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Play Stadia Pro for free, starting today (2 Months free Pro for new and existing subscribers)

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toy_brain

toy_brain

Member
Nov 1, 2017
2,207
XR. said:
Oh, I see. Thanks!

I gave Gylt a go and it seems nice, but the compression is a complete dealbreaker unfortunately.

Is this normal?

ne4y5zjijxt.png


(I'm on a 1000Mbit connection with 2ms ping to the Google center, so connection shouldn't be an issue)
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Yea, that's fairly normal for Gylt.
It uses a lot of blacks and heavy dark gradients, which any video encoder is going to have problems with. You will see something similar if you play Thumper and look at the background.

Most games don't have quite the same problem as those 2 just due to their graphical design choices, and to be fair, it never impacts how the games play, its just one of those things that'll happen when you use a video encoder. Its a trade-off between speed and accuracy. If Google went for better accuracy, each frame would take longer to encode and add in more lag.

Give Spitlings a try. That has huge blocks of colour but seems to look perfect on my setup. I'm using a Chromecast Ultra though (but only at 1080p).
 
anaa

anaa

Unshakable Resolve
Member
Jun 30, 2019
1,555
tbh, feels like a last ditch effort to boost users.

its dead jim
 
Gandie

Gandie

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,649
Danteyke223 said:
So basically, all you do is go with your phone to the stadia website, you download the app, you start the app, register and at the start it will allow you to sign up for the free trial. - Ignore the website for any links to sign up for the free trial its all within the app

YES IT IS THAT HIDDEN :D

I remembered Jeff from Giantbomb complaining that you have to do everything through the APP ...
Click to expand...
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This is unfortunately not working for me.
 
Spaaaaaaaaace

Spaaaaaaaaace

The Fallen
Oct 27, 2017
100
How hard or easy is to transfer destiny 2 saves between pC and stadia. Like if I wanted to play and I don't have my computer.
 
MazeHaze

MazeHaze

Member
Nov 1, 2017
8,584
If I could have tried it for free when it launched, I would have out of pure curiosity. Now I don't even care enough to sign up.
 
Joffy

Joffy

Member
Oct 30, 2017
1,154
Played some Grid, Serious Sam, Destiny 2 and Steamworld Quest. Was pretty damn impressed tbh, the only one with any noticeable control issues was serious sam but can't remember if that's just how it played
 
rpm

rpm

Into the Woods
The Fallen
Oct 25, 2017
12,356
Parts Unknown
Played the intro of Destiny 2. Works pretty well. You can obviously tell it's being streamed, but that's due to the streaming compression, it was pretty solid input wise.

It's not something I'll be using after the free 2 months, since it doesn't fit my use case, but I can see why some would use it
 
P40L0

P40L0

Member
Jun 12, 2018
7,630
Italy
III-V said:
Google's video game streaming platform, Stadia, is now free to anyone with a Gmail address, the company announced on Wednesday. To sweeten the deal, Google is also giving new users two months of Stadia Pro — including access to nine games — for free.

www.polygon.com

Google Stadia now free to anyone with a Gmail address

Stadia Pro is also free for two months
www.polygon.com www.polygon.com

Anyone who signs up will get two free months of Stadia Pro with instant access to nine games, including GRID, Destiny 2: The Collection, and Thumper

•Destiny 2: The Collection
•GRID
•Gylt (Stadia Exclusive by TequilaWorks)
•SteamWorld Dig 2
•SteamWorld Quest: Hand of Gilgamech
•Serious Sam Collection
•Spitlings
•Stacks on Stacks (on Stacks)
•Thumper

No purchases required: many different controllers work.

Give it a shot:

www.blog.google

Play Stadia Pro for free, starting today

Video games are a great way to socialize while at home, so we’re giving gamers in 14 countries free access to Stadia Pro for two months.
www.blog.google www.blog.google





Edit: even if you are not interested right now, it is still a great time to start an account, get a username and claim the 9 games - You will be able to use them at a later time. Stadia is not going anywhere for awhile.

Edit2: Invite Codes will roll out over next 48 hours.

Edit3: Stadia is offered in:

Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
 

Deleted member 51691

User requested account closure
Banned
Jan 6, 2019
17,834
Tried Serious Sam. Wasn't a fan of the game itself, but Stadia worked fine. Darks are absolutely horrendous due to the compression, though. Could barely see shit.
 
Alucardx23

Alucardx23

Member
Nov 8, 2017
4,713
Funny reading about the wide range of experiences people have with a cloud gaming service. There are a bunch of different factors that will affect the game experience, along with how sensible you might or might not be to latency and image compression. Cloud gaming services need to be accessible above all other things and each person should be able to try them for free and then decide if they will invest on the service.
 
