E3 2019 was exciting and during the initial days, we had seen amazing announcements from EA, Xbox, and Bethesda. Lots of fresh titles were out in public along with a few old ones which were least expected. An important update from Bethesda during this E3 was its own streaming technology to improve game streaming for everyone.
Called as Orion, Bethesda’s home game streaming tech will work for improving the online game by reducing latency and bandwidth. Compare to other cloud streaming services that were revealed not long back like Project xCloud by Microsoft and Stadia by Google, Orion focuses more on the gaming. While other services rely heavily on the hardware.
Orion was introduced by id Software’s Chief Technology Officer, Robert Duffy, and the Director of Publishing at Bethesda Softworks, James Altman during the E3 2019 conference. The technology aims at enhancing cloud gaming performance. By reducing the latency and bandwidth the technology will make game streaming access to more and more people without compromising the output quality.
Orion features a game and platform agnostic streaming technology that will allow users to stream video games at lower latency and bandwidth. Focusing more on game engine based technology optimized to work on the cloud, Project Orion is capable of reducing latency upto 20% per frame and requires 40% lesser bandwidth.
We leveraged our extensive experience in game engine technology to tackle streaming from a different angle – the game engine itself,” said Duffy. “We wanted a faster, better streaming experience for players, at the level of performance intended by the game’s developers, and at reduced cost and expanded reach for streaming providers. Orion delivers on those goals and will vastly improve streaming video games.
Project Orion also has something for developers, the Orion SDK can be integrated easily into games that allows them to implement best-in-class experience for players while streaming games at the lowest possible cost. With the help of Orion, Bethesda aims to target a bigger audience around the globe and minimize cost on service.
Consumers demand low latency when playing high-performance games, and those games need to be playable by a mass audience – not just those near a datacenter, or those with lightning-fast internet speeds,” said Altman. “With Orion, players can live far from data centers and still be able to stream DOOM at 60 FPS, with 4K resolution and without perceptible latency. An Orion-enabled game will be faster, more fluid, and provide a fundamentally better streaming experience for fans.
Bethesda revealed Orion demo live on stage at E3 showing Doom running at 60fps on the highest quality streamed on a mobile screen. Public trail of Orion will be coming soon where players will be having their hands on DOOM for free. If you want to grab the chance visit Slayersclub for more info. Signup for the club to get hands-on upcoming Orion.
