Project Stream is pretty cool!

CJCW? · Oct 18, 2018

I have so-so internet, and it's been working surprisingly well over wifi. It would obviously be more critical if I was playing a multiplayer game, or a fighting game, but for something like AC:O, it holds up pretty well. I'm definitely more interested in checking out game streaming over the coming years.

ArnoldJRimmer · Oct 18, 2018

So I got in to try Project Stream. I have a decent internet about 500 Mbps down 12 Mbps up, not sure about ping to their servers, is there a way to test that in the game?

Anyway, my impressions of the game are that:

1. You lose a LOT of detail in the encoding phase. The presentation is VERY soft and a bit muddy.
2. The game looks to run at or below medium settings. There's a LOT more pop in than my high settings on PC, and shadows are also set pretty low.
3. Latency is not bad enough to make it unplayable, but it's not a great experience by any means. Blocking, for example, was REALLY hard to do vs just kind of hard to do when playing natively on my PC.

Of course, latency is going to vary depending on my distance to their nearest data center, but an action game is probably a no go at whatever latency I'm getting now.

The tech is still impressive though. I mean I was playing this game on a browser. Crap, that was just a pipe dream only a few years ago.

FusionNY · Oct 18, 2018

If someone had just plopped down and asked me to play this, I would have never guessed it wasn't running natively. My only previous experience with game streaming was launch month PS Now which was abysmal, and this left me extremely impressed. I think I'll always prefer native gaming, but I'm convinced that streaming is here to stay.

unicornKnight · Oct 19, 2018

Crayon said:
I can understand the trepidation because it could be the sea change that is a runaway train. If it really did completely take over and decimate the market for locally computed games, then there would be a lot more at stake than a little input lag or video compression.

I'm personally feeling very confident that it's not going to go that far. Buuuut I could be wrong. After all, streaming doesn't have to completely take over to be so disruptive that it could change at least some things for the worse.

People need to have more sense than that and also not be threatened by changes. Streaming to take over what we have now would have to be really good to the point of barely any difference. Even if it goes well those system will co exist at best because most places in the world still can't support it yet and in some places it might not worth the cost of infrastructure required

P-Switch · Oct 19, 2018

neon_dream said:
The problem with streaming is not the viability of an acceptable experience. It's that it's inherently a worse experience (latency), one that deteriorates ownership in the service, and will inevitably lead to a worse outcome for users.

The mainstream, casual media consumer doesn't care about any of that stuff.

Microsoft's streaming box and streaming service is going to be huge I believe

(And this is coming from an elite pc gamer snob who never touched an Xbox lol)

Crayon · Oct 19, 2018

unicornKnight said:
People need to have more sense than that and also not be threatened by changes. Streaming to take over what we have now would have to be really good to the point of barely any difference. Even if it goes well those system will co exist at best because most places in the world still can't support it yet and in some places it might not worth the cost of infrastructure required

Yaya. Top 5 reasons to be cool:

Multplayer extra lag is real bad. First protip will be to avoid streaming.

This will be more attractive to non-console gamers (browser/mobile) than console/pc gamers. Streaming will be huge but its going to be pulling more users from the casual pool, and eventually sending some of those on to the level where they want a console or pc.

Hella popular games will run on a toaster anyhow. And now theyre starting to run on phones.

Alot of people have good enough internet but alot of people dont.

The value in a console or pc will still be there. You get 2 or 3 services? Start them up intermittently? Some people will throw that kinda money away to play everything on stream. Streaming will be a great deal for light users but not a great deal for people who play more than a few hours a week.

Z-oo31 · Oct 19, 2018

I'm really liking Project Stream as well.

My main issue right now is that the game is not running at 60fps, even though their demo video of the project was 60fps.

Has anyone managed gotten 60?

JohnnyMoses · Oct 19, 2018

I just saw that I got an invite this week. Looking forward to seeing how it compares to GeForce Now. How much of the game can you play?

