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NVIDIA Project Shield : Handheld power house!

Posted by Unknown Jumat, 15 Maret 2013 0 komentar

I recently decided to return to Pandora and complete my shamefully unfinished game of Gearbox’s stellar co-op RPG shooter, Borderlands 2. I couldn’t put it down when the game first launched, but my gaming habits are dictated around work and family, so long adventures like this all too often fall to the wayside. After booting up and inviting a trio of friends, we went to visit good old “Terramorphous the Invincible”. Then it hit me: my daughter had a dentist appointment. Sure, her teeth are gorgeous, but all the while I lost my best chance to take down the infernal Terramorphous. Damn! I wish I had an Nvidia Project Shield!

This scenario is a real one. With Shield I could have paused my game, gone to the dentist with my daughter, checked her in and resumed play over Wi-Fi. Then I could have had my arse handed to me by the “invincible” Terramorphous–all while in the waiting room. We’ve written about this before. It’s one of the few gaming devices coming out that could add real value to all players. This article will discuss why that is an how it works.

What is Nvidia Project SHIELD?

Project SHIELD is an Android-based portable gaming device that can stream PC games. The 5-inch flip-up display supports multi-touch and does 720p. It’s powered by the company’s all-new Tegra 4 mobile CPU that features the latest in ARM processing. SHIELD can run Android games locally from internal storage, and it can stream PC games either from Nvidia’s own GRID cloud service or directly from user-owned GeForce GPU-equipped PC’s running Valve’s Steam digital distribution service.

Playing Android games is just like any smartphone: you download and play. What’s interesting is how PC games play.They are streamed from your home desktop running a 600 series (or later) Nvidia GeForce video card,or from the “cloud” over Nvidia’s aforementioned GRID cloud service. On paper it’s a powerful service.

You don’t have to worry about SHIELD hardware keeping pace with the advancements in PC gaming. Because SHIELD is only a conduit for your PC games. It’s not crunching “texels per clock” on the device. This is happening at the GRID server level for cloud gaming. For streaming from your PC, you need to make sure your desktop GPU is up to snuff. Nvidia recommends a GTX 650. I say a GTX 660ti or higher is the smarter choice. Plus they’re dirt cheap. Additionally, Steam is required to be installed on your PC.

Steam and the “Big Picture”

Nvidia SHIELD will speak directly and fluently to Steam on your PC by way of WiFi or over 3G/4G networks. With Steam, game management is familiar and consistent. Steam is a digital distribution platform for games and software. It’s a free application that allows users to purchase and download games directly to their hard drive. It functions the same as the Xbox Live Marketplace, for example. Steam is also completely free to use and like Xbox Live and it’s “Marketplace,” both wield formidable social networking features for gamers like voice chat, video sharing, screenshots, join groups/communities, host events etc. Moreover, all of the security and options can be set on the desktop, through a smartphone app, or directly on Shield.

Anyone with a SHIELD can easily and remotely tap into all that Steam has to offer. For clarity, here’s a quick list of highlights about Steam (and PC-gaming)

The Steam distribution platform is already home to over 1,500 game titles. For perspective, Xbox Live Marketplace has about 1,000.
Valve just released Steam Big Picture, it’s a new feature that washes Steam in a TV-ready bath of 1080p richness, sharp textured text and a working set top browser. This includes complete controller/gampad support.
More than 240 million personal computers were sold in 2012. It’s safe to say that nearly any computer made within the last couple years is capable of running Steam. Note: for SHIELD to stream from a PC, that PC needs a GTX 650 or higher.
The Steam games library is unsurpassed, but so is its user base with a ridiculous 50 million registered Steam users!

Mobile Gaming Reborn

The mobile gaming implications are marvelous. You could essentially start-up a game at home on your PC and continue over Project SHIELD while on the bus. When an HDMI-ready TV is available, plug in to enjoy your games like you would a game console such as Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3.

SHIELD can potentially revolutionize traditional LAN parties as well, where gamers bring their PCs together to one place and play for long sessions in the same room. Instead of lugging a desktop to a friend’s house, you could simply take your SHIELD. Even hardcore PC gamers can take advantage of Shield’s Bluetooth radio and connect a keyboard and mouse for precision gaming.

Open and Familiar

One of the great things about the device is its open platform. Project SHIELD is not trying to reinvent the console; it’s opening up the PC to a much broader audience. All those closed proprietary standards that come with console manufacturing are incredibly expensive. By using traditional standards such as Ethernet, HDMI and the like, Nvidia is positioned to actually turn a profit on the hardware itself, while reaching a mass audience.

The device is the product of meticulous thought “by gamers for gamers”. Android is an open and easy-to-use mobile operating system; the Tegra 4 processor is expected to be one of the most powerful mobile CPU/GPU chips released this year; and utilizing Steam and existing GeForce desktop GPUs, NVidia has everything ready for this bold device. It’s open to customization, plenty of different uses, and it isn’t a phone or a tablet. This is existing tech (Tegra and GeForce) made to play nice with existing systems (Steam, Tegra Zone and Android).

It’s Not a Tablet?

So why not a tablet or a new more intelligent smartphone? Well I could hazard a few educated guesses. But the limitations (screen size, controls, battery life, and processing power) are obvious. There’s just too much that a phone and a tablet don’t do right for gaming. Every tablet and smartphone has an army of aftermarket controllers or sticky add-ons to simulate a controller on-screen–all of which make gaming seem secondary.

In addition, Nvidia has gone on record stating, “SHIELD began with an effort to strip gaming down to its most essential component: a controller.” Most likely the reason being, a gamer’s favorite controller will outlast girlfriends, that sweet “I Shot JR” T-shirt and the shelf life of a Twinkie. Look at the Sony PlayStation controller. It has not seen a significant design change since the original PlayStation system launched in 1994. Our modern-day controllers come from over 30 years of evolution; there’s a reason why it works. And that just isn’t available on smartphones and tablets.

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Judul: NVIDIA Project Shield : Handheld power house!
Ditulis oleh Unknown
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