Abstract

Emerging cloud-based game streaming systems such as Google Stadia, NVidia GeForce Now, and Amazon Luna allow players to play games with only a lightweight computer and a good network connection. Cloud-based game streaming can benefit from carefully tuned playout buffers to provide players with smooth but interactive gameplay. Our project aimed to quantify the user quality for game conditions that might arise with different buffer sizes for cloud-based game streaming. We conducted a user study in which users played cloud-based games and rated their experience while we perturbed the network in order to simulate different buffer sizes and network connection qualities. Based on our experiments, we found that games that require quick and precise inputs are more negatively affected by the delay from a buffer than those that do not. Conversely, games that involve lots of camera movement and animations are more negatively affected by the visual jitter from a lack of a buffer than those that do not.

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