5 ms·

Stadia, the initial reviews were actually pretty bad, but I'm blown away by how good it is. There's something undeniably cool about playing cyberpunk on a macbo

by actf 6y ago

Stadia, the initial reviews were actually pretty bad, but I'm blown away by how good it is. There's something undeniably cool about playing cyberpunk on a macbook air with full graphical detail, and then switching over to play on my TV exactly where I left off. The latency is virtually imperceptible to me, and I love that I don't need a 50 GB download just to try out a new game. Everytime I use it I'm honestly impressed that it works as well as it does. My only concern now is whether I can trust Google not to eventually kill it, given their recent track record.

AbuAssar 6y ago
You got me interested, What controllers does stadia support?
- cpufry 6y ago
  recently found out it works with switch pro controllers
- ed 6y ago
  https://support.google.com/stadia/answer/9578631?hl=en https://support.google.com/stadia/answer/9578631?hl=en To play on a TV you’ll need a chromecast ultra and the Stadia controller ($100) https://store.google.com/us/product/stadia https://store.google.com/us/product/stadia Source: I also bought Stadia for Cyberpunk
- flatiron 6y ago
  You missed a good deal. Prior to cyberpunks release if you pre ordered they gave you a controller and a chromecast for free (retail is $100). It got me hooked. Since then I bought red dead 2 and octopath traveler. Playing on an iPad in bed is nice.
  - actf 6y ago
    Yep, this is what got me hooked as well. I've also played using a PS4 controller using my laptop, and phone. I don't think the PS4 controller would work playing from the Chromecast though.
    - flatiron 6y ago
      It would not. But it would work with a pc involved that had the controller paired.
- kelvie 6y ago
  I use an 8bitdo in xbox emulation mode -- I think as long as the controller emulates an xbox controller (I imagine a lot of them do), it'll work fine. It just has to be recognized as an HTML5 gamepad (there are various HTML5 tester sites online)
slightwinder 6y ago
Stadia had hype?
drosan 6y ago
> The latency is virtually imperceptible to me Lucky you, I can't even play on most TVs hooked as-is via HDMI because of horrendous render lag.
- 1_player 6y ago
  I do not understand how people say there's virtually no latency. There is, and it's _huge_, because light is actually quite slow and no tech can improve on that. Makes me think people that say this have never played on a high end PC, which in turn has lower latency compared to a last gen console. And that's considering the fact that even modern PC have a TON of latency. NVIDIA seems to be working towards that, thankfully. I bet playing Quake 3 Arena multiplayer on Stadia would be noticeably worse that on a PC from 20 years ago.
  - starclerk 6y ago
    I'd say there's effectively no latency, since most games don't need or benefit from <10 ms response times. I mainly play twitchy shooters on a fairly high-end PC (CSGO, Tarkov, Q3A back in the day) and was super impressed with Stadia to play games like Assassin's Creed. It felt like I had my PC anywhere, but I attribute that to the forgiving latency requirements for the game. I wouldn't expect CSGO to work as well (though I'd definitely try it).
  - neolog 6y ago
    Doesn't it depend on the person's network setup?
    - 1_player 6y ago
      No. However fast is your Internet, it is still slower to send data out on the Internet pipes and back again than doing local computation. 5ms ping to your local Stadia server is at least 5ms of additional latency compared to a high end PC. Add virtualisation costs, CPU steal time, packet loss, video compression and decompression etc for another measurable increase.
impish19 6y ago
Came here to say the exact same thing. I can't stop talking to everyone and their brother about it. It feels like a clear leap into the future. For the uninitiated, here are some highlights of what it enables you to do: - You can go to a friend's apartment with a Chromecast and just start playing games YOU own like CyberPunk & Assasins Creed within seconds on their TV (assuming they have a controller or you brought your own) - You can go to Stadia.com on Chrome and just start playing these games from the browser using the Keyboard/Mouse - The other day I was parked at a Target and I was able to play Cyberpunk on my phone using my phone's internet connection - You don't have to keep worrying about constantly updating hardware, downloading game patches, deleting stored games etc. - Time to load the game between saved checkpoints and missions is also much faster since the games run on a superior hardware.
- cercatrova 6y ago
  You don't really own the games however, it relinquishes user control. If that's fine to you then sure, but I don't want to play games as a service, I just want to play them on my own hardware with minimal latency.
  - Craighead 6y ago
    If valve ever goes out of business the games on that platform won't be playable
  - syockit 6y ago
    People used to go to the arcade parlour to play coin-op games. In one perspective, that was also games-as-a-service.
    - fartcannon 6y ago
      And it was a terrible experience. Just because it was all we had, doesnt make it good.
    - jfim 6y ago