Stuggernaut

Stuggernaut

Member
Oct 28, 2017
2,906
Seattle, WA, USA
I love Era sometimes..

People will not even TRY a "free" option but will continue to tear down the service without ever having tried it themselves.

For me, I say thanks Stadia... I was not willing to pay to play this, was waiting for free version. So now I can try it and see how it works.

My experience so far...

- Went to Stadia on Chrome on PC... got lost trying to "get" free Pro access.
- Downloaded Stadia app on cell phone (2 min to get through all setup)
- Can't play anything on phone (Tried to play Gylt)
- Refresh Chrome page and boom, it is where I was on my phone (Gylt play screen)
- Hit play... game screen immediately came up, 2-3 seconds of disclaimers then I am at Start screen
- Realize I do not have a controller, turn on my Xbox PC controller, boom, instantly recognized and a few seconds later I am in game
- Oops, realize I do not have sound, turn on my bluetooth headset, boom, instantly recognized and working.... start PLAYING the game
- Game looks fine, not graphical glitches, no slowdown, seems to run great (Granted I have no point of reference!)
- Skipped over all the little hints on how to alt tab out of window, or get out of Stadia UI so just leave game
- Browse to Grid and startup that game, am playing in less than 10 seconds.

Seems to work as intended so far. No issues whatsoever so far.

- My connection is listed as "Good"
- Data usage is listed as "Best visual quality"

I am on a 100/100 fiber connection.
 
oofouchugh

oofouchugh

Member
Oct 29, 2017
3,972
Night City
I feel like Stadia needs to have this offer up when they drop an interesting exclusive to try to hook people on the service. Get people in playing something they can't get anywhere else and sell them on the concept and execution while doing so. I'm not spending time setting up Stadia just for a bunch of games I've already played if I care about them or Gylt.
 
JigglesBunny

JigglesBunny

Prophet of Truth
Avenger
Oct 27, 2017
31,148
Chicago
I know that I've done nothing but rag on Stadia from the jump but now that I've actually given it a shot myself, I must admit... it really does stink.

Noticeable latency, visual artifacting everywhere and one whole connection drop out that killed my game. I'm not impressed, to say the least. I really did push my initial thoughts aside and give it a fair shake but I would still never want to play games via streaming. This isn't the future - at least not for me.
 
HemoGoblin

HemoGoblin

Member
Nov 3, 2017
793
If you cancel ahead of the trial window does it stop you from using it anymore? I hate it when services do that...

Also, can I use a chromecast with a ps4 control for this?
 
Dan L

Dan L

Tried to PM someone for a tag
Member
Oct 28, 2017
6,177
Regina, Saskatchewan
I think it is due to me being in Saskatchewan but the quality is just not good for me, very laggy and looks like 480p quality. it's not for lack of internet speed:

9257012412.png


I have no issues with geforce now though

Though I have a 2080ti so not really interested in streaming personally just like to check this stuff out.
 
SoftTaur

SoftTaur

Member
Oct 25, 2017
489
I tried Grid, Destiny 2, and Thumper.

Grid felt fine but looked like a 720p low bitrate stream. Destiny 2 looked good but there was very noticable lag when aiming that made it nearly unplayable. Thumper was somehow the best experience of the three which surprised me since it's a rhythm game.

I have really good internet and this was still unsatisfactory so I'm not sure who this is for.
 
flaxknuckles

flaxknuckles

Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,313
Serious Sam first encounter looks and runs flawlessly for me. GRID however looks like a blurry ass YouTube video and has too much lag. I relaunched Destiny 2 and that's playing a bit more responsive now but after Serious Sam the movement so sluggish I don't wanna play it anymore lol.
 

Deleted member 11637

Oct 27, 2017
18,204
Destiny 2 feels rough, ugh. It's presenting 1080p/60 fps gameplay, but the input latency and frequent lag spikes murder any sense of fluidity. Even Gylt had obvious input issues and audio/visual glitches. Doom Eternal must be a nightmare to play.

Stadia does itself no favors by placing these big AAA action games front-and-center when games like Football Manager, Telltale series, The Sims, and other casual-friendly experiences -- where precise input and pristine visuals aren't necessary -- make much more sense with regard to tech constraints and target audience. But by insisting Stadia can compete with existing console/PC gaming, it's impossible to forget that I could be playing a better version of these games elsewhere.
 
