News - Nvidia demos Project SHIELD streaming Borderlands 2 from PC

[HEXUS]

To remind us it’s not just an Android handheld gaming console.

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[Platinum]

So you can buy a device that lets you play games from a GTX 600 enabled PC on a small handheld console in the same house?

Am I the only one that thinks its totaly nuts, your in a house with a GTX 600 powered , with a keyboard and mouse, and you want to use a handheld device to play the games from it using a controller?

[Chadders87]

So you can buy a device that lets you play games from a GTX 600 enabled PC on a small handheld console in the same house?

Am I the only one that thinks its totaly nuts, your in a house with a GTX 600 powered , with a keyboard and mouse, and you want to use a handheld device to play the games from it using a controller?

You forgot to highlight the fact that the handheld device has only a 5inch screen. Not exactly a great size for ultimate playing experiences but may be passable for casual games on penny arcade.

I'd be interested if the screen was 11", supported by a mini keyboard rather than controller. Simply, stream to a netbook sized machine. Even better, stream to a netbook.

I'd pay loads for that... laptop gaming with huge upgradeability instead of none, brilliant mobility (sofa / bed / bog... everywhere else is a waste of travelling time), and greater flexibility of uses.

Come on Nvidia...

[brasco]

Ludicrous product, I honestly don't know who'd want this, maybe the Asian markets like this form factor?

[valhar2000]

I agree with the other commenters: I have a hard time imagining situations in which this would be useful. The gaming laptop concept fails because you need to be within range of the computers that sources it, so it's not really very portable, and if it is not portable, you might as well sit down in front of the source computer and not bother with this.

I guess there might be some use for this in cyber-cafes or places like that: have a few very powerful servers and let the people play on small dumb terminals.

[Irien]

The feature I'm most interested in is the ability to stream to a 1080p tv. In that mode, Shield becomes an ordinary controller, allowing a gaming PC elsewhere in the house to output to the TV in the lounge with a comfy (??) wireless controller driving things.

Obviously it depends on the games you're playing, but *if* it works, it'd allow PC max detail levels to come to the living room without the need to have a gaming-grade PC wheezing away within radius of your TV.

[Chadders87]

The gaming laptop concept fails because you need to be within range of the computers that sources it, so it's not really very portable

As this is intended to run of the "open" 5ghz bandwidth, the range can be anything upto 100ft / 33m. Realisticly though I'd imagine it streaming between 5-15m max to maximise battery vs. performance. Still enough distance for me to sit on the pooper in my small house and play, as the PC is rather central in the house.

[Meowdance]

I agree.

"Ah, back from work and I'll turn on my £1K gaming machine with 24" Monitor and Expensive Keyboard/Mouse. Now I'm going to play Borderlands 2 for hours!

ON A 5 INCH SCREEN WITH A CONTROLLER."

Wow Nvidia.

[Odeas]

Wonder if you could go through a VPN to use this away from home?
Latency would probably be a big issue though, agree with above a barebones smallish netbook would probably make more sense.

Only real current use I can see would be to have this on the couch so you don't have to watch the missus's soaps!

[Scarlet Infidel]

I'm not sure what's not to understand here?

On the one hand you have a dedicated android 'gaming tablet' with integrated controller.
On the other hand can sit comfortably on your sofa with your big TV and sound system and play your PC games.

If you share your PC then this might also be useful (depending on what the software supports).
If I owned this and it worked well I might also be tempted to move my graphics card to my server machine.

Why be constrained by convention?

[Lucio]

The real potential of a device like this would be multiplayer, having a single powerful gaming PC, that multiple people can use simultaneously.

Sadly that doesn't seem mentioned within the article as being possible

[Bagpuss]

Hundreds of pounds/dollars just to play games whilst taking a dump...no thanks.

[pfb201]

I think the fact that they are using a GTX 600 series from "someone's house" is irrelevant. The idea of this product is that it is supposed to tie in with NVIDIA Experience which will at some point have a cloud gaming provider meaning full streaming to a handset like this. This does reduce the necessity for this over already existing set top games consoles like Onlive.

[pfb201]

The real potential of a device like this would be multiplayer, having a single powerful gaming PC, that multiple people can use simultaneously.

Sadly that doesn't seem mentioned within the article as being possible

We have been chatting about this in the office. Wait till Nvidia releases the Titan series GPUs and allows a hypervisor over a graphics cards that consumers can use. This already exists but not in a gaming sense in graphics enhanced VDI scenarios.