Game Streaming Platforms and Technology (xCloud, PSNow, GeforceNow, Luna) (Rip: Stadia)

Cloud gaming (beta) with Xbox Game Pass Ultimate coming to iOS and PC in 2021

Expanding Xbox to new players is central to our ambition of helping games and developers find an easy path to the world’s 3 billion gamers. We are doing this by embracing multiple devices and providing a consistent Xbox experience wherever you log in, whether that’s on your Xbox Series X|S, PC, Xbox One, Android device or – starting in Spring 2021 – your Windows PC and iOS device from the cloud.

In Spring 2021, we will take the next step in our journey to reach more players around the world by making cloud gaming as part of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate available on Windows PCs through the Xbox app and browser, and iOS devices through mobile web browser. By adding over a billion devices as a path to playing in the Xbox ecosystem, we envision a seamless experience for all types of players; whether it’s playing Minecraft Dungeons with your Xbox friends using touch controls on an iPhone, or jumping into a Destiny 2: Beyond Light strike on a Surface Pro when you have a break between meetings.

Whatever screen you choose, we want to make it easy to continue your game and connect with your friends.

Finally, we’ll bring cloud gaming with Xbox Game Pass Ultimate to new markets, including Australia, Brazil, Japan and Mexico, where we recently began our limited Project xCloud preview program.

We can’t wait to share more early next year about our cloud gaming ambitions and how you can expect to take your gaming experiences further.

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Going to be interesting when GamePass Cloud Gaming is just available through a browser on any PC. Could definitely see some just going that route instead of buying a console if they are not huge gamers.

Shit you could just buy a month every now and then when you feel like playing...
 
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Geforce now has gotten better. I was able to launch cyberpunk2077 from geforce now launcher and didn't need to give my cdpr account or steam account information. The game launched super fast straight into game. It remembered my previous steam login. How it got my cdpr account I have no real idea. Probably it took my cdpr login somehow from native cdpr launcher I used yesterday.

I don't notice any lag versus running natively when moving mouse. I guess I have datacenter close and I'm probably not super sensitive to lag. Still, only 720p for me as I don't have enough bandwidth. 720p is blurry as hell. There also were random glitches where streaming stopped for very short period, annoying. Mostly noticeable from audio as it stops sometimes. These glitches didn't happen previous time I tried geforce now. Settings were lower in geforce now than what I get by default with 3070fe. Ray tracing was only partially enabled though you can change settings if you like.

If I had unlimited data and was able to stream higher resolution geforce now could replace my gaming needs even for action oriented games using mouse. I'm very pleasantly surprised by this. I still remember onlive and how laggy it was compared to this.

edit. There was short queue. I had to wait for about a minute before gaming. Last time I tried geforce now there was no queue.
 
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A lot of frustrated people, including myself whom are not able to play their Cyberpunk save games on Geforce Now because their servers are not updating to 1.04. A serious flaw in their system and if they don't get it updated over the weekend due to not having the right staff available or whatever then I'll consider this trial on their service a failure.

Wait, am I allowed to criticize our god and savior Nvidia who can do no wrong?
 
GFN updated to 1.04 finally.

Between DLSS and I assume compression artifacts from streaming (it's running at 1080p server and client), there's a lot of blur on GFN version.

GFN I'm running RT Ultra with Balanced DLSS

Local I'm running Ultra preset (No RT, only have Pascal)

cp1_local.jpg

cp1_gfn.jpg
 
GFN updated to 1.04 finally.

Between DLSS and I assume compression artifacts from streaming (it's running at 1080p server and client), there's a lot of blur on GFN version.

GFN I'm running RT Ultra with Balanced DLSS

Local I'm running Ultra preset (No RT, only have Pascal)

View attachment 5078

View attachment 5079

Sorry the question, but one which is the GFN?

If it is the first one (which I would assume), I'll be really impressed. The textures are so sharp (must be DLSS, right)
 
Does GeforceNow have some configuration options? Like run this game in that mode etc.
No, it just detects what resolution your client is, there's no configuration. Of course you have in-game configuration still just like regular, just nothing outside of that. There's no way to interact with the desktop.
 
I could try it on my PC but it's really irrelevant as I play my games locally on my PC. I use GFN on my Shield where there's no possibility of any tinkering.
No need to try, it just seemed weird that GFN didn't have a configuration of some kind.
 
No need to try, it just seemed weird that GFN didn't have a configuration of some kind.
So the windows client does have settings where you can change from the default "Balanced" mode to other reduced modes or Custom, the latter allowing you to reduce specific settings or specify exact resolutions.

There is an overlay you can turn on in windows when playing where you can see streaming metrics and it doesn't ever seem to drop below 1080p, which is good.
 
I was playing the Gears 5 (DLC) on the preview app and they added not only touchscreen controls but also gyro aiming! That's so cool (especially for someone used to play like this because of Nintendo). It's nice to see more options. It's a pity that the xbox controller doesn't have gyro.

I hope they add support for M&K on the PC app
 
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