The day has come, Google has finally opened up their Linux-powered game streaming service Stadia. They're giving you two free months of Pro too, so you can try it with the Pro games without paying a penny.
Announced on the Google Blog, they mentioned the current trying times with social distancing and how difficult it can all be. Since a lot of people are stuck at home they're giving gamers in "14 countries free access to Stadia for two months". When in, you will instantly be able to play these games that you can claim free with Pro:
- Destiny 2: The Collection
- GRID
- Gylt
- SteamWorld Dig 2
- SteamWorld Quest: Hand of Gilgamech
- Serious Sam Collection
- Spitlings
- Stacks on Stacks (on Stacks)
- Thumper
Do keep in mind, that to continue playing them you need to keep up the Pro subscription which can be cancelled at any time. I've tested the cancellation procedure, and there's no issues with it. Takes a few clicks and it's automatic. You can buy games too at any time, to keep them. Google also run special discounts for Pro subscriptions. If you stop your Pro, you can re-subscribe any time and then get back access to previously claimed games too.
To acccess Stadia: make sure you have a Chromium/Chrome browser and then you need to go to Stadia.com to sign up, and then you should be able to just get going. If you have a gmail account, you shouldn't need to create anything extra. However, Google said that it may take up to 48 hours for this opening to be available everywhere.
Apart from that, there's not much else special you need. It works with mouse and keyboard plus it's worked with my Steam Controller, and the Logitech F310 is fine too. As long as it's picked up as an input type in your browser, it should work. You don't need their own Stadia controller.
If you want a few extra helpful features, you can also try out the Stadia+ extension, which is open source.
As a reminder, there's been a lot of updates around Stadia lately. In short: Google has promised at least 120 games on it this year, they've opened dedicated studios to work on Stadia games, Typhoon Studios has joined them to work on Stadia games, Splash Damage are working on an exclusive game for Stadia and more. You can see a recent round-up we did here.
I'm definitely keen to see what more people think of it, after having a great experience with it personally. I regularly play The Division 2 (video on YouTube) and Assassins Creed both on my Linux desktop and my Chromecast without issues.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
GeoGalvanic Apr 10, 2020
Here's to hoping that Stadia library will keep expanding!
Quoting: dubigrasu
Using the New version of Stadia+ took a few times to force 4K. I think it's safe to say I'm best-case scenario. ~10ms Latency
Red Dead
Last edited by drlamb on 12 April 2020 at 7:42 pm UTC
Quoting: drlamb~10ms LatencyPlus the jitter buffer I assume? Still only a couple of frames of latency, which isn't awful.
Quoting: drlambQuoting: dubigrasu
Using the New version of Stadia+ took a few times to force 4K. I think it's safe to say I'm best-case scenario. ~10ms Latency
Red Dead
Couldn't get it to work at all yesterday. I assume they updated again today.
Quoting: drlambQuoting: dubigrasu
Using the New version of Stadia+ took a few times to force 4K. I think it's safe to say I'm best-case scenario. ~10ms Latency
Red Dead
10 ms, that's, wow.
I had few times a latency of 24-25 and felt much more playable. I mean I could even use the mouse at that latency. But 10!
Another thing that counts for me is the codec used. From what I understand the default codec should be VP9, but (thanks to the Stadia+ extension) I frequently see H264 used, and the problem with that is that it looks worse, sometimes really worse.
I don't have a very relevant screenshots to demonstrate that, (I choose this one because is static) but even here you can see for example the text on the right "AUDITOR..." looking more fuzzy on H264. Or look at the road texture...
https://cdn.knightlab.com/libs/juxtapose/latest/embed/index.html?uid=09c74374-7d7c-11ea-a879-0edaf8f81e27
Luckily the codec can be forced using the extension, though is a bit inconvenient.
Quoting: dubigrasuAnother thing that counts for me is the codec used. From what I understand the default codec should be VP9, but (thanks to the Stadia+ extension) I frequently see H264 used, and the problem with that is that it looks worse, sometimes really worse.
VP9 is the newer codec of the two that's better at compression. H.264 is the default as more devices can natively playback H.264 (Apple devices can't playback VP9 at all!). As you've noticed VP9 produces the better image but also requires GPU acceleration (Enable it in Chrome google!) or a powerful enough CPU to brute force it.
I'm not sure what's up with the new Stadia+ as it did take a few times to get the VP9/4K force to take hold.
Last edited by drlamb on 13 April 2020 at 1:14 pm UTC
1. Impossible to vsync (which is because it's a browser app which won't do proper fullscreen). Composition Pipeline might solve that, but I can't enable that because it blocks gsync.
2. 1080P picture quality is quite bad.
3. Without stadia+ it won't do 4K on a 1440p screen.
4. Most games refuse to run at 4K (only Destiny 2 will, but that game is not exactly pretty at all)
5. Even at 4K, dark scenes look pretty bad.
6. Major input lag. Destiny 2 plays fine at the start scene outside, but come close to the door and it starts lagging. Feels like it lags when it's loading the next area, which the game does all the time. Making circles with your mouse shows it's a full circle behind.
Verdict: unusable
(and before somebody questions my internet, I'm on a glass fibre connection. Stadia+ told me I had 4 ms latency. Which is must be the server ping because having that as game latency is impossible)
Last edited by Ehvis on 14 April 2020 at 6:37 pm UTC
My internet is 130 down, 20 up, and while I could play okay, or my son, if we tried to play at the same time as a fireteam - nope. Bear in mind that my wife is probably on zoom in the next room, and my other son is on youtube on his phone while he plays Minecraft hypixel, AND both my son and I are also on discord for voice... but still. This isn't the future of gaming I'm interested in.
I'd also echo Ehvis' comments above that the game should look far better than this. It's still pretty, but the 1080p I'm getting through Chromium fullscreen doesn't match my memory of playing this game on PS4, which was both more detailed and smoother.
Cross-save worked though, so I jumped straight in at 750 light, which is as far as the PSplus PS4 version let you play without prompting you, as all Destiny games do, to fork up cash to continue playing the expansions.
Stadia remains "not for me".
Quoting: scaineMy internet is 130 down, 20 up, and while I could play okay, or my son, if we tried to play at the same time as a fireteam - nope. Bear in mind that my wife is probably on zoom in the next room, and my other son is on youtube on his phone while he plays Minecraft hypixel, AND both my son and I are also on discord for voice... but still. This isn't the future of gaming I'm interested in.I remember when the World Wide Web was a bunch of pages where you followed random hyperlinks to stuff about the Church of the Subgenius and a page of text took five minutes to load. Now, four people in one home doing more than one multimedia thing in real time each, some of them wireless. Been quite a shift.
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