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Sollaro
Community Member

First day of Stadia...my thoughts

So, just to put some meat on the bones, Im a UK founder, ordered on July 6th, code arrived 19th and I got the hardware on today (20th). I run a 150Gbps connection (Hyperoptic) and I have to say its been a great experience. Now, im not a gamer, I've only ever played Dota on PC and never owned a Playstation or X box but I've always wanted to get into it. The only thing stopping me was the upfront investment (not knowing if it would be worth it in the long run). When Google announced Stadia it was pretty much everything I was waiting for and my first day playing hasn't let me down. All the reviews I have seen have talked a lot about image quality and lag. Now as i said, im not a huge gamer but i felt zero lag and the image quality was great. If this is just the start then im looking forward to whats to come. Right now all i want is Call of Duty and wireless controller use on my laptop. Well done Google
12 Kudos
16 Replies
ManOnTime
Community Member

I echo your sentiments @Sollaro.

I ordered Founder's Edition on July 6. I received the Founder's code in my email on the 19th of November, it and an extra Wasabi controller that I also ordered was delivered today (20th) and I just spent the last hour playing Destiny 2.

I subscribe to 175mbps service via Xfinity, and gameplay has thus far been as smooth as on my Xbox One X or Playstation 4. Graphics have been excellent as well.

So far, I'm very pleased. Now I just need to decide what games to buy!

3 Kudos
Sollaro
Community Member

@ManOnTime Same, Im leaning towards Red Dead but waiting for Black Friday to see if there will be any deals.

What two player games are you planning to play with the additional controller? 

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ManOnTime
Community Member

I haven’t given it that much thought yet @Sollaro. I saw the Wasabi variant when ordering and thought it looked pretty cool and ordered it. :face_with_tears_of_joy:
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DougEfresh
Community Member

My thoughts on stadia is that it is not actually very good. I am running 200 Mbps download speed and 30 Mbps upload. I played Destiny 2 and the settings were set to get 4k resolution and i didnt get anywhere close to even 1080p resolution. I was stuck at 720p at 30fps. Then i moved it to the next setting down which is it judges the internet connection and based off that it will set me a resolution and fps. After quieting and restarting the game i was still getting the same resolution and fps at 720p at 30fps. Then i moved it to the lowest quality and it automatically sets it at 720fps and i was finally getting 60fps but i did not receive a good resolution at all playing the game what so ever.
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ThePresident
Founder
Founder

I have to echo pretty much what DougEFresh said. I live in Miami, and I have a very fast connection. Fast.com gives me 590Mbps down/350Mbps up with only 4ms latency unloaded, 14ms loaded. That kicks ass.  

Stadia's connection test says the following:

Your connection is great.
Based on your current download speed of 396.066 Mbps, we expect you’ll have a high-performance gaming experience on Stadia.
 
However, I am constantly lagging and noticing the entire screen become very pixelized. I'm playing through Chrome on a Windows 10 PC with great specs (though this shouldn't matter that much) on a 1920x1080 monitor that looks fantastic with standard PC games. It's almost unplayable the way it is, and I'm not going to buy even one more game if this isn't fixed quickly. 
 
Maybe the experience on Chromecast Ultra on my TV will be significantly different. If it is, then I'd say that Stadia on Chrome browser is not ready for prime time. 
 
Oh, and why does my PC mouse pointer always have to be on screen? It's always there, right in the middle of the screen. 
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DougEfresh
Community Member

Lol I didn’t mention the pc mouse pointer but I didn’t notice that issue on destiny 2 but on the other free game I did.
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Sollaro
Community Member

Where are you based? i ask beacuse it seems like the biggest factor might actually be location on internet speed. It seems like there are a lot of people with Fibre having issues and a lot of people with Fibre not having issues so maybe the biggest factor is location.

Im on 150Mbps and using wifi, i havent even plugged in the ethernet cable yet.