Leonadar · Oct 19, 2018

I've tried it a bit and the controls are surprisingly responsive. The graphical fidelity leave something to be desired though. I'm getting a lot of compression artifacts and frame rate stutter.

Tebunker · Oct 19, 2018

Played some last night, didn't experience any issues, felt the visual quality was good, thoght it was integrated smoothly and worked well.

So I am excited about the future. There are still a ton of variables that will impact a users experience though.

If someone like MS or Sony could offer a streaming solution like what I had last night on a consistent basis, I'd be fine making the switch. I still think infrastructure wise we're 5-10 years off from this becoming a fully main stream alternative.

I am also now curios to see how Ps Now would work for me.

mute · Oct 19, 2018

I should give it a shot since I just got google fiber and don't really have any use for it otherwise at the moment.

In the end though the same things that keep me from playing games on my pc will keep me from playing them this way too.

GodofWine · Oct 19, 2018

crap- forgot I have an invite sitting there..

!REMIND ME 9 hours (wrong forum I know)

skullmuffins · Oct 19, 2018

JohnnyMoses said:
I just saw that I got an invite this week. Looking forward to seeing how it compares to GeForce Now. How much of the game can you play?

It's the whole game. You have full access and can play as much as you want until the test ends on Jan 15. You just can't buy any more microtransactions other than with the free $10 they give you (the horror) and you can't transfer your save into the retail game.

I'm on a kinda-shitty wifi connection and while the game is playable it's certainly a lot worse than running it locally. I'll have to try it out on on a wired connection. My biggest concern is blowing up my data cap, tbh. Read it can be up to 9gb/hr and that could eat up a huge chunk of comcast's 1tb monthly limit.

kubev · Oct 19, 2018

Is this supposed to eventually work with a Chromecast?

ss_lemonade · Oct 19, 2018

Got my beta access the other day and well, I saw quite a bit of artifacting. More than what I was expecting. The game (or stream?) also seems to be capped at 30 fps. Controls were very responsive though.

This is on a 150 Mbps connection with Comcast by the way.

Patitoloco · Oct 19, 2018

Anthony Hopkins said:
The tides are turning here regarding streaming.
Its like the stages of fandom

What is it?
Denial > anger > sadness > depression > acceptance or somthing like that.

More or less like this:

But talking about your favorite company.

Aftermath · Oct 19, 2018

Welcome to the game streaming club, I have a streaming console like the picture above there the Nvidia Shield TV, only I use a Dualshock 4, and play all my Steam games. (No P.C needed you can stream from the Nvidia cloud and your Steam account, some people still don't know this)

Now if only Steam got Red Dead 2, I'd be set.

JohnnyMoses · Oct 19, 2018

skullmuffins said:
It's the whole game. You have full access and can play as much as you want until the test ends on Jan 15. You just can't buy any more microtransactions other than with the free $10 they give you (the horror) and you can't transfer your save into the retail game.

I'm on a kinda-shitty wifi connection and while the game is playable it's certainly a lot worse than running it locally. I'll have to try it out on on a wired connection. My biggest concern is blowing up my data cap, tbh. Read it can be up to 9gb/hr and that could eat up a huge chunk of comcast's 1tb monthly limit.

Does Comcast have that limit everywhere? I feel like I've never been told of or gone over a limit.

skullmuffins · Oct 19, 2018

JohnnyMoses said:
Does Comcast have that limit everywhere? I feel like I've never been told of or gone over a limit.

Nah, not everywhere. The entire northeast is free from the data caps, for whatever reason. Probably competition. You can check the list here if you're not sure.

JohnnyMoses · Oct 19, 2018

skullmuffins said:
Nah, not everywhere. The entire northeast is free from the data caps, for whatever reason. Probably competition. You can check the list here if you're not sure.

Glad I'm in the northeast! Awesome info. Thanks!

bad poster · Oct 19, 2018

libraries of games you don't own, can't mod and that are sure to be curated to hell. such a bright future.

