PS4: Remote and Share Play how does it work?

[Nesh]

I have been really curious with this.

The new update allowes multiple PS Vitas and Vita TVs to stream content from the PS4. Up to 4 devices/accounts if I am not mistaken.

But I dont really get how that works. The actual content processing is done on the PS4. Assuming that 2 people in different rooms want to play/stream different content fom the same console can the console process two different apps simultaneously?

Also in the case of share play where two people are playing co op, I am trying to understand how can one console run the game natively and the other console can stream data without reading the game from the HDD or an optical disk. In sports games and Fighting games I understand its doable. People are viewing the game from the same camera. But lets say you are playing a third person shooter or a first person shooter where camera's are independent. How can that work? I think this will only be doable only
a) if the developer allows the guest player to download some data beforehand like FC4
b) if the TV shows split screen mode on both player's TV's
c) if the game is set to render the game in the same resolution/detail as in one of the split screens but scales 1 Player to full screen for the local player and the second 2 player screen is processed in the background and streamed by the guest player and scaled to full screen as well

Has anyone tried Share play co op modes with games that dont share the same screen for each player?

How did it work?

 

[Nesh]

You make Nesh sad and angry



Really hasnt anyone tried the share play co op yet??

 

[London Geezer]

I've been curious about this myself, and how they keep it playable.

 

[Deleted member 86764]

I am also interested in seeing how it all works, but don't know anyone with a PS4 to test it with.

If anyone here fancies trying it out, let me know. I'd be interested in giving it a go.

 

[Nesh]

Btw I tried to remote play my PS4 with a PS Vita from a different area but didnt work. Is this supposed to work only when they are connected in the same network?

 

[rekator]

You make Nesh sad and angry



Really hasnt anyone tried the share play co op yet??

You need a connect with more than 2Mo/s of Upload to share and also to download so not so many can, and actually I can't share, may be at the end of the month we can have the fiber and 50Mo/s up!!!

 

[goonergaz]

The only time I used remote play on PS4 was a demo at work to show a MS fanboy that remote play wasn't garbage (other than the odd game at home - the kids also play it a bit)...anyway, here's my experience (ripped from the forum I originally posted it):

We have a bit of fun over the whole 'console wars' at work - one guy in particular is very pro MS (he is like a green stick of MS rock lol) and anti Sony, so I wanted to get his views on remote play (he's been playing it down from day one).

I had already had a play at home to test it and was pleasantly surprised with how good it was. I had already played SotC a bit back in the day so knew Vita was better than PSP, but a ~30 min trial of several games had me impressed on PS4.

So testing at work was a double whammy, firstly test the RP outside my 'local' network and secondly to (hopefully) prove to my mate it's not a complete waste of time.

Initially I had real issues connecting to the network, and then even when connected I couldn't get the PS4 to switch on. I'd all but given up (to many a jibe at RP expense) when (after a cold re-boot of the Vita) I had success...I was in!

It just so happened as I started to move the sticks it appeared the PS4 had a mind of it's own, only for me to realise my son was logged in and using the PS4. I took over the session by logging in and started FIFA...when in my son decided we'd play 2 player and logged himself in as the opposition. So that was really cool - he was at home playing against me on a VIta at work...great stuff! I passed the Vita around and all were impressed.

I then decided to switch into Resogun - this would be the ideal test for lag...and I have to say, even the MS fan admitted it was impressive, miles better than he expected and actually a neat little feature. I have to say everyone that played agreed the same thing, yes there's lag - but it's not a game breaker.

Remote play (if a little hit and miss to get going- maybe down to the fact my son was messing about?) works and it works well.

 

[Arwin]

You may not have enabled wake up remotely in your power save settings which is why it only worked when your son was logged in. This setting reset to off by default with the upgrade to 2.0 as well. And yeah remote play works well for me also.

 

[Gradthrawn]

I'll shed some light where I can. Some guesses, some very safe assumptions.

The new update allowes multiple PS Vitas and Vita TVs to stream content from the PS4. Up to 4 devices/accounts if I am not mistaken.

The update allows for 4 players to participate in a Remote Play session from a PS TV. You are not getting 4 separate streams for multiple devices. In other words, you can now Remote Play a game that supports local co-op to a PS TV and 4 people can participate in the game from that PS TV directly. So, the answer to your next question is...

But I dont really get how that works. The actual content processing is done on the PS4. Assuming that 2 people in different rooms want to play/stream different content fom the same console can the console process two different apps simultaneously?

.. no, they cannot get different apps simultaneously. As you suspect, the PS4 would have to handle the processing (CPU, GPU, memory, storage and network) for all of the apps simultaneously and then encode and output each of those streams independently to the various end devices for that to work.

Also in the case of share play where two people are playing co op, I am trying to understand how can one console run the game natively and the other console can stream data without reading the game from the HDD or an optical disk.

One of the fundamental components for both Remote Play and Share Play is the encoded video stream of what the PS4 is displaying (presumably) created by the hardware encoder on the PS4. That encoded video stream can be sent to a destination and decoded there (probably with a hardware decoder). In the case of Remote Play, the encoded video would appear to send both the Game controlled Display Plane (or DCE equivalent) and the OS controlled one as well. For Share Play, live streaming, and auto recorded videos, it seems only the Game controlled plane is used. For those use cases anytime the OS controlled plane displays or overlays something, it is either blocked from view or a separate screen is displayed in the stream.

So, to answer your question, the "other console", the guest player, is not streaming the "data" from the host. At least not the data I think you're referring to. They are receiving the uploaded encoded video stream from the host system and decoding that video stream locally (presumably on the PS4's hardware video decoder). The encoded video stream takes care of most of what the guest needs to play except for controller input, which is sent from the guest PS4 to the host PS4 where all of the actual game processing is handled. From the game's perspective nothing has changed as it is receiving controller input and updating the game state accordingly. From the guest perspective, it is decoding a video stream and sending controller input to a remote destination (well, presumably locally first to whatever app internally handles Share Play and then to a remote destination).

People are viewing the game from the same camera.

The guest player is always viewing the same thing as the host player. If the guest player takes over control (the host passes the controller to the guest), the guest player is simply providing the controller input for the game in lieu of the host. For couch co-op, both players see the same thing and their inputs are processed by the game independently just as if 2 controllers were connected locally.

 

[BillSpencer]

This was the only topic I could find.
It obviously works, but I have to be honest here, this is a godsend for me:

My PS5 is connected to the projector, and this allows me to play during daylight without needing to put the shutters down.
I am playing 13 sentinels which I never got around to on PS4 and this game should have been on Vita, because it's better to play it on a smaller screen I guess.

Anyway, I can confirm this works with PS5 and Big Sur and also iPhone