PC to PS3/Linux game streaming launches

By Robert Purchese Published 14 January, 2008

Crysis on your telly.

StreamMyGame has released an update to its software so you can stream PC games to your PS3.

Specifically it has added Ubuntu and Yellow Dog Linux support for its StreamMyGame Player, so any machine running the operating systems can install the client and receive the digital streams.

The aim is to let a host PC with impressive tell-your-mates machinery run a game while someone controls it elsewhere - currently only in the local LAN vicinity.

"I have a PS3 in my living room and PC in my office and my two kids both have old PCs in their bedrooms," said Richard Faria, boss of StreamMyGame. "Now we can play games anywhere around the home.

"StreamMyGame's technology networks the power of a main PC so it can be used to play high end games on other PCs, PS3s and Linux devices."

Broadband support is expected as soon as March, although only for networks with sufficient capacity. Like NASA.

Head over and register on the StreamMyGame site to download the free server and player, both of which are also compatible with Windows.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (27) Latest comment 4 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Saltefanden #1 4 years ago

    That's actually a nice feature. Kudos to the PS3.

  • JayeM #2 4 years ago

    Useless really.

  • The-Bodybuilder #3 4 years ago

    This sounds cool.

  • udat #4 4 years ago

    This is basically like G-Cluster, and essentially rubbish. The small delay in controller input is enough to annoy the hell out of anyone even remotely serious about games.

  • jebus #5 4 years ago

    This seems totally pointless to me. Or am I missing something?

    Good point about the control input as well udat.

  • carrotcake #6 4 years ago

    Actually the thing that would most annoy me is leaving a high-end PC and PS3 turned on to play one game. What a waste of electricity. Go to the room of the machine that is doing the processing and play there.

  • Dizzy #7 4 years ago

    Useless.

  • Baronen #8 4 years ago

    Far from useless, actually. Only problem is the aforementioned delay in input, otherwise I could see it be quite useful.

  • GamesProgrammer Verified Games Team Programmer, Eutechnyx Ltd. #9 4 years ago

    So Exactly like the remote play feature on PS3->PSP then with PS1 Games.

  • lambtron #10 4 years ago

    " Far from useless, actually. Only problem is the aforementioned delay in input, otherwise I could see it be quite useful."

    That's a pretty massive problem!

  • Totoriko #11 4 years ago

    "Now we can play games anywhere around the home."

    But they don't have a PC in their toilet, kitchen, garage, how can they play games in these parts of their home?

  • skillian #12 4 years ago

    That's a pretty massive problem!

    Lag would be a big problem, but does anyone know if it's actually the case? Has anyone tried it or is it just being bashed because it's somehow related to PS3?

  • EG_XBL #13 4 years ago

    So does this thing just stream the framebuffer, like a sort of amped-up VNC? If so, how much bandwidth does it need to to stream, say, 1080p@60Hz?

  • skillian #14 4 years ago

    OK, this is new but it's quite hard to try and find any comments from people who've used it. This is about the only link I could find: [link url=http://www.nvnews.net/vbull etin/archive/index.php/t-101088.html+streammygame+lag+paid&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=3&gl=uk&client=firefox-a
    ]    http://ww w.nvnews.net/vbulletin/archive/...[/link]

    They're only talking about PC to PC (which is what I'd want it for), but the two comments from people who've actually tried it out are:

    I just tried it out and was able to play COD4 on my gateway laptop which could never play the game itself. I was streaming the game from my A64x2 rig with a 7600GT. I had the laptop on the desk so I could see both screens and I could not detect any lag in movement.

    and

    I just downloaded the free version and after a lot of tweaking (couldn't get it to work in Vista, had to boot to XP to run the server properly) I was playing STALKER on my Atari ITX system with a 2.4Ghz Pentium 4 and 8Mb Intel Extreme video. :D

    It was a little glitchy though.

    On my sister's computer it worked flawlessly though. Its an Athlon XP at 2Ghz with a 9600 Pro.

    Its so playable! No mouse lag at all! I don't know how they do it! Its probably running at around 30fps... I wish I could tweak the framerate, but hell, its amazing being able to play a cutting edge game at 640x480 (with perfect FREE anti-aliasing from the video scaling) at 30fps solid on an old computer.

