Liquidsky - PC cloud gaming $10 per month

Ezekial

[H]ard|Gawd
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Jun 7, 2004
Messages
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Liquidsky cloud PC gaming service is running a special for $10 per month vs. normal $15 per month for PC Cloud gaming.

I just started using this service, instead of building a PC (yes I would much rather build a gaming PC, but for various reasons, this is a better deal for me) and a couple days in have been very very happy with the performance. Playing GTA V currently.

https://liquidsky.tv/en/upgrade

:EDIT
UPDATE 01/11/2017

All new pricing guide and service is coming in March. More information here: https://hardforum.com/threads/liquidsky-pc-cloud-gaming-10-per-month.1920706/#post-1042748935
 
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I always thought this was pretty cool, and think it's gonna be incredible in markets such as china and india where there's a heavy gaming population using core 2 duos. Gotta ask a really stupid question though, how's the software installed by the end user? Is it just a virtual windows interface?

What I think is really cool about this is the streaming potential. Basically you pay someone $10 to carry the burden, and now your low end i3, pentium, or amd (whatever their low end is) can not only play a game but also stream without taking a major hit. The potential for someone both savvy and also charismatic to make a little bit of money from streaming and etc has gone up.

For now I've already spent so much on this fucking machine that pride won't let me do this....but maybe my fiance might :) She's only running a 4770 with a 1050ti, and in a couple years that could be low to low mid end for Triple A games.
 
What are your internet son edition specs/ISP, where are their data centers located and how much latency is there when you play?

This sounds like OnLive all over again and unless they were able to solve the latency problem with WAY more data centers than OnLive had or they've come up with new algorithms for compensating for latency it's going to blow for anyone not right down the street from one of the locations where they host the hardware. OnLive was cool if you lived in Cali less than a 20ms hop from one of their NOCs, but for almost anyone else the service was a laggy mess. They also had tens of millions of dollars behind them and were still unable to resolve these issues. What makes LiquidSky different, both on the technology and the business sides?
 
This would be great if I cared to run PC games on my Android tablet connected to a keyboard and mouse. I don't.

1 sky credit = 1 hour of gaming. The $9.99 plan comes with 80 sky credits. I wonder if the game companies are going to protest having their games installed on a cloud server for access from any device. I'm not sure how all DRM will be supported, either.
 
How bout dem data caps?

probably wouldn't be an issue soon. I currently get 300mb down, 30up for only $120 a month with unlimited bandwidth. Getting even less but reasonable speed (75/10) here in atlanta would be around $70 a month, which is pretty reasonable.
 
So you are watching a video feed of you game and there is some interface that sends back keystrokes?

What is the "storage" for? Is that the install size of your game or for like saved games and stuff? Does that mean GTA V would take up 65GB of the 500GB or just several megabytes for the saved game?
 
So you are watching a video feed of you game and there is some interface that sends back keystrokes?

What is the "storage" for? Is that the install size of your game or for like saved games and stuff? Does that mean GTA V would take up 65GB of the 500GB or just several megabytes for the saved game?
You basically are renting a pc. You still need to purchase the games yourself. The storage is for your games.
 
720 or 1080 only. Looks to be capped at 30 or 60 fps. So you're essentially renting something like a XB1 or PS4, maybe a bit better graphics. Maybe okay for non-action / non-FPS type of titles but I question how this falls into the Hot Deal category.
 
How in the everloving fuck is input lag not a major issue here?

I remember back when the 'OnLive' service came out I did a review on my Youtube channel and the input lag was pretty bad.
 
I always thought this was pretty cool, and think it's gonna be incredible in markets such as china and india where there's a heavy gaming population using core 2 duos. Gotta ask a really stupid question though, how's the software installed by the end user? Is it just a virtual windows interface?

What I think is really cool about this is the streaming potential. Basically you pay someone $10 to carry the burden, and now your low end i3, pentium, or amd (whatever their low end is) can not only play a game but also stream without taking a major hit. The potential for someone both savvy and also charismatic to make a little bit of money from streaming and etc has gone up.

For now I've already spent so much on this fucking machine that pride won't let me do this....but maybe my fiance might :) She's only running a 4770 with a 1050ti, and in a couple years that could be low to low mid end for Triple A games.

