xCloud (Xbox Cloud Gaming) |OT| An Apple a day, keeps cloud gaming away

[Bits-N-Pieces]

Didn’t realise there was a specific cloud related thread, so I’ll repost what I said in another thread.

Doing the Game Pass Quests using the cloud streaming feature feels like some voodoo magic shit, just see a game and press play. It’s more of a game changer than Quick Resume and that’s been the best feature of this new gen for me.

You can start to see all the pieces of the jigsaw coming together to show the vision of what Xbox is going to be.

Hardware. Services. Games. When Phil got his promotion he said those were internally the 3 goals he wanted to be best in class in. I think he’s done it, which when you think where they were just 5 years ago. Mental.

[LucasTaves]

@Bits-N-Pieces

Didn’t realise there was a specific cloud related thread, so I’ll repost what I said in another thread.

Doing the Game Pass Quests using the cloud streaming feature feels like some voodoo magic shit, just see a game and press play. It’s more of a game changer than Quick Resume and that’s been the best feature of this new gen for me.

You can start to see all the pieces of the jigsaw coming together to show the vision of what Xbox is going to be.

Hardware. Services. Games. When Phil got his promotion he said those were internally the 3 goals he wanted to be best in class in. I think he’s done it, which when you think where they were just 5 years ago. Mental.

Indeed, it was a long wait, but it’s so nice to see everything coming together so beautifully. Great hardware, great games coming out faster than you can consume, and a incredible ecosystem around multiple devices.

[Daniel]

Holy shit xCloud on console is insane, playing Forza Horizon 4 felt on the controller native and I remember this having massive struggles on the android beta. The video feed and visuals needs to be worked on it seems like sometimes it has slowdown but I can still control fine, it’s weird it’s like the game is lagging but I’m still in control. Driving games have always been horrible on cloud gaming for me but I could without a doubt play Forza Horizon 4 easily just on cloud streaming and that is mind blowing.

Just thinking about the future and how they will continue to make it better and better, I can see this becoming in future the way most casual people play.

@Bits-N-Pieces

You can start to see all the pieces of the jigsaw coming together to show the vision of what Xbox is going to be.

Hardware. Services. Games. When Phil got his promotion he said those were internally the 3 goals he wanted to be best in class in. I think he’s done it, which when you think where they were just 5 years ago. Mental.

I can understand why the low latency control input was a big deal that was for sure building up for game streaming on console imo, Stadia and Luna both brag about “zero” latency controls because the controller connects to wifi and such so I’m assuming this is the same sort of thing but for Xbox.

[GoroMajima]

The Cloud release for consoles could be huge. Series X/S being hard to find so being able to play certain games on old xbox consoles is beneficial to a lot of people.

I think even with minor lag and visual hiccups…I’d play the Cloud version of Halo Infinite running off a series X thannative xbox one version.

[Phantom]

Tried xCloud on Xbox One X and yeah…

I played NFS Heat, but the image quality was very blurry and felt very low res, even though my internet is more than capable to handle it.

The gameplay had noticable lag and the car kept turning for a good second, even though I centered the thumbstick. A lot of work needs to be done for the console version of xCloud before the wider release, but thats what the beta is for.

[Xtr33m3]

Since receiving the console update I have been taking my Xbox One S through it’s paces and I have a few thoughts.

Setup

My connection is VDSL 70/28 mbps bandwidth with latency to my local Azure data center around 20ms (as measured by the tool below). With the Xbox One S connected by ethernet to my router.

Experience

A massive improvement to the ‘Game Streaming’ beta, framerate and latency wise.

As many have said above; input lag when working well can be not significantly noticeable. I would compare it best to a standard Xbox 360 game as far as responsiveness when working well. However games do feel ‘tighter’ when switching back to the Series X.

Playing the same game on the Xbox One actually felt a little sluggish compared to Cloud Streaming, possibly due to dropping for 60fps to 30fps, and lets not forget about the load times.