  • seasidebaz #15 4 years ago

    this isn't actually directly related to ps3, it's related to linux.

    need to have linux installed on the ps3 to play games from your pc.

  • old_skool #16 4 years ago

    Is this some type of virtualisation?

  • tripitaka #17 4 years ago

    Not at all.

    Just compresses and streams video one way, and sends your controller input the other way.

  • Talha #18 4 years ago

    When will people forget this whole 'connected home' thing? Who the fuck needs it?

    INVEST YOUR EFFORT IN SOMETHING CONSTRUCTIVE (like a cellphone that can run Crysis)

  • BobsUncle #19 4 years ago

    "perfect FREE anti-aliasing from the video scaling"

    Err.. Scaling isn't antialiasing. I bet the scaled fonts and text don't looked antialiased, blurring might be the word he's looking for.

  • kangarootoo #20 4 years ago

    Seems rather nify to me, though I personally wouldn't get any use out of it.

    Good to see a healthy population of narrow minded skeptics in here. Thats the spirit, thin client computing is useless. Best tell all the companies out there making a fortune out of similar technology.

    Obviously for some this will have no purpose as it won't suit their requirements, but that doesn't make it a useless technology.

    Would someone not able to drive call the invention of the motor car useless? Or would they just say "I personally wouldn't benefit from that, but I can see how others would, because I'm smart enough to see the potential in good ideas"?

    Some real forward thinkers on here, no doubt.

  • udat #21 4 years ago

    Thin client computing is great, and I use it in various guises for lots of different things... just not for playing twitch games. I've seen and used technology similar to this at work (the aforementioned G-Cluster) throughout its development for some 5 years now, and while all the non-gamers that try it are quite impressed, I was never happy with the controller lag. It was only about 50 ms according to the tech guys, but that was enough to feel wrong to me.

  • Balfa #22 4 years ago

    The potential is pretty big. It won't be long before broadband internet connections are fast enough to do this... then you might be some place that has PCs but no games and you're bored. You just connect to your home PC and play whatever you like.

  • drxym #23 4 years ago

    This feature is utterly useless and the reasons why should be clear. First off you need to be running Linux. In other words 0.1% of all PS3 users will be able to use this feature. Secondly you need to install and play the software which is unlikely to be 0.1% of that.

    In other words no one is going to bother with this.

    Aside from this, it will suffer the same problem that PSP streaming suffers - latency. Streaming graphics over the net and reconstituting them on the screen adds a serious delay. This won't matter for some games. It will matter for first person shooters and other action games. Even a modest 200ms delay is enough to seriously disrupt a game. The same is true of the PSP BTW, but at least streaming has applications outside of just playing games.

  • skillian #24 4 years ago

    ^ Did you even read the article? It's not a PS3 feature, it's software for Linux/Windows. It doesn't "stream graphics over the net and reconstitute them on screen", it's basically streaming video, and besides it's just for LANs at the moment. And since when is a 200ms a modest delay? Most online games I play give me a ping of about 15 - 50 on decent servers, and abviously LAN play would be much less than that.

  • Psiloc #25 4 years ago

    Does PS3 YDL support the sixaxis yet?

  • Ryze #26 4 years ago

    @skillian

    It would need to compress and decompress the image at each end, otherwise it wouldn't fit down a 100Mbps Ethernet connection. This would add latency, as would the time taken for the image to travel across the LAN.

    This would increase as the distance increases, according to the laws of physics, along with the issue of never being able to guarantee your connection speed across the Internet.

    A great idea for RPGs, strategy and puzzle games, but no good for many arcade or action games.

    I'll wait until these systems mature, but they'll probably be great for getting certain games onto handheld devices and mobile phones.

  • kangarootoo #27 4 years ago

    @drxym

    "This feature is utterly useless and the reasons why should be clear"

    The reason is quite clear. You are only considering you own needs and confusing those with the rest of the planet. So thats that cleared up then.

    "In other words no one is going to bother with this."

    Lets talk actual numbers and I might make a cash bet with you on that one (though as udat pointed out, forms of the same tech are being used right now. Does that mean you owe me money already?).