The Google project: it's really an assassin's Creed in my browser

The invitations to test have begun to flow for Project Stream, the first official statement of Google on a dedicated platform of last generation. As it has been said for a long time, Google has opted for an online broadcast format (if its temporary and current name did not let it guess), and this week's test (which included invited members of the press) allowed the company to serve a modern game. users via the Chrome web browser.

Although we have only one day (and only one) of tests to our credit, we can already say that Project Stream announces it as something solid, even revolutionary. This is not a bad start for an already busy stream reading space that will grow in size by at least 1.

Heads in the cloud

Gaming companies have been playing with cloud-based gaming for some time now, with OnLive having the dubious honor of being the first in the world (and the first out of the industry). Nvidia and Sony continue to serve games in this way, provided that users pay a monthly subscription and have the appropriate combination of installed application and compatible device.

Once these items are defined, the services allow users to connect to a server farm, where an instance of a given game is loaded and served individually. From there, the farm handles the entire processing of your video game, so you can play your game on a home device as simple as a video streaming box or a smart TV processing chip. The biggest variable for gamers is connectivity. Poor online performance can lead to reduced visual quality, delayed input and even loss of images.

Do you have all this? Then you have Project Stream (at least, at the basic level).

Google would very much like us to believe that its new streaming service is doing something particularly special, including video encoding and lag reduction. The company hinted that when its representatives proposed to connect Ars Technica to sources "close" to Project Stream. But there were reservations about this offer, particularly with regard to how the underlying technology of the system could change dramatically before it is launched. We would rather wait for Google to comment in detail on what is hidden under Project Stream.

For the moment, the first feature of the service may well be a determining factor for interested players: it works on any desktop instance of Google Chrome. As in, a huge majority of Windows, Mac, Linux and Chrome OS machines in the wild. As long as your credentials are valid and your device passes Google's current bandwidth test (a "stable streaming rate" of at least 15 Mbps, a latency of less than 40 ms and a packet loss rate of five percent or less), Project Stream will consider your device, whether wired or wireless, to its reputation. From there, play with the keyboard and mouse or with any number of supported gamepads.

For comparison, PlayStation Now is limited to Windows 10 PCs and PlayStation 4 consoles (with one installation requirement and support only for DualShock 4 controllers). Meanwhile, GeForce Now only works on a Shield TV device with a compatible compatible controller.

Say what you want about the applications you need or your passion for Chrome compared to other browsers, but it's hard to exaggerate how smooth the results are. The experience of loading the official Project Stream website in Chrome, passing a short network test (once per device) and booting a game is much simpler than any other cloud game service that we've tested.

This goes doubly for connecting game controllers because we have two generations of Xbox controllers and the Sony DualShock 4 runs without configuration. During a test, I was running on a MacOS device, using the mouse and keyboard, and then an Xbox One plug-in in that system (and never connected an Xbox One pad to this laptop, I did not install XB1 drivers either). He. Just. Work. The game immediately switched to the button prompts on the Xbox screen and worked as expected. This is not to say that mileage will not vary for other material jugglers, but it is certainly a promising indicator at the beginning of the test period.

Cloudy view of Mount Olympus?

The only game offered during the test period is Assassin's Creed: Odysseybut it is not a problem of subject. Project Stream prompt went out a few days after COThe launch in retail, as well as high-end professional-grade consoles and PCs, is a demanding and bestial 3D adventure. Giant panoramas with expressive faces, CO do a lot with the pixels of your screen.

The new Ubisoft game also turns out to be a great candidate to attract users' attention, to some extent, as it was built with a refresh at 30 ips in mind. This is the maximum frame rate of the game on all consoles, both "professional" and standard, while to achieve a higher frame rate on PC, the necessary hardware and compromises visuals are equivalent. This limitation of 30 ips allows Project Stream to save a ton of time to hide any noticeable latency issues, as opposed to a game that might require perfect button presses.

The results of our first day of testing, both on wired and wireless devices, have been solid. As we could expect, we have seen better visuals when we rely on a wired Ethernet connection. Wireless connections sometimes reveal fuzziness and severe burrs, especially in the game's ubiquitous dialogue legends. But both appear to be "good enough" to resolve COTypically busy landscapes, including long distances, foliage-lined hills and rock-climbing, rock-climbing textures.

In addition, the Project Stream source servers seem to make the game with computer settings close to the maximum, especially in crucial categories such as ambient occlusion and ghost card resolution. (These categories, in particular, make at least "a superior" to their pro-console equivalents.) COThe focus on long dialogue trees is all the better as this shadow-light pipeline benefits as much as possible from pixels and bounce possibilities.

Without internal solid pixel counting equipment, we will not comment on the exact resolution range found on our machines. Instead, we feel safe saying that we are hovering around 1080p over wired connections and that we are getting close to a 900p mini-blur situation on wireless connections. In both cases, the material that suffers the most includes the depth of field blur on the background elements (it does not stand out as much when the foreground pixels are smeared, even the smallest bit) and the bands of colors in the great open skies.

The latter is clearly a weak point of video encoding, which we emphasize because it is an exception. Visual artifacts were not hard to spot in the visually busier sequences of the game, suggesting that Project Stream has in mind a fast moving game imagery. (This is immediately reminiscent of Nvidia's promise of anti-aliasing solutions based on deep machine learning.)

As far as latency is concerned, we are at odds with the modern PlayStation Now, a service that has increased its latency rating on an annual basis. Meaning: We are not about to practice professionally Street Fighter V sessions with Stream's lagging level of input, but a 30fps game like CO tends to feel playable enough (with occasional moments as slow as a standard HDTV whose "game mode" is off).

So many screens!

But wireless woes were all easier to handle, thanks to what Chrome opens as a case of use. We were able to switch easily from one device to another by simply opening Project Stream on a new browser. live gameplay delay between screens with 1-2 seconds lost to the maximum. If you want to move a wireless device to another room and follow slower sequences, such as dialog trees and sorting inventory, then go back to your wired machine for an epic assassination attempt Project Stream has everything you need.

Unfortunately, at the present time, it is not the same for Android devices. Project Stream currently starts up to the actual game when it is used in Chrome for mobile, but clears it after displaying a game flicker. Despite our best efforts, we do not could not fool him (even with the "desktop view" turned on). If Project Stream can open its arms to the Android Chrome browser and support Bluetooth controllers such as the DualShock 4, then, then, that's it. We would buy one of those silly phone and controller cradles in the blink of an eye for games like CO to be played wherever we walk in our homes.

Until then, Project Stream has been launched with just enough open-world gaming and server power to move us through the leads. There is still a long way to go before Google's offer can replace our locally-powered systems for the toughest games, and with a test period dating back to January 2019, Google will clearly take the time to see it up to date. where he can push Project Stream and what game to publishers and publishers, he could commit to joining any prospective for-profit service. With equally bold statements on video streaming in 2019, it will be at least an interesting area to watch in the coming months, or even a compelling sector.