The Hindu Business Line : Play from a `cloud'

With most of us living our second lives in virtual worlds, chatting with virtual people or even flying to thousands of exciting virtual 3D locations, the `cloud' definitely looks like the way to the future. It has the potential to be a big deal especially because it frees us from the burden of storage. The `cloud' has been so far more associated with computing, which basically works through virtual servers available over the Internet.

People want to get to their e-mail instantly, without waiting for their computers to boot and browsers to start up. As Google says, they want their computers to be extremely fast, their data to be accessible wherever they go and free from `back-up' worries. More importantly, they don't want to spend hours configuring their computers to every new hardware or software updates.

Thus was born the `cloud' phenomenon. This translates to ditching our existing desktops for virtual ones, using virtual OS instead of conventional Windows or Mac OS and a lot more. all you'll really need is hi-speed broadband access and little else. All your files and folders are stored on some distant server, which cloud vendors consider safe, and can be accessed whenever, wherever.

But, the meaning of the cloud is all set to get bigger and fuzzier with `cloud gaming' entering the scene. Rather than endlessly waiting for a fairly pricey PS4 with advanced motion-control capabilities, an ultra-portable PSP 4000 or an Xbox 180 that's almost half the size of the Xbox 360, that are all now doing the rounds of the rumour mills, magine racing through the `clouds' where most gamers would flock in the near future.

CHANGING GAMEPLAY

Imagine playing Darth Vader's mysterious apprentice in a Star Wars galaxy. On a secret mission to find the spirited Zabrak warrior Jedi, you destroy everyone in your path using the ways of Sith. You lift a stormtrooper up and watch him squirm as you thrash him. You bash him with your lightsaber or fling him straight across a bunch of tormtroopers. Just when you are about to meet Jedi, you've been forced to quit the game for a while, and you don't have sufficient memory on your console to save the gameplay. What do you do? Delete other games stored in the console and create space? You would not have to do this if you were playing from a `cloud.' You could simply store it in your allotted online space, demand more space if needed, and just pay for the space you used.

Remember, you can access the `cloud' from anywhere - PC, Mac, console, phone or even TV. All you'll need is Internet connectivity.

Do you travel a long way to work and wish you could magically shrink your Xbox 360 and continue your game from where you left it last night? With the `cloud', you can opt to continue playing from your iPhone, Netbook or any other Mobile Internet Device that lets you access the `cloud.'

So you found a new `unadvertised trick' to electrocute your enemy using those Sith powers you learnt from Darth Vader, and dying to share it with fellow Star Wars addicts? You don't have to go through the hassle of saving it on your console, transferring the video to your Mac and then loading it on your blog. You can simply save it on your `cloud', access it from anywhere and share it.

THROW AWAY OLD RULES

Your videogame experience will never be the same, with AMD entering the play. AMD unveiled Fusion Render Cloud at CES this year, to bring high-definition graphics and games instantly onto your HDTV, Mac, PC, mobile phone or even your existing gaming console, however powerful or not it is.

You won't need to create space or extra memory. Simply connect to your cloud space and dip into whatever you have stored, play a game from your iPhone while buying groceries, right from where you stopped last on your PC. You'll just pay for what you play. You might just need exceptionally fast 5 Mbps speeds to attain HD 720p visual quality on PCs or consoles and a slightly lesser speed on a mobile phone or a portable console, but with WiMAX soon becoming a reality, you can hope to play without any lag.

Similar to playing games, you can even watch half of a movie on your mobile phone while on the bus home, then, upon entering your apartment, switch over to your HDTV and continue watching it from where you left, seamlessly, and at full screen resolution.

What's more, you don't even have to upgrade the processor on your console or PC, the AMD chip will automatically update you to play graphicrich games. The chip is built for use in devices that don't have high-definition digital capabilities.

AMD has teamed up with OTOY, a California-based software firm to create HD movie quality three-dimensional graphics, render it in real time in a browser and then put it on a cloud. The content is compressed and loads within seconds. With the support of Electronic Arts on the gaming front, and with HP and Dell on the hardware front, AMD is all set to demonstrate the possibilities of `cloud' gaming by the end of this year or at CES next year.

OnLive, a videogame start-up based in the US, also banks on the `cloud', and is currently running a Beta of what it proposes to offer by the end of this year; it will offer subscribers a selection of videogames, accessible via the `cloud' and which can be played on a PC, Mac or TV. The package will come with a small, hand-size micro-console, which OnLive says is free. Game publishers including EA, Take Two Interactive and Warner Brothers have signed on to provide games.

No game for pirates

Cloud gaming essentially means that you will not be downloading games on your PCs, or any other Internet-connected device, but accessing them from a cloud online. As you don't have the game, you won't be able to create a copy. Thus, cloud gaming could literally end the problem of piracy!

Putting an end to recession woes

With the `R' word entering the world of the gamer, considered to be recession-proof, things got worse this year. Videogame sales in the US plummeted to a nine-year low in June, leading to price cuts in consoles across the world. In many ways the current dilemma the videogame industry faces is similar to that of the movie industry: skyrocketing production costs and spiralling ticket prices, which, in the case of videogames, is the cost of the game itself. With the advent of cloud gaming, the recession woes of the avid gamer come to an end.

With `cloud' becoming your play partner, videogames will be changed forever, and there won't be scope for pirates. Though we are yet to figure out how enthralling or gripping your gameplay might be while racing through the clouds, you might not have to constantly upgrade your gaming hardware. Though cloud vendors will initially have a tough time tearing gamers away from their consoles, it will be a welcome stream of income for game publishers.

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