how Sony manages to stream 4K
Two months ago, Sony explained that it was working on a cloud gaming function from its servers, to avoid having to download games to its console. Some details of its operation have leaked, allowing a better understanding of the manufacturer’s problems.
Game streaming and cloud gaming on PlayStation 5 is making great strides. A few months ago, Sony presented its Project Q, an accessory for the PS5 allowing you to stream your games from your game console. The firm is now experimenting with game streaming directly to PS5 in cloud gaming and 4K. Not without some difficulty.
Game streaming on PS5, it will soon be possible
As a reminder, Sony wrote on its blog last June that it was testing ” cloud streaming for supported PS5 games – this includes PS5 titles from the PlayStation Plus games catalog and game trials, as well as supported digital PS5 titles that players own. Premium members will then be able to play their PS5 games on their console without having to download them. The console maker intends to offer this “ as an added benefit to PlayStation Plus Premium “.
At the moment, the beta of this streaming function has been deployed for some users. It provides 4K support for games. But to achieve this, Sony had to review an operating architecture dedicated to its console.
How Sony manages to make cloud gaming in 4K on PlayStation 5
According to Insider Gamingmedia that seems well informed about Sony’s plans, this streaming experience ” will be a major step forward in the company’s growth in an ever-expanding market “. All thanks to a new architecture dedicated to streaming, under the name of Project Cronos internally, aiming to “ create a robust PS5 streaming experience “.
The development of this system would have started five years ago already, with a major problem: the SSD of the PlayStation 5. With the PCIe 4.0 standard, its reading speed can reach 5.5 GB / s: how to reproduce this in cloud gaming ? Current technologies in the field are far from being as efficient, especially in terms of the latency that this would generate. This is why Sony has designed a new network storage solution still based on PCIe. It would exploit the NTB, for Non-Transparent Bridge, allowing several memories to be connected to the same PCI-Express port: more concretely, this allows several SSDs to be used simultaneously. All associated with coprocessors developed for the PS5.
Sony would therefore have created a personalized storage server, called Kura, allowing up to 5 GB/s of data to be read, for a latency of less than a millisecond. According to the sources ofInsider Gaming“ Sony will have a total of 28 data centers in 15 metropolises “. The service would officially launch during the company’s next fiscal year, between April 2023 and March 2024.
