Microsoft Cloud Gaming - coming to Samsung TVs

[tobert]

I have sideloaded the xcloud app onto my Chromecast TV. It works but was pretty choppy. I then tried again with the CC connected via eithernet and it was soo much better, to the point of being totally serviceable.

 

I have also got the PS Play remote on there as well as Stadia so it's proving to be a really useful second console on the other TV with pretty much all my games on there

[Paulando]

1 hour ago, tobert said:

I have sideloaded the xcloud app onto my Chromecast TV. It works but was pretty choppy. I then tried again with the CC connected via eithernet and it was soo much better, to the point of being totally serviceable.

 

I have also got the PS Play remote on there as well as Stadia so it's proving to be a really useful second console on the other TV with pretty much all my games on there

Nice, I might try this. Is there a favoured guide to follow to get XCG on there?

[tobert]

Not espcially I just Googled it, I did use APK mirror which I generally trusts.

[Yoshimax]

Pretty clever

 

 

 

[Paulando]

On 28/11/2021 at 23:21, tobert said:

Not espcially I just Googled it, I did use APK mirror which I generally trusts.

Ahh, I misunderstood - I have a Chromecast Ultra which I guess isn’t compatible with side loading.

 

Is this what you have?:

 

[tobert]

Correct,

52 minutes ago, Paulando said:

Ahh, I misunderstood - I have a Chromecast Ultra which I guess isn’t compatible with side loading.

 

Is this what you have?:

 

Yep that is the one, it was £45 on black Friday sale. They also send me £10 credit to use in the store for some reason so I bought the Ethernet adaptor

[Fused gamer]

On 30/11/2021 at 01:31, Yoshimax said:

Pretty clever

 

 

 

been trying this on Mac canary beta. It’s causing a bit of judder, but hopefully that’s due to beta issues.

[Shook]

On 28/11/2021 at 14:00, Fry Crayola said:

Experiences vary, unfortunately. My play of Forza Horizon 5 was stuttery, with tearing and frequent full-screen decoding garbage (particularly on changing the camera). 

 

On the other hand, I've had smooth experiences with other games on it at other times, so it's a consistency issue.

I still haven’t had any ‘choppy’ lag at all yet. I’m sure I will, but tried Skyrim last night continuing from where I’d got on my physical Xbox. Seamless!

 

Def some annoying input lag that would not be acceptable otherwise.

 

The best thing about it is a console purchase is out of reach for most on the planet, it’s a very inclusive idea. Maybe this will see an explosion in player numbers of certain types of games? Non-twitchy ones. 

[Fused gamer]

26 minutes ago, Shook said:

I still haven’t had any ‘choppy’ lag at all yet. I’m sure I will, but tried Skyrim last night continuing from where I’d got on my physical Xbox. Seamless!

 

Def some annoying input lag that would not be acceptable otherwise.

 

The best to thing about it is a console purchase is out of reach for most on the planet, it’s a very inclusive idea. Maybe this will see an explosion in player numbers of certain types of games? Non-twitchy ones. 

I’m not sure about the lag as I’m happily playing Halo Infinite on this and I forget that it’s just a video and that I’m not just playing a console game. 
 

I’m not doing too bad for kills on this to be fair. It’s made me question if I actually need an Xbox. 

[Shook]

19 hours ago, Fused gamer said:

I’m not sure about the lag as I’m happily playing Halo Infinite on this and I forget that it’s just a video and that I’m not just playing a console game. 
 

I’m not doing too bad for kills on this to be fair. It’s made me question if I actually need an Xbox. 

 

Did you play it on a console before?

[Fused gamer]

5 hours ago, Shook said:

 

Did you play it on a console before?

No. Possibly why I’m happy playing this?

[TehStu]

Anyone finding certain titles aren't on the Windows Xbox app for streaming? There's no cloud option for Aliens Fireteam when you look it up on that app, yet there is from the Xbox itself. I could stream it from there no problem.

 

Seems to be on the Android app, too. Just not Windows.

[dreamylittledream]

On Windows I often find there are games not on the Xbox app that are on the web cloud portal I still have book marked.

 

Possible the app has a queued update?

[BeeJay]

On 04/12/2021 at 09:16, Fused gamer said:

No. Possibly why I’m happy playing this?

 

I've just been playing on 5g in a city centre, on my old laptop, using a controller via Bluetooth and it was pretty spot on. A few annoying spots of lag but I managed to kill a boss which I couldn't last night playing at home on series X. I've also played at home streaming from my PC and has been great there too.

 

It really has improved for me recently, going from unplayable to more than good enough and I genuinely feel as though I can game from anywhere now as long as I have an internet connection. Playing on my phone screen is too small for something like halo but fine for other games. Even two point hospital plays pretty well on phone, with the touch screen controls alone.

[Sprite Machine]

I'm very impressed with xCloud so far. Played some Halo 5 for a couple of hours and didn't have any image quality issues, stutters, cut-outs or anything. The service is very slick, everything is immediate and seamless. I've only got a 1080p monitor and you can tell it's doing some compression, but you soon forget that it's even streaming.

