[Xelbair]

Absolutely pointless.

without client and server side input prediction you get huge input lag - way above tolerable ranges.

with input prediction you get annoyed players that their character doesn't do what they want. Plus with multiplayer games you get extra lag on top of that. And lets not forget about local input lag.

Transfer speed requirements are sky-high.

Also - can i just own something? i don't want to perpetually rent things.

I would really hate it if google attained yet another 'monopoly'.

[bryanlarsen]

It's input compensation they need, not input prediction. In other words, for every button press sent to the server, it should also send the frame time the user was seeing when they pressed the button. The server then applies hit detection / whatever for the input at that time rather than the current time.

So you'll see a visual glitch as the world jumps to "what should have been", but that's a lot better than you missing your shot / jump / whatever due to latency.

The fact that their controller is wifi and not connected to the computer gives a hint that Google is not doing this. Since the controller is independently connected, it can have a different latency than the computer.

[saynay]

"Since the controller is independently connected, it can have a different latency than the computer."

Not necessarily. Chromecast and the like already does side-channel communication to devices on the same network. Its how my phone can know that my TV is streaming something sent by my PC.

The controller could be sending input commands directly to the server, while also talking directly to the video streaming device.

[AlwaysRock]

"Also - can i just own something? i don't want to perpetually rent things."

I've gone the other way. I used to download and buy movies and music. I never enjoyed having to sort it all in my computer. Thanks to spotify and streaming services I really don't get have to worry about, "owning" these things anymore. Most of the time I didnt actually want to own the movie after watching it once.

I realized this recently about steam. I've got 500ish games. I only buy them because they are on sale and I know I'll play them eventually but don't want to pay full price for them. I'd happily pay a monthly price to be able to rent/stream/play any game in the steam library that I want. It would also solve the near constant issue with multiplayer games where I want to play with friends but they don't want to make a $60 investment for a game they may not enjoy.

[Kiro]

John Carmack is of a completely different opinion and if there's someone I trust regarding this stuff it's him.

[beatgammit]

Link? I don't accept third party "sources" like this.

[andypants]

https://twitter.com/ID_AA_Carmack/status/1108144741932249088