How do you like these apples, OnLive? A new server-side game rendering service called OTOY is showcasing a technology that’s so flexible, it can even stream the latest 3D games to your mobile phone screen.
Server-side rendering is potentially the next big leap in gaming. Currently, to play the latest games at their highest settings, you often need a specially built beast of a computer that costs a fortune and has all the aesthetic appeal of granite block. OTOY, along with an growing number of rival startups, is pioneering a means of handing over the task of running those games to a powerful server and just streaming the images to you from the cloud.
The workload for your home computer is effectively removed, enabling you to run those hardware intensive games from a simple browser. In fact, the system OTOY has come up with is so efficient, it’ll run on almost any device that has a web browser, including mobile phones.
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In a new video OTOY showcases its streaming service being beamed to a simple Samsung Omnia. No fancy chipsets are required. You don’t even need to install any software!
OTOY claims it’ll even work over 3G, although wireless is going to be the connection of choice and the company is working on means of getting external peripheral like the Xbox 360 controller to work with it – which is a major necessity if you’re going to try and play something like Crysis on a phone screen.
The idea is truly jaw-dropping but there is one huge hurdle to overcome before this becomes an even remotely viable alternative to a proper gaming PC: lag. Although streaming the video in real time is impressive enough, it’s a long way short of getting the lag or latency (the time between when you press the controls to when you see the corresponding action happen on screen) down to a playable level.
Out TBA | £TBA | OTOY (via TechCrunch)
