Gaikai cloud gaming service

jaydeeuk1

Been having a play around the gaikai service until the onlive thing is launched in the UK.
Internet connection isn't brilliant, barely 2mbps at best of times but its bloody impressive. Works perfectly on my dual core athlon pc.

However, I've read that its targetted to sort of 'thin client' or netbook computers. So thought I'd give it a try on my atom n450 netbook, but get some error message about it requiring a faster CPU.

Anyone tried it and had success getting it working on a naff cpu? Don't see the point of it if it requires a full blown PC!

S0litaire

it's due to the fact that your machine is sending your key/mouse strokes over the internet and receiving a compressed video feed of the resulting actions.

So you'll need a reasonable CPU to decode and display the video stream.
ATOM's by them selves don't have the grunt! you'd need embedded ION or a separate graphics card to handle the video.

jaydeeuk1

Why though? I know how it works, its just video playback at 480p,720p or 1080p depending on bandwidth, 480p mkv's is handled fine by the atom, and can even manage 720p at some bit rates on mine. The service is targetted at atom based netbooks and thin clients, and single core atoms make up the majority of the market. I've emailed them and see what they say.

The onlive gaming service works fine (other than fact the service is connecting to USA so video performance is a bit hit and miss at times) and should be even better by 22nd september.

S0litaire

Have you streamed 720p trailer from iTunes? how long does it take to buffer and how is the playback?

Streaming a 720p video takes a lot more CPU than playing a MKV file from the desktop. You want the video to be as real-time as possible so you can't buffer it.

Though the majority of ATOMS these days are actually dual core or single core with the Nvidia ION graphics (which can take over the grunt work of Video streaming in some cases)