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Saturday, August 22, 2020

Will Cloud Gaming take over the video gaming world?

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Mohammad Abdullah
Mohammad Abdullah
Global

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Article Contributor(s)

Mohammad Abdullah

Article Title

Will Cloud Gaming take over the video gaming world?

Publisher

Global Views 360

Publication Date

August 22, 2020

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A person engaged in PC Gaming

A person engaged in PC Gaming |Source: Florian Olivo via Unsplash

Video gaming has evolved massively over the years with much better graphics, great storyline, and breathtaking visuals. The fun began with the 8-bit games Super Mario Bros and Contra and later by the arrival of PlayStation. In the 2000s, classics like GTA San Andreas and Portal came which were followed by Call of Duty, Assassin’s Creed, and GTA V.  Now with gaming competitions, eSports, and their likes, gaming has come a long way.

A still from Need For Speed | Source: Electronic Arts

Video gaming have now evolved in multiple genres like racing (Need for Speed), Parkour style (Assassin’s Creed), FPS shooters (Call of Duty and Halo), Horror (Resident Evil series), or Sports games like FIFA. The spread of video games can be gauged by the fact that the highest Football governing body FIFA is backing the FIFA series video games. Game Streaming has gone professional now, professional footballers like Sergio Aguero or current F1 drivers like Lando Norris and Charles Leclerc becoming the online gaming hero.

With the advent of cloud gaming, the industry is now at the cusp of its most radical change. Cloud Gaming aims to provide high-end gaming experience without the super expensive PC hardware which were needed earlier. A gamer now needs just a simple low-end PC or even a smartphone to enjoy high end gaming.

Google has taken the lead in cloud gaming service by launching “Stadia'', followed by Nvidia with “GeForce Now”. Microsoft, which is one of the heavy-hitters of console gaming via their Xbox series, is shortly launching their cloud gaming service xCloud for Android in 22 countries. So anyone with an Android phone and Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription, can enjoy the high quality online games on their smartphone.

Google Stadia Booth at Game Developers Conference 2019 | Source: Official GDC via Flickr

Cloud gaming comes with many advantages, the biggest of these is that there is no need to download a huge amount of data for running these games. Most games nowadays come with a download size exceeding 50 GB while some like Call of Duty: Warzone and Red Dead Redemption 2 even require around 100 GB download. Then there comes all the DLCs, patches which again need huge chunks of data. Cloud gaming eliminates it.

NVIDIA Titan RTX |Source: Nvidia

The second advantage is that the above-mentioned games can even run on an Android device. Also, don’t be concerned about the quality of resolution of these cloud-run games. Google Stadia can run games at 4K resolution at 60fps, which is even the limit of the current-gen consoles. They claim to further expand it to 8K at 120fps in the future, which is a quality that the best current Graphics card, the Nvidia Titan RTX hasn’t even reached.

However, with all the advantages, cloud gaming still has some basic shortcomings. The first one among them is the requirement of very high data bandwidth. The idea of playing games at 4K@60fps may seem fascinating, but that will need a steady high-speed bandwidth. For instance, Stadia lists that one needs at least 35 Mbps connection to accomplish the said frame rate and resolution.

The second bottleneck of cloud gaming is that it requires huge amounts of data to run games at such high quality. However the main reason inhibiting its wider adoption is the high cost associated with cloud gaming. For instance, Stadia costs $9.99/month, but it only comes with some select games available for free. Many other games like Assassin’s Creed series are available at Stadia, but these are to be purchased separately and at a price almost on par with the PC and Console version of the game. These shortcomings make one wonder if they are paying a much larger amount of money compared to if they purchased a gaming PC or console.

The world entering the age of 5G internet can be a catalyst to the growth of cloud gaming across the world. It can surely challenge the upcoming next-gen consoles, the Xbox Series X and the PlayStation 5 soon. Microsoft’s approach with its xCloud service looks to be going in sync with its PC and Xbox ecosystem. It will indeed be helpful to the gaming industry in the longer run.

So, the big question arises, can Cloud gaming take over the video gaming world? For the present, the answer is a clear NO! In the future, perhaps.

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February 4, 2021 4:47 PM

Kitchen Garden: An unusual arsenal in Kenya’s fight against malnutrition

Vegetable gardens have been in vogue since long across the world as a hobby to source  some fresh vegetables for household consumption. However in Kenya, the government and citizens both have moved towards taking it to the next level.

Hassani Oyo, a musician and resident of Nairobi, Kenya, has started vertical bag gardening in the backyard of his home to grow exotic vegetables like cabbage, spinach and kale for his own use as well as for sales to his neighbours and local vegetable vendors. This low cost method of gardening uses minimal farming space and very less water.

Another gardening story emerges from Busia County in western Kenya. where a local community-based organization, Sustainable Income Generating Investment (SINGI) is promoting the use of Kitchen Gardens. SINGI in partnership with other organizations are actively involved in training farmer groups about healthy agricultural practices and sharpening their production skills.

Roselida Orodi, the chairperson of Esikoma Ushirika Farmers Self Help Group states that, “Most households produce enough vegetables for domestic consumption with a surplus which is usually sold to the local market and beyond”. The biggest advantage is that these vegetables are able to withstand high temperatures. During summer, when the demand increases, they are usually sold for higher prices to earn good profits.

Jessica Muhonje of Singingire vegetable farmers group, says that she sells vegetables worth 15 U.S dollars per day. With indigenous vegetables gaining popularity, she adds that, “People flock to my homestead to purchase the vegetables”.

Kenyan government has also launched the “One Million Kitchen Gardens Plan” for households across the country. Brainchild of Agriculture Chief Administrative Secretary, Anne Nyaga, the program aims to use kitchen gardens as a tool to achieve food security, fight malnutrition, and to deal with the food crisis caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. In the initial phase kitchen garden kits were provided to 15,000 households of  Makueni county. “We would like to put emphasis on a balanced diet through these kits so that we can be able to boost our immunity and create an immunity that is able to fight COVID-19 and other diseases” says Anne Nyaga. She also adds, “The government is launching a campaign to establish kitchen vegetable gardens, we have issued guidelines to support both rural and urban dwellers with technologies for setting up within the resources available”.

These success stories inspire many others to join the kitchen garden bandwagon in Kenya. Setting up a kitchen garden is not tough, according to Mr. Oscar Ludelu, a landscaper and horticulturist. However, a few factors, like cost and what type of garden one needs is to be kept in mind before starting a kitchen garden.

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