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Forums - PC - Anybody tried out onlive?

Rainbird on 11 December 2011
SamuelRSmith said:
Rainbird said:

You can find a bit more details on what you can expect in terms of graphics here. The games aren't as good looking as they can look on a high end PC unfortunately.

Yeah, maybe I was exaggerating about the high-end PC thing... but it's certainly much higher than what I can get my computer to run (though the picture quality dips from time to time).

The thing is, as hardware gets better, so will onlive... and we'll never have to buy the new machinery, ourselves. High end PCs will still have an edge, but it won't matter much.

In principle, yes. But I don't think OnLive will be upgrading their hardware other than once every two or three years. Twice a console generation basically. And OnLive aims for all its games to run at 60 FPS, which puts some restrictions on what is possible to get from the hardware as well. Some of the current OnLive games look better on consoles in fact (DiRT 3 and Deus Ex for example), especially when you couple it with all the compression OnLive has to do of the videostream.

Whether OnLive satisfies someone's graphics-itch will come down to how easy they are to please essentially. But graphics is just one aspect to the whole package, and playing a game on local hardware has notacibly less lag too. Not to mention your gameplay experience isn't dictated by your internet connection moment-to-moment.

As much as I love the ease of use general principles behind OnLive, it's still got a few major hurdles to clear in my opinion.



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Rainbird on 11 December 2011
Pjams said:
Rainbird said:

You can find a bit more details on what you can expect in terms of graphics here. The games aren't as good looking as they can look on a high end PC unfortunately.

Interesting, DF mentions a server upgrade was possibly in the works, which would have a postive impact on latency, I guess that hasn't happened yet?

I don't think the upgrade would have an impact on latency, just the basic graphic settings each game plays on.



SamuelRSmith on 11 December 2011
Reasonable said:
SamuelRSmith said:
Pjams said:
Great thread, how is the controller latency, and how do the games look compared to console and PC.

I have a fast connection so I am interested in this.


The games look like PC games playing on the best computers money can buy... because that is exactly what they are. As for controller latency... I'm finding a lot of variance, but that's because my connection is varying (wifi, housemate on/off games, other housemate on/off skype, etc).

Just download it and try it, there are no subscription fees (unless you get one of the gamepacks), and there are lots of demos on there. In about two minutes you could be playing a Batman AC demo, or something. You may find your connection is good enough, you may find you get a lot of latency... it's all gonna be about your connection's latency, so it's gonna be hit-miss from person to person.

It's good but when I tried it not that good.  Graphics were good - sometimes comfortably ahead of PS3/360 - but still behind a local high end PC running the game.  Latency on the controller was also higher than a local PC.  Not enough to be an issue on the couple of SP games I played anyway - I suspect it could be enough to cause issues with MP type gameplay.

It was better than I thought though, although at this time with a high end PC, lot's of cheap PC games and 2 HD consoles I'm not switching to this anytime soon yet - but I will be keeping an eye on it to see how it pans out.  For me the big question is estimating if the TCO is truly lower or not that current options.


Yeah, I'm quite out-of-step of what a high-end PC can do.

As for the TCO, the balance is looking pretty good. However, if they introduce a subscription charge, it will go wildly out of favour. The real problem with this service is always going to be catalogue. If you're gaming a lot, anyway, you're going to need a high-end PC just to play games that aren't available on the service... which negates the fundamental selling point.

In essense, what will make or break onlive is the service itself. The technology is more-or-less there  (maybe we need a few years for good multiplayer gaming), cloud gaming is here and real... whether onlive can take the mantle is another question.



Pjams on 11 December 2011
Rainbird said:
Pjams said:
Rainbird said:

You can find a bit more details on what you can expect in terms of graphics here. The games aren't as good looking as they can look on a high end PC unfortunately.

Interesting, DF mentions a server upgrade was possibly in the works, which would have a postive impact on latency, I guess that hasn't happened yet?

I don't think the upgrade would have an impact on latency, just the basic graphic settings each game plays on.

Sorry, the article says the server upgarde would better support 60fps, which would improve latency. So, I guess that hasn't happened?



 

Reasonable on 11 December 2011
SamuelRSmith said:
Reasonable said:
SamuelRSmith said:
Pjams said:
Great thread, how is the controller latency, and how do the games look compared to console and PC.

I have a fast connection so I am interested in this.


The games look like PC games playing on the best computers money can buy... because that is exactly what they are. As for controller latency... I'm finding a lot of variance, but that's because my connection is varying (wifi, housemate on/off games, other housemate on/off skype, etc).

Just download it and try it, there are no subscription fees (unless you get one of the gamepacks), and there are lots of demos on there. In about two minutes you could be playing a Batman AC demo, or something. You may find your connection is good enough, you may find you get a lot of latency... it's all gonna be about your connection's latency, so it's gonna be hit-miss from person to person.

