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SvennoJ said:
Machiavellian said:
 

I believe you forget that MS already stated that every X1 game gets a dedicated server for free in which the developer can use as they please, Second is the cloud base platform Orleans that MS has developed.  Orleans allows pieces of code to run server side called grains.  These grains can be replicated so that multiple servers can operated on that piece of code.  Also those grains can be operated anywhere in the world an computed locally to a datacenter where the gamer is located.  This is how MS plans to tackle the cloud compute and its a platform they have been building for over 3 years.  Also, you really only have to have one server run an instance of the game and send pieces of code to other servers to process those results and send to the console.  Think of the main dedicated server as a traffic controller where it direct multiple cars to different paths.

So using Orleans, pieces of code that run server side can be crunching parts of a game constantly.  If done correctly, the server side code can already have the piece of code completed since a lot of stuff will not really change if processing environmental effects and just streams that info to the gamer console when they reach a certain area.  The info can be streamed in advance so its ready once the user gets to that section.  

Gamers have to stop thinking about the cloud rendering a scene instead of just performing calculations.  Even rendering a scene can be done by using similar techiques like Gaikai/Playstation now.

This stuff is how distributed cloud services work today and really not that new.  The thing is, its new for game applications which is why such services will take time as developers work out different solutions for how their game work.

I worked on such a system myself in the past long before it was called cloud computing. Yes the server can do it much more efficiently then running a separate game for each player, yet it still needs to keep a seperate data instance for every player running alongside. I mean if it were a simple case of everyone experiencing the exact same thing, thus minimizing data instance needs server side, you can more easily pre-compute all that and put it on the disc. If the player has a lot of influence on the world (destruction, foot prints, tire marks, displaced items, smoke grenades, etc) then the server load grows quickly.
Btw every system getting a dedicated server for free is nonsense, those are virtualized servers.
Anyway we gave up on that 'cloud' system at the time due to bandwidth and latency being the bottleneck. It is now just serving up data asynchronously to be used at the device's convenience. Bandwith limitation is still the biggest bottleneck today and will be for the rest of this generation.

Orleans is an impressive flexible standardized platform for dedicated servers. Bandwidth and latency limitations however restrict it's usefullness to enhance how games look. It can enhance the content, not help out with rendering.


@Bolded:  You are correct, this is the reason that MS built the Orleans platform to solve exactly what you just mentioned.  For a distributed cloud computer platform, you need a way to monitor, distribute and process pieces of code.  Its not a simple process and highly complex.  I have done something very similar but on a much smaller scale.  This is the reason why I keep telling people that its not so simple that Sony or Nnintendo can just do the same thing. The software and hardware takes years to develop.  One of the key things that Azure does that helps is its capability to spin up a server anywhere in the world to perform this type of work.  Resources can be added or removed in seconds which is why this is something that MS can do because of the money they have spent with the Azure platform.

@Second Bolded:  This is correct but then incorrect.  People do not know how Azure works.  Azure only spins up virtual servers.  The software that runs the Azure platform is very complex.  All resources within the Azure platform are controlled by software.  The reason for this setup is that if any of the actual physical hardware goes down, the customer will see absolutly no downtime.  You can actually pull the plug on a rack of servers where a customer software is running and they probably would barely see a blip.  Depending on your service agreement, you can an instance of your software running on multiple servers and datacenters around the world.  This is the reason MS can state 100% uptime for hosting companies software on Azure.

EDIT:  I forgot to mention that when people say that "its only a virtual server", you have to realize that Azure uses the same tech as the hypervisor within the X1.  The virtual servers are not the same as you running virtual PC or Citrix on your desktop.  The hypervisor are very thin allowing the virtual server to gainbare metal access to local resources on par as if you were running it directly on the server.  People should read up on hypervisors its pretty interesting tech.  I believe VMWare still have the best but MS Hyper V has come a long was and is a solid competitor.

For that cloud system you are talking about, you could do that using Azure.  The key issues you talk about would be corrected by Azure to instantly spin up a server at a datacenter local to your location.

I agree that Orleans is not setup for graphics work so it would not be used to make a game look better.  The way that the game would look better is if the hardware resources are freed up from other task so that it can concentrate on the immediate things the user is doing.  Think of how ingame non interactive movies look so much better than the actually gameplay.  All the resources are set to render the assets without having to deal with other aspects of a game that is processed behind the scenes.