Crax

Crax

Member
May 21, 2018
880
I have a 80/80 connection at the moment, so I was unsure how well it would work, but this wasn't too bad. The important factors for me when it comes to game streaming, is that I feel it should be convenient and the input lag shouldn't be too bad. Starting up Gylt was pretty darn easy, and the controls felt good and "normal" for a third-person adventure game. I'm okay with sacrificing visual quality if the input feels good.

But I did also tried Destiny 2, with gamepad and mouse+keyboard, and that is much harder to recommend. Controls felt sluggish, it looked pretty bad and was a bit nauseating.
 
Dunlop

Dunlop

Member
Oct 25, 2017
8,479
I really need to try Destiny 2 out tonight, haven't played in a while but weird to see so many people have issues with that one game, maybe something has changed
 
Gandie

Gandie

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,649
On Gigabit internet here, input lag is noticeable but fine. Image quality is terrible though (in Destiny 2 and Serious Sam). Disappointed that wireless controllers do not work on Chrome.
 
Basquiat

Basquiat

alt account
Banned
Apr 2, 2020
369
Played some destiny 2 tonight with my 400/400 connection. The game felt buttery smooth when playing on a dual shock 4. I couldn't notice any extra latency, would need to try it with mouse and keyboard though to give a final verdict but so far I'm kind of impressed. In terms of graphics, it's clearly not 4K which is odd because I definitely set it to 4K in the mobile app. Also can't help but be put off by the artifacts, but that wouldn't necessarily but a dealbreaker for me.
 
iag

iag

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,376
Would sign up to play Steamworld, but it's not available here. Ok then.
 
HemoGoblin

HemoGoblin

Member
Nov 3, 2017
793
I can't find where the page is to sign up for a free account? it keeps trying to sell me a premiere kit. Is this being rolled out by region? I'm in the midwest
 
Detective Pidgey

Detective Pidgey

Alt Account
Banned
Jun 4, 2019
6,255
So anyone can try it out? We don't need to buy the controller? Only need a chromecast, unless you have one already?
 
JigglesBunny

JigglesBunny

Prophet of Truth
Avenger
Oct 27, 2017
31,148
Chicago
Nothing more exhilarating than taking out enemies in Destiny 2 and having your game hitch so the image quality can jump down.

Actually chuckled aloud when I realized that I had to go into the iOS app just to change my quality settings, then I couldn't actually play anything on the iOS app. This thing is so half-cocked.
 
ghibli99

ghibli99

Member
Oct 27, 2017
17,834
Signed up, claimed games, trying to play, been sitting at "checking connection" for minutes, then says "reopen the game to play". Three times now. LOL I'm on a 200/200 connection, just checked it on a few different speed test sites, getting full up/down speed. Not the best start. Servers probably overloaded, maybe it's something on my end, but anyway... this isn't exactly filling me with excitement about potentially keeping my sub beyond the two months. :(

Edit: It was my VPN extension, which I didn't even have enabled. So maybe that will help others who have the same problem. So I tried Gylt. Image is pretty soft, lots of macroblocking on dark, solid spaces. Got some audio pops here and there, which I don't know if that's the game or something getting borked in the stream. It otherwise is pretty good. Gonna try Thumper next.
 
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Alienous

Alienous

Member
Oct 25, 2017
9,606
Despite having a wired connection this has been an unreliable experience.

I started with Destiny it had a persistent input lag and hitching, but you could play it. Went over to Thumper and that had the same issue.

Then later in the day with less people on the network and higher speeds I had a really impressive experience with Thumper for about 40 seconds, then Destiny working poorly and prompting connection issue messages.

I'm sure it's down to my connection being unimpressive but it isn't poor, and I've had a stable experience with PlayStation Now. I thought Stadia might have some unique magic to it but it doesn't seem so.
 
Dec

Dec

Prophet of Truth
Member
Oct 26, 2017
3,537
just keeps saying my card info is wrong

edit: got it working
 
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Bold One

Bold One

Banned
Oct 30, 2017
18,911
Destiny in 60fps on a big screen is nice, but the picture has this strange gloss on it and there is noticeable input lag.

Steaming is not the future, not yet anyway
 
AnonymousApple

AnonymousApple

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,974
United Kingdom
So... I gave Gylt a try and its'... an alright game? More crucially, my experience was equally just alright. 30~mbps gave me the ocasional stutter and I disconnected twice over a ~3 hour session, but I am far away from my router so I'll try again tomorrow when I'm a bit closer. Overall, a solid if unremarkable experience: image quality felt washed out even with HDR.
 
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