they show off are going to be very tightly controlled set of circumstances that might work well when very few people are using the service but once its out there are a massive amount of variables that could affect the performance of this service.
@Sheppard
your argument doesn't make any sense. This is a subscription service. If it doesn't work people stop paying. It's not like they are duping you with a one off payment is it ?
@Sheppard
Looking at your response, you're either stupid or a jackass. I think it may be a combo of both.
Was /that/ a keynote? Or just a inside demo?
@ernie He like had an excellent like public speech like prepared for this like presentation. I'm like totally sure it's like an inside demo.
Website sill says its coming Winter 2009. 1 Day left folks! All technical concerns aside, I'm concerned that you have to pay full price to 'buy' a game as well as continue to pay Onlive a subscription. Stop paying the monthly fee and you loose all your games.
@mojo8472
@mojo8472 Not much different to xbox live then
@mojo8472 actually, in the north hemisfere, winter ends on march 19th.
@chipimix
In the world, 2009 ends the day after tomorrow
results may vary according to time zones
@Proud Japanese Actually a big difference between OnLive and Xbox Live. Unless your talking about Arcade games than yea you may have an issue but atleast you have all of the cds for games you bought in the store for $60 whereas on OnLive, you do NOT have any physical media or items downloaded locally.
@Proud Japanese
Spare us. If you let your XBL gold account revert back to silver(free) then your arcade games work just like they did before. It is not the same thing at all.
@Proud Japanese Huh? WHAT? Are you saying all the downloaded Games on Demand sitting on my Xbox 360 hard drive become unplayable if I cancel my XBL subscription?
From my point of view, the technology just isn't good enough. But it's a great idea and I would love to play full 3d games on my iPod. Hope it gets released quite quickly .
1ms?
you get killed twice during that time in a deathmatch :D
Looks pretty impressive. I hope i get picked to be a beta tester :(
very impressive stuff!!
So... This is being released today or tomorrow? =)
You guys are so negative it's such a turn off.
i got picked to be a beta tester but cudnt do it cos im currently in the uk :-(
It's December 30th 2009. Shouldn't I already be playing Crysis on my laptop? Sounds like another never-gonna-happen plan...
@TareG You could be if you were a beta tester.
man the audio on this video is super annoying...clipping really bad
"games can't be pirated" never say never......
@cholly In this case, it's actually true. Your only downstream connection is video, so it's not like you can dump the game from a video stream. Upstream you're sending compressed input. Maybe, just maybe, the upstream protocol can be used to access the servers and then have the server feed the game data to another ip address (maybe your bt machine), but that really depends on what data's being sent upstream and whether the server will reject any non-expected data.
I hope this catches on. Flame me, but the end of videogame piracy might be a good thing.
@Jubeh
Piracy is the result of faulty business models. An example of this is the hyped game that sucks and you wish you could unbuy. Another is wait for the game to download, or the obligatory patches that you have to install to play the game (steam).
With the inherent flexibility of the system, the instant gratification that even piracy can't match, it isn't the HOW that will be the main block for piracy, it's the WHY.
And that's the best way.
@Delogic mind: blown
are we going to see Onlive pads and gaming guitars and other accessories?
@KMGLOBAL They actually said that other USB controllers and motion controllers will/should be supported, but they developed their own wireless protocol.
(I think that's what I heard)
It's a great idea for people that have computers that are not up to snuff for gaming. However, if the the games are going to cost the same as they would in stores, I'll stick with Steam. No monthly charge and no video compression. No mention of MMP. Still in the beta stages. I wonder how it will run with millions on their servers.