richardhutnik said:
Can you explain from a technical sense what that means, outside of it being a buzzword soup with a feature, that it isn't the same thing as dedicated servers or it can't be done? Watch the videogame. He said that the cloud makes it easier to hook up dedicated servers. Outside of that, what else is it? Again, how does it do it in ways you don't get today with dedicated servers? Technically speaking, I had a job at one time, where I had to administer over 700 Unix servers in a batch pool, and a controller program would manage all that. For me, that is cloud computing and am had pressed to see otherwise. But, please feel free to. Of course, what is going on with cloud is more complex with that, and makes administering servers easier. But, beyond that, can you explain how cloud computing isn't anything but a name for virtualized servers? |
I think the video is pretty self explanitory. Cloud is virtualized servers...but the scale and availablility is the difference. Also what is wrong with having a cool name like the "cloud", which btw wasn't invented and defined by Microsoft? Sony calls their components with cool names all the time, when all they are is gimped and diffcult to program for parts of silicone. Emotion Engine, Teh Cell...etc.
In terms of these virtualized servers, having access to unlimited dedicated servers helps greatly when deploying an online portion of a brand new game. Companies don't have to estimate how many servers they have to dedicate to what region and the cost associated. If a game suddenly takes off in Japan per say 3 months after launch, EA doesn't have to worry about:
1. buying extra servers for that region
2. Shutting down existing servers and allocating the resources to a new game
3. Leaving it as is and having a bad user experience for that game
They just let Microsofts cloud infrastructure handle all this.
As for in game applications, the "cloud" allows for the forza bot AI and your "drivetar" to learn and change according to your driving patterns. Other games like Dead Rising 3 can utilize it in the same manner where each zombie can have its own AI pattern which is calculated in the cloud, VS on your machine where it would take up CPU computing resources. And we are jsut scratching the surface here...
To be honest, I don't really understand why you are asking these questions. You're quite an intelligent poster and I find all this pretty self explanitory. Cloud computing isn't the be-all/end-all of next gen, but it can add cool perks on the back end for devs to utilize which should improve gaming experiences for end users.
Perhaps you don't understand the scale of Microsofts cloud services? Microsoft has spent 90% of the R&D budget since 2011 on the "cloud". Other than Oracle and their VMWare, they are pretty much unmatched.
