OnLive Gaming – Play Crysis on a Netbook
This doohicky looks pretty interesting.
OnLive is a gaming service and was introduced at the Game Developer’s Conference in San Francisco the other night.
OnLive is basically a small browser plug-in that lets you play games online with all the major tasks being dealt with by OnLive’s servers so no risk of your gaming rig suddenly becoming redundant!
I’m not talking about games that look like Bamboozle either – the titles will be coming from the likes of EA, Take-Two, Ubisoft, Eidos, and such!
As a taster the games demoed were Crysis, Burnout Paradise, and Grand Theft Auto IV. Yum!
Now, first thing I thought about this is lag; and plenty of it.
Apparently though, OnLive has built some “crazy video compression algorithms” that’s able to chuck out 60 frames per second in standard definition over a 1.5mbps connection and 720p over a 5mbps connection.
There’s apparently an unnoticeable one millisecond of lag time between what you see and what happens on the server.
If you don’t want to be tied to your computer to play games, OnLive will be offering a router-sized hardware device called the MicroConsole which has USB inputs and HDMI output – this means you’ll be able to play Crysis on your telebox!
OnLive will apparently be a subscription type service, although pricing hasn’t yet been revealed.
So, with thing you could theoretically play top-end games on a netbook or even your television this is a cool idea.
The service is in closed beta right now and will be in an invitational beta over the summer with a planned public release in the winter.
