Home Gaming Has Microsoft solved the cloud gaming lag problem?

Has Microsoft solved the cloud gaming lag problem?

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Delorean

The cloud is the future, as everybody involved in the cloud keeps reminding us. One day, we’ll be consuming our games in much the same we do with our media; by streaming it off of the internet. Despite things like OnLive and PlayStation Now, that future isn’t here yet thanks, largely, to one particular problem; lag. Microsoft’s researches feel they’re on the cusp of overcoming the problem.

It works by reading your mind. In a research document published last week, Microsoft has outlined its new tech for streaming games, which works by guessing what you’ll do next.

DeLorean produces speculative rendered frames of future possible outcomes, delivering them to the client one entire RTT [round-trip time, the time it takes for an input to reach the server and return a response] ahead of time; clients perceive no latency. To achieve this, DeLorean combines: 1) future input prediction; 2) state space subsampling and time shifting; 3) misprediction compensation; and 4) bandwidth compression.

In the real world, it seems to work quite well; its researchers managed to have games of Doom 3 and Fable 3 wholly playable, masking a round-trip time of 250 milliseconds. That sort of latency would make those games otherwise unplayable. Players were unable to distinguish between local gameplay and that from the DeLorean-powered cloud system.

There’s always a catch though, isn’t there? DeLorean is a rather data heavy system, and can send nearly five times as much information than a simple stream for the same outcome – so you’d need a rather large amount of available bandwidth. In the end, it means that game streaming – whether bandwidth intensive or latency intensive – won’t work here in SA any time soon.

Last Updated: August 25, 2014

27 Comments

  1. FoxOneZA

    August 25, 2014 at 14:35

    No.

    Reply

  2. Rinceable

    August 25, 2014 at 14:37

    Lol.

    Reply

  3. Admiral Chief Assassin

    August 25, 2014 at 14:42

    SCIENCE!!!!

    Reply

  4. Admiral Chief Assassin

    August 25, 2014 at 14:43

    MS, Trolling gamers, classic

    Reply

  5. Sk3tz0

    August 25, 2014 at 14:48

    The Cloud, like the Cake is a Lie..

    Reply

  6. Weanerdog

    August 25, 2014 at 14:49

    What happens if you do the unexpected, like something so totally stupid that it would be impossible to predict. Cause that’s how I roll.

    Reply

    • Alien Emperor Trevor

      August 25, 2014 at 14:51

      Not really. ;P

      Reply

      • Weanerdog

        August 25, 2014 at 16:44

        No really. I do stupid stuff all the time.

        Reply

    • Thats_how_I_Troll

      August 25, 2014 at 16:15

      Someone Called?

      Reply

      • Weanerdog

        August 25, 2014 at 16:41

        Not unless you are a typo.

        Reply

  7. CodeName Tailgunner

    August 25, 2014 at 14:54

    Yeah Yeah blah blah Google does this already

    Reply

  8. Weanerdog

    August 25, 2014 at 14:54

    I love that the solution to lag is to overload the system so much that it is going to cause more lag for most users. Well I did see an ad on a car for 100mps uncapped fiber cable for a mere R11999 a month.

    Reply

  9. Alien Emperor Trevor

    August 25, 2014 at 14:57

    “won’t work here in SA any time soon” Or in most other places either.

    Reply

  10. Ryanza

    August 25, 2014 at 15:00

    The only way Microsoft can solve the Cloud lag is by installing a Cloud server in everybody’s house.

    Reply

  11. Rinceable

    August 25, 2014 at 15:02

    “DeLorean-powered cloud system” lol

    Reply

  12. Rinceable

    August 25, 2014 at 15:03

    So, is it called the Delorean because the technology is from the early 80s?

    Reply

    • Brady miaau

      August 25, 2014 at 15:20

      or was stolen and the inventor arrested for tax evasion?

      Reply

      • J_Joestar

        August 25, 2014 at 20:00

        or maybe it is powered by garbage? (or Plutonium/Lightning bolts)

        Reply

  13. Sith JJ

    August 25, 2014 at 15:34

    They’ve probably just been throwing wads of cash at the hardware and now something seems to be working again for a few seconds.

    Reply

  14. Johan du Preez

    August 25, 2014 at 15:37

    Sure let me get my tinfoil hat, this is the biggest load of bullshit that I read so far this year.

    Reply

  15. HvR

    August 25, 2014 at 16:11

    Get the Chrome Butt to Cloud Plus plugin. Makes these article a x1000 more entertaining.

    Geoff believes his butt is the future…….

    Reply

  16. Ben Dover Kuntz

    August 25, 2014 at 16:46

    i find it hard to believe that people will be fooled again with the microsoft cloud bs… but a new idiot is born everyday i guess,,,

    Reply

  17. MakeItLegal

    August 26, 2014 at 08:27

    wish we would start building local data centers already its 2014….

    Reply

  18. bluegoon

    August 26, 2014 at 11:54

    lol, aim assist pls.

    Reply

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