Temper Tantrums (the GBAtemp webcomic) - issue #38 "Stadia?"

By @WhiteMaze [prebreak][/prebreak]

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[Captain_N]

Stadia is about as useful as WEBTv

 

[raxadian]

Stadia is about as useful as WEBTv

Actually less useful, streaming games might take more or less data that video but when watching videos online you can at least pause them so the cache fills and you can watch the video without it randomly stopping. With videogames online you can reduce the video quality to get less lag but when the whole game content is online that doesn't really help much.

 

[WhiteMaze]

Being the idiot that I am, I actually just signed up for a paid cloud game streaming service.

I'll post results here shortly.

 

[WhiteMaze]

Being the idiot that I am, I actually just signed up for a paid cloud game streaming service.

I'll post results here shortly.

Sorry for the double-post however I need to post my findings.

So I just wasted $20 and signed up for both Playkey and Vortex cloud gaming services.

I have a 100Mbps connection, I am not using an Ethernet cable. I am on WIFI.

However I am literally 4 feet from my router. I can touch it with my hand as I type. My speeds are more than good enough for any task I can throw at it. It's a pretty good connection, something you certainly will not find in rural areas or less developed countries.

I can tell you right now, that Vortex is absolute crap. It is positively horrendous. The input lag is so severe, even your mouse cursor is literal seconds behind your inputs. Video quality is atrocious, consistently jumping back and forth between horrible 360p quality and 720p. FPS-wise you would be hard pressed to call this 30 FPS, it feels like 12. Let alone the advertised 60 FPS..

Then there's Playkey. Far better. Games are actually playable. Much better interface, as well as responsiveness.

HOWEVER!

Input lag is very, very real. Even casual games will require some heavy "getting used to it". Competitive games such as FPS's, Battlefield V or PUBG are playable, but you will get literally annihilated due to the half a second delay on your inputs.

It is so noticeable, I actually have a headache. Similar to what happens when you put someone else's glasses on. Or go on a boat ride and feel sick to your stomach. That kind of feeling.

It was clear as crystal, from the start, that this is an impossible feat as of right now. Maybe if I used an Ethernet connection it would be marginally better, however given that my connection quality improves not even 20% when on cable, I severely doubt it will have any noticeable impact on performance and latency.

There's a reason Stadia and Geforce Now have not released yet. It's because this would be unacceptable. There you have it boys. As of today, cloud gaming is nothing but a literal dream, unless you can cope with the massive input lag.

@Localhorst86
@tabzer
@raxadian
@Costello
@TheTechWiz25
@Memoir
@robingilh
@kuwanger
@AlexMCS
@Techjunky90
@MythicalData

 

[tabzer]

Why did you tag me? I know video game streaming is crap. And they are marketing it like video streaming. 100GB/s doesn't mean anything if they are going to wait a whole second to process your requests (ie: jump button).

 

[WhiteMaze]

Why did you tag me? I know video game streaming is crap. And they are marketing it like video streaming. 100GB/s doesn't mean anything if they are going to wait a whole second to process your requests (ie: jump button).

No particular reason, just you and a few others were discussing this matter, and I happened to do some research of my own.

Just sharing results to alert people to my findings.

 

[JavaScribe]

It is so noticeable, I actually have a headache. Similar to what happens when you put someone else's glasses on. Or go on a boat ride and feel sick to your stomach. That kind of feeling.

Or like this?

Note: press 4 after starting, GBAtemp's embedding doesn't allow me to set a starting point

 

[WhiteMaze]

Or like this?

Note: press 4 after starting, GBAtemp's embedding doesn't allow me to set a starting point

Precisely like that.

Apparently having noticeable lag on inputs can give you a really bad headache or nausea.

 

[Hambrew]

For all of those people who don't get it,
r/whoosh
and so, let me explain:
It is impossible to trust game streaming services (sometimes, even when they are local) with a lack of input lag. What input lag is, is the time to get from a keystroke or a button press to that action appearing on-screen. What this means is that for example, Ninja (That One Fortnite Player) has severe lag, he won't stand a chance in Fortnite because by the time his gun finally shoots after a second of input lag, the guy has already gotten away or killed him.

 

[GothicIII]

Sorry for the double-post however I need to post my findings.

So I just wasted $20 and signed up for both Playkey and Vortex cloud gaming services.

I have a 100Mbps connection, I am not using an Ethernet cable. I am on WIFI.

However I am literally 4 feet from my router. I can touch it with my hand as I type. My speeds are more than good enough for any task I can throw at it. It's a pretty good connection, something you certainly will not find in rural areas or less developed countries.

I can tell you right now, that Vortex is absolute crap. It is positively horrendous. The input lag is so severe, even your mouse cursor is literal seconds behind your inputs. Video quality is atrocious, consistently jumping back and forth between horrible 360p quality and 720p. FPS-wise you would be hard pressed to call this 30 FPS, it feels like 12. Let alone the advertised 60 FPS..

Then there's Playkey. Far better. Games are actually playable. Much better interface, as well as responsiveness.

HOWEVER!

Input lag is very, very real. Even casual games will require some heavy "getting used to it". Competitive games such as FPS's, Battlefield V or PUBG are playable, but you will get literally annihilated due to the half a second delay on your inputs.

It is so noticeable, I actually have a headache. Similar to what happens when you put someone else's glasses on. Or go on a boat ride and feel sick to your stomach. That kind of feeling.

It was clear as crystal, from the start, that this is an impossible feat as of right now. Maybe if I used an Ethernet connection it would be marginally better, however given that my connection quality improves not even 20% when on cable, I severely doubt it will have any noticeable impact on performance and latency.

There's a reason Stadia and Geforce Now have not released yet. It's because this would be unacceptable. There you have it boys. As of today, cloud gaming is nothing but a literal dream, unless you can cope with the massive input lag.

@Localhorst86
@tabzer
@raxadian
@Costello
@TheTechWiz25
@Memoir
@robingilh
@kuwanger
@AlexMCS
@Techjunky90
@MythicalData

Latency over wifi is an issue since not every package arrives instantly at the destination without loss of information due to signal interference or signal weakness. Those problems still apply even if you sit next to the router.
A cable will really noticeably improve input lag for a good amount. It's just... if you have a latency of -let's say- 80ms it will improve it down to maybe 50ms. Depending on the game it can be still next to impossible to play properly.

But I will still agree about the problems with game streaming.

Even with the best connection possible I can't see how people will play racing/fighting/reaction games with it. This is just impossible even if you have a direct connection from your device to the server over fiber.
With our current network protocol implementation latency will always be an issue.

 

[WhiteMaze]

Latency over wifi is an issue since not every package arrives instantly at the destination without loss of information due to signal interference or signal weakness. Those problems still apply even if you sit next to the router.
A cable will really noticeably improve input lag for a good amount. It's just... if you have a latency of -let's say- 80ms it will improve it down to maybe 50ms. Depending on the game it can be still next to impossible to play properly.

But I will still agree about the problems with game streaming.

Even with the best connection possible I can't see how people will play racing/fighting/reaction games with it. This is just impossible even if you have a direct connection from your device to the server over fiber.
With our current network protocol implementation latency will always be an issue.

That was precisely my experience.

I will add that since then, I have tried playing with an Ethernet cable. Improvement was marginal and that's being generous.

Input lag is still very severe. There is literally no way to play competitively. But if that was the only problem, this concept would still work.

The real issue here, is that even if you're just playing casually, the lag gives you serious nausea and headaches. It's just not a fun experience..

Oh and....my connection IS FIBER.

So it's looking grim, right now...