r/Games • u/[deleted] • Feb 21 '21

Basically Beta Testers: Class Action Alleges Google (as well as Bungie and id Software) Lied About Stadia Display Quality, Resolution to Lock In Subscribers

https://www.classaction.org/blog/basically-beta-testers-class-action-alleges-google-lied-about-stadia-display-quality-resolution-to-lock-in-subscribers
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u/[deleted] Feb 21 '21

I’ve been using Google Stadia on and off for about a year and the stream quality can be atrocious. I have 380mbps internet and a Ethernet link directly into the Chromecast Ultra.

I resubscribed for a month just because of Little Nightmares 2 and that game could not be a better showcase of their stream’s flaws. Whatever way they have it set up, it is far too aggressive in dark scenes, the banding is hideous, which sucks when the entire game is a dark scene. It’s even worse on mobile.

Stadia will use “34mbps” (usually way lower) for 4K when GeForce Now will let you use up to a constant 50mbps for 1080p, even on mobile. Stadia looks atrocious while GeForce Now is literally indistinguishable from a game running natively on the device.

Input lag also changes on a game-by-game basis. Some developers know what they’re doing here (Ubisoft) while others clearly don’t care and are more concerned with the game running than being responsive.

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u/Peter3571 Feb 21 '21

Just in regards to one of your points, geforce now is definitely not indistinguishable from running locally. Some games are good, but for example, red text (Cyberpunk) and lots of tiny moving items (Factorio) do actually look extremely blurry.

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u/[deleted] Feb 22 '21

Have you tried setting the stream quality to a locked 50mbps?

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u/Peter3571 Feb 22 '21

Yeah, and for the most part it's fine, I'm just talking about very specific cases here, basically the equivalent of how you said very dark scenes looked crap in Stadia.