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Anyone else concerned the new "Xbox Live" gaming app will be hindered by data caps?

L

lovemyipad

macrumors member
Original poster
Apr 29, 2010
77
0
One of the iPhone 4G features I can't wait for is the "Xbox Live" type app that's coming out where you can play games with people on different iPhones.

It should be a bandwidth hog! Doesn't make sense to have a data cap if you're a gamer.
 
lovemyipad said:
One of the iPhone 4G features I can't wait for is the "Xbox Live" type app that's coming out where you can play games with people on different iPhones.

It should be a bandwidth hog! Doesn't make sense to have a data cap if you're a gamer.
Click to expand...

Why? it'll be all textual data, it won't be a bandwidth hog, not any worse than reading a live data stream.

What exactly do you think is being streamed?
 
MikhailT said:
Why? it'll be all textual data, it won't be a bandwidth hog, not any worse than reading a live data stream.

What exactly do you think is being streamed?
Click to expand...

Wait, you are on the internet playing with other people around the world, gaining achievements and winning. How are you NOT using the data? I myself didn't think about this but setting a data cap could greatly hinder gaming. But then again I'm staying with the $30 unlimited and jailbreaking 4.0 as soon as it's available so I can get free tethering..just like now
 
Maverick1337 said:
Wait, you are on the internet playing with other people around the world, gaining achievements and winning. How are you NOT using the data? I myself didn't think about this but setting a data cap could greatly hinder gaming. But then again I'm staying with the $30 unlimited and jailbreaking 4.0 as soon as it's available so I can get free tethering..just like now
Click to expand...



It just makes sense now. Gaming, live video conferencing, and who knows what other bandwidth hogs are coming up. Att HAD to cap data.

I personally could see myself gaming all night on ATT's network like many others. If you have a data cap, GO HOME EARLY LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
Maverick1337 said:
Wait, you are on the internet playing with other people around the world, gaining achievements and winning. How are you NOT using the data? I myself didn't think about this but setting a data cap could greatly hinder gaming. But then again I'm staying with the $30 unlimited and jailbreaking 4.0 as soon as it's available so I can get free tethering..just like now
Click to expand...

I didn't say it won't be using ANY data, I am saying it's not going to be using a lot of data as opposed to video streaming. Many applications are going to be very highly optimized for textual data transfer now, using less graphics and videos.

Gaming online is purely text, telling the server your locations, of which the server sends out to other gamers in real time. It's not really sending graphical picture of you to other people. Your achievements are not really being sent to you, the server sends a 2-3 digit code (less than a kilobyte) to your iPhone of which it'll check its db and load up the achievements to you.

At most, you're not going to be sending out more than 10MB of data per HOUR. Which means you'll be able to play 20 hours of games before you hit the 200MB limit. So it all depends on what you do with the rest of the iPhone, your emails will be using up more data then gaming if you download attachments and so on.
 
I play Galcon online. I play on Wifi because it works well.

I do not play on 3G because it's too slow and you WILL lose against people with faster connections.

I'd imagine most online games will be the same...you'll play on Wifi or you won't do very well.

So it's kind of a non-issue.
 
MikhailT said:
I didn't say it won't be using ANY data, I am saying it's not going to be using a lot of data as opposed to video streaming. Many applications are going to be very highly optimized for textual data transfer now, using less graphics and videos.

Gaming online is purely text, telling the server your locations, of which the server sends out to other gamers in real time. It's not really sending graphical picture of you to other people. Your achievements are not really being sent to you, the server sends a 2-3 digit code (less than a kilobyte) to your iPhone of which it'll check its db and load up the achievements to you.

At most, you're not going to be sending out more than 10MB of data per HOUR. Which means you'll be able to play 200 hours of games before you hit the 200MB limit. So it all depends on what you do with the rest of the iPhone, your emails will be using up more data then gaming if you download attachments and so on.
Click to expand...

nah dude gaming online takes up enormous amounts of bandwidth
 
Small White Car said:
I play Galcon online. I play on Wifi because it works well.

I do not play on 3G because it's too slow and you WILL lose against people with faster connections.

I'd imagine most online games will be the same...you'll play on Wifi or you won't do very well.

So it's kind of a non-issue.
Click to expand...



well this would apply to shooter games primarily.

there are a lot of games where 3G vs Wifi speeds wouldn't matter...

POKER WOOT WOOT!
 
lovemyipad said:
nah dude gaming online takes up enormous amounts of bandwidth
Click to expand...

Debatable. First person shooters (for example) transfer an average of 10 KB/s. Assuming you're playing for an entire hour at a constant 10 KB/s, you'd use 35 MB/hr. Besides, latency on a mobile network is insanely high, making first person shooters not as desirable as with computers/consoles.
 
lovemyipad said:
well this would apply to shooter games primarily.

there are a lot of games where 3G vs Wifi speeds wouldn't matter...

POKER WOOT WOOT!
Click to expand...

Well in that case I'd imagine that sort of game taking up very little bandwidth. What's it transmitting? Each person's move and maybe some player chatting? I can't imagine that adds up to much.
 
MikhailT said:
I didn't say it won't be using ANY data, I am saying it's not going to be using a lot of data as opposed to video streaming. Many applications are going to be very highly optimized for textual data transfer now, using less graphics and videos.

