March 22, 2019 - The WAN Show Document

[LinusTech]

Main News Topics

Google Stadia

Source 1: The Benjamins https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/1046124-google-stadia-cloud-gaming/?tab=comments#comment-12407522

Source 2: https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2019/03/google-jumps-into-gaming-with-google-stadia-streaming-service/

Source 3: https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-2019-hands-on-with-google-stream-gdc-2019

 

• At the Game Developers Conference this week, Google announced a streaming game service named Google Stadia, designed to run on everything from PCs and Android phones to Chromecast devices.

• Google Stadia will run a selection of existing PC games on Google's centralized servers, taking in controller inputs and sending back video and audio using Google's network of low-latency data centers.

• The company revealed a new Google-produced controller equipped with a microphone, google Assistant button, capture button (that shares to YouTube) and built-in wifi.

  • existing "USB controllers and mouse-and-keyboard" will function with Stadia games as well.

  • The official controller is only required if playing on Chromecast.

• Apparently you can use the Assistant to ask for help when you’re stuck in a game but how this works is unknown.

• The game-streaming interface revolves around a "play now" button.

  • Press this on any Web browser and gameplay will begin "in as quick as five seconds... with no download, no patch, no update, and no install."

• A Google engineer insisted that "at launch," Stadia will support "4K, 60 frames-per-second performance."

  • If you don't have a 4K display, the capture button will save and stream your gameplay content at that resolution, should the game in question support it.

• Unreal, Vulcan, and Unity were announced as supporters of the Stadia platform

• the service's release window is simply "2019." No pricing information was announced at the event.

• Crowd play: while watching a livestream, you can request to enter the queue to join the next game

• State Share will "let a player instantly share a playable moment from a game." Think of a "save state" within a classic emulator, which starts a player at a certain point in a quest with certain equipped items and progress; then imagine a players clicks a URL (or share it on social media)

  • Nintendo has toyed with something similar in the NES classic library on Nintendo Switch Online.

• Latency: Digital Foundry’s hands-on testing reports latency similar to playing on an Xbox One X (source 3).

  • The game was running 1080p 30FPS. At 60FPS it might beat the response time of the Xbox at 60Hz.

• Stadia supports 4K video at 60 frames per second with HDR support.

  • However, 1080p streaming is likely to be the norm on connections with around 25mbps of bandwidth.

  • Stadia will drop down to 720p60 with connections in the region of 15mbps

  • fast action causes obvious artefacts on a large, living room display. Google considers this to be a 'worse case scenario'. The experience would likely hold up much better on a smaller screen, however.

 

Rumour: Samsung Galaxy Fold Crease

Source 1:  markopolomp https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/1046428-samsung-galaxy-crease/

Source 2: https://www.t3.com/news/samsung-galaxy-fold-will-have-a-very-visible-crease-unofficial-video-reveals

 

• An unofficial new video has revealed exactly how much of an impact the folding mechanism has on the AMOLED display on the Galaxy Fold.

• It's unclear whether this will be noticeable when you're using the device or watching a movie on the pliable screen.

• It's worth noting that the Huawei Mate X avoids this issue by keeping the foldable screen on the outside of the handset.

  • the fold does not need to be anywhere near as severe

• You can watch the full, unofficial Galaxy Fold video below

 

Steam Library Redesign

Source 1: Master Disaster https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/1046971-egs-is-having-an-affect-valve-announce-an-almost-complete-redesign-of-your-steam-library/

Source 2: https://kotaku.com/steam-libraries-are-getting-an-overhaul-1833473185

Source 3: https://www.polygon.com/2019/3/20/18274359/metro-exodus-epic-games-store-steam-exclusive-gdc-2019

 

• During a press pre-briefing on Tuesday, Alden Kroll from Valve described the Steam library changes as a “complete redesign.”

  • Users’ Steam libraries will soon have their own home page, not unlike the Steam store’s front page.

• The Steam library home page will have a carousel dedicated to game updates and events, to keep players clued in about what’s going on in their games.

• There will also be a widget dedicated to friend activity, allowing you to see what your pals are up to in individual games. From there, you’ll be able to matchmake into games with them

• Individual game pages in the Steam library are also getting re-tooled, again with a focus on providing players with information about updates, events, and friends. There’ll be a feed for events and updates, as well as one for friends’ screenshots, achievements, reviews, and things of the like.

• Players will also soon be able to sort their games using the same tag system that the Steam store currently employs.

• Metro Exodus has sold two and a half times more copies on the Epic Games Store than Metro Last Light sold in the same amount of time on Steam.

  • This proves that “it’s really about your game, not so much about the store [you sell it on].”

• The Epic Games Store takes 12 percent of the revenue from game sales, while Steam takes 30 percent of the revenue for the first $10 million in sales, after which Valve’s cut drops to 25 percent, and then down further to 20 percent after $50 million in sales

  • While Metro Exodus runs on the developer's own 4A Engine, were it powered by Epic's Unreal Engine 4, the engine licensing fees would have come out of Epic’s 12 percent cut instead of being added on top of Steam’s 30 percent revenue share.

[LienusLateTips]

Remember when the WAN show was entirely a news show? 

[Bonzilink]

This website is being less active...

[captain_to_fire]

I think this was the first time I've seen a WAN show doc in the forum after months

[freddo333]

Timestamps: (I think YouTube is hiding people that are making the time stamps for some reason, I find it a little hard to believe that no one else has made them yet)

 

0:14 - start

1:00 - into

2:30 - google stadia

3:30 - digital foundry's view on google stadia

3:47 - google stadia latency results

9:25 - game subscriptions services (origin access)

14:15 - people criticising game streaming

22:50 - google stadia controller

32:15 - straw poll - offset vs aligned thumb sticks on controllers ( www.strawpoll.me/17660701/r )

 

34:40 - sponsor - savagejerky.com

36:20 - sponsor - Madrinascoffee.com/Linus

38:52 - sponsor - squarespace.com/wan

39:50 - sponsor (kinda) - LTTStore.com

 

42:00 - Steam vs epic games store

46:15 - epic games store issues

51:18 - SUPER CHATS

52:45 - LTX update

55:41 - game streaming's affect on pc gaming

56:50 - end of stream

[Freeman]

7 hours ago, Bonzilink said:

This website is being less active...

There has been a doc on 8th and 1st.

PS: Thx to whoever is posting these, seems that when there is no Linus, we get both the news spoken about and the doc .

[Chett_Manly]

Anyone else get a laugh at Luke not wanting streaming services while building a streaming service. 

 

Floatplane is just Stadia for Video.