Will Sports Titles Ever Use the XO's Cloud for A.I. Like Forza 5?

[ghettogeeksta]

Forza 5 Team Says Xbox One Cloud Servers Deliver 600% AI Performance Boost

Microsoft doesn’t have a faster box than Sony’s PlayStation 4, according to expert assessments. But it did architect the
box in a way that allows it to tap cloud-based processing in its web-connected data centers, where it has 300,000 servers waiting to do its bidding.
In this case, Greenawalt says the artificial intelligence processing of the race cars has been offloaded to the cloud. As a result, we will see the “end of A.I.,” he said. That means that the “Drivatar” character that mimics your driving patterns will be based in the cloud as a “learning agent.” It means that the car will race smarter, nailing corners when it turns on a track, just like a human driver will.
That’s a tall order, but that’s what Greenawalt promised with Forza Motorsport 5.
http://venturebeat.com/2013/06/10/fo...he-end-of-a-i/


Imagine this kind of technology being used in sports games, playing Associations or Super Star modes against the cpu would be so much better! It would be like playing a human, or imagine playing games especially online Franchises without even having to be at your console because the a.i. will make your team play just as you would! Theirs so much possibility with this technology, do you think any major sports devs would implement this?

[ffaacc03]

One key word of your question is "ever". Yes, we will eventually see not only sports titles but any videogames actually, use the cloud for storaging, management and computation of all their AI and even other stuff. When ? Sometime ever, but not quite soon.

Another key of your question lies on the part of "like Forza 5". Forza is using the cloud with its Drivatar, just a part of its AI (if it were a sport like basketball or football or soccer, it would be even more limited). I believe it was trapper (?) that explained it more clearly within the Xbone (or PS4) thread a few weeks back, he even stated what he thought could be possible and if I am not wrong, I recall he said that mostly its use was in the form of dedicated servers, for some type of lightning and shadowing computations and yes, limited for features such as drivatars.

Anyways, the thing with the cloud is that despite whatever amount of investment a company does to enhance it, to achieve its full potential (to have all or most of AI done within it) is not solely on its control (nor game devs). The current technology cant make up for latency issues (among others), nor for the unique internet/online structure of each and every one of its customers and its service suppliers.

Finally, I also believe that Greenawalt is aiming for something more within the lines of: AI as we currently know it will be dead, not AI per ce but the way it is storaged, managed and processed. I mean, drivatars are just recordings of how an user plays that are then reflected upon the game, if it is solely that, then it is not AI but if it evolves as it processes more imput from the users behavior, then its an AI.

Again, sometime ever we will see it, just not in the way I think you are visualizing it and definitively not soon.

[zanner]

Quote: Originally Posted by ffaacc03

One key word of your question is "ever". Yes, we will eventually see not only sports titles but any videogames actually, use the cloud for storaging, management and computation of their AI and even other stuff. When ? Sometime ever, but not quite soon. Another key of your question lies on the part of "like Forza 5". Forza is using the cloud with its Drivatar, a very limited part of its AI. I believe it was either trapper or zanner that explained it more clearly within the Xbone (or PS4) thread a few weeks back, he even stated what he thought could be possible and if I am not wrong, I recall he said that mostly its use was in the form of dedicated servers, for some type of lightning and shadowing computations and yes, for features such as drivatars. Anyways, the thing with the cloud is that despite whatever amount of investment a company does to enhance it, to achieve its full potential (to have all or most of AI done within it) is not solely on its control (nor game devs). The current technology cant make up for latency issues (among others), nor for the unique internet/online structure of each and every one of its customers and its service suppliers. Finally, I also believe that Greenawalt is aiming for something more within the lines of: AI as we currently know it will be dead, not AI per ce but the way it is storaged, managed and processed. I mean, drivatars are just recordings of how an user plays that are then reflected upon the game, if it is solely that, then it is not AI but if it evolves as it processes more imput from the users behavior, then its an AI. Again, sometime ever we will see it, just not in the way I think you are visualizing it and definitively not soon.

Trapper definitely. He's the technical one of the board.
I may have just posted an article or video where Cerny was alluding to the fact that XboxOne "cloud" is only going to be able to do so much given bandwidth of internet connections or the matchmaking aspect and that PS4's "cloud" are capable of same things.

[mestevo]

Certainly leaves a lot to the imagination, I'm waiting to see what the reality is. Pretty sure it will be somewhere between what the detractors and the hopefuls are expecting.

Certainly don't see Sony propping up Azure-style services in the near future though so it's up to MS/developers to provide/use that service efficiently and effectively.

Loosely related I'm hoping kinect + friends = easier to put friends into your own games (with the requisite permission, etc). Would make creating players for a franchise mode something even cooler. The delayed Kinect Sports Rivals used the new Kinect in a similar way to image the person playing I believe, but not sure about any kind of friend integration.

[ghettogeeksta]

Seems that the XboxONE is the only console that has the infrastructure setup to do this. So would dev's allow this capability in the XboxONE version of the game but not in the PS4 game since most sports games are multi-platform.

[mestevo]

Quote: Originally Posted by ghettogeeksta

Seems that the XboxONE is the only console that has the infrastructure setup to do this. So would dev's allow this capability in the XboxONE version of the game but not in the PS4 game since most sports games are multi-platform.

It depends, and but it also doesn't mean the technology is only available on Xbox One, note that MS isn't the only cloud-slinger in town. A developer could leverage other cloud service providers for infrstructure, but obviously MS is investing heavily in taking advantages of the synergies allowed by being able to provide both access to their console and the cloud services that should result in a better product.

Again though, it remains to be seen what that actually ends up resulting in.

[bkrich83]

As someone who's dealing with Cloud Computing/Services in the business world, I'll take a wait and see approach. I've yet to see a cloud solution that truly delivers as well as advertised, and have dealt with the limitations of cloud services.

Love the concept of cloud computing, but to be honest in my experience it's just not mature yet.