Stadia fans can now jump into The Elder Scrolls Online as it has released on Stadia and it's free to claim on Stadia Pro. It seems it's only for a limited time though and will leave Stadia Pro on July 16 so if you are interested you might want to grab it now.
The Elder Scrolls Online on Stadia has cross-play with Windows/macOS, cross-progression and if you own the expansions on Steam it appears they're picked up on Stadia fine too. That's about where the good parts end though really.
We tested it here and it repeatedly put us into 720p and we had to use the Stadia Plus plugin to force 1080p. Stadia really, badly, needs a built-in resolution picker as I've seen games do this repeatedly with no other way than the external Stadia Plus plugin to help. Their own performance picker doesn't force a resolution, only set the limits of what it will do overall.
As for the actual game, it's quite a let-down. If you've read previous Stadia articles from me, you will know by now I quite enjoy the service for the convenience it offers and it has largely been a positive experience for me. Destiny 2, Assassins Creed and Division 2 all work very well on it. The Elder Scrolls Online is a different story. Like PUBG, it's clearly been ported at a lower visual quality and it's also locked to 30FPS. Lower visuals at 30FPS is not going to win anyone over.
In other Stadia news, Google has now reduced the Premier Edition price to $99/£89.99 for their fancy Stadia Controller and a Chromecast Ultra.
See their full blog post here or head over to Stadia.com.
Very disappointed, I sort of finished Destiny and wanted to dive right away into ESO, but not this way. And like on consoles, you don't have video options to tune other than brightness/etc.
I didn't had any issues with the resolution, but indeed, Stadia badly needs some control panel/settings/whatever. I always have to have this annoying little dance with Stadia and Stadia+ before starting a session, to make sure it uses VP9.
Edit: So I looked a bit online and it looks like the FPS lock is also present on PC by default (and ofc on consoles). So, well... I can't blame Stadia itself too much for this. But at least on PC you can unlock it yourself.
Mind you though, I played games at 30 FPS before and it was OK, but the way is implemented here is a game breaker. If I could disable that motion blur at least...
Edit 2: On PC you'd need to edit the UserSettings.txt file to remove the cap, and I downloaded my Google data with the Stadia settings where I can see it uses the same file to store the settings. Ofc, you can't edit that. But apparently there's a way to remove the cap using the chat command: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=785105112
Not sure if it (still) works though, for the moment I keep getting a "unknown command" error, so it might not work with Stadia port or the syntax has changed.
Last edited by dubigrasu on 17 June 2020 at 11:41 am UTC
Can you tell the difference between that and any other controller as far as input latency is concerned?
QuoteStadia really, badly, needs a built-in resolution picker as I've seen games do this repeatedly with no other way than the external Stadia Plus plugin to help. Their own performance picker doesn't force a resolution, only set the limits of what it will do overall.Stadia, Netflix, Amazon Prime, Spotify, ...
None of the streaming services actually offer good services. They are all completely barren when it comes to features that would both just make sense and be easy to implement.
I have no clue what's behind that lack of quality software, but it is very noticeably tied to streaming services.
Quoting: dubigrasuI'm quite OK with the graphics, (no idea how it looks on PC) and I think it still look beautiful, but that being said, the 30 FPS lock is unacceptable for me. I'm not a gazillion FPS snob, but in this case I find the game truly unplayable, with that excessive motion blur thrown over the FPS lock... makes my head hurt and dizzy.
Very disappointed, I sort of finished Destiny and wanted to dive right away into ESO, but not this way. And like on consoles, you don't have video options to tune other than brightness/etc.
I didn't had any issues with the resolution, but indeed, Stadia badly needs some control panel/settings/whatever. I always have to have this annoying little dance with Stadia and Stadia+ before starting a session, to make sure it uses VP9.
Edit: So I looked a bit online and it looks like the FPS lock is also present on PC by default (and ofc on consoles). So, well... I can't blame Stadia itself too much for this. But at least on PC you can unlock it yourself.
Mind you though, I played games at 30 FPS before and it was OK, but the way is implemented here is a game breaker. If I could disable that motion blur at least...
Edit 2: On PC you'd need to edit the UserSettings.txt file to remove the cap, and I downloaded my Google data with the Stadia settings where I can see it uses the same file to store the settings. Ofc, you can't edit that. But apparently there's a way to remove the cap using the chat command: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=785105112
Not sure if it (still) works though, for the moment I keep getting a "unknown command" error, so it might not work with Stadia port or the syntax has changed.
The default frame time on PC is set to 100 FPS.
Anyway the PC version is flawless on Linux, it even works with mods, so why bother with an inferior Stadia version ?