Gaming online is purely text, telling the server your locations, of which the server sends out to other gamers in real time. It's not really sending graphical picture of you to other people. Your achievements are not really being sent to you, the server sends a 2-3 digit code (less than a kilobyte) to your iPhone of which it'll check its db and load up the achievements to you.

At most, you're not going to be sending out more than 10MB of data per HOUR. Which means you'll be able to play 200 hours of games before you hit the 200MB limit. So it all depends on what you do with the rest of the iPhone, your emails will be using up more data then gaming if you download attachments and so on.
Click to expand...

Your math is wrong. You would only be capable of 20 hours at 10MB/hour.
 
lovemyipad said:
nah dude gaming online takes up enormous amounts of bandwidth
Click to expand...

I have explained why it would not use much bandwidth and you come back with this?

I'm not going to continue to waste my time arguing with you because you have no idea what you're talking since your counter point is "nah dude".

nateharr said:
Your math is wrong. You would only be capable of 20 hours at 10MB/hour.
Click to expand...

Good catch, I actually meant 20 for 200mb plan, typed an extra one by accident since I was double checking myself of which data plan since there's 200mb and 2gb and my mind just didn't sync with my hands.

So 20 hours for DataPlus, 200hours for DataPro.
 
MikhailT said:
I have explained why it would not use much bandwidth and you come back with this?

I'm not going to continue to waste my time arguing with you because you have no idea what you're talking since your counter point is "nah dude".



Good catch, I actually meant 20 for 200mb plan, typed an extra one by accident since I was double checking myself of which data plan since there's 200mb and 2gb and my mind just didn't sync with my hands.

So 20 hours for DataPlus, 200hours for DataPro.
Click to expand...


No, I'm dead serious. It seriously takes up a lot of bandwidth. I play Xbox Live all the time and you can just tell.
 
lovemyipad said:
No, I'm dead serious. It seriously takes up a lot of bandwidth. I play Xbox Live all the time and you can just tell.
Click to expand...

First, How exactly can you tell? Lags and latency have nothing to do with bandwidth usage.

Second, you're comparing large complex xbox games to an iPhone game? Are you joking? There's more stuff going in a typical console game than probably 10 iPhone games combined.

Third, since you're basing this on the xbox live, I googled it. According to an xbox magazine, average usages is around 16MB per hour. People reported anywhere from 10-50MB per hour. Of course, if people are playing games where there's a lot of voice communication going on, that's going to increase the bandwidth usage a lot. I seriously doubt there'll be voice communication on the iPhone for the sake of bandwidth and ATT wouldn't allow it over 3G, in which case, it doesn't matter.

The fact that xbox live games average 16mb per hour, now scale it down to iPhone games, it'll be far less.
 
MikhailT said:
First, How exactly can you tell? Lags and latency have nothing to do with bandwidth usage.

Second, you're comparing large complex xbox games to an iPhone game? Are you joking? There's more stuff going in a typical console game than probably 10 iPhone games combined.

Third, since you're basing this on the xbox live, I googled it. According to an xbox magazine, average usages is around 16MB per hour. People reported anywhere from 10-50MB per hour. Of course, if people are playing games where there's a lot of voice communication going on, that's going to increase the bandwidth usage a lot. I seriously doubt there'll be voice communication on the iPhone for the sake of bandwidth and ATT wouldn't allow it over 3G, in which case, it doesn't matter.

The fact that xbox live games average 16mb per hour, now scale it down to iPhone games, it'll be far less.
Click to expand...

I mean I guess it's just one of those things - you have to be there to see it.

I just look at my router and all those flashy lights going off and I'm like whoa...
 
MikhailT said:
So far, his counter points against my points are...."nah dude" and "whoa the lights are flashing".

Next thing is..."dude, where's my iphone"
Click to expand...


Well until you prove otherwise, Xbox live and Xbox live on the iPhone will consume and do consume lots of data.

I had a computer for years now, I think I know what I'm talking about.
 
lovemyipad said:
Well until you prove otherwise, Xbox live and Xbox live on the iPhone will consume and do consume lots of data.

I had a computer for years now, I think I know what I'm talking about.
Click to expand...
BRAH! You're hilarious! I'm honestly cracking up over your posts. Using your logic, I must be an expert on anything I've owned, "for years now," just because I've owned it. Well, doodmiester, until you do some good independent research on something, you're not going to know much about it... or at least not enough to claim that you, "know what your talking about."
MikhailT said:
According to an xbox magazine, average usages is around 16MB per hour. People reported anywhere from 10-50MB per hour. Of course, if people are playing games where there's a lot of voice communication going on, that's going to increase the bandwidth usage a lot.
The fact that xbox live games average 16mb per hour, now scale it down to iPhone games, it'll be far less.
Click to expand...
:confused: MikhailT proved his point...
 
lovemyipad said:
Well until you prove otherwise, Xbox live and Xbox live on the iPhone will consume and do consume lots of data.

I had a computer for years now, I think I know what I'm talking about.
Click to expand...

A computer for years... wow, just one? Really, you are the bomb!

Here, I thought my knowledge and experience in dealing with over 500 computers and hundreds of servers in remote points around the world was lacking. I guess I must bow down to you now, you're the king man!
 
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