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Nvidia Shield Thread

I laughed when I saw that GeForce Experience thing to update to "Support Nvidia Shield". Still will bomb worse than Ouya and that is saying a lot.
 

calder

Member
I like a lot of what the Shield is doing, but I don't have an Nvidia card in my PC so it's a total non-starter. And I already have an iPad so I truly don't need another handheld device to watch Netflix or check Twitter, and yet my gadget lust is still piqued by the Shield.

I read the reasonably positive Engadget review and ironically the main thing it did was make me more excited to get a Vita in time for the PS4 launch.
 

Kurdel

Banned
One console future would have ALL exclusives lol

Seriously though, what is the appeal of this product? I have no reason to get one, as everything on it has already been released else where. Like, literally, everything.

Streaming PC games to a handheld sounds really awesome.

I don't care about the rest of the features though.
 
Beast you proved me wrong. I honestly thought no one was going to buy this thing. What possible demographic is this supposed to appeal to? PC Master Race? LOL
 

MrGerbils

Member
I get the feeling that this is a sort of meme, but I'm not familiar with it :)

Anyway, I've had the chance to read some more reviews and most of them are really positive, I'm glad to see that Nvidia did a good job. Practically everyone is praising the build quality and the screen, so with that in mind the price becomes more reasonable. Also, the fact that you can play most controller-enabled Steam games even though they're not officially supported is good news.

If anyone from Nvidia is still reading this, here's a suggestion for future revisions of the hardware: try to make the screen detachable and usable on its own as a small android tablet. Would it be possible to stream Android from the base (the controller) to the (detachable) screen using the same streaming technology that you're using for PC streaming?

You can do exactly this right now with an Android/Apple tablet and an xbox 360 controller through the Splashtop 2 app. It works great.
 

mkenyon

Banned
Was at PDXLAN and got to use one of these for an extended period. It's pretty cool, but I already have an HTPC for indie games and an iPad Mini for games that are neat on the couch.

Also, fun fact: The Shield had more pre-orders at PDXLAN than E3 and PAX East combined.

This is a toy for enthusiast PC gamers. Not anyone else.
Even Vita and WiiU is a better value than the Shield.
They can't do PC gaming streaming.
You can do exactly this right now with an Android/Apple tablet and an xbox 360 controller through the Splashtop 2 app. It works great.
Shenanigans. The lag is complete crap on those. Tried on my Nexus 7 and iPad mini.
 

MrGerbils

Member
Was at PDXLAN and got to use one of these for an extended period. It's pretty cool, but I already have an HTPC for indie games and an iPad Mini for games that are neat on the couch.

Also, fun fact: The Shield had more pre-orders at PDXLAN than E3 and PAX East combined.

This is a toy for enthusiast PC gamers. Not anyone else.

They can't do PC gaming streaming.

Shenanigans. The lag is complete crap on those. Tried on my Nexus 7 and iPad mini.


Maybe your router? Works great on my end. I played through most of Saints Row 3 like this, and about 6 hours of Far Cry 3 so far.
 

mkenyon

Banned
How would it run the games :S
Pic of Shield's rendering capability:

7fZp6h.jpg
They don't have to, they got their share of games. Even with a handful. lol
Yeah, but the point of Shield isn't to be new console hardware. It's a toy for enthusiast gamers. If you buy a shield, you immediately have a giant catalog of games that you already own. Then you get to play them anywhere in the house. If I were to buy a Shield tomorrow, I wouldn't pay a dime on games and could immediately play hundreds of games I own on steam.
 

VanWinkle

Member
Would love to get this. It's ugly but it seems cool for a gadget geek like me. I would just need some VERY disposable income to get something like this, and I don't have that. I already have an Android phone, I have an iPad mini, I have a 3DS and a Vita, and I don't game on PC so that big selling point is not a selling point at all for me.

Still, its just cool. If I had crazy amounts of money I would get this immediately.
 
You can do exactly this right now with an Android/Apple tablet and an xbox 360 controller through the Splashtop 2 app. It works great.

