Hello all, just wanted to give you all a quick update of sorts on what has been going on. In addition to preparing for PAX I have been doing some hardcore research on some interesting editorials that I have been working, the first one should be squarely on the state of emulation and what gaming needs to do to ensure it can coexist with it.
However one of the biggest things I have been gripping about for a while now is the streaming business of gaming. I have been experimenting possibilities of streaming games online which will allow me to go and make videos off of the interaction with people watching me succeed or fail in games. I think I have a few items up my sleeve that could make it interesting.
However I have been encountering a mired of issues in steaming a constant game. First being bandwidth, for those who do not know I have Comcast and they like to give you just enough upload before you could really do anything of major significance. Sure webcams and voice is ok, but video on the desktop hell no. In the current area that I am in the chance to pay for more uptime is not an option.
Next you have the issue of the operating system, Windows 7 and Vista change the way various devices communicate with one another, and if you are going to stream anything you need to be running windows XP. That is fine, however in order to get it working properly is another issue all together. Sure I could go and have my Windows 7 machine multi-boot to both OSes and switch back and forth between them, but that is going to require me to go and get a bunch of things that are going to cost me money in order to get it working properly. I could just get another computer that has the OS installed on it, but again costing me money.
The software to stream is fickle as well, everyone likes to go and hover around 30 fps, which is fine if you are playing games on the gameboy, nes or even the genesis. If you go any higher then that the vast majority of consoles border around 60fps and unless you like to watch some choppy game play. Now there are ways I could go and pop it to 60 fps, which require me to deal with either Windows Encoder or Flash media encoder. To describe the bane that program poses would require me to relive nightmares that I do not want to bring upon you.
I could also get one of those HD cards that can go and capture directly from the console. That would work, however you need to make sure you have the right connections to go to the card (some only have s-video while others are HDMI or composite only). Needless to say I have been giving myself a headache thinking this over and surprised that so many people take the time to go about doing this with minimum results.
So in short I got some things planned up my sleeve, streaming not so much. Maybe down the line, but for right now I will just stick with writing.
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