It's good but when I tried it not that good.  Graphics were good - sometimes comfortably ahead of PS3/360 - but still behind a local high end PC running the game.  Latency on the controller was also higher than a local PC.  Not enough to be an issue on the couple of SP games I played anyway - I suspect it could be enough to cause issues with MP type gameplay.

It was better than I thought though, although at this time with a high end PC, lot's of cheap PC games and 2 HD consoles I'm not switching to this anytime soon yet - but I will be keeping an eye on it to see how it pans out.  For me the big question is estimating if the TCO is truly lower or not that current options.


Yeah, I'm quite out-of-step of what a high-end PC can do.

As for the TCO, the balance is looking pretty good. However, if they introduce a subscription charge, it will go wildly out of favour. The real problem with this service is always going to be catalogue. If you're gaming a lot, anyway, you're going to need a high-end PC just to play games that aren't available on the service... which negates the fundamental selling point.

In essense, what will make or break onlive is the service itself. The technology is more-or-less there  (maybe we need a few years for good multiplayer gaming), cloud gaming is here and real... whether onlive can take the mantle is another question.

It does sound tempting.  I'l lhave to keep an eye on it and see how it matures over the next 12 months or so.  I think by then the full state of the service should be obvious.  If it takes off it'll be interesting to see the outcome in the broader market.



Try to be reasonable... its easier than you think...

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Rainbird on 11 December 2011
Pjams said:
Rainbird said:
Pjams said:
Rainbird said:

You can find a bit more details on what you can expect in terms of graphics here. The games aren't as good looking as they can look on a high end PC unfortunately.

Interesting, DF mentions a server upgrade was possibly in the works, which would have a postive impact on latency, I guess that hasn't happened yet?

I don't think the upgrade would have an impact on latency, just the basic graphic settings each game plays on.

Sorry, the article says the server upgarde would better support 60fps, which would improve latency. So, I guess that hasn't happened?

The games on OnLive are being rendered at 720p resolution and 60 FPS already. Are you referring to the update to 1080p instead of 720p?



Pjams on 11 December 2011

I wonder if MS or Sony currently has it's own version of Onlive in the works? Or Apple, or Google . . .



 

Slimebeast on 11 December 2011
Reasonable said:
SamuelRSmith said:
Pjams said:
Great thread, how is the controller latency, and how do the games look compared to console and PC.

I have a fast connection so I am interested in this.


The games look like PC games playing on the best computers money can buy... because that is exactly what they are. As for controller latency... I'm finding a lot of variance, but that's because my connection is varying (wifi, housemate on/off games, other housemate on/off skype, etc).

Just download it and try it, there are no subscription fees (unless you get one of the gamepacks), and there are lots of demos on there. In about two minutes you could be playing a Batman AC demo, or something. You may find your connection is good enough, you may find you get a lot of latency... it's all gonna be about your connection's latency, so it's gonna be hit-miss from person to person.

It's good but when I tried it not that good.  Graphics were good - sometimes comfortably ahead of PS3/360 - but still behind a local high end PC running the game.  Latency on the controller was also higher than a local PC.  Not enough to be an issue on the couple of SP games I played anyway - I suspect it could be enough to cause issues with MP type gameplay.

It was better than I thought though, although at this time with a high end PC, lot's of cheap PC games and 2 HD consoles I'm not switching to this anytime soon yet - but I will be keeping an eye on it to see how it pans out.  For me the big question is estimating if the TCO is truly lower or not that current options.

What's TCO? Total cost of ...nvestment?



Pjams on 11 December 2011
Rainbird said:
Pjams said:
Rainbird said:
Pjams said:
Rainbird said:

You can find a bit more details on what you can expect in terms of graphics here. The games aren't as good looking as they can look on a high end PC unfortunately.

Interesting, DF mentions a server upgrade was possibly in the works, which would have a postive impact on latency, I guess that hasn't happened yet?

I don't think the upgrade would have an impact on latency, just the basic graphic settings each game plays on.

Sorry, the article says the server upgarde would better support 60fps, which would improve latency. So, I guess that hasn't happened?

The games on OnLive are being rendered at 720p resolution and 60 FPS already. Are you referring to the update to 1080p instead of 720p?Didn't it say that the 60fps was variable, as well as 720p

Didn't it say that the 60fps was variable, which effects latency? They mentioned a server upgarde was being touted by Onlive, which would stabilize the consistency of 60fps.Sorry, maybe I need to read the article more thoroughly .



 

Rainbird on 11 December 2011
Pjams said:
Rainbird said:

The games on OnLive are being rendered at 720p resolution and 60 FPS already. Are you referring to the update to 1080p instead of 720p?

Didn't it say that the 60fps was variable, which effects latency? They mentioned a server upgarde was being touted by Onlive, which would stabilize the consistency of 60fps.Sorry, maybe I need to read the article more thoroughly .

Oh, now I get what you're saying. Yes, there has been talk of a server upgrade that would definitely allow some games to run with a more stable framerate. I haven't heard anything about the upgrade actually happening yet though (although I haven't followed OnLive that much, so it could easily have happened without me knowing).