Ooh, didn't know that. How's the latency?

Edit: never mind :( PC streaming really is the killer app for the Shield and, from what I've read, it works great with minimal lag.
 

mkenyon

Banned
So with Shield I can play typical PC games like Starcraft and World of Warcraft with a console button layout?
Troll post?

You can't define PC games by being a type. The indie catalog alone is stupid huge. Then cross platform games. Then whatever else you want. The catalog is endless.

Can you play Crysis 3 on a handheld with 16.7ms frametimes? You can now.
Ooh, didn't know that. How's the latency?

Edit: never mind :( PC streaming really is the killer app for the Shield and, from what I've read, it works great with minimal lag.
I'm extremely sensitive to input lag. It wasn't bad at all. Pretty similar to console gaming on a non-gaming TV.
 

KeRaSh

Member
Ooh, didn't know that. How's the latency?

Edit: never mind :( PC streaming really is the killer app for the Shield and, from what I've read, it works great with minimal lag.

For me it was unplayable and my PC is directly connected to the switch and I was sitting next to the WiFi hotspot.
 

mkenyon

Banned
Can we stop making fun of the Vita now that there's a handheld that really does have no games?
Protip on GAF.

Reading the thread helps prevent you from making posts that while designed to be 'edgy' and 'witty', end up making you look like an idiot.

Actually, that's just a protip in life. Listen.
 

ss_lemonade

Member
Was at PDXLAN and got to use one of these for an extended period. It's pretty cool, but I already have an HTPC for indie games and an iPad Mini for games that are neat on the couch.

Also, fun fact: The Shield had more pre-orders at PDXLAN than E3 and PAX East combined.

This is a toy for enthusiast PC gamers. Not anyone else.

They can't do PC gaming streaming.

Shenanigans. The lag is complete crap on those. Tried on my Nexus 7 and iPad mini.
How was the image quality when streaming? No visible artifacts?
 
If I were to buy a Shield tomorrow, I wouldn't pay a dime on games and could immediately play hundreds of games I own on steam.


If by hundreds of games you own on steam you mean whichever of the ten that are supported that you own,sure.


If they are adding stuff on a per game basis this thing is basically off my radar. Because it's certainly going to tank so if future games require nvidia to add them.... yeah, no.
 

mkenyon

Banned
How was the image quality when streaming? No visible artifacts?
Was good. Noticeably better than my Vita.

Felt like high res handheld gaming done right. Except with a giant fucking catalog of games.

I had their rep show me their wireless network that it was running on, and it wasn't anything fancy either. This is in a room of 600 gamers all with wireless devices. I typically hate WiFi for anything other than content streaming, and the way the encoding process works pretty much makes this nothing more than content streaming.

Really though, the only point is to play your PC games anywhere in the house. If that isn't worth $300 to you, then this seems to lose it's appeal quick.
If by hundreds of games you own on steam you mean whichever of the ten that are supported that you own,sure.


If they are adding stuff on a per game basis this thing is basically off my radar. Because it's certainly going to tank so if future games require nvidia to add them.... yeah, no.
It'll be on an engine basis mostly. Super easy to implement. This isn't something that will require NVIDIA engineers to constantly support. This is PC gaming, the experience isn't dictated by the manufacturer or dev.

But yeah, day one purchases are generally not intelligent.

I appreciate you calling out my hyperbole.
 
Not to suggest it's going to be anywhere near as fluid or even moderately playable, but using some tools people have made for the PS Mobile SDK on the Vita, you can do some tunneling/remote desktop stuff and play anything on your PC on your Vita. I sold my Vita quite a while ago and when I was toying with aforementioned streaming it was literally days old, but even then I was able to get a solid 27-30fps out of Left 4 Dead 2, with every fully mapped and functional. If streaming PC games to a handheld is what's drawing you to the Shield, it seems likely that something similar can be accomplished with other hardware.
 

