[Q] nSHIELD (port) as mini Gaming PC - Shield Q&A

Hey guys, I had this idea I wanted to run by the community for feedback before I really started digging into it.
I attend PAX East every year and love being able to do Bring Your Own Computer for the LAN fest area. The big problem is my distance from Boston and the size of my PC Tower. Rather than focus on the biggest and beastest of Rigs, I wanted to try the other side of the formula.
The nSHIELD Portable is a decent little machine and seems to have less hardware issues than its newer nS Tablet does. What I want to eventually do is load Ubuntu onto it which would allow me to load Steam and then hook it up to the LAN network at PAX and play games with the other attendees. I currently have a Portable and am just looking for new ways to get more life out of it.
Does anyone have any experience in loading an OS onto the device or experience even in trying to do what Im describing? Any help is welcome
Thanks~

K41N2358 said:
Hey guys, I had this idea I wanted to run by the community for feedback before I really started digging into it.
I attend PAX East every year and love being able to do Bring Your Own Computer for the LAN fest area. The big problem is my distance from Boston and the size of my PC Tower. Rather than focus on the biggest and beastest of Rigs, I wanted to try the other side of the formula.
The nSHIELD Portable is a decent little machine and seems to have less hardware issues than its newer nS Tablet does. What I want to eventually do is load Ubuntu onto it which would allow me to load Steam and then hook it up to the LAN network at PAX and play games with the other attendees. I currently have a Portable and am just looking for new ways to get more life out of it.
Does anyone have any experience in loading an OS onto the device or experience even in trying to do what Im describing? Any help is welcome
Thanks~
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i don't know specifically, but I know there are some apps that help install Linux into android because android is based on the Linux kernel and can run it, try going on YouTube and searching Linux on android, or android Linux

K41N2358 said:
Hey guys, I had this idea I wanted to run by the community for feedback before I really started digging into it.
I attend PAX East every year and love being able to do Bring Your Own Computer for the LAN fest area. The big problem is my distance from Boston and the size of my PC Tower. Rather than focus on the biggest and beastest of Rigs, I wanted to try the other side of the formula.
The nSHIELD Portable is a decent little machine and seems to have less hardware issues than its newer nS Tablet does. What I want to eventually do is load Ubuntu onto it which would allow me to load Steam and then hook it up to the LAN network at PAX and play games with the other attendees. I currently have a Portable and am just looking for new ways to get more life out of it.
Does anyone have any experience in loading an OS onto the device or experience even in trying to do what Im describing? Any help is welcome
Thanks~
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Couple of problems with this:
To run Ubuntu you'd need a framebuffer driver compatible with Linux. Some people get around this by running a VNC viewer locally and basically loading up an X11 environment in the background. Performance for gaming would never be there.
Steam is X86 only. The Shield Portable is ARM, which I highly doubt will get a port of Steam. Even if it did, there are no games on steam that currently support ARM. And even if you cross compiled....
You'd be unable to run most OpenGL (think Linux's directX) games due to poor feature support. OpenGL ES is a smaller subset of functionality from the full OpenGL (which games like Half Life and Counter Strike run on) and OpenGL ES is what the Shield supports. To ad insult to injury, the Shield Portable only supports OpenGL ES 2.0 not the newer 3.0, meaning even less flexibility and programmability (less possibility for titles to be ported).
Sorry to burst your bubble. With GameStream though, you could game stream over the internet assuming there was enough download bandwidth where you were. You'd be better off looking at a Haswell based ultrabook if you want thin and light basic gaming.

you can not run PC games natively on a Shield, no matter what operating system it has.
with emulators such as dosbox turbo you can emulate older PCs, not faster than a Pentium 1, so you can only run DOS games and if you have a lot of time on your hand install Windows 95/98 to play games such as Half Life 1.
So for PC games you're better off with a Windows tablet.
Intel Atom Baytrail based tablets are fast enough to play games such as Portal 2.

Related

Can you imagine playing Playstation games on your pocket pc where ever you are?

1. ISOs / Images of PlayStation Games are copies of the game's CD content that are transferred into a file that is readable by the emulator.
As you are only allowed to make a security copy of games you own, sharing them is illegal. However, there are also Demos, TechDemos and Freeware Games (Homebrew) for the PlayStation that we can share. You can download them HERE.
2. To create these ISOs, you have to use a CD-Burning software that can create images. Don't get confused by the name "ISO", it's just a general term used for all images (.iso, .img, .bin etc.).
Since those games usually are very big (around 600 MB) and your storage card may not be that large, there are methods to lower the image's size: this site here should help with that problem
as for the actual games and bios i can't supply for various reasons, i can throw a hint your way though..try your favorite torrent site, rapidshare, megaupload etc.
Note: I have only tested this on my AT&T Tilt i don't know if it works on non touch screen devices. Oh and if you screwed something up and your device is messed up i take no responsibility in what happened...... HAPPY GAMING
Sorry to be a Killjoy, but if my P3600 has speed issues playing some basic Genesis games, I'm doubtful of its capabilities in Emulating a PlayStation.
Saying that, the pocket devices are slowly getting more powerful and when we finally get widespread use of 3D acceleration, then things will really get interesting.
That reminds me though...I remember being impressed with the graphics capabilities of my old SE P800 when V-Rally was released for it.....It looked almost like the PS version, and the rendering was completely achieved through software AFAIK.
Am I underestimating the 3D capabilities of the current gen Windows Mobile devices?
actually the current gen devices run stuff like this pretty well... personally i have four emulators on my tilt and they work fine, the first couple of times though the playstation emulator ran pretty slow but with a few tweaks and not running as many programs as i normally do it runs nicely.

