If you’ve ever streamed games from a Cloud service before, such as PS Now, you’ve probably noticed a good bit of lag from time to time. A new Sony Cloud gaming patent, however, appears to be wanting to reduce that sort of lag and latency through new methods. The patent reads:
“The demand is also pushing up against limits of the capabilities of network connections and the processing performed at the server and the client that is responsive enough to render high quality images as delivered to the client.”
With both Xbox and playstation now having cloud-based game streaming services in the form of the Xbox Game Pass library and Playstation Now, it’s no big surprise that Sony is attempting to get a leg up over Game Pass by having its streaming have less latency. There are many ways this can be done according to the new Sony cloud gaming patent, but this is one example.
“The method including decoding and displaying, at the client, the plurality of compressed video frames. The method including as the client receives the plurality of compressed video games, analyzing the timing of one or more client operations to adjust the relative timing between the VSYNC signal and the client VSYNC signal.”
As most players would know, Cloud gaming requires that the game be streamed over the internet rather than played whole hog from a downloaded game or a disc. Depending on the distance and internet connection this can often cause things like lag and latency as a result. This, according to the patent’s background, is the reason for its filing.
“…Improvements in these operations, such as advanced strategies related to frame decoding and display, can result in substantially reduced round-trip and one-way latency between the server and the client and provide a higher-quality experience to users of cloud gaming services.”
If this patent ends up working, the Playstation Now service may end up being a lot smoother for many players, though we’ll have to wait until it’s implemented to really see. Otherwise, you can follow this link to the patent document yourself to read and form your own opinions.