Quoting: SpykerYes, the PC FPS cap is 100, and strangely enough the value in question "0.01000000" (in UserSettings.txt) is the default for both PC and Stadia, still, somewhere along the chain Stadia drops to a 30 cap.Quoting: dubigrasuI'm quite OK with the graphics, (no idea how it looks on PC) and I think it still look beautiful, but that being said, the 30 FPS lock is unacceptable for me. I'm not a gazillion FPS snob, but in this case I find the game truly unplayable, with that excessive motion blur thrown over the FPS lock... makes my head hurt and dizzy.
Very disappointed, I sort of finished Destiny and wanted to dive right away into ESO, but not this way. And like on consoles, you don't have video options to tune other than brightness/etc.
I didn't had any issues with the resolution, but indeed, Stadia badly needs some control panel/settings/whatever. I always have to have this annoying little dance with Stadia and Stadia+ before starting a session, to make sure it uses VP9.
Edit: So I looked a bit online and it looks like the FPS lock is also present on PC by default (and ofc on consoles). So, well... I can't blame Stadia itself too much for this. But at least on PC you can unlock it yourself.
Mind you though, I played games at 30 FPS before and it was OK, but the way is implemented here is a game breaker. If I could disable that motion blur at least...
Edit 2: On PC you'd need to edit the UserSettings.txt file to remove the cap, and I downloaded my Google data with the Stadia settings where I can see it uses the same file to store the settings. Ofc, you can't edit that. But apparently there's a way to remove the cap using the chat command: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=785105112
Not sure if it (still) works though, for the moment I keep getting a "unknown command" error, so it might not work with Stadia port or the syntax has changed.
The default frame time on PC is set to 100 FPS.
Anyway the PC version is flawless on Linux, it even works with mods, so why bother with an inferior Stadia version ?
I consider the Stadia version for convenience and because is free (Stadia Pro user).
QuoteStadia, Netflix, Amazon Prime, Spotifyboth Netflix and spotify is great in my opinion. Well I hate Netflix region lock.
Stadia is something I might try if it's free, but I would never pay for it, I'm to invited in steam and it's a better platform in so meny ways so for me to move it would have to be something really awesome.
And stadia even becomes less intressting now when the rumored steam cloud gaming is on the map, Microsofts streaming service xcloud i think the name was. I know alot of people hate Microsoft here, but they got there fair chair of great stuff.
Gog got there own thing going and I hope they stick around.
While I haven't tried ESO on Stadia yet (too many Steam Indie demos to check out first) the 30FPS frame lock would kill it for me. ESO combat allows for certain animation cancelling which I think would be a lot clunkier to pull off at lower frames. It isn't something I'm particularly good at and use often, but I think this would only make it harder to get a smooth rhythm.
Quoting: ZeloxI know alot of people hate Microsoft hereOoh ooh! (waves hand) That would be me!
Quoting: dubigrasuI'm quite OK with the graphics, (no idea how it looks on PC) and I think it still look beautiful, but that being said, the 30 FPS lock is unacceptable for me. I'm not a gazillion FPS snob, but in this case I find the game truly unplayable, with that excessive motion blur thrown over the FPS lock... makes my head hurt and dizzy.
Very disappointed, I sort of finished Destiny and wanted to dive right away into ESO, but not this way. And like on consoles, you don't have video options to tune other than brightness/etc.
I didn't had any issues with the resolution, but indeed, Stadia badly needs some control panel/settings/whatever. I always have to have this annoying little dance with Stadia and Stadia+ before starting a session, to make sure it uses VP9.
Edit: So I looked a bit online and it looks like the FPS lock is also present on PC by default (and ofc on consoles). So, well... I can't blame Stadia itself too much for this. But at least on PC you can unlock it yourself.
Mind you though, I played games at 30 FPS before and it was OK, but the way is implemented here is a game breaker. If I could disable that motion blur at least...
Edit 2: On PC you'd need to edit the UserSettings.txt file to remove the cap, and I downloaded my Google data with the Stadia settings where I can see it uses the same file to store the settings. Ofc, you can't edit that. But apparently there's a way to remove the cap using the chat command: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=785105112
Not sure if it (still) works though, for the moment I keep getting a "unknown command" error, so it might not work with Stadia port or the syntax has changed.
You have always been able to set the FPS cap on to PC to 30, 60, or 90 and uncapped but some people like to set it to match their monitor for example 144 this requires editing the ini files which is what that steam link was talking about.
Quoting: PilksUKWell, I don't have the game on Steam to test and I assumed that Stadia uses the same file to alter the FPS, but in any case, it doesn't work. The in-chat "script" command doesn't appear if I use autocomplete, so (again, I assume) it must have been removed to prevent altering any settings modifications.Quoting: dubigrasuI'm quite OK with the graphics, (no idea how it looks on PC) and I think it still look beautiful, but that being said, the 30 FPS lock is unacceptable for me. I'm not a gazillion FPS snob, but in this case I find the game truly unplayable, with that excessive motion blur thrown over the FPS lock... makes my head hurt and dizzy.