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ThePresident
Founder
Founder

I'm in Miami on an AT&T fiber connection. My PC that I'm playing on is hardwired to the router. I had a thought last night that it might have something to do with my anti-virus suite, but I disabled that completely and the issue with Tomb Raider got worse, if anything. I've got another PC that I'm going to try on today.
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Skelly022782
Founder
Founder

Central Connecticut here

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FearAres
Community Member

I've had no issues so far, there is some slight input lag, but its barely noticeable while playing Destiny. I'm assuming that will get better with time. I do wish more of the features were out and there was a better selection of games (I'd love to have some EA games up and running). Disclaimer: I have Gigabit fiber with running 4k.
2 Kudos
ThePresident
Founder
Founder

I just found the setting for Data Usage & Connection in the Stadia app, and I changed it from Best Visual Quality to Balanced.  That seems to help a little bit, but the screen still gets very fuzzy when I move, and I have to stop moving for the textures to catch up. 

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Skelly022782
Founder
Founder

Reading all the negativity about the product, I was terrified but I just finished playing 3 hours of destiny and it was great. I didn't experience any input lag. I have roughly 110mbps download and 6mbps upload. My girlfriend hopped on the firestick to watch stuff while I was playing and nothing changed. Now I just gotta figure out what what games I'm getting next!
5 Kudos
matzy
Community Member

Thought I would add to this thread with my initial impressions.

I think Google Stadia is currently more of a "proof of concept" than it is an actual marketable product at this time, and I think that is about the fairest thing I can say.

Does it work?   Yes ... surprisingly well.  When I first hooked up my Chromecast Ultra to my TV and started playing Destiny 2 I was taken aback at the lack of any discernable significant input lag - the quality of the image and the framerate.    I had major concerns having experienced the likes of Steam-Link and PS Now previously and found them wanting.  My initial impressions of Stadia were good.

But ... after a short while, a few problems began to surface.  After about 30 mins of playing I noticed my TV switching to a different resolution and the framerate clearly dropped.  I restarted the game, but to no avail.

I restarted the Chromecast Ultra, and that seemed to do the trick.   This time however, there was a 3 second delay in audio.  Everything else was running smoothly for whatever reason .. just the sound.  I played on like that for a little while, and then again - the quality suddenly dropped for no apparent reason as did the frame-rate.  I should add, this audio-sync was not just with Stadia - it was happening with all streaming through the Chromecast Ultra (such as Youtube etc.).

Everything else about Stadia seems bare bones to me ... a basic/minimal UI that lacks features you would think important for a streaming service ... the controller, whilst comfortable to use, to my mind feels cheap in comparison to its rivals.

Trying to play Stadia at this moment through the browser seems pointless, considering the poor quality (as it is at a lower resolution for now).

As a product, it is a hard sell - "buy our Chromecast, buy our controller, buy our subsription and then buy the latest games at the same price you would pay for if you had a PC/PS4/XB1 etc.".  Honestly, unless this model changes, I think the market will probably reply "Nah, your alright, Google ... good luck".

The model needs to change, or at the very least the subscription needs to offer more - imagine if a Stadia subscription came with something similar to the Vault Access with Origin?  Suddenly, you have something more marketable ...  Something like what XBOX may well be offering in the not too distant future.

 

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ThePresident
Founder
Founder

Yes, there are games that I get for free with my XBox Gamepass subscription (for instance, Rage 2) that Google is asking full price for if we want to play it, and there are games that are available much cheaper on Steam. (Although Assassin's Creed Ultimate seems to be a good deal on Stadia). 

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Jerdaz
Community Member

I agree with matzee. Everybody will have their own reason they bough stadia. For me it was as an upgrade over my PS4 pro: Playing destiny2 / tomb raider etc @4k/60p. As an ad-interim service until the next-gen would arrive.

However, it's not that. It's only on par with ps4pro / xbox one x, not an upgrade. 

Add all the growing pains and there is no reason at all for me to actually use my new stadia console. Playing games on my trusty old ps4pro feels better than stadia. I can only play destiny 2 and don't trust the platform enough to actually buy the games I wanted to play on stadia

I'm going to hold onto it for a couple more days and see if stuff improves (at least the promised 4k/60fps), otherwise I see no reason not te return the founder edition.

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matzy
Community Member

The XBox Gamepass is a revelation and has left me somewhat spoilt, I have to admit ... but when you get the likes of Gears 5, and Outerworlds - on day of release - at no extra charge beyond your sub ... its a total winner ... and other services pale in comparison ... as you say, Rage 2 is a perfect example of Google missing the mark entirely with the model - I also raised an eyebrow when I saw quite how much Google wanted me to pay for that game, considering (a) I actually purchased it on release and (b) it had just been added to the Gamepass ...   LOL

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