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Play high end PC games on a PlayStation 3
There's no crappy emulation involved - you simply 'network your GPU' to play PC games on a PS3, or any low-end Windows or Linux system around your house
The PlayStation 3 might have a groundbreaking CPU, but many PC gamers quite rightly see its lowly GeForce 7-series RSX graphics chip as a prime subject for ridicule. As such, the idea of playing PC games on a PlayStation 3 seems about as logical as brushing your hair with a piece of toast, but not if you use StreamMyGame, which uses your gaming PC's horsepower instead.
How does it work? Richard Faria from the company told Custom PC that 'We capture your games video and audio directly from your graphics card, and then we compress it into an MP4 IPTV stream in real time.' It really is that simple - with a video and audio stream you can use your main PC as a gaming server, and then play your games on a low-end laptop in the bedroom, or on the PS3 that's plugged into your widescreen TV.
'We use part of the graphics card and part of the CPU to compress it in real time,' explained Faris, 'and we form a frame packet of data, combine that with the audio and then fire that over a network. It then gets to the device at the other end, which will decompress the frame and the audio and pass it through to the device's graphics card and audio subsystem. We then capture the keyboard commands from your device and send them back to your main PC, so you're almost remote-playing your games. You're networking the GPU, basically.'
In order to use StreamMyGame, you need to install the company's software, and then add your games via the StreamMyGame website. You can then use the browser on your PS3, Linux PC or whatever compatible device you're using to select a game, and the software then tells your gaming PC to launch it.
With such a simple technology, you could theoretically link just about any device to your gaming PC, and the choice of operating systems could well eb set to widen. 'We recently unified our source tree,' says Faria, 'so there's one piece of source code that can be ported into Windows or Linux, and can be built into whatever operating system you want. We're going to try to push that forward into building into Apple Mac or anyone who wants it.'
In fact, it could even work on the Xbox 360 and Nintendo Wii. 'We have no doubt that it will run on the 360 in terms of the code and the amount of power it requires,' says Faria, 'and we're sure it'll work on the Wii, but it's whether these companies actually people into their closed systems or not. Sony obviously opened up the PS3 by allowing you to load an alternative operating system. We could possibly hack our way through it but we may not end up with something that's easy to install.'
Fancy giving it a go? If so, there's a free download of StreamMyGame that allows resolutions up to 640 x 480, which will be fine for standard TVs. However, you'll need to pay $9.99 US a year for a 720p version, and $19.99 US a year for anything above that.
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What is the point of this. Why not just connect the high end PC to the TV in the first place?
Comment by Smith at 3:27pm 18th August 2008
Accessing your home rig's power over the internet might be useful, like if you're stuck away from home or something. I like the list of PC requirements on their site: 'Sending Game Streams at Film resolution - Quad Core + Kitchen Sink'
Comment by DaveFishBulb at 9:42pm 21st January 2008
Lol get a good ISP then! I'm with ADSL24 (reseller for Entanet) and I've got no bandwidth throttling whatsoever and only tied to a one-month contract. Sure, there aren't any frills like a free modem or unlimited bandwidth, but 30GB peak and 300GB off peak for £20 is plenty and well worth it for full speed. Also have unlimited email addresses, webspace, advanced controls (disabled my interleaving in a matter of hours) and they don't rip you off by continuing to charge you after you cancel!
Comment by TWeaK9 at 12:18am 21st January 2008
FANTASTICK!!! I could play crysis downstairs on the 38" Hd tv! (well when they sort it for 360) To those consol fanboys out there, my 7800 gtx's eat the S$&£ out of both the 360 and ps3, AA and AF anyone?? or do console fanboys not know what I'm talking about??? lolz
Comment by ramos001 at 12:14am 20th January 2008
Has anybody thought of this. 1) They are going to stream data from some where in the USA to the UK 2) As soon as it hits the UK your ISP will hit the FAIR USAGE BUTTON. Bang goes your chance of playing anything. Well thats my pennies worth.
Comment by cwt150 at 8:09pm 18th January 2008
it could catch on once they fine tune it a bit it isnt common practice so its going to be a bit crude at first - the guy who was talking about playing on his eeepc - with its low res screen maybe there is a possibility of the eeepc playing some great games.
Comment by rjkoneill at 9:29am 18th January 2008
'We capture your games video and audio directly from your graphics card, and then we compress it into an MP4 IPTV stream in real time.' Eh? Audio data from a graphics card? Hmmm.
Comment by dedlite at 10:31am 16th January 2008
To the comment that mentions the 360. I agree that the 360 is a brilliant console also. I own both the PS3 and the 360, my personal preference is the PS3 but I'm not doubting that the 360 is very very good. But for the comment regarding Halo. That is one game, well three in a series if you like and how is that going to do anything? I know it's a good game but that was a bit of a random thing to say I feel... My comment is on how PC Gamers (I' am one) say that the PS3 it basically poo and it's completely not, I don't see how people can say it!
Comment by Scorpion_102 at 4:02pm 15th January 2008
Yes steaming games is slower but is it slow enough to notice gigabit ethernet is more than capable of streaming video at this res. around and most system can easily encode a media stream fast enough. The advantage I can see for systems like this are those people that have a requirement for multiple high end systems in the house. Gaming clusters anyone? Single servers where the games are held and the ability to be anywhere in the house on any machine and run the game. The ability to run a gaming rig. in the attic and not have to worry about noise. I mean who cares if the system is actually cooled by several 9' desk fans. Its not in the room your playing your game on anyway.
