Xbox's Cloud Streaming Upgrade Means You Might Not Need A Series X

Speaking to The Verge, representatives for Microsoft confirmed that Xbox cloud gaming now runs entirely on Xbox Series X hardware, wrapping up a backend upgrade that quietly kicked off over the summer. Kotaku reports: So, what's that mean? For one, the Xbox Series X can output games in 4K resolution. Though cloud gaming currently streams games at 60 frames per second, the service only outputs games at a resolution of 1080p. Moving the whole operation to an Xbox Series X framework could theoretically bring that in line with what's available on Microsoft's highest-end model. But the switch could also open up access to games that are otherwise inaccessible to gamers gated out of next-gen hardware. Obviously, it's still tough as hell to get your hands on an Xbox Series X these days (and, to a lesser extent, its computationally scrawnier cousin, the Xbox Series S). Don't expect it to get any easier any time soon. Just last week, Xbox boss Phil Spencer said as much.

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[account_deleted]

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How does cloud gaming deal with latency?

[Jeremi]

Pardon the naive question (I'm not a gamer), but how does cloud-based gaming deal with latency?

A game running at 60fps needs to display a frame every 16mS, so if I'm understanding things correctly, for twitch-style gaming you'd need to have reliable 16mS ping-times and enough spare server-CPU and bandwidth to compress and send a full video frame every 16mS, without dropping (hardly) any packets, which seems like a lot to ask of ISPs.

Do people really have Internet connections that are capable of reliably del

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[Reeses]

Most of the streaming services have some sort of "input prediction" running that guesses what you're going to do next and renders and sends those frames. If it guess wrong, then you get a "hiccup" while it quickly renders the right ones. This manifests poorly on slower internet connections.

Also, there's combinations of CDNs at your network service provider that render the video and shorten the geographic loop considerably. You're not sending your controller input all the way from your home to Microsoft head

Re: How does cloud gaming deal with latency?

[ThurstonMoore]

Quake used to played over a modem, and it was mostly fine

Says the person who never played Quake over a modem, it was fucking awful

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[Reeses]

I played Quake over a modem. It was fine. Not great, but fine.

Playing after hours on the office ISDN connection was much better though.

Re: How does cloud gaming deal with latency?

[friedmud]

Google Stadia combats it by having the controller talk directly, over Wi-Fi, to Googleâ(TM)s servers without going through a âoemiddle-manâ. As far as I know thatâ(TM)s still unique to Stadia - and it gives it a solid console feel.

To give you an idea of how that changes things - first you have to realize that we _already_ put up with input lag on our current consoles / PCs. Consoles have been getting better, but even just registering inputs can take 10ms. On PC, the situation is much

Re: How does cloud gaming deal with latency?

[friedmud]

I just went and looked and Amazon touts that the Luna controller is âoecloud direct, reducing round trip latency by 17-30ms compared to Bluetooth on a PCâ⦠so it sounds like theyâ(TM)re doing the same thing Stadia isâ¦

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[amp001]

The interesting question is what sources of latency there are, and how can they be controlled. Propagation delay (the time a signal takes to travel through a medium) really isn't much of an issue as long as the data center hosting the game client isn't terribly far away. In glass fiber, it's about 2/3 the speed of light, so roughly 200 million meters per second, or 200 kilometers per millisecond assuming my coffee has kicked in. Some coaxial cables are faster than that, and twisted pair is in the same ballp

Streaming latency is too high

[HalAtWork]

Due to the high latency of streaming, by the time the character in the game reacts to your button press it's too late. xCloud already has problems dropping the resolution [ign.com] of the stream in the middle of gameplay, also there are issues with stuttering. The service is not available widely. Give it a pass this generation and let them build out their infrastructure.

The Switch Lite (720p) is $200, Xbox Series S (1080p) is $300, and PS5 Digital (4k) is $400. The Steam Deck is $400 for a PC gaming option. There are

Re: Streaming latency is too high

[e3m4n]

Because of the scarcity of the next-gen consoles, used versions of previous gen consoles are nearly the same price as a new PS5. A used PS4 Pro will set you back nearly $400. Had the ps5 been pervasive enough to sit idle on a shelf for anyone wanting one; I imagine the ps4 pro would sell for around $200 - $250 used.

Re: Streaming latency is too high

[friedmud]

Before hating on cloud gaming all together⦠see my writeup above about why Google Stadia can achieve _excellent_ lag time that is very similar to consoles (and possibly much less than any time you are using a Bluetooth controller/keyboard on a PC).

Total round trip from button press to seeing the result can be in the 50ms (possibly even less) range⦠but the trick is that the direct Wi-Fi connected controller can get a button press to Googleâ(TM)s servers very quickly (15ms in my ab