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System Name | Ryzen Reynolds |
---|---|
Processor | Ryzen 1600 - 4.0Ghz 1.415v - SMT disabled |
Motherboard | mATX Asrock AB350m AM4 |
Cooling | Raijintek Leto Pro |
Memory | Vulcan T-Force 16GB DDR4 3000 16.18.18 @3200Mhz 14.17.17 |
Video Card(s) | Sapphire Nitro+ 4GB RX 580 - 1450/2000 BIOS mod 8-) |
Storage | Seagate B'cuda 1TB/Sandisk 128GB SSD |
Display(s) | Acer ED242QR 75hz Freesync |
Case | Corsair Carbide Series SPEC-01 |
Audio Device(s) | Onboard |
Power Supply | Corsair VS 550w |
Mouse | Zalman ZM-M401R |
Keyboard | Razor Lycosa |
Software | Windows 10 x64 |
Benchmark Scores | https://www.3dmark.com/spy/6220813 |
Well I tried out onlive today and thought I would share my experience and provide you guys with a mini type review.
For those who have been living under a rock for the last 24 months and haven't heard of Onlive, Onlive is an online gaming service that allows users to play pc games who either don't have an PC or don't have a PC powerful enough to run the games on.
So how does that work? In short, Onlive works not by running the games on your local PC, instead they have a/several server farms in which their catalogue of games is installed, configured and run on, all you need to be able to play them is an internet connection and a small software client if you have a PC or an small standalone box that plugs into your TV if you don't have an PC.
I think the biggest thing that really stands out to me and I have to applaud Onlive for is how they manage to be able to stream a game over the internet from a remote server to be in anyway playable as there is a lot more behind this than meets the eye and anyone who is familiar with working remotely in any kind of sense will understand where I am coming from here, because even the likes of Microsoft and Citrix can't deliver a "local-like" experience for remote users when it comes to multimedia and they have been in the remote working business for the best part of 20 years now. I won't spend too much time going into this as I could be here all night as this is I work for a software vendor who has a competitive product to Citrix so I don't want to go too much into remote working and the dynamics, cause it could take me a good few hours at the least.
My main concern with a service like Onlive is if it is really good and really easy then it could really change the pc gaming industry and not for the better as far as us enthusiasts are concerned.
Though I think there is a very long way before a technology like this competes with both console gaming and PC gaming. So it's with that I'm going to share my experience albeit I haven't used any stringent testing methods this is mostly based on my opinion from using the service for a short time and sharing my opinion with you guys.
Games I have tested:
Batman AA
Dirt 2
FEAR 2
Unreal III
Now before I go into detail, I will say 1st and foremost I have the best consumer broadband available in the UK at this moment in time, that's a 50mb cable connection with a 2mb upload. Typically I get 49.5mb/s download, 1.5mb/s upload and anywhere between 12ms and 25ms ping on speedtest.net on local servers.
Well initial thoughts are great, being as the games do infact load and the intro's run as normal without any stuttering which considering it is in essence being streamed is great, I think they must have created their own custom protocol with Onlive.
When you enter into a game and get to the menu, you can instantly tell that there is some serious lag, as mentioned I didnt do any stringent testing but I would estimate the lag to be somewhere in the region of 150-250ms, which doesn't seem a lot though is well enough for you to notice when you perform an action there is a noticeable delay.
I had fraps running during the whole time and there was a loss in framerate in more graphic intensive parts, though for the most part I was seeing between 45 and 55fps solid.
1st off the graphics are seriously lagging behind what any modern day PC capable of gaming can output. I think this is down to a number of factors and the main ones being, bandwidth, you need both a good upload AND download speed to be able to make something like this work. Second off is compression, you can tell that there is a lot of compression being done which is understandable considering the games are being "streamed" though it is apparent because the textures in every game I played looked very low and lacked detail, you could compare the graphics to some titles on a PS2 without being too far from the truth. All in all all consoles these days and any pc that has a GPU from the last 4 years will be able to display much nicer looking games with ease.
During gameplay again the lag was noticeable, and the effects from this vary depending on what kind of game you are playing. For instance in Batman AA the lag wasn't so much of an factor as when in fighting scenes, although it was present it was still playable and it didn't affect my fighting in a negative way, yay!!
However we move to first person shooters and immediately I can see that I am at a distinct disadvantage because my mouse movements weren't fluid because of the lag and as such my accuracy wasn't all it could have been thus making the game more difficult as your mouse movements are always playing catch up and in FPS where timing is critical this does impact the game and affect the gameplay.
The same can be said for Dirt, albeit I played it with a keyboard and mouse and normally one would play a game like Dirt 2 with a control pad, the apparent lag was great enough to affect the performance and as such it made it rather frustrating to play because it was hard to control the car with the lag I was experiencing.
