A few weeks from now, Google Stadia will launch, but even with the proximity of its release, we are still learning about this latest gaming platform from the search engine giant. Additionally, the team behind Google Stadia appears to have some post-launch plans for the newest cloud gaming service. The latest information came directly from Stadia vice president, which reveals one of the fantastic features of the service that could beat the PC platform.
In an interview with Edge Magazine courtesy of PC Gamesn, Google's VP of engineering Madj Bakar states that Google Stadia will be a superior gaming service compared to desktops and other gaming hardware in a year or two. The VP reveals the kind of technology they are developing in terms of machine learning. The cloud gaming service will make games feel more responsive and make them run faster than they usually do. Bakar mentions something called negative latency.
In reality, there is no such thing as negative latency, but Google Stadia VP is suggesting about the creation of a buffer of predicted latency in which Google Stadia can lessen the lag the player is experiencing on his end over the cloud. This is achievable in a few ways, such as quickly increasing the FPS to minimize latency between what is displayed on the screen and the input of the player. However, Stadia's mitigating latency is Bakar's statement is to be believed is due to its ability to predict the button presses of the user.
In other words, the search engine giant will utilize machine learning to play your favorite game for you, theoretically. It is the next level of aim assist or button press assist, which n theory could potentially minimize lag. Another way that some cloud streaming services do to lessen the lag is by reducing the resolution of the game and dropping the FPS below 60 if necessary.
The question is if Google Stadia is able to predict the buttons the player is going to press, how accurate would it be? The idea actually raises a variety of questions but according to one game developer, Google Stadia wants to utilize something familiar to branch prediction. While branch prediction is great for speeding things up, the problem is when the system guesses become erroneous.
The negative latency feature of Google Stadia will definitely arrive after the cloud gaming service releases. For now, let us just wait for more details about this upcoming feature, because if it becomes successful, it might eliminate one of the frustrations many players endure over the years.
