Thin client gaming access machine, proof of concept??

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XeroHouR

[H]ard|Gawd
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Sep 14, 2004
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I'm not certain if this belongs in this section, or another (like so many other posts :p), but I'll go for it.

I am interested in using sort of a thin-client (or fit-pc or other machine) to bring with me in the local area (city or surrounding cities) and access my home computer in all its glory. For extreme testing purposes, I'd like to be able to full on play games. Does software exist that would enable me to get a live stream, obviously the better the compression, the better. Is this something Citrix's XenDesktop could do for me?

With the power packed into something like a Fit-PC it seems like it would be possible to use such a device to decompress and display a stream on the fly, a bit like what OnLive is doing. This would have other applications, but I'd wager gaming is a great test of this system.

Also, I swear I'm not a Fit-PC rep lol:D

Lets have us a discussion :)
 
What kind of gaming?

For a FPS playing online with other gamers doing the same thing... your latency would be horrible.
 
Well, as it's mostly proof of concept, let's assume its RTS gaming, where twitch is not a factor. I just want to get whatever resolution the local monitor supports to display the full resources of my computer, and transmit my HID commands back to the machine.

*edit* yes I did just use transmit.
 
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Hmmm no replies. I'll try to stir up some interest...

I guess the major use would be streaming video in good resolution, but gaming would be a great test to see sites on really fast connections. Use of the hardware is crucial because my home machine and servers work with certain programs my remote sites will also use. Often times I find that the hardware on-site is insufficient, but the money holders disagree ("it's worked before!!!!").

Being able to stream to a small client from my equipment at home would be good proof to them that it can work, and I can upsell on hardware too (though they really need it).

I guess this is what OnLive has been struggling with, and these programs are not likely to exist in great numbers huh?
 
XeroHouR said:
Hmmm no replies. I'll try to stir up some interest...
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Well, I think you posted in the wrong forum to begin with. You may want to have a mod move this. I don't understand how this involves Distributed Computing at all.
 
Actually, Tobit, I can see where the mistake was made.....

But again, this is in the wrong forum none-the-less....

You might want to post this in networking & security forums.
 
Well, I suppose the morning coffee wasn't good enough, stopped worrying about where I put it. Mods feel free to move to whatever is good, networking will be ok.
 
Hrm I think I'll try testing just 1080p video to my sony UX from my home machine and output to a 1080p tv. Not sure if it'll work wonders for the audio part, but it'll at least test the video quality....I'll post back any findings for anyone who is interested in this. Could take some time to get Citrix up and tweaked though....
 
If you can open ports on your home firewall and wherever your going to be located, you can use PCoIP technology, but your internet bandwith would be your restriction.
We stream full screen 1080p video from LA to CT without a problem, but its over a 10gb private connection, but we do have users in NC that connect to machines in CT without a problem, although there is a slight mouse lag once in a while
 
Yea, I figured the biggest hitch is in the internet connections themselves. Since I'm not leaving the city (and if I do, its not far away), and I have quite a fast connection at home, I hope to see some decent quality here.

If you don't mind dbwillis...what kind of compression goes on with the 1080p video stream, do you know through what method it's done? Do you use PCoIP for it?
 
Im not on the video side of the house so Im not sure what codec is being used.
But the users are in LA and the PC they are using to create movie clips 10-20 sec long, are based in Bristol CT.
PCoIP is just the compression for between the actual PC and the user device
videos are for sports @ ESPN

We use the Verari-Connexxus solution (see Teradici link below), although we have a few Samsung LCD's with the built in client and a few Connexxus devices that connect to VMWare machines via vmview
 
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I've used LogMeIn Free for windowed applications. on a 5mbps upstream I had to tone down the resolution and use greyscale but I got usable FPS out of it (although not on the scale of being able to use it for enjoyable purposes).
 
dx2 said:
http://blogs.technet.com/virtualization/archive/2010/03/17/explaining-microsoft-remotefx.aspx

Check it out - with RemoteFX they are working towards remote media rich desktop environments - even with full support of 3D accelerated apps. Just no firm release date yet :)
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It was announced just the other day that it's going to be released in Win Server 2008 and Win 7 SP1 which is coming fairly soon (though they won't say how soon that is).

http://www.brianmadden.com/blogs/vi...ad-brockway-discusses-and-demos-remotefx.aspx

Good video which really showcases it in action.
 
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Yup, I made mention of Onlive in another post I thought. I wonder how much of their technology will be usable/copyable by other vendors and outlets. I'd like to see this sort of thing really become mainstream and affordable (connection and server-wise). I'll read over this stuff and likely be starting my project this week. Will consider doing a worklog of findings.....


Thanks for the posts so far guys, keep the good stuff coming.
 
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