During the Bethesda E3 2019 conference this Sunday, Director of Publishing Operations James Altman and CTO at id Sofware Robert Duffy joined the stage to present the company's new streaming optimization technology called Orion. The developers first discussed how Bethesda has always pioneered technology, since their early physics-based engines, open-world technology, bringing mods to console, VR, and of course the id Tech engine, one of the world's most powerful proprietary game development engines.
Now Bethesda will pioneer this new streaming optimization technology, Orion, which is a new approach to streaming issues with latency, whether for Google Stadia, Xcloud, or beyond. It looks like Orion optimizes the game streaming in the cloud directly, delivering a 20% faster experience with 40% lower bandwidth. Apparently, you can now try streaming DOOM (2016) with Orion tonight for free through the DOOM Slayers Club. You need to be a member of the Slayers Club, it seems.
For a more detailed technical breakdown of Orion, GamesIndustry.biz had a pre-E3 demo with plenty of details about what to expect from Orion. According to their test, "the average bandwidth used during a 10-minute gameplay test with the Orion tech off was 23.43 Mbps, while turning it on drops that to 13.67 Mbps. Likewise, the company says the technique provides encode time efficiencies of "up to 30%" compared with the roughly 25% savings that we note during our demo."
It remains to be seen how exactly Bethesda will use this new technology, how they will work in tandem with Google Stadia and other streaming platforms, but it looks very promising as the industry and the market adapt to new paradigms.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQzsDmF2NGA
What do you think of Orion? Will it be useful to make streaming less costly? Let us know in the comments below!
If you want to know more about this and other announcements happening at E3 then be sure to check out our E3 2019 Coverage Hub.