Remote Play from PC,Gamecube,PS2...etc to android?

Hello, I've been looking for a way to do this for months but haven't had any success, so I decided to finally post my question here.
The PSP has a homebrew app called PSPdisp , that could remote to a PC in real-time, lag free. http://www.jjs.at/software/pspdisp.html
Is there any way to get something like this in android where we can view and control our games from the EVO without lag or stutter? I'm sure we have the speeds to do it Evo's 4G speeds are about 8Mbps on average (in my area), and my home connection is 16Mbps
This would be great for playing emus not available or not capable of running on android.
I don't know how hard this is to accomplish, looks like a very fast vnc server to me.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Q1b1iNgl8M
Not exactly mobile cloud gaming, even though we aren't too far from that either (see Onlive)
Something more like StreamMyGame, I want to have my PC running a emu, lets say dolphin running Legend of Zelda WindWaker, while VNC'ing (if thats a word) to it over the great interntz to the SuperSonic or Xoom. You know it just streaming video to me and me sending it commands with every button press.
Heres a vid on some of its features http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZd3h...layer_embedded
I'd even be willing to commission or "donate" to someone to port the homebrew app to android if its allowed on these forums. The source is available.
Glad you took my advice and posted this in here buddy. I'm bumping this for you since I'm interested as well.
~ d3rk
I doubt if lag free mobile streaming will be produced within the near future
Am using Teamviewer for other stuff though and that piece of dontmakemesayit is the most stable one I've found. Lags like hell and sometimes there is like 5-10 second delays before the screen updates, but at least it doesn't crash or lose connection completely
Yes, I have tried just about every Remote Desktoping tool in the market I can think of, but none are fast enough, I think the psp homebrew works because the dev made a video card driver that mirrors/clones the screen to the psp.
...I hope some great dev answers this call...
I'm looking for this too. PSPDisp is really great. I hope something similar like PSPDisp go to our android. Playing PC Games or other consoles emulator(Dreamcast, PS2, Gamecube) on android sounds fun
I just wish they made a ps2 emu for android. I just want to run vns on it so I really do not need a lot of power...

Can we expect any AAA games for RT?

