Patrick Curry

@patrickmcurry

I’m still cautiously optimistic about streaming game platforms like xCloud and Stadia. But probably for different reasons than most folks...

7/19/2019, 9:24:45 PM

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Patrick Curry

@patrickmcurry

I’ve been following cloud gaming since OnLive and Gaikai. I’ve played tons of games on PlayStation Now and Steam streaming. I’ve tried most of the startup cloud gaming services, and I’ve done tech diligence on a couple of them.

7/19/2019, 9:24:47 PM

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Patrick Curry

@patrickmcurry

Cloud gaming is really good at some stuff. Porting games between platforms is complicated, time-consuming, and expensive. If a game is 100% remote-rendered, then there’s no need to ever port again. That’s appealing.

7/19/2019, 9:24:48 PM

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Patrick Curry

@patrickmcurry

Eliminating all of the on-ramp friction is also really appealing. No need to download, install, or patch a game ever again? OMG sign me up! Trying new games could be as fast and painless as switching Twitch channels or YouTube videos.

7/19/2019, 9:24:48 PM

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Patrick Curry

@patrickmcurry

The opportunities for multiplayer are legion. The networking layer could be instamagic! Games with local co-op could instantly become online co-op. And programming a game for 1,000 simultaneous players could become as easy as just 4.

7/19/2019, 9:24:48 PM

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Patrick Curry

@patrickmcurry

So as both a player and a developer, I’m down for cloud gaming. Bring it on. But... there are big two things that this technology is really bad at that we will all need to account for. First up... camera movement!

7/19/2019, 9:24:49 PM

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Patrick Curry

@patrickmcurry

Moving cameras stink in cloud gaming. Mostly it’s because every time the camera moves, you have to send 100% new pixels down to the client. So the frame buffer gets compressed and blurry exactly when there’s something new to see!

7/19/2019, 9:24:49 PM

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Patrick Curry

@patrickmcurry

But it gets worse. Let’s imagine your game depends on being able to quickly and accurately move the camera — like in a shooter. Between compression and input lag, shooters are virtually unplayable via streaming. And that leads to the second big problem: lag.

7/19/2019, 9:24:49 PM

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Patrick Curry

@patrickmcurry

Cloud gaming is entirely dependent on your Internet connection speed AND the quality of your LAN and/or wifi hardware. It takes time for button presses to travel up to the server, get rendered into graphics and sound, and then get downloaded for you to see it.

7/19/2019, 9:24:50 PM

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Patrick Curry

@patrickmcurry

Console shooters, fighting games, and racing games are reading your input and rendering the scene every 16.66 milliseconds to hit 60 frames per second. If you’re on a high-end gaming PC, it’s even faster!

7/19/2019, 9:24:50 PM

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Patrick Curry

@patrickmcurry

But the Internet just isn’t that fast! If a videogame requires any degree of precise timing, it’s just not a good candidate for cloud gaming. A short math detour...

7/19/2019, 9:24:51 PM

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Patrick Curry

@patrickmcurry

On Google Fiber in Austin, TX my average ping to Google is 21.50 milliseconds. That’s the fastest they can respond to *anything*. If cloud gaming ran on a supercomputer rendering at 100 FPS, it would take 10 more milliseconds to render the scene. That’s just barely over 30 FPS!

7/19/2019, 9:24:51 PM

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Patrick Curry

@patrickmcurry

It’s hard to imagine playing a shooter, fighting game, or racing game where the best possible framerate in perfect Internet conditions is 30 FPS. Plus in those genres, if the Internet glitches out for a second, your match or race could be completely ruined. That’s untenable.

7/19/2019, 9:24:51 PM

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Patrick Curry

@patrickmcurry

Cloud gaming will probably never be the choice of competitive gamers or things like esports. BUUUT it’s not all bad news! There are tons of games and genres where cloud gaming will still feel good and even magical.

7/19/2019, 9:24:52 PM

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Patrick Curry

@patrickmcurry

I really enjoyed playing singleplayer third-person action games in OnLive and PS Now. Batman Arkham Asylum, Assassin’s Creed, and Darksiders all felt good. Their combat is more about rhythm than frame-timing. Felt a little less responsive than usual, but still playable and fun.

7/19/2019, 9:24:52 PM

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Patrick Curry

@patrickmcurry

Other genres that work well are top-down and strategy games. A turn-based game like X-COM was really fun, and watching a turn play out was like watching a lil Netflix movie. Tidbits of lag and compression had no chance to ruin the gameplay.

7/19/2019, 9:24:52 PM

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Patrick Curry

@patrickmcurry

Any storytelling-focused game could do really well as a cloud-rendered game. Telltale and BioWare games (at least the ones without twitch shooting) could be ideal. Watch the movie. Make some choices. Watch the combat. Make more choices. Watch more movies.

7/19/2019, 9:24:53 PM

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Patrick Curry

@patrickmcurry

Board games, party games, and gameshows are also natural choices for cloud services. Mario Party, Jackbox, and Emoji Charades aren’t (mostly) about twitch reaction time, don’t have tons of camera movement, and could take advantage of built-in multiplayer services.

7/19/2019, 9:24:53 PM

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