Xbox One cloud servers will handle processor heavy chores

[computerfan55]

And with this cloud gaming is here...

well sort of

 

One of the Xbox launch's big reveals was that Microsoft added 300,000 servers to Xbox Live, and now Matt Booty has detailed to Ars Technica how that'll improve game play. He said the improved cloud architecture will speed up GPU- or CPU-heavy chores that aren't dependent on latency -- like lighting or cloth dynamics -- by pre-calculating them before applying them to a scene.

Source:

http://www.engadget.com/2013/05/24/xbox-cloud-computing-gaming/

 

[ajoy39]

I wouldn't expect this to be a thing right away but this was what Microsoft was talking about when they said this could be the last console you'll ever have to buy. When the games start to outpace the hardware in the system they'll just start moving the heavy lifting to the cloud using tech similar to Nvidia Grid. 

[Dragontail]

Yeah... no thx, having a hard time accepting steam as a source of not having control over my own purchases let alone haveing them drive my games, this notion of people just giving someone else money for a product that they will never own is scary shit. Giving to much power to one party is never good.

[gjrud]

thanks but no thanks, I like my games with no latency.

[ajoy39]

Yeah... no thx, having a hard time accepting steam as a source of not having control over my own purchases let alone haveing them drive my games, this notion of people just giving someone else money for a product that they will never own is scary shit. Giving to much power to one party is never good.

That's not really what this idea is about, they're offloading the processes not the license. It's the same idea behind Nvidia Grid, they make it so you don't have to worry about having the necassary hardware to play. Of course this will create a problem for those without a good internet connection but that's something they'll have to deal with when the time comes. 

[Dragontail]

That's not really what this idea is about, they're offloading the processes not the license. It's the same idea behind Nvidia Grid, they make it so you don't have to worry about having the necassary hardware to play. Of course this will create a problem for those without a good internet connection but that's something they'll have to deal with when the time comes. 

 

Yeah I know the general idea behind it, but once started whats to say gamedevs wont stop selling games and just rent them for a monthly fee? No matter how you look at it, you are putting your money into someone elses hands and letting them have the control over everything. Maybe 5 years later you want to play that game you bought, but the console you have is not powerful enough and because of the cost for the company they decided to stop supporting it, might be dark to think of this way, but its already happening. See the always on req, the prices on infinite goods is the same as the finite ones, soon physical copies wont be available because everything is going into the "cloud" and then you will really be at the mercy of someone else.

 

Its still a good idea, but as always it will be exploited and feets will be trampled all for the sake of money.....

[Nicktrance]

For now I'm guessing the advantages for this will be about as high as simcity's, but it does make sense that processing starts moving to the cloud as the console gets older, performance gets weaker, while cloud gaming and internet connections become faster and more reliable. After all console gaming was never really about having no compromises, that's what PCs do best, so consoles will have to deal with the latency if they want more performance.

The biggest problem of course is that they would have completely applied always on and console users will just have to "deal with it" if there is no way to play games at a lower quality level and offline.

[eshbop]

Yeah I know the general idea behind it, but once started whats to say gamedevs wont stop selling games and just rent them for a monthly fee? No matter how you look at it, you are putting your money into someone elses hands and letting them have the control over everything. Maybe 5 years later you want to play that game you bought, but the console you have is not powerful enough and because of the cost for the company they decided to stop supporting it, might be dark to think of this way, but its already happening. See the always on req, the prices on infinite goods is the same as the finite ones, soon physical copies wont be available because everything is going into the "cloud" and then you will really be at the mercy of someone else.

Its still a good idea, but as always it will be exploited and feets will be trampled all for the sake of money.....

I wouldn't worry too much, it's a long way off before a high enough percentage of people have access (and are running for that matter) internet speeds fast enough. Especially with the eventual move towards 4k which is then going to require near 0 latency 4k streaming capabilities.

There'll be the option for local processing for a long time yet.

[Chevaishr]

thanks but no thanks, I like my games with no latency.

it can be done u know ... on another note  has anyone ever used onlive ... i can't use it (location) but it seem legit 

[mgsstar]

Guess Xbox One is trying to have everything online in order to give players the best experience. 

[silencerbob]

Wow.... I never knew my games required 300,000 servers to calculate lighting and cloth dynamics!

What absolute rubbish... Total EA move.. Customers don't want this, M$ does.

[bradscoolio]

Woot... another thing to be online.

 

[Bentheren]

The reason I won't be buying it is because i clearly won't have enough bandwidth to do a thing with it and also PC gaming master race.

[Lukiose]

So, microsoft is going to start marketing some 500Gbit internet next?

How the heck are they gonna process "processor heavy chores" for several million people at a time? Not to mention potential delays in data transmission/some Titan supercomputer they have to build

[Rhotis]

[Kamil]

I think that this specifically is a good thing, phasing cloud-based gaming in over time so by the end of this console cycle Xbox One games may start being 50% or more computed in the cloud leaving Microsoft with a tested and supported platform for going full-cloud gaming (assuming the Grid doesn't become huge before then) and hopefully more places will have the infrastructure to support such things by that time.

 

Well, assuming that it pans out and developers actually use it for more than DRM, and that Microsoft's servers are good enough to actually handle product launches.

[Godlygamer23]

it can be done u know ... on another note  has anyone ever used onlive ... i can't use it (location) but it seem legit 

I've used it. It's cool, but my connection isn't fast enough(even though it's above their recommendation), so my resolution starts to dip to compensate. Not cool.

[silencerbob]

There's no OnLive servers in australia, so no. Not that I would use it if there were.

[jecho]

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/Xbox-One-Cloud-Jeff-Henshaw-Matt-Booty-Adam-Pollington,22775.html

I for one think this sounds really cool but will not work as advertised. One, most people still don't have fiber optic Internet, which is IMO the only kind of Internet suited for constant data up and down. Two any latency will kill any fps experience. Also most ISPs throttle high users if they pass certain GB/month limits.

This is why Xbox One will be "always on"

[Dave :)]

Duplicate threads merged.

[Legion]

Yeah this is great news, Now countries with 3rd world internet , Data caps and monopoly run ISP's won't be able to use a console as it gets dated. Genius move microsoft. You know how I deal with evolving engines and games, I buy new parts that way even with my terrible internet i'm not left with stuff I can't play.

[Guerrero]

Sounds like SimCity

[StevenRobinson]

From what I can tell, across all sources where I am reading about this, people are judging this on their existing internet line and experience.  I've had a 360 since the release day and I can tell you that my internet speed has multiplied by 7 times since then and in the next month when I move to a fibre line, that will be 72x faster than it was back in 2005.

 

With the longevity of a console, I think that some people, not all, are being short sighted with this and need to understand that the Xbox team needs to plan for the entire life cycle of this product.

 

I personally feel that we should wait and see, dig up this topic in 3 years and compare it.

[robE]

[T0M3Z]

HaHa like it!