OnLive Beta

[rerato]

Has anybody seen the "preview" coverage of OnLive that somebody from the website PC Perspective (and thus replicated on Engadget/Ars/etc.) has written up?

Apparently what sounded too good to be true, just might be. Though the author admitted he probably wasn't near a data center, assuming they're only beta testing near an initial data center or two and he had gotten the login from a friend of a friend kind of thing.

It would be nice if more people who do have beta invites would share more information as I think it's an interesting idea, but yet OnLive is being so secretive about things, I'm not sure it's going to work out in the end.

OnLive Demoed (via Ars) (http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2010/01/onlive-demoed-lag-graphics-are-a-problem.ars?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rss)

[Sabotage]

I'm sure they'll find a way to stream quality video at a reasonable bandwidth and have at least decent graphics, but they can't beat physics when it comes to lag. Even 50ms latency, which I'd normally consider excellent, will be a noticeable and annoying lag on input in fast paced games and a massive disadvantage.

I.e. http://www.humanbenchmark.com/tests/reactiontime/stats.php

If you had an extremely fast 150ms reaction time, a 50ms lag on your input would make you just average. If you were just average, you would become soccer mom slow. But, that's only a real issue in competitive games I guess. If you're playing something single player, or something at a pace that doesn't require real twitch reflexes, it wouldn't be a problem. OnLive might appeal to the general population of more casual gamers that have ye olde dell dimension sitting at home and don't want to get a powerhouse just to play games, but I don't see it ever being desirable for anyone whose any sort of enthusiast.

[fenster]

It's no surprise to me they're having some trouble. Like Sabotage said -- it's a great idea but if you're trying to create a home experience for the user you're trying to defy physics. You're limited (as ridiculous as it sound) by the speed of light, which will take some amount of milliseconds to reach the servers as back. Fine for the server, terrible for input lag.

It might be great for puzzle games and turn based RPG's that don't require reflexes, but that's not what PC gaming is all about anyway. It's a cool idea, for sure. Just color me skeptic.