27th March 2009, 9:32 PM
(This post was last modified: 27th March 2009, 9:43 PM by Dark Jaguar.)
etoven Wrote:I think it's very possible. Remote desktop runs like a champ on most pc's and never lags. The trick is to send udates of only the pixels that change which you'd be supperised how much bandwith that saves, it's the same principle used in compressing MPEG moves or JPEG images.
That's a good trick (and the basis of digital broadcasting), but I'm still worried about very basic lag issues, that is, the simple truth that it takes physical time for your signal to get there, and their signal to hit you. It's not an issue of bandwidth, but of latency.
What trick do you expect them to use to make my button input show up on the screen effectively instantly? Even in the average online game, the simple fact is they have to use cheats to allow that to work. These tricks just aren't possible with this system. What is generally done is to pre-calculate based on what's already available what's going to happen, and show that. Correct if something different happens (explaining things like your character suddenly jumping back). In this way, if you move or punch or shoot, it's displayed on your end in real time before it's actually sent. This works ONLY because you have a client on your end, the game itself, that is actually capable of these precalculations because it's doing all the code right before you in real time. Even assuming infinite bandwidth and processing speed, there's an absolute limit on how low latency can go. There's the nature of networking in general, with negotiating times and such, and there's of course the laws of physics. They'd practically have to have a server horde in every metro city to avoid light speed limitations.
If it's all done on their end, it can't use this trick at all. So, what do they have up their sleeves? Basically I'm very cautious about their claims.
Oh, and in the case of remote desktop, I agree that for what it needs to do, it does it well. However, I have to add that it has latency that, while just fine if all you are doing is dragging and dropping a file, is unacceptable if you are trying to headshot some guy strafing around in a courtyard.
"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." ~ Charles Babbage (1791-1871)