      Many games had special peripherals or were impractically expensive for home usage though. For example, the Neo Geo AES launched at a cost of $650 (~$1300 in today's dollars), with games costing $200 or more back then. Some versions of afterburner climax have a servo equipped chair which can tilt on multiple axes as well as vibrate, police 911 has body position sensors, and many of the music games have hardware that's completely impractical for home. From that perspective, the games as a service makes more sense. Stadia doesn't really offer any of that, the games are the same as any other platform.
xingped 6y ago
I agree that Stadia sounds like it works awesomely, but Google's history of killing off products is what's keeping me away. That's Google's own fault and nothing on the Stadia team. I know eventually all services likely disappear, but there's a big difference between "most likely within a couple years" and "some indefinite date way off in the future".
jaegerpicker 6y ago
I really like Stadia but I've been using GeForce Now and it's a VERY similar experience but I like the model of buying the games on libraries you already have. Stadia is a tiny bit better in the networking but GeForce Now has better graphics I feel like. Both are an amazing experience on a good internet connection. I actually think that once 5G is wide spread there is a chance it could have a MASSIVE impact on the gaming market.
IshKebab 6y ago
Maybe technology-wise, but the games are all super expensive and there aren't enough of them to justify a subscription.
- wollef 6y ago
  You don't need a subscription, it's free to play games you buy. The subscription gives 4k and surround sound + free games. The current sale matches steam for the games I checked. Library size is still a concern.
  - IshKebab 6y ago
    Yes I know. I didn't imply otherwise. The games are too expensive to buy outright (IMO) and too few to justify a subscription.
tracer4201 6y ago
Respectfully I disagree. I tried Stadia a couple months ago. Note: I’m on a Gigabit connection. I found the library of games generally unappealing. I did play a few titles, including Player Unknown. The stuttering and lag in the game reminded me of playing Quake 3 Arena on a 56K circa 1999. Also, graphically the game wouldn’t run at my monitors 1440p. The graphics generally looked washed out. I thought it was just a poorly built game, but then I saw gameplay (non Stadia) on YouTube and realized the Stadia version was itself awful.
- lmedinas 6y ago
  im a bit confused with your comment, doesn't Stadia Pro supports 4K and HDR ?
  - tracer4201 6y ago
    Officially I think it supports 4K and HDR, but that doesn’t mean every game runs at 4K or offers HDR.
shepherdjerred 6y ago
I just went down a rabbit hole of streaming for a couple of hours. I tried out Stadia, Moonlight, and GeForce Now. I want is a service that: * Lets me play my existing library of games (what I own on Steam, Origin, Battle.net) * Has League of Legends * Streams in 1440p 144fps I haven't found anything that does this.
- aroman 6y ago
  Rainway? https://rainway.com https://rainway.com
- wollef 6y ago
  Have you tried shadow? (I haven't, but have heard generally positive things)
- notretarded 6y ago
  1440p 144fps is ridiculous. Tough enough getting a 720p low latency feed, which is what stadia does. It then upscales to 1080p and 4k
  - deadmutex 6y ago
    > Tough enough getting a 720p low latency feed, which is what stadia does. Do you have source for this? This sounds incorrect. My impression is that the Stadia Pro is capable of sending 4K, assuming the game developer can optimize their game to run at a good framerate with 4K.
  - shepherdjerred 6y ago
    It might be ridiculous but it's what I want if I'm going to use cloud gaming software. I'm probably not the target demographic.
    - afiori 6y ago
      I have nothing against personal tastes, but I would prefer if the gaming community gave more appreciation to low-poly, artsy, cartoony, and/or stylized graphics that would donwscale better rather than (IMHO overused) hyper-realistic highdef textures and sophisticated lighting effects (that often end up making panorama views "foggy"). I have nothing to say about FPS, more is always better :) It is also worth mentioning that ray-tracing will offer new depths for highdef textures and sophisticated lighting effects so I don't expect this trend to change soon.
notretarded 6y ago
Yes unless you use the controller and it gives you carpal tunnel syndrome and rsi
atombender 6y ago
I signed up for Stadia and was really confused about the value proposition. You stream games, and yet you have to... buy them? There are some free games included, of course, but I didn't find anything I was interested in playing there. What I want is something like Microsoft's Xbox Game Pass, where you pay a fixed price per month to play the full library of games, with nothing else on top of that. A Netflix for games, if you will. I don't want to shell out $60 for Cyberpunk 2077. (The absence of an easy way to trial games on consoles is problematic, in my opinion. I purchased Cyberpunk on my Xbox One before I realized how bad it performs on that console, and fortunately I was able to get a refund.) Unfortunately, Xbox Game Pass is predictably hobbled by a very limited library (and they keep removing good stuff), and the fact that the games are tied to the platform they've been developed for. What I'd like is basically Game Pass + Stadia.
- jonny_eh 6y ago
  Game Pass has streaming for Android. It's coming to more platforms in 2021.
chaostheory 6y ago
I think a good experience depends on the quality of your internet connection. Unfortunately, in the US this is hampered by the ISP duopoly

by actf 6y ago

AbuAssar 6y ago

You got me interested, What controllers does stadia support?