Very disappointed, I sort of finished Destiny and wanted to dive right away into ESO, but not this way. And like on consoles, you don't have video options to tune other than brightness/etc.
I didn't had any issues with the resolution, but indeed, Stadia badly needs some control panel/settings/whatever. I always have to have this annoying little dance with Stadia and Stadia+ before starting a session, to make sure it uses VP9.
Edit: So I looked a bit online and it looks like the FPS lock is also present on PC by default (and ofc on consoles). So, well... I can't blame Stadia itself too much for this. But at least on PC you can unlock it yourself.
Mind you though, I played games at 30 FPS before and it was OK, but the way is implemented here is a game breaker. If I could disable that motion blur at least...
Edit 2: On PC you'd need to edit the UserSettings.txt file to remove the cap, and I downloaded my Google data with the Stadia settings where I can see it uses the same file to store the settings. Ofc, you can't edit that. But apparently there's a way to remove the cap using the chat command: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=785105112
Not sure if it (still) works though, for the moment I keep getting a "unknown command" error, so it might not work with Stadia port or the syntax has changed.
You have always been able to set the FPS cap on to PC to 30, 60, or 90 and uncapped but some people like to set it to match their monitor for example 144 this requires editing the ini files which is what that steam link was talking about.
Likely google has it in a contract that it must be exclusive to Stadia!
I find it funny people think this is going to help Linux gaming in any way, shape, or form...
In saying that I do hope Stadia gets ALLOT better and increases Value for customers, maybe in 5 years it will be decent... (assuming it isn't killed long before then, which is likely)
Last edited by TheRiddick on 18 June 2020 at 3:54 am UTC
Quoting: TheRiddickBecause Stadia is not going to release Linux versions of any of these games, or the devs/publishers.It probably already has. Recent improvements in how certain game engines handle Vulkan probably have something to do with Stadia.
Likely google has it in a contract that it must be exclusive to Stadia!
I find it funny people think this is going to help Linux gaming in any way, shape, or form...
That's where I think Stadia will, half against Google's will, help Linux gaming: To make Stadia work well they have to make the Linux game development toolchain, drivers and so forth work well. And to get games on Stadia requires lots of game developers to develop on Linux. That in turn will create a pool of people with skills and "itches to scratch" which will accelerate development on open source infrastructure related to Linux gaming--and of course just a bunch of developers for whom adding Linux as a release target holds no terrors.
I don't think Stadia games will get published as proper Linux games, at least not while Stadia is a going concern. But there should be some useful indirect effects.
Last edited by Purple Library Guy on 18 June 2020 at 7:59 am UTC
I also don't get the constant call for native clients. Do you really think they would do a good job and properly support it? There is zero downsides to using Proton here. We will get enough native games when Linux is actually competitive as a market for selling games.
Quoting: ZeroPointEnergyI don't get the convenience argument. I own ESO on Steam. Push install, wait a little, push play. Works perfectly without any issues.
And if I don't have a computer or device capable of playing ESO?
Quoting: ZeroPointEnergyI also don't get the constant call for native clients. Do you really think they would do a good job and properly support it? There is zero downsides to using Proton here. We will get enough native games when Linux is actually competitive as a market for selling games.
This is exactly what Google is doing. The upside to the Stadia port is now the developers of ESO have Linux/Vulkan experience.
Last edited by drlamb on 18 June 2020 at 12:42 pm UTC
Quoting: Purple Library GuyThat's where I think Stadia will, half against Google's will, help Linux gaming: To make Stadia work well they have to make the Linux game development toolchain, drivers and so forth work well. And to get games on Stadia requires lots of game developers to develop on Linux. That in turn will create a pool of people with skills and "itches to scratch" which will accelerate development on open source infrastructure related to Linux gaming--and of course just a bunch of developers for whom adding Linux as a release target holds no terrors.If Stadia lasts long enough a side effect could be to sell Linux clients. If they're 80% of the way there a little more for an extra revenue stream could be attractive. It may take time, patience, and a little effort.
I don't think Stadia games will get published as proper Linux games, at least not while Stadia is a going concern. But there should be some useful indirect effects.
Quoting: drlambAnd if I don't have a computer or device capable of playing ESO?
This is such a lame argument. If you don't have hardware able to run that you can't use the bandwidth needed to stream it either. A good gigabit connection needs a beefier PC than the minimum requirements of ESO. (not even mentioning the hefty prices of capable routers)
Quoting: dvdQuoting: drlambAnd if I don't have a computer or device capable of playing ESO?
This is such a lame argument. If you don't have hardware able to run that you can't use the bandwidth needed to stream it either. A good gigabit connection needs a beefier PC than the minimum requirements of ESO. (not even mentioning the hefty prices of capable routers)
So you need a PC to play ESO on Stadia on a phone? Good to know. Gigabit can be handled by a raspberry Pi.
Last edited by drlamb on 19 June 2020 at 7:38 pm UTC
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