Log! · Oct 19, 2018

Logan Paul Muad'Dib said:
libraries of games you don't own, can't mod and that are sure to be curated to hell. such a bright future.

inb4 "But you don't really own your games anyway."

freakybj · Oct 20, 2018

The tech is cool. I got in earlier this week and it worked like a charm. Windows, Linux, Mac...as long as you have the latest chrome browser installed it works beautifully. There are a few latency/stuttering issues from time to time but it gets the job done. I wouldn't want to play a game like MLB the Show or any other game that requires minimal input lag on the service just yet, but a single player game like ACO works very well on it.

A few more thoughts:

It's obvious that internet bandwidth caps will stop this from gaining traction. Playing 1 hour consumes about 9 GB of your allowed bandwidth for the month. It's easy to see that playing a long game like ACO to completion in one month would use up about 500 GB of your bandwidth. What can google and Microsoft do to counter this? Zero rating deals with ISPs? That's a scummy practice, but I don't see ISPs removing or even raising their bandwidth caps overnight. And unlimited internet is too expensive for most users...the very users that are most likely to use this service because they can't afford to spend money on expensive consoles or GPUs.
I don't think cloud gaming will replace hardware anytime soon. For the foreseeable future it could serve as a nice complement to traditional console/PC gaming. I'd very much like to see publishers adopt the Blu-ray model where you buy a movie and get the Blu-ray, DVD, and digital download code in 1 package. It'd be nice to buy a game off steam and get the project stream code as well. When you're at home, you can play on console/PC. When you travel, you can continue the game through the cloud. When Project Stream eventually goes to Android and you can play the game on your phone, that will be amazing.

Shrennin · Oct 20, 2018

Logan Paul Muad'Dib said:
libraries of games you don't own, can't mod and that are sure to be curated to hell. such a bright future.

I mean, Xbox's streaming service will let you play your digital games — games that you own — and I'm not sure of the modding situation but Microsoft already confirmed that every Xbox One game will be ready to be on the service with no extra work by the developer. Both past and present games.

Future looks to be bright tbh

As far as Project Stream — I played it on my WiFi and it works great. Not sure of Google's plans towards digital ownership, modding, or curation but other competitors at least won't restrict people from playing owned games nor care about curation.

Hrodulf · Oct 20, 2018

Anthony Hopkins said:
Or maybe the naysayers are just wrong.

Being against or even just apprehensive about something that is almost inherently anticonsumer is never wrong.

ArnoldJRimmer · Oct 20, 2018

Aftermath said:
Welcome to the game streaming club, I have a streaming console like the picture above there the Nvidia Shield TV, only I use a Dualshock 4, and play all my Steam games.

Now if only Steam got Red Dead 2, I'd be set.

I have a shield too, but the latency to a Google server is going to be much worse than to your PC on the same network.

I played the game on my Shield to see HDR and while I still wasn't happy with latency, it was a lot better than the Project Stream experience and so where the overall graphics settings and IQ, of course since I was streaming it from my watercooled 1080 PC a room away.

ckareset · Oct 20, 2018

Hrodulf said:
Being against or even just apprehensive about something that is almost inherently anticonsumer is never wrong.

I dont think you are using that word correctly

Father Kratos · Oct 20, 2018

Adam_Roman said:
Also I like that they give you $10 of in-game currency because I immediately spent that on the XP boost. I'm not a fan of feeling obligated to grind side quests so I'm glad I was able to get that so I can focus on quests I'm actually interested in.

More details on this please. I went to the store and was seeing options to buy gear/ship related stuff only. I am not enjoying the side quests much and want to avoid the grinding, so would like to spend those 10$ in the best possible way in this regard.

skullmuffins · Oct 20, 2018

Father Kratos said:
More details on this please. I went to the store and was seeing options to buy gear/ship related stuff only. I am not enjoying the side quests much and want to avoid the grinding, so would like to spend those 10$ in the best possible way in this regard.

