A proper Super Killer Application

[Bunk]

Yes, no more shelling out on hardware to play games....oh hang on.

But it's ok, this is the last bit of hardware you'll ever have to buy.

Until the next chip which has better compression therefore allowing higher resolutions etc.

Yeah, I see what you mean

[DimPrawn]

Ah, they they expect you to buy their hardware to do decompression?

Yes, no more shelling out on hardware to play games....oh hang on.

[AtW]

Ah, they they expect you to buy their hardware to do decompression?

[VectraMan]

Movies can be compressed well because of type of content they are - it is viewed from distance also, not in front of PC.

Depends on your definition of "well". Obviously a video of a game can be compressed using the same technology, but it may lose more quality than a video of a field. And what goes out on digital TV is compressed in real time, though "real time" is typically a 1 second delay which obviously wouldn't work for a game.

This goes into a bit more technical detail:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7976206.stm

OnLive has said it has created a video compression algorithm designed specifically for video games that can encode and compress video into data in about one millisecond.

A custom-built silicon chip designed by OnLive does the actual encoding calculations at the server end, as well as the decompression at the gamer end, inside a cheap hardware add-on.

Mr Perlman said it had taken "tens of thousand" of man hours to develop the algorithm.

I suspect they're doing some of the actual rendering on the client, so they're just sending the data of what to render down the link rather than actual video.

I think I've seen some jobs advertised for these people too.

[doodab]

Movies can be compressed well because of type of content they are

They can also be encoded offline and use multi-pass encoders, both of which serve to reduce the bit rate required for a given quality level.

[AtW]

The compression is good enough for that sort of thing over broadband (HDTV is only ~4-8Mb/s).

Movies can be compressed well because of type of content they are - it is viewed from distance also, not in front of PC.

And yes latency will be another big issue: 50 Mbits per frame would take whole second.

[VectraMan]

It won't work well for FPS games - how can they guarantee 60 FPS per second on 1280 x 1024 x 32 bit mode, which is easily 50 MBits per frame.

Even if they use incremental compression it will be tulip for fast changing FPS.

The compression is good enough for that sort of thing over broadband (HDTV is only ~4-8Mb/s). The issue is going to be latency. Expect lots of very slow boring games because responsiveness won't be anything like as good as playing on your local PC/console.

[DiscoStu]

Will be a good idea for 1st world countries.

3rd world places like the UK need to focus on not going bankrupt rather than playing games.

[DimPrawn]

It will work, because although today only perhaps 5% of the UK has the speeds required in a couple of years that will be more like 50%.

Virgin Media have 50mb broadband now in Swindon and other cabled areas and are trialling 200mb in Kent right now.

[AtW]

It won't work well for FPS games - how can they guarantee 60 FPS per second on 1280 x 1024 x 32 bit mode, which is easily 50 MBits per frame.

Even if they use incremental compression it will be tulip for fast changing FPS.

[Spacecadet]

Will be a good idea for 1st world countries.

3rd world places like the UK need to focus on getting decent broadband speeds even at peak times.

FTFY

[DimPrawn]

Will be a good idea for 1st world countries.

3rd world places like the UK need to focus on not going bankrupt rather than playing games.

[cojak]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8556874.stm



"We want to take your dollars from hardware and let you spend it on a crap ISP and inadequate broadband. We are a new platform and we're building a network and infrastructure to last for the next 30 years of gaming, not the next five years," Mr McGarvey told reporters.

Oh Dear...

[DimPrawn]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8556874.stm

A gaming service that aims to kill off the traditional gaming console will begin streaming popular games over the internet in June this year.

OnLive, which launched to much fanfare in 2009, announced details of its service at the GamesBeat conference.

Instead of games taking hours to download or buying them off the shelf, OnLive promises games on-demand.

"OnLive breaks the console cycle. We don't need new hardware devices," said company founder Steve Perlman.

That sentiment was echoed by his chief operating officer Mike McGarvey.

"We want to take your dollars from hardware and let you spend it on software. We are a new platform and we're building a network and infrastructure to last for the next 30 years of gaming, not the next five years," Mr McGarvey told reporters.



Superb idea. I can see this as a pay as you play concept.