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Microsoft is looking at using the Cloud to help Xbox One X games take up less space
- Thread starter Theorry
- Start date
RichiRamjag
Member
This is where I stand. I'd rather they increase the space or start better optimizing games on the platform. Halo takes up a ridiculous amount of space.
As NA is their biggest market, they most certainly should take that into account.
Its a pretty neat idea BUT, is only viable when data caps are a thing of the past and broadband is universally excellent for all customers. Quite a bit away I think.
Also this isn't Cloud Compute, it is Cloud Storage ie stream the assets you need for the location you are in.
Again, neat but not viable anytime soon. Plus adding storage is easy enough with external hard drives.
Also this isn't Cloud Compute, it is Cloud Storage ie stream the assets you need for the location you are in.
Again, neat but not viable anytime soon. Plus adding storage is easy enough with external hard drives.
Good idea. Go buy and play Final Fantasy 15 without any internet, thus no patches.
Complicated
Banned
Sounds interesting. Can't say storage has been a problem for me so far, and I'll have a 1TB One X soon instead of a 500GB Xbox One.
Microsoft needs to get their lobbyists to step up their game fighting against net neutrality and ISP's in general. There's going to come a point when shitty internet service starts to have a real impact on the business side of the industry (if it hasn't already), and the actual consumers/voters sure don't have the power to do anything about it.
Microsoft needs to get their lobbyists to step up their game fighting against net neutrality and ISP's in general. There's going to come a point when shitty internet service starts to have a real impact on the business side of the industry (if it hasn't already), and the actual consumers/voters sure don't have the power to do anything about it.
ambar_hitman
Member
So will it stream the assets like Gaikai and PS now? If yes then I don't want that crap. If it's not streaming but downloading then why not just allow us to download like normal patch. This fucking cloud BS needs to stop. Just because you bought or developed a Cloud solution doesn't mean you need to shove it in every product you develop.
LukasTaves
Member
Why you make it sound like it's a bad thing?
You likely will have the choice, so you can either save your bandwidth if you have data caps, or your HDD space if you are running low.
It's not a great idea because it means 30m of current existing users can't use the new disc.
LukasTaves
Member
No, Gaikai and PSnow streams the final image, as a video.
This is more like having a cache on disc that is used by all games and downloaded by the console as you play the game instead of occupying the HDD at all times.
The level of stupidity on an Xbox thread has reached a new historical max here.
"the power of the cloud" what the hell are you talking about? Is Dropbox, Google Drive or OneDrive an illusion?
Dont want to play the police role, but mods needs to do sth about this. Every single Xbox thread nowadays is at GameFaqs level these days.
As others have said, great as an option as long as it stays that way. However, I still do not understand why we simply cannot pick and choose what we want to install when we first boot up the game. Is it really that difficult to include an option that allows you to do a Full install/customized install? PC games were doing this for years prior to digital distribution. Heck, even now games like CoD allow the user to install either campaign or multiplayer separately.
Like I said, its a nice option to have, but we already have potential solutions right in front of us that would benefit the current system.
Like I said, its a nice option to have, but we already have potential solutions right in front of us that would benefit the current system.
joe_zazen
Member
Local storage is cheap, so yeah, dunno.
OtOh, size still matters. FfXV is going to be 150 GB on pc, x1x prolly will be the same.. There are folks with data caps, so maybe this will reduce the dl size?
We've been there before. You know, back in the day, psx games were constantly loading data, we had to wait several seconds up to minutes to get data loaded from disc. But then, some geniuses thought it might be a good idea to stream the data before you actually need it to reduce load times. Perhaps other geniuses might come up with the same idea for this. It could of course also take years again to come up with this idea.
amdb00mer
Member
I'm ok with this as long as it is a choice. I prefer to download all the 4k assets so I don't have to rely on streaming from the cloud. However, people will complain no matter what.
"I have a 1080p TV and don't want to download 4k assets, even though super-sampling will make the game look fantastic in 1080p with the high-resolution assets"
or
"I don't want to stream levels and data from the cloud it will kill my bandwidth, but I don't want to install the full game either"
"I have a 1080p TV and don't want to download 4k assets, even though super-sampling will make the game look fantastic in 1080p with the high-resolution assets"
or
"I don't want to stream levels and data from the cloud it will kill my bandwidth, but I don't want to install the full game either"
That solution is infinitely better than this automated Microsoft solution. I'd rather be able to pick and choose what I want than letting a script/AI figure it out while taxing my internet connection constantly. The only instance it strictly performs better is the "play while you install" scenario.
Can't wait to see this system in action in an open-world game with fast-travel
Stumpokapow
listen to the mad man
This is absolutely technically possible.
However, Microsoft launched a game called Galactic Reign a few years ago. It's kinda like a Risk-style conquest game set in space. The pitch, though, was that it had console AAA tier graphics on mobile because when you got into a battle, you'd stream a pre-rendered video from the Cloud that would make it look as if your phone was actually rendering this beautiful game. It also had a Windows 8 Universal Windows App Store by Microsoft release. They shut down the servers because it wasn't financially sustainable 5 months later. So, uh, let's maybe not trust that Microsoft is capable of making the economics of this work.
