We’ve all seen more and more of the software we use everyday migrate to ‘the cloud’. Spreadsheets, Word Processing, Desktop publishing and even whole entire operating systems are available to use via high bandwidth connections. But who would have thought the day would come so soon that we start seeing high specification computer games played via ‘the cloud’?  That time is now – well actually it was back in September 2011.

What exactly is ‘The Cloud’? Well, this post is about ‘Cloud gaming’ specifically so I don’t want to get too bogged down with technical nonsense – put simply ‘the cloud’ is everything your PC was previously required to process in order to achieve the same end result. But instead of your PC having to do all the leg work a super powerful server in another location does the number crunching. All your computer has to do is display the information received by the server. ‘The cloud’ also refers to data storage where all of the important numbers are saved away from your computers hard drive and backed up multiple times on remote servers. All of this wouldn’t be possible if it wasn’t for the constant increases in speed and bandwidth from the frequently pushed internet service providers.

So what inspired me want to write this blog post? It was a thought I had in the bath the other day while playing Dirt 3 on my HTC Sensation XE – ‘this is going to revolutionise the entire computer games market’. I realise that’s a fairly bold statement and I don’t take it lightly. To put things into perspective; according to Wikipedia:

…a survey conducted by market watch firm Jon Peddie Research,[28] Nvidia shipped an estimated 33.00 million graphics chips in the first quarter of 2010, for a market share of 31.5%. AMD and Intel shipped an estimated 25.15 million units (24.0% market share) and an estimated 45.49 million units (43.5% market share) respectively. Nvidia’s year-to-year growth was 41.9%.

In August 2011, Nvidia predicted the growth of its revenues would be 4% to 6%, instead of 4%, as analysts said.[29]

In September 2011, Nvidia forecast strong sales for 2013 in the region of $4.75bn to $5bn, which surpasses analysts expectations of $4.45bn.

Keep this in mind, a HUGE amount of high end computers are purchased and built for the majority reason of playing the latest computer games. These figures are from Nvidia alone – that does not include AMD or Intel. And that’s just graphics cards, not to mention the amount spent on high end CPU’s, super fast RAM, high spec motherboards…so on, so on. Imagine this – you can play the latest games in full quality, at high definition resolution, anytime, from (almost literally) any location and on any device. Not only that but your save games are stored on ‘the cloud’ too. You dont need a £300 graphics card or a high spec (high cost) CPU. You dont need any more than 2gb of RAM (in fact, minimum specifications do not even list minimum RAM so you could even get away with less).

Of course, a fairly healthy sized portion of the graphics card market will be on graphics cards required for local video acceleration for professional application such as the Nvidia QUADRO and AMD FirePro range of desktop acceleration devices. Video editing, 3D animation, graphic design, music production all require serious number crunching ability at the source. But who is to say this cant also be available on ‘the cloud’ at some point? (that post is for another day!)

So putting the professional market to the side for a minute and talking only about the consumer market – what happens to this massive requirement for high spec hardware? It all goes to the cloud too?! Computers will need only basic computing power to be able to play the latest games – local graphics cards and video acceleration will become redundant and unnecessary. As long as your PC can display a video stream from OnLive (or similar cloud’ gaming site) you’re good to go!

Consumers will no longer need to buy high end hardware to play the latest games, instead they can save their pennies and redirect that cash into buying more games to play via ‘the cloud’. Games they’ll be able to play on all of their devices – Desktop computers, laptops, smart phones, tablets and even TV’s (with TV’s coming preloaded with the OnLive service software ‘ready to go’).

Nvidia and AMD will have to rethink their products and branding – calling for a new approach in consumer components. They’ll be selling truck loads of super powerful hardware to cloud services like OnLive. But for consumers local video hardware acceleration will be unessential.

Exciting times are ahead, OnLive is incredible and works really REALLY well. And with the announcement of Adobe making some of their powerful professional software like Photoshop and Lightroom available on ‘the cloud’ – soon an internet blackout will mean our desktop computers are left utterly useless.

These are just my thoughts anyhow, but with a valuation of $1.8 Billion (OnLive alone!) I would say ‘Cloud gaming’ is well worth investing in – both time and money.

Friday night and after a few glasses of wine I decided to challenge myself eat to one of the chili’s left over from our home made pizza evening.
More about Bird’s Eye Chili here

This year I’ll be taking part in Movember. An annual, month-long event involving the growing of moustaches during the month of November to raise awareness and funds for men’s health issues.

The money raised goes towards THE PROSTATE CANCER CHARITY, THE INSTITUTE OF CANCER RESEARCH and MOVEMBER FOUNDATION.

So, I’ll just be updating this little blog post once a week (or maybe more, if i get the time!) with updates on how the MO is GOING!

Please consider donating or if you would like you can even join my team and we can be MO BRO’s to help raise money and awareness together

DONATE

The Knights of Royal England Crest

Update 03/11/2011: The gang is growing! Two friends and budding Mo Bro’s Timothy Ward and Mraggle Fulholland have joined the team. I welcome you both with warm a …upper lip?

James Williams - Day One

Mraggle Fulholland - Day One

Spurred on by the last dying days of our typical British summer, me and the boys decided to get the one final (and only) camping trip in before winter sets in. Enjoy

Cheggers has come a long way from the days of Multi-Coloured Swap Shop. It was news to me he’d started his own online gambling site, clearly marketed at women who read magazines like Bella and Woman’s Own. Cheggers doesn’t seem to take himself seriously, I feel that is for the best. Something about this video really makes me cringe and giggle. Dont forget to use the promotional code, CHEGWIN. See what he did there? Epic (Cheg) Win

this reminds me of randy marsh on the wheel of fortune only this is real

Ever wondered how it may feel packaging yourself in a big box and have your friend post you to Helsinki?  No? well that is understandable, as im sure it would be a horrific if not illegal experiment to conduct.

this video right here comes pretty close to how it may feel, it was made by posting an actively recording dictaphone.

Dictaphone Parcel from Lauri Warsta on Vimeo.

Pretty F’in sweet

Here at Many Chefs we understand the importance of procrastination, whether that be in the workplace or at home when you should be doing something else or when you just need to kill sometime. So we’ll be posting that sort of thing here, on this blog.

Right here is that selection of links to help fill your day.

Some colours and squares, from Rafael RozendaalSuper

“these go all the way to eleven…” in Lego form!

If your ever need of an 8-bit musical fix, look no further than Micromusic (click on the radio button)

Heroes are the stuff of fiction, right? unless your one of these masked do-gooders. (all evidence suggests these guys are serious)

What type face defines you? Nicely made quiz

And last but certainly by no means least, are OK Go and some dogs!

America good at sports

Im not one for hating on the USA its the country that gave me so much. Well I say so much but mainly just kick ass TV and movies. So the decision to post up the following video was a little tricky (took more than 5 seconds to decide but no more than 10) so its here because I think it is important to laugh at other people failing. Go US n A!

“which country should the USA next invade?”…”Um, I’m thinking Italy”

I totally agree with this guy.

Hitler Jr Aint Happy

Its been widely featured on a whole bunch of blogs and the old media. The Hitler Downfall parodies that have been all over youtube for the past two years are now being taken down due to the film company that made the film Constantin issuing take down notices. There is nothing new here, but I figured I would mention it as there is some good advice surfacing on what to do if your video gets taken down.

Knowyourmeme have this on the story

and just to see what could disappear here is Hitler reacting to Hitler being taken off the youtubes.

go enjoy. x