I was thinking along the lines of need for speed, call of duty, or if not even something like gamesoft, ie: asphalt, nova, etc...
All the games in the store are very childish
You're either using a lot of hyperbole or have a different definition of "very childish" than most people do, since there are some reasonably violent or otherwise serious / adult games in the store. However, with that said, there exist NFS games on WP7, so I would expect them to come to Windows Store (and hopefully Windows RT) as well. Don't count on something like Call of Duty, though; the Tegra 3 probably isn't powerful enough to run it worth a damn. Also, it would suck to try and play it via touch...
I feel that the casual games like jetpack joyride and fruit ninja and robotek do a reasonably good job of keeping you occupied on a touch device.The likes of call of duty would not be enjpyed much on a touch device.
Yea, but they could be enjoyed with a 360 controller or a keyboard and mouse.
i guess only time will tell. MS probably wants you to purchase a xbox for hardcore games. In all honesty I don't like playing games on touch devices. I think they are too simple and the controls can be annoying. Most video games lack depth.
For some reason games like Jetpack Joyride are loading real slow on my Surface. During play it seems like it's skipping frames too. Anyone else notice this?
equisbox said:
i guess only time will tell. MS probably wants you to purchase a xbox for hardcore games. In all honesty I don't like playing games on touch devices. I think they are too simple and the controls can be annoying. Most video games lack depth.
For some reason games like Jetpack Joyride are loading real slow on my Surface. During play it seems like it's skipping frames too. Anyone else notice this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Jetpack Joyride is terrible on windows in general, on my surface it skips frames a hell of a lot less than it does on my desktop
Used to. Last update fixed the slow down when Touching the screen in game. Fps is pretty much smooth now.
Sent from my Windows 8 device using Board Express
bnlf said:
Used to. Last update fixed the slow down when Touching the screen in game. Fps is pretty much smooth now.
Sent from my Windows 8 device using Board Express
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am using the latest update, I get very limited slow down on the surface, even on the last update it is still very noticeable on my desktop though
equisbox said:
i guess only time will tell. MS probably wants you to purchase a xbox for hardcore games. In all honesty I don't like playing games on touch devices. I think they are too simple and the controls can be annoying. Most video games lack depth.
For some reason games like Jetpack Joyride are loading real slow on my Surface. During play it seems like it's skipping frames too. Anyone else notice this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well MS is talking about an Xbox surface, so hopefully that will bring some joy to the more expensive surface devices.
lilstevie said:
I am using the latest update, I get very limited slow down on the surface, even on the last update it is still very noticeable on my desktop though
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Click to collapse
So quick question. I know windows devices usually ship with the automatic updates checked on. How often does it update? Weekly? Does it automatically update when not in use or does it wait for you to reboot, like my computer? And does this include updating the apps or just the OS?
right, I mean definitely games like COD would not be good on a touch screen, but like someone said above, I would gladly buy a wired xbox controller if it meant I could play some higher end games. But yea, I guess time will tell, it's just unfortunate that no one is even claiming that they are working on anything. Atleast with WP8, gameloft announced a bunch of cool games and they are still atleast a month out, so i'm guessing we'll probably have to wait a while before anything big shows up for win RT
Surface RT updates weekly by default. It will not update while in Standby/Sleep mode, but will update in the background when turned on. Once the updates are installed, if a reboot is required, it will force one within three days (or you can do it before then).
By default, only high-priority OS (and possibly Firmware) updates will be installed. This probably includes "Recommended" ones, but will not include "Optional" updates. Updates to other Microsoft software on the device (like Office) might be automatic by default; I always enable the full Microsoft Update (instead of just Windows Update) and forget if I had to do this on the Surface or not.
Windows Store apps do *not* get updated through Windows Update, and will not update by default. To update them, use the Store app. Its live tile will tell you how many apps have pending updates.
equisbox said:
So quick question. I know windows devices usually ship with the automatic updates checked on. How often does it update? Weekly? Does it automatically update when not in use or does it wait for you to reboot, like my computer? And does this include updating the apps or just the OS?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tend to take a little more control and manually check for updates on a daily basis, but windows 8 default setting is to reboot 2 days after
Gameloft Windows Phone Games
Anyone think that Gameloft will be porting the new games that they are planning on releasing for Windows Phone 8 (http://www.gameloft.com/download-games/community/) to Windows RT - I don't know much about porting games, apps, etc...but from what I read, it seems that it shouldn't be that difficult for them to do because they utilize the same coding. I am hoping to play some better games on my Surface in the near future.
It would make sense - there are going to be a lot of windows tablets out there in the next year with all of the convertibles, etc....not to mention all of the Windows 8 PC users who aren't serious gamers, and won't pay 40-50$ for full PC game, and who would gladly pay 5-10$ for tablet version to play on their desktops.

[Q] Build a DIY android OUYA-like console from a laptop

Would it not be possible to create an android console from a laptop or similar piece of hardware. I'm thinking you would install android x86 on it and plug in some usb controllers. i have already tried this to some extent in virtual box and on an old laptop. The problem would come when you tried to run and arm based apps or games on it. Though there is a version of android x86 that has arm emulation, I could not get any fps games working as most of them would crash upon launching. And the one I did get working lagged in the main menu and the screen just went white when the campaign was launched. Does anyone have any ideas on this?
Interested
I am very interested in this also. I dont know anything about your specific probem but I am thinking about if its possible to emulate the entire ouya console itself. What do you think? Do you know anthing about this?

Streaming pcsx2 to nvidia shield tv

Has anyone been able to set this up properly? I added PCSX2 as a non-steam game. When i load steam on my pc it works in that it launches pcsx2 properly and i can use the mouse to launch any game, but when i launch game streaming from the nvidia shield and try to launch pcsx2 it never load properly and just crashes. Is this an issue with my gpu not being powerful enough? I have a intel core i5-4600k CPU and geforce gtx 650 card. Any help would be appreciated.
I stream dolphin flawlessly. I would do it all through the Nvidia Experience software though. Just go in to Experience, then SHIELD tab and add the exe manually. Then access it from Gamestream in the Nvidia software on the SHIELD. That sounds about right but I'm posting this from work. If it's any different I'll update this later.
Basically you're streaming the emulator without adding Steam to the equation. Works for pretty much anything I've tried so far and I forget or getting this muddled... but it might enable you to add PCSX2 directly to the launcher home screen.
You really don't have to even add individual games themselves. I just add remote desktop as an application, then open programs within that session without any issues, including any emulators, MMO clients, web browsers, even virtual machines running on that desktop. It's great. Full controller support. I run a 4K main display and this will even fit that to the Shield Portable's display without losing anything in the process. This really is in my opinion, the best way to use the Shield Portable.
Follow these instructions:
http://nvidia.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/3489/~/shield-portable-remote-desktop

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