Go to the store and you'll see a category listing across the top. Go to Time Savers. It'll have a bunch of material packs and shit, just scroll over till you get to Boosters and the XP boost is there.

Hrodulf · Oct 20, 2018

ckareset said:
I dont think you are using that word correctly

Well, think what you want, I guess? Streaming services favor businesses over consumers, thus they will always be at least somewhat anticonsumer in my mind.

ckareset · Oct 20, 2018

Hrodulf said:
Well, think what you want, I guess? Streaming services favor businesses over consumers, thus they will always be at least somewhat anticonsumer in my mind.

Is this what you said when streaming took over other areas?

Man the technology is changing and improving and consumers WANT this. The pricing and rules arent defined yet, but if Project Stream allows me to play AAA games on my laptop and my phone for a great price, I really dont see how it's anti consumer. Oh it could turn bad, but like I always said it's video games not utility or healthcare we have power as buyers.

But the technology as of now is just progress.

Smerdyakov · Oct 20, 2018

I got access to it a few days ago. It's good enough that I'll probably finish Odyssey on it, but it's definitely not perfect. Artifacting seems really bad in low-light areas and while the lag is mostly okay, I feel like I'm being way more conservative in combat because dodging perfectly isn't reliable.

Aftermath · Oct 21, 2018

ArnoldJRimmer said:
I have a shield too, but the latency to a Google server is going to be much worse than to your PC on the same network.

I played the game on my Shield to see HDR and while I still wasn't happy with latency, it was a lot better than the Project Stream experience and so where the overall graphics settings and IQ, of course since I was streaming it from my watercooled 1080 PC a room away.

Ahhh right, I don't have a P.C anymore so I just stream my Steam games from the cloud direct to my Shield, still it's fun to own a Mini console with Steam Cloud gaming (still in beta) without owning a PC to play the latest games like the Project Stream does, it can be a bit iffy on times but it works.

Father Kratos · Oct 21, 2018

skullmuffins said:
Go to the store and you'll see a category listing across the top. Go to Time Savers. It'll have a bunch of material packs and shit, just scroll over till you get to Boosters and the XP boost is there.

Got it. Thanks :)

Okii · Oct 23, 2018

Got access but haven't been able to play because Ubisoft accounts are trash, I made a new account, linked it with my Google account and still gives me an error every time.

Stardestroyer · Oct 23, 2018

If you own the game on project stream and on ps4, does the 10 dollar or so carryover to ps4?

TAoVG · Oct 24, 2018

Could be interesting, more issues need to be resolved first.

Razgriz417 · Oct 24, 2018

had some bad stuttering last night around 9pm est, stuttered a few times then crashed. First time that happened to me in ~38 hrs of play but my brother and friend who also got in says they've been experience stuttering from the get got. Anyone else experience stuttering wear the game would lock up for a split second?

Patitoloco · Oct 24, 2018

Stardestroyer said:
If you own the game on project stream and on ps4, does the 10 dollar or so carryover to ps4?

I would say no.

Windu · Oct 24, 2018

Delushrin said:
I mean, Xbox's streaming service will let you play your digital games — games that you own — and I'm not sure of the modding situation but Microsoft already confirmed that every Xbox One game will be ready to be on the service with no extra work by the developer. Both past and present games.

Future looks to be bright tbh

As far as Project Stream — I played it on my WiFi and it works great. Not sure of Google's plans towards digital ownership, modding, or curation but other competitors at least won't restrict people from playing owned games nor care about curation.

Microsoft is working on limited mod support per a report earlier this year. Not exactly what PC gamers want, but I guess its better than nothing.

https://m.windowscentral.com/how-microsoft-exploring-bringing-mods-xbox-one

Charpunk · Oct 24, 2018

Stardestroyer said:
If you own the game on project stream and on ps4, does the 10 dollar or so carryover to ps4?

Nope. It's strickly for the project stream test.

Project Stream is pretty cool!

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