Agreed. Still very early days, but this is obviously the future. For me, I just use laptops 99% of the time, so need a box to play GTA V or whatever else on. Even a budget gaming PC is going to run me $800 or so with the mid-range specs I want. This costs me $120 a year, so in effect, it's a much better deal for someone like me that will game about 40 hours here in the coming months and then will probably take a break for 4 months... just not a big gamer, but do so from time to time.



What are your internet son edition specs/ISP, where are their data centers located and how much latency is there when you play?

This sounds like OnLive all over again and unless they were able to solve the latency problem with WAY more data centers than OnLive had or they've come up with new algorithms for compensating for latency it's going to blow for anyone not right down the street from one of the locations where they host the hardware. OnLive was cool if you lived in Cali less than a 20ms hop from one of their NOCs, but for almost anyone else the service was a laggy mess. They also had tens of millions of dollars behind them and were still unable to resolve these issues. What makes LiquidSky different, both on the technology and the business sides?

They have a link on their website, right on the top hearder "datacenters". https://liquidsky.tv/en/data-centers
I am in the Philly area and the closest one for me is DC. 20ms roundtrip, so lag is really good for me. ISP is Verizon FiOS 75mbit. About every 10mins I freze that lasts for about 2-3 seconds. Annoying, much so, but then again, even a well built gaming PC will have this happen from time to time, especially it's a multi-purpose machine (meaning daily use, etc, rather than 100% dedicated to gaming). Also, I use Ethernet which helps this significantly. Only have used it a few hours so far, but probably cut the freezing in half over WiFI.

Obviously the biggest issue here for adoption is how close you are to the datacenter, your internet connection, and the type of game you are playing.


This would be great if I cared to run PC games on my Android tablet connected to a keyboard and mouse. I don't.

1 sky credit = 1 hour of gaming. The $9.99 plan comes with 80 sky credits. I wonder if the game companies are going to protest having their games installed on a cloud server for access from any device. I'm not sure how all DRM will be supported, either.

I haven't tried on my tablet yet, but plan to. If the market grows significantly, maybe they would care. But not sure... The game is effectively installed on a full Windows VM and you are just streaming it to your client.


So you are watching a video feed of you game and there is some interface that sends back keystrokes?

What is the "storage" for? Is that the install size of your game or for like saved games and stuff? Does that mean GTA V would take up 65GB of the 500GB or just several megabytes for the saved game?

Yes, you get a fully dedicated Windows 2012R2 instance. You login as admin and have full control of the box to do as you please. it comes with Steam and Chrome pre-installed, and configured for their gaming client. I then run their client on my PC (Mac, Android, iOS supported to) and configure my XBOX controller among other things. Storage is like a phone, 500gb - 30gb for Windows = 470gb for games and apps. Or in another words, 500gb is just like if you had a PC and installed a SSD, that is what you get.


You basically are renting a pc. You still need to purchase the games yourself. The storage is for your games.
Correct. Steam is the most simple option, but nothing stopping you from uploading/downloading your own ISO/installers.


720 or 1080 only. Looks to be capped at 30 or 60 fps. So you're essentially renting something like a XB1 or PS4, maybe a bit better graphics. Maybe okay for non-action / non-FPS type of titles but I question how this falls into the Hot Deal category.
1080p is more than sufficient for gaming. It's clearly a HotDeal as it's around 33% off normal pricing, and they claim is the last time they will offer this pricing.

How in the everloving fuck is input lag not a major issue here?

I remember back when the 'OnLive' service came out I did a review on my Youtube channel and the input lag was pretty bad.
With the setup I mentioned above, only played GTA V thus far, but I have had no noticeable lag other than a 2-3 second freeze every 10mins or so (which I mentioned above as well). Again, depending on your games & how serious you are, decide if it's worth it to you. So far, completely is for me. Much better than building a gaming PC for me.... even though my heart is still set on building one, this actually is better both from a cost and usability aspect. I can fire up my laptop anywhere in the house, such as on the couch with my wife, instead of sitting at my desk, or lugging gear around the house.
 
main thing is how powerful is their graphics? can you run doom 4 with insane quality on 720 and get 60fps smoothly?
 
