AfterDawn: Tech news

Google working on 'negative latency' for Stadia cloud-gaming platform

Written by James Delahunty @ 11 Oct 2019 2:19

Google working on 'negative latency' for Stadia cloud-gaming platform

Questions about latency arose as soon as Google announced its cloud gaming service Stadia, but Google is apparently aiming for 'negative latency' with the service.
Latency concerns are entirely understandable. It is one thing when the input from controllers travels over a wire to a PC or console, or short range wireless connection. It is an entirely different thing when the input from the controller or other devices has to travel across the Internet, and the result has to be streamed back to you. Latency seems almost inevitable.

Significant latency and lag could seriously hurt Google's platform when it launches in November. However, the company has been working on it and Majd Bakar, VP of Engineering at Stadia, has even invoked 'negative latency'.

This is a peculiar term since it conjures up thoughts of an input command being received and the result being streamed back to you before you even sent the input. However, it is likely a term that hints at how things work at the back-end. There are suggestions that what Bakar means is that the Google system will predict input controls and constantly render frames ahead of time, and then quickly determine which predictions were correct and send the appropriate frames.



Such a system sounds impressively complicated but if it worked, it could mean that the user would essentially experience no noticeable latency at all. It would be like playing a locally installed game. We really look forward to seeing that manifest.

In other Stadia-related news, it has been confirmed that all launch titles will be available to stream in 4K at 60fps.

Previous Next  
Comments have been disabled for this article.

Latest news

VLC hits milestone: over 5 billion downloads VLC hits milestone: over 5 billion downloads (16 Mar 2024 4:31)
VLC Media Player, the versatile video-software powerhouse, has achieved a remarkable feat: it has been downloaded over 5 billion times.
2 user comments
Sideloading apps to Android gets easier, as Google settles its lawsuit Sideloading apps to Android gets easier, as Google settles its lawsuit (19 Dec 2023 11:09)
Google settled its lawsuit in September 2023, and one of the settlement terms was that the way applications are installed on Android from outside the Google Play Store must become simpler. In the future, installing APK files will be easier.
8 user comments
Roomba Combo j7+ review - Clever trick allows robot vacuum finally to tackle home with rugs and carpets Roomba Combo j7+ review - Clever trick allows robot vacuum finally to tackle home with rugs and carpets (06 Jun 2023 9:19)
Roomba Combo j7+ is the very first Roomba model to combine robot vacuum with mopping features. And Roomba Combo j7+ does all that with a very clever trick, which tackles the problem with mopping and carpets. But is it any good? We found out.
Neato, the robot vacuum company, ends its operations Neato, the robot vacuum company, ends its operations (02 May 2023 3:38)
Neato Robotics has ceased its operations. American robot vacuum pioneer founded in 2005 has finally called it quits and company will cease its operations and sales. Only a skeleton crew will remain who will keep the servers running until 2028.
5 user comments
How to Send Messages to Yourself on WhatsApp How to Send Messages to Yourself on WhatsApp (20 Mar 2023 1:25)
The world's most popular messaging platform, Meta-owned WhatsApp has enabled sending messages to yourself. While at first, this might seem like an odd feature, it can be very useful in a lot of situations. ....
18 user comments

News archive