Using a VPN for this has somehow gained traction in all the posts talking about Stadia. That will not work.
Why you might ask? Do you have two machines available on your
local network, both plugged in via cable. Run a game on one and try and play using the other as display and input. Can work all right if wired.
Now try that same test on 5GHz WiFi, that works all right a vast majority of the time, not great, but it works, as 1ms consistent latency usually.
Now move to 2.4GHz. That's going to be fun. Normal is <0.2% packet loss I'd consider as excellent, norm is <0.8% about if in an environment with multiple WiFi networks. Now imagine your dodge right button is lost and needs to re-transmit, that's a couple of ms lost. Not a biggie, right? But what if that's on a normal 4-5ms latency? So just in my internal network, I can lose 10-15ms minimum on that one packet lost that could have been important.
Code:
Ping statistics for 192.168.0.1:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 1ms, Maximum = 3ms, Average = 2ms
Above is on my 2.4+5 combined network, I have pretty good WiFi in this room and if I swap to only 5Ghz:
Code:
Ping statistics for 192.168.0.1:
Packets: Sent = 11, Received = 11, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 1ms, Maximum = 3ms, Average = 1ms
I have literally only one other WiFi network in my area right now and it's not operating in the same band.
But lets assume not using WiFi, you're directly connected to the ONT on a fiber line and connecting to a server within CT (since I'm in CT).
Code:
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 9ms, Maximum = 10ms, Average = 9ms
The above is my latency to a server here (that I control, so I can verify that it's within CT). Interesting side note, that server if I don't run anything on it can reply within 5-6ms, currently there's some load on it increasing it to 9ms.
Now imagine 10ms round trip before my input happens on the screen. That doesn't count the calculation for rendering that frame, packaging my input and sending it off, etc. just latency to the server.
Your keyboard/mouse clicks due to USB have 5ms of latency already. So on my PC, the normal latency I get from keyboard to calculation to screen is <45ms normally (assuming ~20ms input, ~10ms processing (pulling a number out of a hat, this one is not sourced but based on the fact that you'll need worst case 1/60th of a second frames for "playable" without it feeling a bit stocky) and ~15ms to display(though that's pretty high, norm is 5-10ms and I get a bit annoyed by it in fast paced games, set my monitors to 3ms even if I get worse quality). Now you want to add, within CT, a 9ms round-trip to processing, so that climbs to 55ms. Okay, that might still be playable, hopefully no packet loss, all packets arrive in order, etc.
Oh wait, I need to add processing on my side to display the frame as well! So let's add another 10ms to that. 65ms vs 45ms on my local machine if perfect conditions. Sounds good, let's use Google Stadia with a VPN!
Wait, where are those servers again? Europe? Okay, how much latency to Europe, let's say Paris as that's probably one of the closest servers.
Code:
Ping statistics for 51.77.227.87:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 157ms, Maximum = 158ms, Average = 157ms
Ouch, instead of adding 9ms round trip, we're at 157ms. So that's a delay from click to screen of 0.2s.
But the service doesn't work, right? Region lock. Let's add a VPN that will tunnel all our traffic to some server, then it has to come back to Stadia's server. So that will probably add 5-10ms if within Paris assuming a perfect world. But aren't those VPN servers made to handle multiple different people so packets will queue, etc.? So let's say it's 0.25s now from click to screen.
But don't I have a fiber line? You know, that thing with way lower than normal latency, new equipment and stuff, no IPC from OpenServe that adds a ms?
So will Google Stadia be playable from South Africa?
No. Will I be able to play Google Stadia nicely if I'm not within probably the same city as the service?
No.
Google Stadia for now is for a select few, and definitely not within South Africa for a while.
Note my local processing numbers are definitely a bit high, my input might be considered a little low, norm is ~30ms, should balance out.
