Microsoft cuts the bandwidth required for cloud game streaming by over 80%

[Victorious Secret]

 

 

Not a whole lot more to add to this to be honest, the title and linked sources speak for themselves. Cutting the bandwidth required for streaming is only beneficial to every party involved, I'm surprised this sort of two pronged approach hasn't been tried before. Its pretty smart to offload things to the device itself as much as possible while involving your streaming for tasks that said device can't do, or doesn't make sense to do given hardware limitations. 

 

With more companies getting on this wagon of streaming, anything that reduces the overall load on the network is going to be appreciated especially by consumers who game on the go. Maybe this will challenge mobile games themselves. Why play some random app store 99 cent game when you can just stream something proper and do it without hindering your overall experience? 

 

 

 

 

The bandwidth reduction is thanks to a new tool called Kahawai, which is the Hawaiian word meaning “stream.” It works using the simple concept that not all the work should be done remotely while a game is being played. Instead, the performance contained in the hardware local to the player, e.g. their games console or smartphone/tablet, should help.

 

Kahawai enables collaborative rendering, which means that instead of the server doing all the work, the rendering load is split with the GPU in the player’s device. The server is still doing most of the heavy lifting with regards to shadows, texture mapping, and fine-grain details, but the local GPU can provide the graphical basics of a level, what the research team refers to as the “rough sketch.”

 

The splitting of workload makes a huge difference to the amount of data that needs to be streamed without having any impact on how each game plays. An experiment was done using Kahawai with Doom 3 streamed at 60fps, and there was no discernible difference between streaming with and without Kahawai enabled except for a very large saving on the streamed data total.

 

This is great news for mobile gamers especially as it will save them a lot of data on their capped contracts, albeit it at the cost of increased battery use. It also means games could run more reliably on slower connections with the graphics level adjusted accordingly. There’s also many applications beyond gaming, for example, in the fields of medical imaging and computer-aided design.

 

 

http://today.duke.edu/2015/05/cloudgaming

 

http://www.geek.com/games/microsoft-cuts-cloud-game-streaming-bandwidth-by-over-80-1623534/

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[ManIkWeet]

I don't get it, how does generating some percentage of the image on the local device reduce the bandwidth used for getting the "heavy image" to said local device?

[deviant88]

Cant stand the idea of cloud gaming, but not matter what its happening in next few years replacing traditional.Guess i have to find another hobby.

Cool technology tough.

[christianled59]

This is great! Not that I use mobile gaming a lot, but I could stream to lower end hardware that I have in other places than my home. Ie, my media box with a 560.

[christianled59]

Cant stand the idea of cloud gaming, but not matter what its happening in next few years replacing traditional.Guess i have to find another hobby.

Cool technology tough.

It's not trying to "replace" anything. It's just another thing we can use. That's like saying smartphones are replacing desktops. Technology is about innovating convenience. Although one technology might be better suited for one job (streaming for mobile), another technology would be better for a different job(desktop for primary gaming). 

 

 

Comparing the two as a replacement is like saying dynamite is replacing the fishingpole. 

[Sauron]

wait a minute, how does lighter streaming allow for higher settings in doom 3?  :huh:

 

other than that, if it works and reduces the latency then great!

[Victorious Secret]

Cant stand the idea of cloud gaming, but not matter what its happening in next few years replacing traditional.Guess i have to find another hobby.

Cool technology tough.

 

You have to find a new hobby because the current one is being improved and refined and is gaining mass adoption? 

 

Are you a hipster? 

 

wait a minute, how does lighter streaming allow for higher settings in doom 3?  :huh:

 

other than that, if it works and reduces the latency then great!

 

Science, witchcraft; its really all the same to us. 

[givingtnt]

so. you telling me. that I don'T need google fiber ? UWOTM8

[ZetZet]

I don't get it, how does generating some percentage of the image on the local device reduce the bandwidth used for getting the "heavy image" to said local device?

Fairly simple, like compressed videos work on youtube for example, things that don't change don't need bandwidth, if you say have a wall behind and a subject is moving only the data of the moving subject needs to be sent.

[AlexGoesHigh]

I don't get it, how does generating some percentage of the image on the local device reduce the bandwidth used for getting the "heavy image" to said local device?

wait a minute, how does lighter streaming allow for higher settings in doom 3?  :huh:

 

other than that, if it works and reduces the latency then great!

think of connecting to a server that works as another more faster gpu or cpu that the device you use, this tech is basically off loading part of the render pipeline to a server, instead of the server processing the game and feed you live video

[Lord_Karango17]

So this is more like half way between local gaming, and complete streaming... Seems cool, but so far streaming games has not been a very pleasant experience for me, so I'll wait and see...

[ForsakenLive]

I have the feeling that 'the future of gaming' is just compressed video... I don't believe that 80% bandwidth reduction is still lossless.

[Sauron]

think of connecting to a server that works as another more faster gpu or cpu that the device you use, this tech is basically off loading part of the render pipeline to a server, instead of the server processing the game and feed you live video

 

I still don't see how that would provide any higher quality settings ^^ if anything it could offer lower latency...

[AlexGoesHigh]

I still don't see how that would provide any higher quality settings ^^ if anything it could offer lower latency...

if they keep latency reasonable, it would be the equivalent of plugging a titan x into a android tablet

[dmegatool]

That sounds like what Microsoft was trying to do for the Xbox One before the "always online" backlash.

 

2013 Ars article about what could have been.

[Master Disaster]

I don't get it, how does generating some percentage of the image on the local device reduce the bandwidth used for getting the "heavy image" to said local device?

Its possible the uncrunched data is lighter than the crunched data, really don't understand how that saves 80% though?

Its great providing MS don't patent it and keep it for Xbone, the irony is most tablets can outperform the Xbone anyway

[Misanthrope]

Collaborative rendering over the network....to me it sounds more like latency nightmare but we shall wait and see.

[ManIkWeet]

Fairly simple, like compressed videos work on youtube for example, things that don't change don't need bandwidth, if you say have a wall behind and a subject is moving only the data of the moving subject needs to be sent.

So... static opaque content will be rendered on the device, and these will be left out in the streamed image?

I can't understand how that saves 80% then...

[ZetZet]

So... static opaque content will be rendered on the device, and these will be left out in the streamed image?

I can't understand how that saves 80% then...

The same way every new generation gpu is 300% more powerful.

[ManIkWeet]

The same way every new generation gpu is 300% more powerful.

Marketing, right.

[Trik'Stari]

Why not just........release the freaking game for that device?!

 

 

I'm talking about streaming from your console to an actual desktop PC

[MrDynamicMan]

Why not just........release the freaking game for that device?!

I'm talking about streaming from your console to an actual desktop PC

Because money and corruption.

[Alurit]

Streaming game might be the future, but I hope stream trough the internet won't be it. I would imagine things like one insanely powerful server per household that does all the heavy computing for the family, or maybe on a neighbour level

[LAwLz]

I got all excited at first but after reading the article I don't see the point of this.

 

I like the idea of game streaming because I could have a powerful desktop stream games to really low power devices. But with this I would need a powerful desktop streaming to a medium powerful computer.

[Trik'Stari]

Because money and corruption.

Damnit, why must reality always equate to a smack in the face?