XBOne Cloud computing - is it all that?

[Slaine]

Theres an awesome report on cloud computing on Eurogamer http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-in-theory-can-xbox-one-cloud-transform-gaming , which basically discusses the merits of what could increase the power of your console.

Bloody good read, and goes in to a lot of detail. But I agree with the Digital Foundry here. I cant see it being used to any great degree at all due to latency issues around the world, and mainly because when developing cross-platform (for the PS4 and PC) you'd have the additional expense of coding & optimising this in for just the One. Interesting to note that Microsoft's own engineers are still scratching their heads on how to shoe horn cloud computing. They may come up with something, but I can see this for just the first party games.

 

[farfromsane]

Microsoft needed something to talk about as they realise the PS4 is more powerful

 

[ColSonders]

I'm not done reading the article yet, but it certainly does seem that whilst Sony have learned from their mistake of making a system difficult to code for this time around that Microsoft have gone and made the very same mistake...but with the added difficulty of having the internet involved.

IF they could pull this off I was thinking that the power of the machine is effectively limitless, but it looks like unless they turn it into something more on par with OnLive in the future then it's not the massive powerhouse advantage that Microsoft are trying to lead people to believe.

 

[jonnywombat]

I we reading something the other day about this, although I can't remember where I saw it.

What this article was saying that before the end of the next gen consoles life cycle they may well be redundant, as smart tvs combined with cloud computing may well be the future of gaming. Will try to find article again if I can.

 

[ColSonders]

That's all well and good because "gaming" is considered to be the casual bit that a lot of people do, not the gaming done by real gamers who play the likes of Battlefield or Call of Duty.

I fear we may well be coming to the end of console gaming as we know it as so much "gaming" is considered to be do-able on portable devices such as phones.....but you can't use this for proper gaming in my opinion and I think the gaming console as we know it will come to an end due to the fact that it's going to be left as just the hardcore gamers who want a dedicated machine to play proper games on.

PC may well end up our only option for proper gaming in the future, after all they simply have to make an easy to use interface and give users options for armchair gaming....it's almost there already, the steam box will likely give us a great big step in that direction too with better options for armchair peripherals such as a gamepad with a trackpad built in or something.

Personally i'd rather see a dedicated console in every home, but I fear that's unlikely.

 

[TalllPaul]

Not a tech head myself so much of that is in Japanese but the fact MS could well be lying should be a cause for concern when it implies it could be more powerful than their competition, borderline false advertising?

 

[Slaine]

Not a tech head myself so much of that is in Japanese but the fact MS could well be lying should be a cause for concern when it implies it could be more powerful than their competition, borderline false advertising?

No I dont think they were lying. I think probably the original intention of cloud computing for M$ is may be to off shore some of the operating system functions, leaving the console free to play the games. After Sony sneakily added in the extra power, theyve put had to put a spin on the cloud computing abilities on offer. My interpretation here, and I could be way off, but remember all the intial reports of the PS4 were pretty much hinting for a lower powered machine. But what Microsoft are saying is correct and theoretically possible; you can use cloud computing resources to bolster the power of the console, but for the reasons stated in the Digital Foundry report it is highly unlikely it will ever be used to any great effect.

 

[jonnywombat]

PC may well end up our only option for proper gaming in the future

This article was referring to proper gaming, basically all you will need at home is a smart screen and a fast internet connection, everything else it's off loaded.
It was citing and extrapolating from the increase in speed and availability and cost of connection speed over the last 15 years, and trying to fight out the tipping point at which any and all home computing as we know it becomes obsolete.
I was reading another article in which they are finding new ways to use fibre, by sending twin signals, one the inverse of the other, which when both are received can be compared, and any errors can be corrected. This allows for higher data rates, and much higher power optical signals. The longest test so far has been 11,000kms @ 400Gb/s. So these network limitations are being pushed back all the time.

Consider that in the US Google are an isp offer fibre product in major cities, they have chrome os, and offer basic cloud computing services, such as word processing and storage... Then add 10-15 years of development, it seems to me inevitable at some point.

 

[ColSonders]

Nope, cloud based gaming is not ever going to take over real gaming.

I could go into a lot of depth of the reasons why, taking high end PC's pushing pixel perfect 4k displays already and pointing out the current far from perfect current streaming standards which don't even compete with 720p.

However, the easiest way to look at it is to use current wifi standards...which MUST be the standard used as it is still the mainstream household method of connecting devices.

So, current wifi, 'G' standard runs 54mbps max...with a real throughput somewhere in the region of 40mbps where an excellent connection is available...dropping down to 30mbps average.

That's your bottleneck right there...I am lucky enough to have one of the faster commercially available connection types in the UK and I can max out my routers wifi bandwidth quite happily directly from the internet...most people are FAR from it, but assuming optimistically that the majority of gamers will have a 70mbps connection in ten years time you're still looking at a real time bandwidth bottleneck of around 30mbps.

Now, coming back to reality many of us are already streaming 1080p video at 24 frames per second over our internal networks....those of us that do can confirm that doing this over wifi can lead to less that perfect streaming as you're hitting your wifi bottleneck. Some higher bitrate video simply won't work over G standard wifi.

Now look at gaming with 30-60 frames per second, you "require" 40-70mbps throughput....which is already hitting the throughput bottleneck of wired networks...yes I know gigabit ethernet is available and gives that number a massive boost, but real world you're hitting your wired bottleneck right there.

Now take into consideration multiple players wanting to game from the same house.

Maths says this is absolutely not going to replace proper gaming due to bandwidth bottlenecks, and that's before you even touch on latency.

That sort of service cannot cater for games like Call of Duty...which overall in the gaming market may be a minority, but there's certainly a call for that level of gaming, so proper hardware will always be required.

 

[yinkin]

The problem is that each step change in speed requires step changes in delivery infrastructure, we have yet to reach a consistent nationwide broadband connection speeds of a couple of Meg, I can still only get a 4mb connection via my ISP and then I am lucky to get 3 mb plus. It makes no difference what the theoretical limits are in lab tests, in the real world you can only work with what you have an what providers are willing to shell out for.