Comment by reashlin at 1:49pm 15th January 2008
BECAUSE you have to have input with a video, you can buffer it, so it appears to stream together but it loads first. with a game you have to relay input (like jumping or moving the mouse) back to the thing and see an instant response.
Comment by wegreenall at 12:04pm 15th January 2008
The ps3 has some kind of muti cpu technology right, which im not bothered what its called, because at the moment, and that moment has been held for a long time, the cpu grunt in the ps3 hasnt even been used, so ur buying a burning set of silicone.... where an xbox360 which costs much less, does the same, plays all the same titles, and has the ability of playing the legendary halo series? Not only that but xbox live rubs ps3 in the ground too... PC- the only reason why this is still probably the best is because the good old mouse and keyboard is far more accurate (in terms of Fps games) than any control pad, and reactions can be far quicker too..
Comment by Lightning_Pete at 12:03pm 15th January 2008
Surely the performance of this technology is completely independent of the game being streamed. Crysis, for example, will not require any more resources to stream that an episode of Family Guy at the same resolution. I suppose the quality of the data stream is a factor too, but it seems that you have some degree of control over that within the software. I could see this being useful for myself and anyone that uses a Media PC with a low end (and silent) graphics card like the 2400 HD. I play some games at low resolutions (eg PES 2007) on this machine but it can not cope with much. using tihs game streaming software, I could envisage playing any game my gaming rig can handle - in the comfort of my living room on a 2 m screen (projector) using a gamepad. The only question I need to consider is - does this software work with gamepads plugged into the remote PC? I am assuming yes, but will be trying out the free version later.
Comment by deancairns at 9:15am 15th January 2008
It annoys me to see how people can say stuff like 'Play High-End PC Games on a PS3'. It then goes on to say how the PS3 has a sort of 7-series chip. Well nobody can say that is bad! for god sakes' PC's have only just got into 8-series and there still pretty much useless, ooo Crysis whoopdy doo! In my opinion I think the PS3 is an amazing piece of equipment. Since having one I haven't used my gaming system much to play games. It also allows people who don't have the knowledge or money to build a very good gaming PC. As for the idea, it seems decent but like I said, the only other game PC has an advantage with is Crysis. UT3 for example will be a PS3 title aswell.
Comment by Scorpion_102 at 10:01am 15th January 2008
when you can just plug your pc into the telly... what do you gain from pugging into a console? the use of a console controller? you can get those for pc anyway. I don't understand why this is a good idea!
Comment by wegreenall at 9:00am 15th January 2008
free download of StreamMyGame that allows resolutions up to 640 x 480, As the Wii supports 480p max currently that would mean it's free I guess :)
Comment by finlay666uk at 11:56pm 14th January 2008
My friend has a Geforce FX5200 but wants to play hitman blood money. Is there any way he could play it on his ps3, maybe through linux? I know the GPU isn't cutting edge but it's bound 2 b better than a fx5200. He doesn't mind playing it on low settings.
Comment by jtreanor at 10:31pm 14th January 2008
So, you can buy a high end gaming rig, or you could do this. In which case, you buy your high end gaming rig anyway, plus a console, plus the software. As far as I can see the only advantage is you get to move your computer to a different room...
Comment by NotFred at 9:42pm 14th January 2008
sounds like a good idea, misses complains about me not spending time with her cos i'm in another room, we have a playstation 3 on big screen tv in living room...that might be the answer, until she complains she is missing emmerdale or corination street, lol
Comment by richardcreedy at 6:34pm 14th January 2008
I should be able to play World of Warcraft in bed on my Company Laptop. Hopefully it will look better streaming from my main PC, than the minimum specs that the laptop can barely provide. I dunno know how the system will handle cutting edge FPSers, but if it can handle WoW without problems, Im happy. Dunno if the missus will be tho...
Comment by baconroll at 5:27pm 14th January 2008
looks nice, though I lost interest when I read 640*480 though :(
Comment by chrissss4 at 5:04pm 14th January 2008
Lemme grab the ps1, well not quite :P I think it's a cool idea though
Comment by mrjimmyos at 4:50pm 14th January 2008
The idea of playing games in the living room on my £200 asus eeepc while the £2000 games machine in the other room does all the work has a great deal of appeal.
Comment by marcgear at 4:53pm 14th January 2008
the whole idea sounds compelling but in the reality, i can\'t imagine playing Crysis being streamed in real time through the PC. the amount of data would be huge and lags involved would make the game unplayable. i mean it\'s a good idea to play ur pc games on a big plasma or lcd but the easier way is just to connect a pc to it. if it comes to multimedia content there are multimedia wireless streamers which can transfer/stream your media files from ur pc on a hard drive connected to ur TV so u can watch them in the comfort of your sofa. but even the best of them have rubbish transfer rates especially when the pc is in the other room which makes the whole streaming in RT gimmick pointless, making it a necessity to just transfer files before using them... besides playing PC games on a PS3?? why?? i have a pc to play them on, right? why would i have a PS3 in the first place if i have a PC? PS3 has like 4 games on it anyway
Comment by groch at 4:31pm 14th January 2008
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