cpufry 6y ago
recently found out it works with switch pro controllers
ed 6y ago
https://support.google.com/stadia/answer/9578631?hl=en https://support.google.com/stadia/answer/9578631?hl=en To play on a TV you’ll need a chromecast ultra and the Stadia controller ($100) https://store.google.com/us/product/stadia https://store.google.com/us/product/stadia Source: I also bought Stadia for Cyberpunk
flatiron 6y ago
You missed a good deal. Prior to cyberpunks release if you pre ordered they gave you a controller and a chromecast for free (retail is $100). It got me hooked. Since then I bought red dead 2 and octopath traveler. Playing on an iPad in bed is nice.
- actf 6y ago
  Yep, this is what got me hooked as well. I've also played using a PS4 controller using my laptop, and phone. I don't think the PS4 controller would work playing from the Chromecast though.
  - flatiron 6y ago
    It would not. But it would work with a pc involved that had the controller paired.
kelvie 6y ago
I use an 8bitdo in xbox emulation mode -- I think as long as the controller emulates an xbox controller (I imagine a lot of them do), it'll work fine. It just has to be recognized as an HTML5 gamepad (there are various HTML5 tester sites online)

slightwinder 6y ago

Stadia had hype?

drosan 6y ago

> The latency is virtually imperceptible to me Lucky you, I can't even play on most TVs hooked as-is via HDMI because of horrendous render lag.

1_player 6y ago
I do not understand how people say there's virtually no latency. There is, and it's _huge_, because light is actually quite slow and no tech can improve on that. Makes me think people that say this have never played on a high end PC, which in turn has lower latency compared to a last gen console. And that's considering the fact that even modern PC have a TON of latency. NVIDIA seems to be working towards that, thankfully. I bet playing Quake 3 Arena multiplayer on Stadia would be noticeably worse that on a PC from 20 years ago.
- starclerk 6y ago
  I'd say there's effectively no latency, since most games don't need or benefit from <10 ms response times. I mainly play twitchy shooters on a fairly high-end PC (CSGO, Tarkov, Q3A back in the day) and was super impressed with Stadia to play games like Assassin's Creed. It felt like I had my PC anywhere, but I attribute that to the forgiving latency requirements for the game. I wouldn't expect CSGO to work as well (though I'd definitely try it).
- neolog 6y ago
  Doesn't it depend on the person's network setup?
  - 1_player 6y ago
    No. However fast is your Internet, it is still slower to send data out on the Internet pipes and back again than doing local computation. 5ms ping to your local Stadia server is at least 5ms of additional latency compared to a high end PC. Add virtualisation costs, CPU steal time, packet loss, video compression and decompression etc for another measurable increase.

impish19 6y ago

Came here to say the exact same thing. I can't stop talking to everyone and their brother about it. It feels like a clear leap into the future. For the uninitiated, here are some highlights of what it enables you to do: - You can go to a friend's apartment with a Chromecast and just start playing games YOU own like CyberPunk & Assasins Creed within seconds on their TV (assuming they have a controller or you brought your own) - You can go to Stadia.com on Chrome and just start playing these games from the browser using the Keyboard/Mouse - The other day I was parked at a Target and I was able to play Cyberpunk on my phone using my phone's internet connection - You don't have to keep worrying about constantly updating hardware, downloading game patches, deleting stored games etc. - Time to load the game between saved checkpoints and missions is also much faster since the games run on a superior hardware.

cercatrova 6y ago
You don't really own the games however, it relinquishes user control. If that's fine to you then sure, but I don't want to play games as a service, I just want to play them on my own hardware with minimal latency.
- Craighead 6y ago
  If valve ever goes out of business the games on that platform won't be playable
- syockit 6y ago
  People used to go to the arcade parlour to play coin-op games. In one perspective, that was also games-as-a-service.
  - fartcannon 6y ago
    And it was a terrible experience. Just because it was all we had, doesnt make it good.
  - jfim 6y ago
    Many games had special peripherals or were impractically expensive for home usage though. For example, the Neo Geo AES launched at a cost of $650 (~$1300 in today's dollars), with games costing $200 or more back then. Some versions of afterburner climax have a servo equipped chair which can tilt on multiple axes as well as vibrate, police 911 has body position sensors, and many of the music games have hardware that's completely impractical for home. From that perspective, the games as a service makes more sense. Stadia doesn't really offer any of that, the games are the same as any other platform.

