StreamMyGame is a fairly new service enables high end gaming on low end hardware by using a host computer to run the game then playing it remotely from another computer. The service, which offers a free and paid version, has been demonstrated as working well on the Eee PC among other netbooks and UMPCs. Today a news post on the StreamMyGame website says that a new version of their software has been released that targets UMPCs and netbooks, and claims compatibility with over 100 devices. Additionally they mention that similar performance should be seen on upcoming MID devices. The software is compatible with Windows Vista, XP, and even Linux.
“The Linux player has been requested by our Eee PC members and has been optimised to run on both the original and new ranges of the Eee PC. The Window’s player has also been optimised.” — Richard Faria, StreamMyGame’s CEO.
The video below shows Crysis and Quake 4 being played on an Eee 701. Crysis is an extremely graphically and CPU intensive game which requires a beefy gaming rig to run at a good framerate. Crysis runs at a respectable framerate on the 701 to say the least. Of course performance is mostly reliant on the host computer, but this demonstrates the ability of the software quite nicely.
The video is rather impressive, but I can’t seem to think of a situation where this would really be practical. I don’t know many people who have a $2k+ custom gaming rig who would prefer to play the game remotely on an 800×480 Eee 701 screen.
I suppose true remote play (over the internet, not through your home network) would make it possible to do some mobile gaming while you are on the road, but I don’t think it is a real replacement for fast paced FPS (first person shooter) games. You could make the argument that it would be convenient to be able to play World of Warcraft while away from home, or maybe a slower paced RTS (real time strategy game) like Starcraft would work well. Surely a touch type-able keyboard and USB mouse would be required for a good gaming experience with most games.
What might be useful for some (though I’m not sure if it is cross platform) would be the ability to play Windows games on your Linux based netbook or UMPC. Whatever the situation you may need to remotely play your high end games, StreamMyGame seems to have a solid platform set up to help you do just that.
I gave this a try about a week ago using my Dell desktop as a host (not a gaming machine by any stretch of the imagination), and my Sony UX180 ultra mobile PC as the client. Setup was pretty confusing, and in the end I couldn’t get Day of Defeat: Source to play on my UX180, but I’ll give it another shot, maybe with a non-Steam game, and try to get some usage experience to share. Give this a shot on your own device and let us know how well it works.
What this technology could be useful for (as I mentioned when I posted a link to this in a comment a few days ago) is for netbooks/MIDs where you might have a decent wireless hookup but maybe don’t need/want all the “power” in that device itself. As such I am not a gamer anyhow.
I’ve been using this to stream pc games to my TV via the umpc + wireless mouse and keyboard. You get the cumpfy couch feeling you get with consoles.
However, at 640×480, you lose the edge that PC gaming gives.
I think the point is, you can play your PC games in other ways. I wonder if it would work over fast internet, or would the lag be too upsetting.
I guess I must be the only lazy bastard who sees this as a great replacement for the trusty old solitaire on the computers at work?
Haha nice idea Miguel, but if you could get away with installing the client software on your work computer, couldn’t you just install the entire game? I suppose this would be good for accessing most of your game library from work.
lol, I’m just imagining what the IT Operations team would say. Compare playing solitair on a laptop, or streaming solitair over the internet at 4mbps constantly. They’ll see two flows. One UDP streaming video incoming and one TCP streaming input date to the streammygame server.
By the way, what is the best netbook or umpc for gaming? No matter prices…
I dunno, this might be useful if you have a super-powerful desktop and you want to take your tiny laptop and play on you bed or couch or something, but if you have the desktop why not use it?
I really want to find something that allows me to play newer games on a low-end pc without needing all of the hardware. Maybe something to share RAM or graphics memory across a network? I’m close to playing some games, but not quite enough.
GameKey is considered StreamMyGame service ? i`m planning to get a gaming pc and rent High end games for PC on gamekey
is it worthy?
http://www.townoftech.com/high-end-games-for-pc/