Cloud gaming for PC

So what do you think of Geforce Now coming to PC and MAC, with the possibility to play your own steamgames?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8j6...

I tried it out on my Shield Tablet, which I actually bought just for this purpose. It kinda worked, and I managed to play Batman Arkham City and Witcher 2 if I sat close to my router, but it was certainly not without flaws. Input lag was almost not noticeable but the graphics scaled down to SNES quality whenever my WiFi occasionally dropped for whatever reason.

Another big drawback was the games library which, with a few exceptions, lacked quantity AND quality.

I have a "gaming" laptop and XBOX One, but could see myself use Geforce Now when I want to play the latest AAA games on the highest settings. IF it works as it should.

I use Steamlink and Remote Play with my Vita tv and with everything wired I get great performance results. I'm all about being able to play my games from any tv I want. I've also used the Moonlight app on my phone to try to play some of my PC games though that's far more janky than the other two experiences.

Edit: $25 for 20 hrs subscription for this?!?! DOA

If I understand you correctly, Geforce Now is not about streaming PC games to a TV, it's about being able to play any game on steam without having the required hardware. So you can play Witcher 3 on high with a PC with integrated graphics. Something I think will be very useful to the people who cant afford a top of the line gaming rig, but still want to enjoy the newest games.

But I agree, the pricing seems ridiculous...

Playstation Now works on PC as well:

https://www.playstation.com/en-us/ex...

It's currently limited to PS2 and PS3 games but it does give you a chance to play some Playstation exclusives on your PC.

Geforce Now looks interesting as a direct competitor to Playstation Now. Ultimately I feel like streaming game services are just a little bit ahead of the times, but I suspect this will be the future of the general gaming market. Hook a controller up to your TV and instantly start playing games. There will still be hardware for the niche market that wants full control and the highest quality graphics, but for the average consumer I suspect games will follow video: streaming will be king.

Gamefly also has a streaming game service but it doesn't look like it's gained much traction with the limited library: https://www.gamefly.com/#!/streaming...

It'll be interesting to see who comes out on top as the Netflix of streaming video games.

My pc has been screwed up for the last month (just managed to get it working again yesterday after messing around with the bios and registry) and everytime I have issues I worry about losing access to my steam library for long periods of time. It's cool that there could be something that allows me to play my games on a laptop while I fix the desk top.

I've used psnow and steam link and both services are really decent now only streams at 720p though and steam will have occasional problems even on a hard line. So I hope this works but agree the tech and bandwidth may not quiet be there yet.

Nvidia’s GeForce Now is finally out of beta, challenges Google Stadia at $5 a month

I was in the beta thanks to a kind GWJer and it is nice. I hope it wins since Stadia is kind of terrible right now.

Just played with it for a bit and it was pretty rough. Way worse for me than when I beta tested Stadia last year. Very low res with a ton of pixelation. Maybe because it just launched and is getting hammered?

The user experience is pretty rough too as you are literally logging into a remote Windows pc over the web. It's weird to have to log into Steam every single time (I wasn't comfortable storing my password) and that you have to download and install games. At least that was lightning fast.

All these services have a looong way to go before I ever see myself using them over my local systems.

My question -- does it work with Escape from Tarkov?

Tried AB, with Destiny 2. Wonkey to get running with Geforce, but once running, it felt pretty much on par with Stadia, except that I was getting minor artifacting when I was going fast on the speeder bikes. Still, not bad, will definitely try it out some more.

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farley3k wrote:

Nvidia’s GeForce Now is finally out of beta, challenges Google Stadia at $5 a month

I was in the beta thanks to a kind GWJer and it is nice. I hope it wins since Stadia is kind of terrible right now.

I have to say that my experience is the opposite. Stadia has been running with zero hiccups or lag and (at least for the games I play) excellent graphics. Since GeForce Now doesn't work on 4K tv's via any platform I own, I'm looking to use it on my PC to play games at better performance than my current PC is capable of. As with Stadia, I'm not interested in AAA gaming on a phone or tablet. I've tried a few Xbox Game Pass Ultimate games, and they don't run at all on GeForce Now. One of my Steam games is Uplay (Assassin's Creed Origins), but even after I put in my Uplay credentials it asks for an authentication code, a Steam issue that resolved itself years ago--you don't need one. It won't launch. The two other Steam games I tried automatically launch a remote play session that is substantially worse than playing locally. Kingdom Come: Deliverance and GreedFall are pure slideshows, like you're trying to play on a low end laptop. I have a wired gigabit connection. I have to be missing something important, but I can't figure out what.

conejote wrote:
farley3k wrote:

Nvidia’s GeForce Now is finally out of beta, challenges Google Stadia at $5 a month

I was in the beta thanks to a kind GWJer and it is nice. I hope it wins since Stadia is kind of terrible right now.

