Microsoft to reduce lag by predicting your gameplay

Microsoft wants to reduce lag in online gaming by predicting what you will do in a game, and is working on a cloud gaming solution to make this a reality.

Called DeLorean, Microsoft researchers have developed a “speculative execution system” which is able to mask up to 250ms of network latency thanks to “speculative rendered frames of future possible outcomes, delivering them to the client one entire RTT ahead of time”.

For actions that are harder to predict, DeLorean queues up multiple possible outcomes and displays only the correct one.

“To achieve this, DeLorean combines: 1) future input prediction; 2) state space subsampling and time shifting; 3) misprediction compensation; and 4) bandwidth compression,” said Microsoft.

This promises to be more efficient than current lag-reducing solutions, said Microsoft.

As part of their testing procedures Microsoft tested DeLorean’s prediction techniques on Doom 3 and Fable 3. Their tests found that players “overwhelmingly” preferred gaming on DeLorean.

Besides the reduction in lag, DeLorean will also offer gamers access to a huge database of games.

“Cloud gaming – where remote servers perform game execution and rendering on behalf of thin clients that simply send input and display output frames – promises any device the ability to play any game any time,” said Microsoft.

Do you think Microsoft are onto something here? Let us know in the comments and forum.