Google Stadia: Tech that can go way beyond gaming.
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A new gaming platform has got everyone in the gaming industry excited- be it the players, creators or even the YouTube streamers.
Yes, we are talking about the already hyped up Google’s Stadia.
But this blog is not just about games and gamers. We want to drive your focus towards the technology that Google Stadia is using and the huge impact it can have on the way internet users consume media on the internet.
Stadia is going to be powered by Google’s cloud, networking infrastructure, custom server hardware and data centers. Due to this infrastructure, Stadia is able to deliver with a speed of 10.7 Teraflops of Power with 1080p (which is said to go up to not only 4K but also 8K) 60 fps with stereo sound (when it was tested for Project Stream)
The data centers that Stadia will be using are equipped with hardware that not only deliver high power graphics but also provide the memory and storage needed to run the most demanding games.
This means that players with low performance devices will be able to play on Stadia without compromising on the image quality and speed, so long as they have an internet connection of 25 Mbps speed, even when it comes to playing exhaustive games in terms of graphics.
According to Majd Bakar, the head of Engineering for Stadia, “Stadia is built on infrastructure that no one else has” And Google is giving game creators access to its data centers that are present all around the world. The closer a player is to a data center the faster the response time and performance for the user, and since Google has a strong presence worldwide this latency will not be an issue.
Low performance devices are slow, and they have inferior image quality. High performance devices have low latency and superior image quality.
In order to tackle this problem Programmers sometimes use different computer programs for different devices, depending on that program’s compatibility with the device.
Stadia’s data centers do all the processing and with this technology Google is able to provide users with the different devices the same high-quality picture quality and intense graphics.
Does all this sound too good to be true? It just might me.
The only catch is that Stadia is heavily dependent on the internet, hence for Stadia to function, it requires a steady internet speed of 25 Mbps, any drop in the speed will hamper the experience majorly. In India, where the internet Internet speed fluctuates constantly there is a concern that Stadia’s performance will keep getting suspended until the internet speed goes up again.
According to the Speed Test Global Index of April 2019, India has an average internet speed of 10.71 Mbps for mobile downloads and 29.25 Mbps for fixed broadband downloads. From this we can conclude that fixed broadband users will not face any issue while using Stadia but Stadia doesn’t seem to be an option for users of Mobile data in India, YET.
Now let’s take this beyond gaming.
When it comes to viewing powerful graphics, the same visuals will appear different on an laptop and on an iPad, depending on the GPU of those devices.
For Example, in Maruti Suzuki’s Nexa Configurator developed by Eccentric Engine:
The iPad version and the website version are both created on different platforms.
So, if I want to view a 3D model of a car, a native iPad will give me this result.
And the website will give me this result.
This is because programmers have developed two different applications to deliver the same result for two different devices in order to provide optimum results for the respective devices.
If creators were able to get the same access to Google’s data centers that gamers have, you would be able to view this 3D model on any device in a much better quality and with better responsiveness too. Creators will be not be limited by the output quality of your device but will be able to take advantage of Google’s powerful data centers. This will enable creators to develop phenomenal visual and graphics, so much so that the 3D model of a car will look and feel like a real car, through any screen. Also, another advantage for creator’s is that they don’t have to use different computer programs for different devices; devices will use Google’s GPU and not their own, programmers will only have to use one computer program that will be utilized by Google’s Data centers.
So, the same high- caliber graphics can transcend from video games across all platforms. A new era not just for gamers but for everyone across the internet.
Another cool feature that Stadia has introduced in collaboration with YouTube is the ‘Click to Play’ feature, wherein when someone is watching a YouTube video of a game, an option called ‘Play’ is made available on screen, by clicking this button the viewer is directed to that same video game and that exact moment of the game where they had clicked on ‘Play’. Now, Imagine you are watching an Advertisement for a real estate property on YouTube, and you want to view this Property, if a ‘Click to View’ option is made available then you can click on the property that you like and you will be taken to the Website where you can check out the estate. Maybe you would be able to view this Estate in 3D, maybe with AR features available too, so you can envision the house the way you want to. The possibilities are endless.