For a 1st release I would say Onlive is pretty damned good considering the technology involved to be able to do what it does, though as mentioned before I think it really has a long way to go before it can be taken seriously as a gaming platform, it is just too immature in its current state to compete with both consoles and PC's.
To conclude, I think Onlive is a great concept though that is all it is at this moment in time, if they can refine the engine and improve the overall reseponsiveness and visual quality then we will have yet another standard that sits between the console and the PC as a method of gaming, though with its limitations I honestly can't see either console gamers or PC gamers considering Onlive a viable gaming platform for a long time to come.
Thank you if you read the entirity of this review, and please feel free to comment.
For those who have been living under a rock for the last 24 months and haven't heard of Onlive, Onlive is an online gaming service that allows users to play pc games who either don't have an PC or don't have a PC powerful enough to run the games on.
So how does that work? In short, Onlive works not by running the games on your local PC, instead they have a/several server farms in which their catalogue of games is installed, configured and run on, all you need to be able to play them is an internet connection and a small software client if you have a PC or an small standalone box that plugs into your TV if you don't have an PC.
I think the biggest thing that really stands out to me and I have to applaud Onlive for is how they manage to be able to stream a game over the internet from a remote server to be in anyway playable as there is a lot more behind this than meets the eye and anyone who is familiar with working remotely in any kind of sense will understand where I am coming from here, because even the likes of Microsoft and Citrix can't deliver a "local-like" experience for remote users when it comes to multimedia and they have been in the remote working business for the best part of 20 years now. I won't spend too much time going into this as I could be here all night as this is I work for a software vendor who has a competitive product to Citrix so I don't want to go too much into remote working and the dynamics, cause it could take me a good few hours at the least.
My main concern with a service like Onlive is if it is really good and really easy then it could really change the pc gaming industry and not for the better as far as us enthusiasts are concerned.
Though I think there is a very long way before a technology like this competes with both console gaming and PC gaming. So it's with that I'm going to share my experience albeit I haven't used any stringent testing methods this is mostly based on my opinion from using the service for a short time and sharing my opinion with you guys.
Games I have tested:
Batman AA
Dirt 2
FEAR 2
Unreal III
Now before I go into detail, I will say 1st and foremost I have the best consumer broadband available in the UK at this moment in time, that's a 50mb cable connection with a 2mb upload. Typically I get 49.5mb/s download, 1.5mb/s upload and anywhere between 12ms and 25ms ping on speedtest.net on local servers.
Well initial thoughts are great, being as the games do infact load and the intro's run as normal without any stuttering which considering it is in essence being streamed is great, I think they must have created their own custom protocol with Onlive.
When you enter into a game and get to the menu, you can instantly tell that there is some serious lag, as mentioned I didnt do any stringent testing but I would estimate the lag to be somewhere in the region of 150-250ms, which doesn't seem a lot though is well enough for you to notice when you perform an action there is a noticeable delay.
I had fraps running during the whole time and there was a loss in framerate in more graphic intensive parts, though for the most part I was seeing between 45 and 55fps solid.
1st off the graphics are seriously lagging behind what any modern day PC capable of gaming can output. I think this is down to a number of factors and the main ones being, bandwidth, you need both a good upload AND download speed to be able to make something like this work. Second off is compression, you can tell that there is a lot of compression being done which is understandable considering the games are being "streamed" though it is apparent because the textures in every game I played looked very low and lacked detail, you could compare the graphics to some titles on a PS2 without being too far from the truth. All in all all consoles these days and any pc that has a GPU from the last 4 years will be able to display much nicer looking games with ease.
During gameplay again the lag was noticeable, and the effects from this vary depending on what kind of game you are playing. For instance in Batman AA the lag wasn't so much of an factor as when in fighting scenes, although it was present it was still playable and it didn't affect my fighting in a negative way, yay!!
However we move to first person shooters and immediately I can see that I am at a distinct disadvantage because my mouse movements weren't fluid because of the lag and as such my accuracy wasn't all it could have been thus making the game more difficult as your mouse movements are always playing catch up and in FPS where timing is critical this does impact the game and affect the gameplay.
The same can be said for Dirt, albeit I played it with a keyboard and mouse and normally one would play a game like Dirt 2 with a control pad, the apparent lag was great enough to affect the performance and as such it made it rather frustrating to play because it was hard to control the car with the lag I was experiencing.
For a 1st release I would say Onlive is pretty damned good considering the technology involved to be able to do what it does, though as mentioned before I think it really has a long way to go before it can be taken seriously as a gaming platform, it is just too immature in its current state to compete with both consoles and PC's.
To conclude, I think Onlive is a great concept though that is all it is at this moment in time, if they can refine the engine and improve the overall reseponsiveness and visual quality then we will have yet another standard that sits between the console and the PC as a method of gaming, though with its limitations I honestly can't see either console gamers or PC gamers considering Onlive a viable gaming platform for a long time to come.
Thank you if you read the entirity of this review, and please feel free to comment.
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