I have to say that my experience is the opposite. Stadia has been running with zero hiccups or lag and (at least for the games I play) excellent graphics. Since GeForce Now doesn't work on 4K tv's via any platform I own, I'm looking to use it on my PC to play games at better performance than my current PC is capable of. As with Stadia, I'm not interested in AAA gaming on a phone or tablet. I've tried a few Xbox Game Pass Ultimate games, and they don't run at all on GeForce Now. One of my Steam games is Uplay (Assassin's Creed Origins), but even after I put in my Uplay credentials it asks for an authentication code, a Steam issue that resolved itself years ago--you don't need one. It won't launch. The two other Steam games I tried automatically launch a remote play session that is substantially worse than playing locally. Kingdom Come: Deliverance and GreedFall are pure slideshows, like you're trying to play on a low end laptop. I have a wired gigabit connection. I have to be missing something important, but I can't figure out what.

It's no longer in beta like Stadia is (and at least the Geforce one was free), so there are suddenly a bunch of people trying it out since it's cheap and available. Once it's not new and people drop off performance will pick back up. I used it a decent amount back when my only computer was an iMac and found the performance flawless on a 100mb connection over WiFi.

Nvidia doesn't have the bandwidth availability that Google has, but they should have better library support since games don't have to be ported to work in their system.

Edgar_Newt wrote:

My question -- does it work with Escape from Tarkov?

Escape from Tarkov is not supported at this time.

Demiurge wrote:
Edgar_Newt wrote:

My question -- does it work with Escape from Tarkov?

Escape from Tarkov is not supported at this time. :)

Disappointing.

My main use-case for something like this or Stadia would be for when I go on business trips and would mutter rather take just my phone and my tablet or ultra portable laptop vice my questionably adequate, 6-yr old 800-lb gaming laptop-monstrosity.

Unfortunately, the internet connection at most hotels is mediocre at best. So.... yeah.

Boo.

Maybe when 5G goes truly mainstream, I’ll be able to use this over a tethered cell connection.

conejote wrote:
farley3k wrote:

Nvidia’s GeForce Now is finally out of beta, challenges Google Stadia at $5 a month

I was in the beta thanks to a kind GWJer and it is nice. I hope it wins since Stadia is kind of terrible right now.

I have to say that my experience is the opposite. Stadia has been running with zero hiccups or lag and (at least for the games I play) excellent graphics. Since GeForce Now doesn't work on 4K tv's via any platform I own, I'm looking to use it on my PC to play games at better performance than my current PC is capable of. As with Stadia, I'm not interested in AAA gaming on a phone or tablet. I've tried a few Xbox Game Pass Ultimate games, and they don't run at all on GeForce Now. One of my Steam games is Uplay (Assassin's Creed Origins), but even after I put in my Uplay credentials it asks for an authentication code, a Steam issue that resolved itself years ago--you don't need one. It won't launch. The two other Steam games I tried automatically launch a remote play session that is substantially worse than playing locally. Kingdom Come: Deliverance and GreedFall are pure slideshows, like you're trying to play on a low end laptop. I have a wired gigabit connection. I have to be missing something important, but I can't figure out what.

So, some further impressions on GeForce Now: It definitely has potential. It's finicky. I was wanting to compare performance with locally-installed games, but it seems like it confuses the app to have it available both for streaming and local play, so I uninstalled several games in order to stream them through the app. Uplay games only work if you can get to the Steam desktop in the app and launch from there, but that's iffy. About half the time, it installs without giving you the option to see the Steam desktop, and when that happens it asks for an activation code, which Uplay games no longer require in Steam--and which don't exist at all. After 6-7 reinstalls, I finally got to the Steam desktop and then got AC Origins to launch. It looks great!

So far, I've found 4 games that have GFN support and perform substantially better there than if I play locally: AC Origins, GreedFall, FarCry 5, and Batman Arkham Origins. Kingdom Come Deliverance also looks great, but there's no mod support so that one is out (I can't live with the cumbersome save game scheme in the base game).

Still not interested in playing on my phone....unless I can connect that to a larger screen. Samsung Dex works but does not scale to the screen correctly. (Stadia also has issues with Dex--works if you launch Chrome in desktop mode but freaks out about having a keyboard/mouse connected along with a controller). I also tried screen mirroring to my TV, which works decently but unsurprisingly introduces some controller lag. If they get Chrome OS working, I'd use it on my pixelbook.

For ease of use, Stadia is still better, and if I were to buy a game I'd buy it there instead of Steam, just for the higher resolution and ability to play on a TV via Chromecast. For use with an existing Steam library, it's great; I don't intend to repurchase games on Stadia that I already own on Steam. Expanded support for other digital platforms would be nice. I can totally see GFN as a great solution for breathing life into an older laptop that has a good display but can't play modern games.