The two titles I spent a lot of time in was Sea of Thieves and Battlefield V. As far as controls and responsiveness was concerned I was at the stage that I forgot I was using streaming.

Battlefield V I thought would be crazy hard, but because your latency with other players is minimal (as the Xbox you are playing on practically connected to the backbone that the server is) I found that hit detection was massively better.

Where I did find issues was in areas that were darker or had granular shading (smoke/fog) which caused artifacting and banding (see below).

Having the ability to stream titles at 60fps on older hardware is really great. However Before moving to 4K60 I would really like to see a better bitrate for 1080p.

Data Usage

The average data usage was 3.6GB/Hour (Streaming + Party Chat), With the lowest for an hour being 3.12GB and peaking at 4.54GB

Rough napkin math tells me that:

• 3.60 Gigabytes an hour is equal to 8 Mbit/s
• 4.54 Gigabytes an hour is equal to 10.09 Mbit/s

Summary

Cloud steaming seems to be pitched as a try before you buy on current hardware. However, given the gains in FPS and some tweaks in the bitrate, I would prefer the cloud experience over the native in some cases.

Tools

If you are finding input lag too high have a look at to see if any azure data centers are near you:

Azure Latency Test - Azure Speed Test

[Putfire]

It’s impossible to play in Brazil on weekends or holidays. I Think Microsoft underestimated the success of Xcloud in the country. Queues and servers crowded. The problem is that this creates a bad first impression for people who are having that first contact with the Xbox, but are unable to play.

[LucasTaves]

@Putfire

…It’s impossible to play in Brazil on weekends or holidays. I Think Microsoft underestimated the success of Xcloud in the country. Queues and servers crowded. The problem is that this creates a bad first impression for people who are having that first contact with the Xbox, but are unable to play. IMG_20211011_1520412340×932 165 KB

They acknowledged that they severely underestimated the marketed here (not surprised, they really dropped the ball a lot compared to 360 and xbone days), and said they are going to ramp up the servers soon. But I imagine it will take a couple of weeks

[KakkaKarrotKake]

@LucasTaves

They acknowledged that they severely underestimated the marketed here (not surprised, they really dropped the ball a lot compared to 360 and xbone days), and said they are going to ramp up the servers soon. But I imagine it will take a couple of weeks

The good thing is xCloud is so easy/cheap/accessible to try out, even a bad first impression shouldnt mean much long term for people

Not quite the same as say buying a $500 console (more in brazil) and it being a sub par experience

The fact they have this much demand for it is a great sign though

[Xtr33m3]

@KakkaKarrotKake

The good thing is xCloud is so easy/cheap/accessible to try out, even a bad first impression shouldnt mean much long term for people

Not quite the same as say buying a $500 console (more in brazil) and it being a sub par experience

The fact they have this much demand for it is a great sign though

I completely agree here - while sub optimal, it is a good problem to have.

If dragged out it could be an issue - Like the experiences of some people on PC with XGP.

[javycane (Javier Ruiz)]

Has anybody tried Xcloud on the console? Whats your experience?

Ive tried a couple of games like Yakuza LAD, Psychonauts 2 and A Plague Tale but I find the image quality just brutal. Also no HDR yet so I wonder if they plan to implement that in the future.

[BRiT]

@javycane

Has anybody tried Xcloud on the console? Whats your experience?

Ive tried a couple of games like Yakuza LAD, Psychonauts 2 and A Plague Tale but I find the image quality just brutal. Also no HDR yet so I wonder if they plan to implement that in the future.

What’s your default gaming setup, running in 4K HDR? I mean if you’re not stuck in 480p. My default gaming setup is 1080p SDR and from the brief time I’ve done Console xCloud toying around it looked like it could be native. I need to give it more use and with more demanding games to give a better assessment. Maybe sometime this week I’ll get a chance to.