This seems like a good solution for those that need to travel for work, and cant install games on a company laptop... then again hotel wi-fi sux
 
Looks like they have an entirely new pricing model coming in March.

https://liquidsky.tv/en/pricing

http://blog.liquidsky.tv/2017/01/04/road-ces-2017-las-vegas-get-ready-brand-new-liquidsky/
http://blog.liquidsky.tv/2017/01/09/future-cloud-gaming-welcome-brand-new-liquidsky/


Looks like they are bringing in Windows 10, so I should be able to play Forza now thankfully. Annoyed there were good deals on the game over the holidays and didn't buy it. Also it means I have to spend another 2 hours installing GTA V on a new VM.
Q: Will there be Windows 10 support?
A: Yes! LiquidSky will be running on Windows 10, which includes expanded compatibility support for Windows 10 PC games
 
Nvidia's offering will likely be much more expensive
 
Looks like they have an entirely new pricing model coming in March.

https://liquidsky.tv/en/pricing

http://blog.liquidsky.tv/2017/01/04/road-ces-2017-las-vegas-get-ready-brand-new-liquidsky/
http://blog.liquidsky.tv/2017/01/09/future-cloud-gaming-welcome-brand-new-liquidsky/


Looks like they are bringing in Windows 10, so I should be able to play Forza now thankfully. Annoyed there were good deals on the game over the holidays and didn't buy it. Also it means I have to spend another 2 hours installing GTA V on a new VM.
Q: Will there be Windows 10 support?
A: Yes! LiquidSky will be running on Windows 10, which includes expanded compatibility support for Windows 10 PC games

Tell me about it, GTA 5 is balls for install. I ended up burning discs 2-7 to a dual layer bluray so I at least don't have to change out 6 discs. Plus bluray reads faster then DVD.

And then it's still another 10GB thought the Internet. No beuno.
 
This is not worth it for me. $10 (about to change) for 80h per month, no thanks. When I'm gaming at my most I spend twice as much time playing games. So that would cost me $20+ per month + game cost + I still need a device to play it on, so if I want a laptop that can run Windows normally I would have to spend $500. And it's only 1080p. I can't play games on 1080p...
This is probably great for 3rd world countries though. Or is it? People from those countries don't have $60 to pay for a brand new game, so they pirate games instead. Now this + paying for games or buying a computer and pirating games... I know which one I would choose if I was in that situation ;)
 
Has anyone actually used LiquidSky that can comment on the quality of the service?
 
That's what I'd like to know. I have a feeling this is a "get what you pay for" situation.
It costs just a few bucks to try it out on the pay-as-you go plan. Granted you loose your VM after 3 days of no activity, but that really isn't a concern because you can upgrade it without loosing data to a monthly plan.

There is simply no way to 100% confirm if the service will work for you without trying it. There are just to many factors.... You may have shitty internet, you may be to far from a datacenter, you have a shitty router, shitty computer, or are ultra hyper sensitive to even a fraction of a MS lag. Gamers are quite a vocal bunch :)

:edit
Just with experience on GTA V, I can tell you I have had no perceivable difference to playing it on a full gaming PC. The exceptions are when there is a period of poor network traffic that will drop the quality a bit (exactly like say going from 720p to a good 480p stream on YouTube) that may last 10-15 seconds, or I get a full pause of the video stream, much like a video buffering for about 2-3 seconds. This happens every so often. Anywhere from every 20 minutes to once a hour for me.
 
Like everything else, just wait for thousands of reviews from gamers to arrive. If the majority are positive then it's probably worth it. If the majority are negative then stay away.
 
As they scale one would think they will -- with more / better data centers/colo -- latency should fall
 
From my post earlier, I have added up to 10 more hours of use.

For GTA V, I can play on moderate settings at 1080p with 30 or 60 fps without much issue. Ping time is around 20ms or so for me from Philly to their Washington DC facility. Every so often I'll get some lag where, likely, network traffic stumbles for a few seconds and then I am back playing. I am very impressed thus far at how responsive it is and reliable. I have not yet tried FPS games, where even just a little lag is noticeable though.

For me, as a very casual gamer, this is so far working out as an ideal solution for me. As in, I haven't done any gaming to speak of in 1yr+, until I picked up GTA V in December. With their new announcement, I am looking forward to being able to play Forza as well.

Also your experience will greatly change based on your home network connection, if you are using wireless vs. ethernet, how far you are from their DC, and the Internet service between the two. I am lucky to be on 75MBit FiOS (so up and down are 75Mbit), using Ethernet, and just 3hrs from DC. So probably on the edge of an ideal user of the service.
I would love to try it as I am very close to one of their DCs.
 
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