VIDEO: Nvidia Demos Borderlands 2 on Project Shield
Project Shield may encourage Radeon gamers to get a GeForce card and Nvidia's handheld console.
Nvidia updated its blog on Monday with a demonstration of Borderlands 2 streaming from a GeForce-powered PC to the Tegra 4-powered Project SHIELD handheld console.
The system was first introduced last month at CES 2013 in Las Vegas, appearing as an Xbox 360-like controller with a built-in 5-inch touchscreen (1280 x 720 resolution). Unlike OnLive and other streaming services, these PC games are streamed from the user's own compatible desktop or laptop, thus allowing local gameplay to be expanded to the bedroom or living room without having to move the base machine. Sony offers something similar with Remote Play.
"Project SHIELD will soon redefine what it means to be AFK with its ability to stream your high-end PC games straight to our Android-powered mobile gaming device," said Nvidia's Will Park. "Now you can continue playing your game from the comfort of your couch or, well, anywhere else you might find yourself sitting in your house."
For the demo, Park used a Falcon Tiki PC running a GeForce GTX 680 graphics card, allowing him to run the game with the graphics settings cranked all the way up. The level demoed on Project SHIELD was "Badass Crater of Badassitude" from the PC version of Borderlands 2. Based on the video demo, the game streamed without any lag or framerate drops on the 5-inch screen.
"Booting up your Tegra 4-powered Project SHIELD is as simple as turning on a smartphone or tablet," Park said. "Streaming a PC game is just as easy: fire up the SHIELD Android app and tap a few buttons. Within a matter of seconds you’ll be back in the action with all the graphical bells and whistles you’re used to on your PC."
This video is the first of many in Nvidia's new "PC Mondays" weekly series. In this episode, the camera is placed behind his shoulder so that you can see both the handheld's screen and the PC's monitor simultaneously. He shows how easy it is to load up Borderlands 2: simply connect to the PC, log onto Steam (Big Picture mode at that), then go into the library and load up the shooter. Obviously the best PC games to play on Project SHIELD are the ones that come with gamepad support.
Once Park loaded up the game, you can clearly see Borderlands 2 running simultaneously on both Project SHIELD and the PC's screen. He said the game was running 60fps even on the handheld thanks to the Tegra 4 SoC. Note the game is streaming at a high framerate using only a single GeForce GTX 680 card – a Kepler-based GeForce GTX 650 or higher GPU is required.
To see the demo, check out the video below. Project SHIELD, which will be powered by Google's Android 4.2.1 "Jelly Bean" OS (meaning Tegra-enhanced games galore), is slated to launch in Q2 2013. PC gamers packing an AMD Radeon GPU need to look elsewhere – unless you want it just as a portable Android gaming console, that is.
For the uninitiated, here are the system requirements, followed by the video:
* GPU: Nvidia Kepler-based GeForce GTX 650 (Desktop) or GTX 660M (Notebook) or higher
* CPU: Intel Core i5 or equivalent or higher
* System Memory: 4 GB or higher
* Software: GeForce Experience application and latest GeForce drivers
* OS: Windows 7 or higher
* Router: 802.11a/g/n (Recommended: 802.11n Dual Band / MIMO Router)

Just like PhysX was dedicated hardware, and then software for nVidia and now software for any CPU/GPU.
games like league of legends at high elo wont be playable on this unfortunately
Granted, you can play Android games as a standalone unit but to have PC quality gaming means that you need a fairly powerful (and usable by itself) PC and a consistently robust wireless connection.
There actually is hardware involved. The PC-side software uses the nvEnc hardware only present on Kepler cores. Now there's no reason it couldn't use something like Intel's QuickSync too but it might be higher latency, depending on if they have any optimizations from doing it on the rendering GPU (perhaps transcoding the framebuffer was purposefully built to be really fast to support Shield).
My sofa is far more comfortable than my desk chair, even if it is a nice leather executive one. My cinema surround setup is worth more than my car. Generally speaking, a gaming 'experience' is much better on a larger more immersive screen, more comfortable setting, and better sound.
What this actually boils down to is 1) whether or not lag is an issue and 2) the old joypad vs mouse/kb debate. Both of which vary person to person.
There has been software around for a while that loads up a game on your main computer, streams it over a network to a laptop for example, and let's you play the full power of your pc on something that might otherwise not be able to. I think the concept is good, and it's all about pulling off lag/visual quality.
totally agree.
It's not limited to Geforce or Tegra, but there's a reason it hasn't been done yet. It's difficult to achieve with low latency, even on a local network. In this case, Nvidia has the benefit of developing the hardware encoder and decoder on both ends, as well as the software in between. And then there's the problem of controls when the only input option you have is a touch screen. I think that auto rules out effectively streaming most titles out there. Shield has a unique set of features to offer, that cannot be easily replicated on just any smartphone.
how about hooking up your pc to an hdtv then plugging in a xbox360 controller then sit on a couch? you are the one who's not getting it.
How about some of us live in our own house, and the pc might not be in the same room as the tv? My office is about 20m~ cable length from my cinema room. It's utterly impractical to move/cable up my gaming rig to my cinema setup - as it is for many if not most people who have a dedicated home cinema/entertainment room.
not a chance in hell.. for me at least...
Im not going to go buy a geforce card for $100+ dollars more than the counterpart AMD card that outperforms it just so I can play games on the move(isn't that what a gaming laptop is for?)
or so I can play android games.. coz cmon... who wants to play android games? I had an droid phone for 2 years hated all games but world of goo... and you know what I ended up playing it on my computer because my 4.5 inch screen was too small...
and chances are if you DO like droid games.. you already have an android phone soo getting a shield would just be extra sht to carry around
not to mention australia's internet wont even keep up with it for a good 80% of the country...
broadband in most rural places have almost unbearable latency when connected directly via a cat5 let alone wireless.