[Xtr33m3]

@javycane

Has anybody tried Xcloud on the console? Whats your experience?

Ive tried a couple of games like Yakuza LAD, Psychonauts 2 and A Plague Tale but I find the image quality just brutal. Also no HDR yet so I wonder if they plan to implement that in the future.

I have been using mine on both the Series X and One S

Image quality is fine when in bright areas with defined edges, where it falls down is when a scene is dark or has smoke.

I’m sure HDR will come eventually when the stand alone streaming subscription eventuates.

[LucasTaves]

@javycane

Has anybody tried Xcloud on the console? Whats your experience?

Ive tried a couple of games like Yakuza LAD, Psychonauts 2 and A Plague Tale but I find the image quality just brutal. Also no HDR yet so I wonder if they plan to implement that in the future.

Image quality is definitely the biggest toll. Latency wise I found it incredible, and I really like how well it integrates regarding launching the game or switching back to the dashboard and other apps (unfortunately can’t have a cloud and a local session at the same time, even on the same console).

Onve they up to 4k, add hdr and quick resume in cloud sessions I think it will be a game changer

[Xtr33m3]

Xbox advise that:

A Wi-Fi/4G data connection with minimum of 10Mbps down-speed. Please note, some devices may require 20Mbps for the best quality. We recommend using a 5Ghz Wi-Fi connection.

I am hoping this sees significant improvement in stream quality. I also had a look around to see where that sat in comparison to other service which I have put in the table below.

	Xcloud	PlayStation Now	Google Stadia	Amazon Luna	GeForce Now
720p	10Mbps	5Mbps	10Mbps	10Mbps	15Mbps
1080p	20Mbps¹	8Mbps²	28Mbps	22Mbps	25Mbps
4k	-	-	44Mbps	35Mbps	-

• ¹ - 10Mbps from my own testing.
• ² - End user anecdotal evidence

Sources:

Xbox Cloud Gaming (Beta) with Xbox Game Pass | Xbox

PlayStation Now on PC UK

Bandwidth, data usage, and stream quality - Stadia Help (google.com)

Amazon Luna – Cloud Gaming Service

Frequently Asked Questions | CloudGG | GeForce NOW Powered by Pentanet

[Daniel]

I’m shocked how bloody good cloud gaming is on console, I honestly can’t tell the difference when it comes to input latency when playing cloud vs native. The image quality is worse by a fair bit though but it’s not too bad and considering the how responsive the input is. Playing Forza Horizon 4 and I’m winning races against people online and can go cross country and dodge trees with ease, I can’t wait to see how they improve this even more.

[bcatwilly]

@Daniel

I’m shocked how bloody good cloud gaming is on console, I honestly can’t tell the difference when it comes to input latency when playing cloud vs native. The image quality is worse by a fair bit though but it’s not too bad and considering the how responsive the input is. Playing Forza Horizon 4 and I’m winning races against people online and can go cross country and dodge trees with ease, I can’t wait to see how they improve this even more.

I agree, and it is amazing for checking out games on Game Pass without installing to see if I want to do a native install for fully playthrough.

[LucasTaves]

@Daniel

I’m shocked how bloody good cloud gaming is on console, I honestly can’t tell the difference when it comes to input latency when playing cloud vs native. The image quality is worse by a fair bit though but it’s not too bad and considering the how responsive the input is. Playing Forza Horizon 4 and I’m winning races against people online and can go cross country and dodge trees with ease, I can’t wait to see how they improve this even more.

Same. Still blown away how IQ is the thing that gives away and input lag is just perfect.

It’s been a god sent for testing games and making gamepass quests. Sometimes takes less than 1 minute to complete one for a game you didn’t even had installed. just absolutely nuts

[Resist]

xcloud gaming on console is easily the best experience yeah, haha. even better than pc imo.

[Cyime]

I really want some pc exclusive games on Xcloud and keyboard and mouse support.