Microsoft Project xCloud (Game Streaming), now offering Fortnite free without GPU membership

really hoping to see a new review of the service when theses Series X blades go more mainstream.

anecdotal reviews are so far promising

 

I wonder if there's any scope for different cost tiers of XCloud access based on which Series console is streaming it?

Or at least which Series console equivalent. Given how Microsoft spoke about the way that they can run multiple instances of XBoxOne games (was it 4?) maybe there's scope for a customised CPU core count Series SoC that can run 2+ games in Series S mode, or 1+ of them in Series X mode.

What would be the most sensible GPU WGP/CU count?

Right now it would be a 16 core CPU version of the Series X with doubled IO bandwidth and doubled GDDR6 (both capacity + bandwidth.)

But the Series X has 56CU's (I think. Please correct me if I'm wrong) with 4 disabled for redundancy. Might there be a future node where a different configuration makes sense?

If they just quadruple everything about the Series X, 224 CU's and a 32 core CPU would be adequate to run 4 Series X games. Although it would need a staggering total bandwidth of 2240GB/s!

64GB of HBM3 might make that feasible though *drools*

It'd have the GPU grunt to run 9 Series S games, but it'd require a 72 core CPU. It'd already have adequate bandwidth as it'd adequately clear the requisite (9*224)=2016GB/s.

Maybe a 72 core CPU would be a reasonable way of using defective 16 core chiplets?

My lord, that'd be such an amazing mid gen console: the "XBox Series SSSSSSSSS*XXXX"

 

Not likely I think. IIRC the server blades were based on XBO SOC as proof of concept, the actual service is designed with Scarlett SOC's in mind. Each one supports 4x instance of XBO BC titles and they support the latest titles, and as far as I can see, have some features that may be used to sell compute time when they aren't being leveraged for gaming, of some sort.

The XBO blades will likely be left for supporting really old titles.

 

Employees have had access for a couple of weeks. Its much improved and I have to say its up there with the best streaming services now if not slightly better. Expect it to get even better as they add new technology (from bethesda) and continue tweaking the apps and browser access

 

I don't think Bethesda ever got as far as commercialising their Orion streaming technology? Presumably this now ends up as something that MS just offer out to developers?

This gameindustry article has a few more details on performance improvements, but not much on how it works, beyond the general principle of doing things in engine to help reduce latancy and compression overhead (one for that was applying film grain locally, as it's a pain to compress).

https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2019-06-09-bethesda-unveils-orion-game-streaming-tech

 

From what I can see, Orion is a hybrid approach that hooks into the game engine, using cloud rendering and local client rendering. It would require customized clients for each and every different game its used in. What that means for the end users are they would not have a single executable such as xCloud to run but have to download and install specific executables for every different game that uses it. Best of luck getting the customized clients to work in a web browser using javascript like xCloud Web uses.

 

This an advert for streaming Gamepass on everything. Pretty good ad I thought.

 

So I played NMS, as I hadn't tried it with the next gen update. The graphics options say Series S Enhancement.

I don't know if this is a typo, they actualy have Series S blades or Series X running an S emulation mode, since the stream is 1080p anyway.

I think Doom Enternal might be on XSS / in XSS mode as well. There is only 'Balanced' showing on the graphics mode. The XSS doesn't have 'Ray Tracing' as an option and it's 'Performance' mode is 120fps, so not support on xCloud either.

 

Interesting. We were told that Series X blades could run 4 One S instances, but it's possible that's actually Series S. Currently all Series S optimized games are optimized versions of the One S versions, not the One X.

Tommy McClain

 

I can see them running XSS version on XSX blades for couple reasons:

• Only supporting 1080p60 at the moment - Probably still not bad as still targeting mainly mobile and tablets
• Power usage will be lower
• XSS can still support 120fps (Assume xcloud will be able to support it at some point)
• May be a title by title basis

 

I did go and look at the Xbox Wire article and they definately said custom XSX hardware, so I do think they running in XSS emulation for the reasons you state. The only downside for me at the moment is that I wanted to have a nosey at Doom Eternal's ray tracing mode and can't!

 

Here's something cool...

At the link there's a video of someone trying to play Slay the Spire. Would have been neat to see Forza instead.

Tommy McClain

 

Gamepass on a smartwatch, cool indeed Games available everywhere, its the future imo.

 

Quick! Somebody put Game Pass on a modded Nintendo Game and Watch.

Tommy McClain

 

An interesting Microsoft research paper I have not seen linked here.

Levelup

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/res...-a-thin-cloud-approach-to-game-livestreaming/

This looks at upconverting low bitrate streamed game video (twitch style not gamepass).

They do acknowledge game streaming as potential future research.

Like LevelUp, Kahawai [6] focuses on gaming and savingb andwidth. However, Kahawai is a cloud gaming system thato ffloads part of the mobile GPU’s workload to the server. The server creates and sends a “patch” video to the client. The client then applies the patch, either “delta” frames, or I-frames, to the local images to improve game visual quality. Iti s possible that the technique used in LevelUp could also bea pplied to cloud gaming, but we leave this for future work.

 

Kahawai has been knocking about for a while. If it doesn't resurface with their streaming stick, I don't think we'll see a live service using it.

 

Yes, I actually found this whilst searching for Kahawai to see if anything had come of it, or new research based on it.

Many different techniques to solving similar but ultimately different problems.

I wonder how research such as above which used ML to reconstruct imaged feeds into real products, or if the implementation existed and was then used to appraise it's viability in resolving real world issues. They probably stated and I missed it.

I wonder how well it would work in improving old Xbox one game clips, they suffered in bitrate and often resolution (Vs 4k)

 

xcloud on consoles officially dated for this holiday...

https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2021/08/24/cloud-gaming-comes-to-xbox-series-x-s-and-xbox-one-consoles/

Tommy McClain

 

great feature. will try more games this way, don't want to download a title and toss it, takes way too much time.

 

Finally, the power of the cloud is here.

20 years ago I wrote an article for SegaWeb.com that envisioned the day where this would be possible and that day is coming soon. As network speeds and latency improve, we won't need dedicated cutting edge hardware in our homes anymore.