 

The trouble is the lag, and it was always going to be the lag. To be fair, it's about as bad as I expected it to be, and if it's not an action game you could very easily forget about it. But for playing an FPS or a platformer or something, it's noticeably sluggish, all the time. In Halo, I'm overshooting my aim, stopping and starting moving too late, and it generally feels like I'm walking through treacle. I should point out this is using a wired controller on a PC with an ethernet connection and a low-latency monitor, using the Edge browser. Without living next door to a data server, that's pretty much a best case scenario.

 

I would not want this to be the primary way I play games, but as an optional service, or to save me getting an Xbox that I don't really need, it's pretty cool.

[TehStu]

I was playing Steep the other day, for the game pass quest. I was quite enjoying it and after a while forgot that it was loading faster than it ought to on my XB1. I hadn't noticed the lag until then and even while snapping back out of it, it was still fine. Perhaps the mechanics were better suited to it though.

[footle]

Flight sim!!!

[Sarlaccfood]

#perfectforxcloud

[Fletch]

Having not tried it for ages, I gave a few titles on GamePass a go via streaming tonight and even though my old Vodafone broadband was quicker than my current plus net set up it never really worked but now maybe it's the new router but it works a treat Forza was a bit rougher round the edges but definitely playable and the other games I tried all worked really well. 

 

Having a series S and limited storage space this will be so good in deciding what I actually want to install. 

[Sprite Machine]

The last couple of sessions felt like the lag was getting better but I think I was just getting used to it. I've managed to play through most of Halo 5 on Heroic so far, so it's certainly not crippling, but it does feel a bit like playing drunk and it's causing some very mild nausea (like VR sickness).

 

Weirdly, when finishing up a game session and moving the highlighted button on the actual browser interface (as opposed to the in-stream menu), it felt like it was responding before I'd pressed anything! So accustomed was I to the regular delay in button response, that when something actually does respond instantly, it feels precognitive!

[ZOK]

It’s bizarre to read experiences like this and compare it to Stadia, where lag is completely imperceptible. Why can’t Microsoft get it working the same? I’m sure there are technical reasons but can’t they just throw sufficient money at it to make them go away? It’s obviously fixable.

[Sprite Machine]

1 hour ago, ZOK said:

It’s bizarre to read experiences like this and compare it to Stadia, where lag is completely imperceptible. Why can’t Microsoft get it working the same? I’m sure there are technical reasons but can’t they just throw sufficient money at it to make them go away? It’s obviously fixable.

Have you tried both? Some people don't perceive lag as much as others.

[ZOK]

No, just Stadia. When playing an FPS like Destiny 2 it’s unnoticeable. That sounds very different to your experience playing Halo.

[Paulando]

The best experience I’ve had with xCloud, when it wasn’t jerking or pausing every few seconds, the lag was still noticeable enough to make it unplayable. But yeah, Stadia is nigh on flawless. Real shame because the software selection is great.

[Sprite Machine]

5 minutes ago, ZOK said:

No, just Stadia. When playing an FPS like Destiny 2 it’s unnoticeable. That sounds very different to your experience playing Halo.

Some people don't notice lag in XCloud either, according to this thread!
 

I haven't tried Stadia, but I understand it uses a controller with a direct connection to the internet, which would shorten the round trip. It also uses PC games, which could be running internally at higher framerates and therefore reduce the wait time per frame. And maybe Google has more (and more local) data centres scattered around the country, but that's speculation on my part. Lots of little things can help, but I'm sure I would still notice the lag.

[TehStu]

Yeah Google have integrated Stadia gubbins with the YouTube hardware they have at ISPs, a la Netflix. I believe I read that in a paper linked from the Stadia thread. So that, the controller, and maybe the (patented?) AI magic sauce.

 

Now Amazon's Luna is generally available in the US, it'll be interesting to see how that does.

[Sprite Machine]

On 03/03/2022 at 14:12, Sprite Machine said:

[Stadia] also uses PC games, which could be running internally at higher framerates and therefore reduce the wait time per frame.

Halo Infinite feels more responsive, somewhat less laggy. Performance mode probably helps for this reason.

[bear]

https://www.eurogamer.net/fortnite-joins-xbox-cloud-gaming-giving-iphone-users-another-way-to-play

 

Quote

Fortnite has today joined Xbox Cloud Gaming, making it the first free-to-play game to do so.

 

This means the ever-popular Epic battle royale will be available to stream via the service on iPhone, iPad, Android phones and tablets, plus PCs - all via web browser.

 

As with any Xbox Cloud Gaming title, you'll need an Xbox account to log-in - but you won't need membership to any subscription, such as Xbox Game Pass Ultimate.

 

 

Doesn't seem to show up in the app but it works if you go to xbox.com/play and sign in there. 

 

Article says there will be more free to play stuff added to cloud streaming soon, presumably Rocket League is going to happen as that's also an Epic game. 

[alex3d]

Had my very first Cloud Gaming experience earlier today: Sniper Elite 5. On Steam Deck. Worked ridiculously well. Call me impressed.

[Paulando]

Tried this again on my iPad the other day, after it being utter shite every time I’ve used it, and I’m pleased to say it’s now fabulous! Occasionally blocky, but crucially it was smooth and lag-free. Woo!