A better strategy would be to separate 1080p and 4k resolutions, and also language packs, so that someone downloading a game only downloads the assets/audio that they need. You could also do this on discs so that only the portion of the disc needed would install. This would substantially reduce the space cost of games, and would not have uncontrollably bad bandwidth usage because retail purchasers would get the benefit, downloaders would likely only download this once or a few times instead of constantly downloading caching and deleting while playing.
However, Microsoft launched a game called Galactic Reign a few years ago. It's kinda like a Risk-style conquest game set in space. The pitch, though, was that it had console AAA tier graphics on mobile because when you got into a battle, you'd stream a pre-rendered video from the Cloud that would make it look as if your phone was actually rendering this beautiful game. It also had a Windows 8 Universal Windows App Store by Microsoft release. They shut down the servers because it wasn't financially sustainable 5 months later. So, uh, let's maybe not trust that Microsoft is capable of making the economics of this work.
A better strategy would be to separate 1080p and 4k resolutions, and also language packs, so that someone downloading a game only downloads the assets/audio that they need. You could also do this on discs so that only the portion of the disc needed would install. This would substantially reduce the space cost of games, and would not have uncontrollably bad bandwidth usage because retail purchasers would get the benefit, downloaders would likely only download this once or a few times instead of constantly downloading caching and deleting while playing.
Im thinking more towards this direction: Its a fact that vast majority of games are not completed by gamers. What if its implemented a smart, cloud based "Ready to play" system where you download just what you need to play few initial levels, and then download on demand as gamer progress in the game? That would be a great scenario, specially for data capped users.
nillapuddin
Member
ITT: Options are bad because MS brought it up
GHG
Gold Member
I know the current CDN utilises a cloud network but this would require an infrastructure beyond what they currently offer for their CDN.
You also knew the point I'm making is the fact that conventional servers (and even disks) can be used to deleiver content in fragments as the end user sees fit but hey, don't let that stop you making posts like that.
And for what it's worth, not all CDN's utilise a cloud network.
Did you once "fast-travel" in ff15?
Yep...I hope they get this storage space taken care for crackdown. I'm sure as soon as they figure out how to save things it'll be out.
tokenflipguy
Member
NO.
Never played it... but I have played Witcher, Fallout 4, Dragon Age, Watchdogs, GTA, Skyrim, Assassins Creed etc
bananafactory
Banned
The Cloud in the headline is just misleading, I think that's the problem.
What they're talking about is more interesting for what it does on the local system by keeping unneeded data off of it. The actual data download portion is similar to Sony's PlayGo
Azure Phoenix
Member
Yes, because the solution to huge install sizes is not to include a hard drive with an acceptable amount of storage for this day and age, but rather to make people stream the assets via the internet and waste their data instead.
The problem is people not reading the OP.
Mass Effect
Member
Wouldn't this be an issue for people with data caps? What about people with slower connections? Also how would this work with disc-based games?
It will be interesting to hear more about this. I want to see how they wouldn implement it.
This would be the better solution.
It will be interesting to hear more about this. I want to see how they wouldn implement it.
This would be the better solution.
...do you understand cloud storage?? Yhis would be great. They arent saying using the cloud for processing etc.
Cloud storage is already a thing
The costs of effectively storage versus running actual processing for generating video is a bit different. If you think MS can't afford content delivery, even purchasing a game digitally from them would be questionable.
Also, they are currently going to have separate 4k vs 1080p assets for those that want them. One owners won't get 4k assets, Scorpio owners will. Although, they do have the option to force it.
I don't think it would be constantly deleted. There would be scratch space on disk that would get flushed as needed. So if playing a single game at a time, the time to live of that cache could possibly be forever, until you load up a different game.
SpinningBirdKick
Banned
This is marketing bullshit yet again.
It means nothing because you still need to get your assets down from the cloud to the user's machine for them to be used anyway.
So you either persist them to storage locally or redownload them every time they're needed.
They should stop with the marketing smoke and mirrors and just concentrate on providing great gaming experiences. Minor details like this don't persuade people to buy your platform.
Treat your potential customers with some respect for a change instead of treating them like village idiots.
It means nothing because you still need to get your assets down from the cloud to the user's machine for them to be used anyway.
So you either persist them to storage locally or redownload them every time they're needed.
They should stop with the marketing smoke and mirrors and just concentrate on providing great gaming experiences. Minor details like this don't persuade people to buy your platform.
Treat your potential customers with some respect for a change instead of treating them like village idiots.
...what?? You serious??
Hr is talking about the ability to use cloud storage so people can save space. It will probably be optional as well.
I dont see anything wrong with this if its optional.
michaelius
Banned
Marketing? Where?
Jason Frost
Member
Is it true that Crackdown 3 was delayed because they wanted a better use of the power of the cloud?
Then please, don't. Seriously.
Please explains this. They do allow acceptable storage, and you can buy your own to top it up, but the cost is significant. They're not making you do anything you don't want, infact they're trying to make it less inconvenient if you can't buy more storage. They aren't manufacturing problem to drive business, this sounds like an optional method to help with dealing with the extra data needed. No cost. Where is the outrage?
So we shouldn't advance game distribution and give people the option cause its unfair on you cause you have shit internet?
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