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LiquidSky, the 'PC in the Cloud' gaming service will support Linux

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During GDC at the AMD event, a LiquidSky employee stated that their gaming client that streams games to you will have a Linux client.

You can see the video here, at around 44 minutes the LiquidSky presenter talks about how it works and what platforms it will support and Linux is directly mentioned as being supported.

It's interesting, but to use such a service you will need a very good connection. It's a little like in-home streaming on Steam. You're essentially renting some time from their servers to do all of the rendering of the game, while you still do all the input and actual gaming.

I'm not personally too interested, but the whole idea behind it does have a lot of merit. People on low-spec devices having the ability to run top-end games. It's a nice idea, so hopefully it works well.

I've requested Beta access to one day get a report on it and when doing so, I needed to pick a server close to me. Thankfully, it seems they have servers spread across the world, so it's not like it will be streaming a game half-way across the world.

It seems their service will be powered by AMD's Vega GPUs and they will have a free account with adverts, if you don't want to pay monthly for it. It's currently in Beta, but it seems they are a little overwhelmed with requests (1.4 million they claim testing right now) so it might be some time before I can check it out.

I wouldn't be surprised if a service like this eventually becomes a big hit. We've seen music, film and TV streaming (all of which even I pay for) for a monthly payment on-demand, so why not gaming? You could argue "but then you don't own it", but then we go down the rabbit hole of - if you ever really own the software you buy and so on. That's an argument for another day I think.

Thanks for letting me know Michał. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Tags: AMD, Apps, Beta, Upcoming
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I am the owner of GamingOnLinux. After discovering Linux back in the days of Mandrake in 2003, I constantly came back to check on the progress of Linux until Ubuntu appeared on the scene and it helped me to really love it. You can reach me easily by emailing GamingOnLinux directly. Find me on Mastodon.
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Purple Library Guy Mar 1, 2017
Overall, I might be interested if I lived in South Korea and had a blazing fast connection.

As to who it's good for . . . well, I suspect in the medium term the trend towards software disappearing into the cloud, with stuff like this or things being browser-based, probably is good for Linux the OS (although perhaps not for Free Software more generally). Basically, it's a trend towards making the local OS unimportant. If any OS will in effect run everything, then what do you base your choice of operating system on? User friendliness at this point is mainly a matter of style; all the OSes can do it. So what's left?
Well, Linux won't phone home and tell Microsoft, Apple or the NSA all your pr0n watching habits. That's the only firm differentiator I can think of if everyone can run all the software: Lack of a Big Brother.
elmapul Mar 1, 2017
Quoting: Purple Library GuyOverall, I might be interested if I lived in South Korea and had a blazing fast connection.

As to who it's good for . . . well, I suspect in the medium term the trend towards software disappearing into the cloud, with stuff like this or things being browser-based, probably is good for Linux the OS (although perhaps not for Free Software more generally). Basically, it's a trend towards making the local OS unimportant. If any OS will in effect run everything, then what do you base your choice of operating system on? User friendliness at this point is mainly a matter of style; all the OSes can do it. So what's left?
Well, Linux won't phone home and tell Microsoft, Apple or the NSA all your pr0n watching habits. That's the only firm differentiator I can think of if everyone can run all the software: Lack of a Big Brother.

facebook does bigbrother on the content you see on it and outside of it (if the page has an social plugin)
so?
iiari Mar 1, 2017
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I've been using LiquidSky on Linux and paying for it, both on my Chromebooks via Linux (!!) and via my Mint-on-Steam-Machine rig. It's basically a Wine wrapper to the PC client, but I've found it to be wonderful. I have fast in home internet (90-135 Mbps) and it's been butter smooth playing titles at 1080p at full details with no discernible lag.

Being as devoted to Linux gaming as I am, what do I use it for? Space sim titles, which just really don't exist on Linux. Elite Dangerous, Star Citizen, Empire of the Dying Sun (totally underappreciated, BTW), and Angels Fall First. None have Linux versions or run (yet) via Wine.

I think this is really the future of gaming, and I think it's great for Linux. It removes the need for super pricey gaming hardware and zillions of drivers and compatibilities. It doesn't matter what % of platforms we are. Just developers aiming for a Windows backbone that can be streamed by everyone. Use the DE you want. Android, Chrome OS, iOS, Windows, Linux, Mac... Doesn't matter.

I'm a big fan.


Last edited by iiari on 1 March 2017 at 6:23 am UTC
Nasra Mar 1, 2017
In France, we have Shadow : https://shadow.tech/

But it is not a linux machine. More precisely, it's linux servers with windows machines in docks.
It seems to run greatly with a good internet connection (mostly fiber). Some e-sport teams runs with Shadow.
elmapul Mar 1, 2017
i wonder if this will increase the marketshare of windows on the cloud, or if more games will be ported to linux since linux is better on the server market anyway....
rick01457 Mar 2, 2017
Quoting: iiariI've been using LiquidSky on Linux and paying for it, both on my Chromebooks via Linux (!!) and via my Mint-on-Steam-Machine rig. It's basically a Wine wrapper to the PC client, but I've found it to be wonderful. I have fast in home internet (90-135 Mbps) and it's been butter smooth playing titles at 1080p at full details with no discernible lag.
What does it cost? I see a $9.99 monthly option, which looks reasonable to me, but then there's mention of credits. I can't seem to find a clear answer as to whether you would still need to buy credits even if on a monthly subscription.
Salvatos Mar 14, 2017
I think somewhere in the FAQ they say the monthly subscription gives you 80 hours' worth of credits. But that was two weeks ago so don't quote me on that.
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