Deep Dive Into Cloud Gaming

Team
Francesco Rocchetta, Matteo Piraino, Thomas Ratulowski, Guleed Yusuf

Categories
Cloud, Networking

Overview
A deep dive into cloud gaming. What is the cloud; cloud computing is “Cloud computing is the ondemandavailability of computer system resources, especially data storage and computing power, without direct active management by the user.” Wikipedia. The cloud is a product and environmental architecture changing how we use and define online interactions today. From Netflix to Hulu, to Microsoft azure or drop box there are a plethora of cloud platforms and products to use. Naturally you would assume with the introduction of video games in 1972 with the aptly named console the Magnavox Odyssey; that gaming would be a clear front runner and early adopter of the cloud based design. Well initially it was Microsoft was set to release the Xbox One their flag ship console in 2013, during this press release they announced that the Xbox One came under powered compared to its competitors only because they were implementing a cloud computing design that will significantly boost the performance of the product; this was resoundingly hated amongst fans. Unlike streaming movies or TV shows, gaming is far more demanding. On average Netflix will utilize 3GB of bandwidth to watch HD video, but a video game will only take up 50 Mbs. Now to many people this is a counter argument to my statement above, but the problem gaming faces comes from the medium itself. Games are interactive media; a user has to interact and make decisions constantly. This is the root cause of cloud gaming’s problems. Its not as simple as increasing consumed bandwidth, but the fact that latency and input delay will be a major hurtle to overcome. Our project set out to test if this was a factor within cloud gaming. To see if there were solutions already in practice and to see if the local system was being rendered obsolete.