xingped 6y ago

I agree that Stadia sounds like it works awesomely, but Google's history of killing off products is what's keeping me away. That's Google's own fault and nothing on the Stadia team. I know eventually all services likely disappear, but there's a big difference between "most likely within a couple years" and "some indefinite date way off in the future".

jaegerpicker 6y ago

I really like Stadia but I've been using GeForce Now and it's a VERY similar experience but I like the model of buying the games on libraries you already have. Stadia is a tiny bit better in the networking but GeForce Now has better graphics I feel like. Both are an amazing experience on a good internet connection. I actually think that once 5G is wide spread there is a chance it could have a MASSIVE impact on the gaming market.

IshKebab 6y ago

Maybe technology-wise, but the games are all super expensive and there aren't enough of them to justify a subscription.

wollef 6y ago
You don't need a subscription, it's free to play games you buy. The subscription gives 4k and surround sound + free games. The current sale matches steam for the games I checked. Library size is still a concern.
- IshKebab 6y ago
  Yes I know. I didn't imply otherwise. The games are too expensive to buy outright (IMO) and too few to justify a subscription.

tracer4201 6y ago

Respectfully I disagree. I tried Stadia a couple months ago. Note: I’m on a Gigabit connection. I found the library of games generally unappealing. I did play a few titles, including Player Unknown. The stuttering and lag in the game reminded me of playing Quake 3 Arena on a 56K circa 1999. Also, graphically the game wouldn’t run at my monitors 1440p. The graphics generally looked washed out. I thought it was just a poorly built game, but then I saw gameplay (non Stadia) on YouTube and realized the Stadia version was itself awful.

lmedinas 6y ago
im a bit confused with your comment, doesn't Stadia Pro supports 4K and HDR ?
- tracer4201 6y ago
  Officially I think it supports 4K and HDR, but that doesn’t mean every game runs at 4K or offers HDR.

shepherdjerred 6y ago

I just went down a rabbit hole of streaming for a couple of hours. I tried out Stadia, Moonlight, and GeForce Now. I want is a service that: * Lets me play my existing library of games (what I own on Steam, Origin, Battle.net) * Has League of Legends * Streams in 1440p 144fps I haven't found anything that does this.

aroman 6y ago
Rainway? https://rainway.com https://rainway.com
wollef 6y ago
Have you tried shadow? (I haven't, but have heard generally positive things)
notretarded 6y ago
1440p 144fps is ridiculous. Tough enough getting a 720p low latency feed, which is what stadia does. It then upscales to 1080p and 4k
- deadmutex 6y ago
  > Tough enough getting a 720p low latency feed, which is what stadia does. Do you have source for this? This sounds incorrect. My impression is that the Stadia Pro is capable of sending 4K, assuming the game developer can optimize their game to run at a good framerate with 4K.
- shepherdjerred 6y ago
  It might be ridiculous but it's what I want if I'm going to use cloud gaming software. I'm probably not the target demographic.
  - afiori 6y ago
    I have nothing against personal tastes, but I would prefer if the gaming community gave more appreciation to low-poly, artsy, cartoony, and/or stylized graphics that would donwscale better rather than (IMHO overused) hyper-realistic highdef textures and sophisticated lighting effects (that often end up making panorama views "foggy"). I have nothing to say about FPS, more is always better :) It is also worth mentioning that ray-tracing will offer new depths for highdef textures and sophisticated lighting effects so I don't expect this trend to change soon.

notretarded 6y ago

Yes unless you use the controller and it gives you carpal tunnel syndrome and rsi

atombender 6y ago

I signed up for Stadia and was really confused about the value proposition. You stream games, and yet you have to... buy them? There are some free games included, of course, but I didn't find anything I was interested in playing there. What I want is something like Microsoft's Xbox Game Pass, where you pay a fixed price per month to play the full library of games, with nothing else on top of that. A Netflix for games, if you will. I don't want to shell out $60 for Cyberpunk 2077. (The absence of an easy way to trial games on consoles is problematic, in my opinion. I purchased Cyberpunk on my Xbox One before I realized how bad it performs on that console, and fortunately I was able to get a refund.) Unfortunately, Xbox Game Pass is predictably hobbled by a very limited library (and they keep removing good stuff), and the fact that the games are tied to the platform they've been developed for. What I'd like is basically Game Pass + Stadia.

jonny_eh 6y ago
Game Pass has streaming for Android. It's coming to more platforms in 2021.

chaostheory 6y ago

I think a good experience depends on the quality of your internet connection. Unfortunately, in the US this is hampered by the ISP duopoly