With the recent news that Activision-Blizzard has pulled it's games from Geforce Now, what's stopping them from just offering a beast of a pc virtualized in the cloud?

This is more of a hypothetical, but given the interface, we are clearly just connecting to a pc in the cloud aren't we? I'm not familiar enough with virtualization, cloud architecture, etc but what's stopping companies from "renting" cloud gaming rigs and letting users do anything they want: Steam, Origin, GOG, DOSBox, or even installing "locally" after copying stuff with OneDrive, DropBox, etc?

This may be too niche to interest many people, but....cloud gaming via Samsung Dex. I played around with it some more after my Note 9 got a software update the other day. Stadia works great--launches full screen automatically, works with non-Stadia bluetooth controllers without issue. Dualshock 4 is a little wonky, since the games show Xbox controller mapping that doesn't match up at all with what the controller does. There is probably a way to remap, not sure. GeForce Now also connects right up to whatever controller via Dex, no more getting confused between controller and keyboard/mouse. The GFN app launches full screen, but games do not: they run in a small box that is proportional to GFN's 1920x1080 vs. the Note 9's 2960x1440, even with developer mode turned on and Dex MAX installed. Plays terrific inside that little box though, and I'm hopeful it will get fixed or someone will find a workaround. Having your whole Steam library available through your phone to play on any TV or monitor with just an HDMI cable and a controller would be pretty great.

Not sure this is the right thread... But I have a steamlink and an old PS3 controller.... I have turned it on a few times but I'm a m and I guy so never did anything with it. Now my 4 year old is interested in gaming. (Slime rancher and Minecraft so far) and I wanted to make the set up more useful and multiplayer so maybe we could play Lego games or I could finally get in to rocket league.

Anyone have a good resource on compatible controllers with the steamlink that might be good for little hands? Also, can I get my epic games library on there and Minecraft?

I've got a Stadia set up, but so far the kid focussed games aren't really there much. I assume as soon as EA gets on it I will stop using the steamlink. Just wanted to bridge the gap.

Mobile double post ftw.

manta173 wrote:

Not sure this is the right thread... But I have a steamlink and an old PS3 controller.... I have turned it on a few times but I'm a m and I guy so never did anything with it. Now my 4 year old is interested in gaming. (Slime rancher and Minecraft so far) and I wanted to make the set up more useful and multiplayer so maybe we could play Lego games or I could finally get in to rocket league.

Anyone have a good resource on compatible controllers with the steamlink that might be good for little hands? Also, can I get my epic games library on there and Minecraft?

https://support.steampowered.com/kb_...

Thanks! Not used to actually looking to Steam for answers.

I was coming around on GeForce Now, especially with the new syncing tool for Steam libraries, but it's just too problematic in its current state. Control (on Epic) lost all its save games somewhere in the GFN cloud, and my only option is to start a new game. Death Stranding (Steam) gets a Not Enough Disk Space (!) install error, even though it had been working great until a few days ago. The latter really makes no sense. I don't have either of these installed locally on any device for a reason, so it's nothing that happened with my PC, and my GFN profile has not changed. I reported the issues, but I doubt I'll get a fix. I'd be happy to continue paying for a Founder's membership, but I just don't have time to replay hours of a game, and having no access to one I paid for is aggravating.

Unsurprisingly Amazon is getting into the game streaming business
https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2020/...

My primary use case for this kind of thing would be when I'm on the road and away from my desktop.... and that's exactly when a streaming service is most likely to fail. High-bitrate video streaming on hotel networks seems a chancy proposition at best.

Looks like the new Google TV Chromecast dongle is a pretty good/cheap device for game streaming GeForce Now, Steam Link, Stadia, etc. Likely anything with an Android app that you can sideload. Hopefully xCloud audio issues improve.

Well I think we have some specific service threads now but I wanted to say generally how impressed I am with Amazon Luna compared to GeForce Now and Steam's home streaming option.

Disclaimer: I work for Amazon but not any team related to Luna. I don't even know anyone in that group.

I've been playing Assassin's Creed Valhalla for a few days on my PC and my FireTv stick(!) for the past couple days. It's super smooth on the highest settings. Connecting is faster that Ubisoft's ridiculous boot up sequence. Response time is good enough that I start to forget that I'm playing on sh*t wifi on a low power device meant for nothing more than streaming Netflix.

The Xbox one controller I have synced over Bluetooth without a fuss too. I'm surprised cloud gaming is at this level now.

So I had tried a bit of GeForce Now. It wasn't very polished. You could see that you were playing on some cloud PC running steam in a way that felt hanky. Performance was bad, you had to wait for an available machine for minutes, and input lag was very noticeable.