The Inquirer-Home

Game streaming to UMPCs tips up

Big games for little laptops
Wed Jun 18 2008, 12:10

LITTLE LAPTOPS may be practical and dead easy to cart around, but their tiny disk spaces make them minimal computing machines at most. But a company called StreamMyGame thinks it shouldn’t be all work and no play, and has come up with a way to play big, high-resolution games, on machines with even the smallest of flash memory drives.

StreamMyGame, much as the name suggests, allows users to stream their games over the Internet. And just the other day the firm announced that it could now support over 100 different UMPCs, including Asus’ tiny EeePc and HP’s Mini-Note.

The new software means that now, instead of finishing up that boring memo, or sending off that critical report, UMPC-ers can now stream and play games like Crysis, Call of Duty 4, BioShock and HalfLife2. Much more fun.

By installing a tiny server on the diminutive laptop or notebook, the software ties in with the machine’s start-up files for games and applications. Then, using a special player application remotely, the UMPC lets users access games in a plethora of resolutions, depending what plan they signed up to. For example, users signed up to the firm’s premium plan are only really limited resolution-wise by their broadband connection speed.

In a press release, the company noted that the new range of Eee PCs using 802.11n and WiMAX would go even further to improving the gaming experience on the tiny thigh-warmers by substantially reducing any network lag.

StreamMyGame’s CEO, Richard Faria noted that there were "over 100 Netbooks and UMPCs that are now compatible with our technology and we will guarantee similar compatibility with the MID market". You can see the full list of compatible machines here and a demo video of an ASUS EeePC playing Crysis and Quake 4 here. µ

Share this:

Comments
Err. This is not exactly new!

The PSP can run games directly from a PS3 (as long as they are PSone titles). It's not rocket science to stream the output to a unit and then gather the input from that unit!

posted by : Robert Barrow, 19 June 2008 Complain about this comment
Boogie woogie, woogie

If you tie this in with what Charlie's render farms both Hollywood and Silicon Valley are going. Cinema 2.0 is AMDs attempt where content from movies moves seamlessly to PCs and becomes interactive.

http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2008/06/17/amd-touts-cinematic-vision-v2

uh-oh! You thought public cell phone users were rude. Imagine streaming gfx over your sunshades, and weightless Wii leeds on your wrists, etc.
Yeah here there everywhere 
Come let me take you on a party ride 
And I'll teach you, teach you, teach you 
I'll teach you the electric slide 


posted by : )<arlsbad |\/|onet, 19 June 2008 Complain about this comment
I don't think so

Even if you could competently address the other hardware/network issues (doubtful) what laptop out there has a monitor that is capable of handling a FPS?&#xD;
&#xD;
The best laptop monitors I've seen still suck, and by that I mean you've got a headache within 15min from so much ghosting/motion blur.&#xD;
&#xD;
Very unlikely...

posted by : monitors, 19 June 2008 Complain about this comment
Uh... you dumbasses

Did you guys even read the article? It has nothing to do with electronic delivery of an installer, nor does it have anything to do with running the actual game on the UMPC. All it's doing is streaming the game screen to the UMPC, and then capturing and sending back input. All that's limited here is the rendering speed of the host server, and the network bandwidth. You guys are retarded.

posted by : Joe, 18 June 2008 Complain about this comment
@Pascal Monett

Er.. did you actually read anything? &#xD;
&#xD;
It STREAMS the game from ANOTHER PC dummy.&#xD;

posted by : Timbo, 18 June 2008 Complain about this comment
Crysis on an EEPC

I don't care what the demo shows - when I play a game I want to PLAY, not watch a slideshow.&#xD;
An EEPC will be, at best, barely qualified to play games at minimal resolution with everything turned down. Hey, it's an EEPC, not a desktop powerhorse.&#xD;
Today's best tri-SLI extreme Core 2 whatever can only barely manage 50 fps at 1280x1024. Do they really think they can fool me into believing that an EEPC will manage better when it has sub-par components in every aspect ?&#xD;
EEPCs are made for web surfing and typing memos. That makes them capable of playing (much) older games, and simple games like Desktop Tower Defense.&#xD;
Crysis is simply not in their realm of capabilites. Period.

posted by : Pascal Monett, 18 June 2008 Complain about this comment
Nice... maybe.

If they can get it to work then great but so far i've not seen a single service that touts streaming or play during downloading (e.g. Steam) work very well.&#xD;
&#xD;
With Steam, for example, you have to download virtually 90% of the game before having the possibility of being able to play the game and i've found when doing this that the download stops... meaning that you have to stop playing to be able to progress. Not very smart.&#xD;
&#xD;
Then there was Triton (the ex-service that hosted Prey) which also touted play while downloading... but i never saw that one work either.&#xD;
&#xD;
I honestly don't see how these services are supposed to work. You're either playing a game on a remote server with a minimal client and so suffer lag or you're having to add additional files to a configuration whilst playing. They just don't work that well.

posted by : James, 18 June 2008 Complain about this comment
aboutus
Advertisement
Subscribe to INQ newsletters
Advertisement
INQ Poll

Authorities in several countries raided Megaupload recently, shut down all of its services, seized hundreds of servers and arrested several of its executives on criminal charges.

Do you think the move was justified?