Foffy

Banned
I only had interest in this when I thought ArmA Tactics was exclusive. It isn't. :lol

I do hope it comes to Galaxy S4, though.
 

pfkas

Member
If they open up the NVENC api to anyone - then I bet you'll have a splashtop like solution that won't require a engine-by-engine conversion within weeks nay days.
 

dejan

Member
Too expensive for what it offers. But make no mistake, I'd take a Nvidia Shield over a Vita any time of the day.
 

MercGH

Banned
Way too expensive to operate. I mean I feel most regular gamers do not even have a high end Nvidia graphics card that is necessary to use this.
 

vazel

Banned
Not to suggest it's going to be anywhere near as fluid or even moderately playable, but using some tools people have made for the PS Mobile SDK on the Vita, you can do some tunneling/remote desktop stuff and play anything on your PC on your Vita. I sold my Vita quite a while ago and when I was toying with aforementioned streaming it was literally days old, but even then I was able to get a solid 27-30fps out of Left 4 Dead 2, with every fully mapped and functional. If streaming PC games to a handheld is what's drawing you to the Shield, it seems likely that something similar can be accomplished with other hardware.
I think nvidia's hardware encoder will be faster than a software encoder. Just look at how remote play on the PS3 is laggy.
 

Darmik

Member
Same reason that some people like the Wii U's off screen play feature.

Ehh I dunno. I can turn on the console, TV on with the WiiU Gamepad and never need to tinker anything without it. I can switch between the TV and Gamepad instantly. I'm presuming the Vita will work in a similar fashion. It's basically pick and play.

PC gaming, in general, is not as pick up and play. Will it be awkward to change settings with the device? Can I switch between games using it? Can I get out of a game if it crashes? Or do I need to constantly go back and forth between the Shield and the PC? Do I need to tinker with the PC before I can start using the Shield? Wouldn't that kind of defeat the purpose?

I could be wrong, but I just don't see this feeling like a natural experience at all. PC gaming is just too open for it to be smooth. Once you get a game going it should work ok I guess but I can certainly see it being a hassle.
 

Mrbob

Member
I kind of want one for Steam game streaming but I will wait for a price cut or bomba clearance. Under 200 is what I would like to pay.
 

Korezo

Member
Tried splashtop on my iphone 5, tested SSF4 AE, and DMC3. Quality was fine to me and I compared my pc image to iPhone stream and it was 1-1 probably milliseconds of delay. The problem I see is that it can't do 60fps, the games felt 30fps, so dmc3 and ssf4 AE didn't feel smooth, but the stream kept up exact to my pc. If shield is smooth like a wii u than I'll probably be interested when its cheaper.
 
Troll post?

You can't define PC games by being a type. The indie catalog alone is stupid huge. Then cross platform games. Then whatever else you want. The catalog is endless.

Can you play Crysis 3 on a handheld with 16.7ms frametimes? You can now.

I'm extremely sensitive to input lag. It wasn't bad at all. Pretty similar to console gaming on a non-gaming TV.

So useless then, my ps3 collected dust for 4 years until I found the pc mode on my tv that reduced the input lag to 30 ms (which is still only barely playable)
 

mrklaw

MrArseFace
Nobody seems interested at all for the android side of things. So they could have made a much cheaper one that just does the streaming.

As for the steam streaming - isn't the audience a bit narrow? You want PC gamers that have invested enough in a good PC to have a decent GPU (albeit nvidia only), but not that invested in multiple monitors, 120Hz monitors or 2560 res monitors, and therefore would be happy to play on a small, relatively low res display?

The 'but my family is using the TV' argument isn't that great either as I guess many gaming PCs have separate monitors.
 

mkenyon

Banned
Youwch! Someone struck a nerve?
Lots of juniors wanting to take part in thinking up the snarkiest and wittiest youtube/redditesque comment rather than discuss. This happened to be the time that I felt I needed to point it out.

Plus I just got out of a really stressful Dota game. Hazaro saved the day though. We won, 37-61.
 
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