Google Stadia promised that all games at launch would support 4K 60fps.
Games like Destiny 2 and Red Dead Redemption 2 don't run at a native 4K on the service.
Google has issued an official statement as to why that is.
Google’s cloud gaming service Stadia promised users a 4K resolution with 60fps support on all games at launch, provided consumers had access to a TV that could support the same. They also said that if, for some reason, developers wanted to lock the FPS at 30, the service would provide a 4K 30fps experience. However, recently it has been revealed that Destiny 2 runs at 1080p on the service and is upscaled to 4K. Red Dead Redemption 2, on the other hand, renders in 2K (1440p) and upscales to 4K. Upscaling a 2K resolution to 4K isn't new as the PS4 Pro and Xbox One X have been doing this for a lot of games.
Google has released a statement on the subject saying, “Stadia streams at 4K and 60 FPS – and that includes all aspects of our graphics pipeline from game to screen: GPU, encoder and Chromecast Ultra all outputting at 4k to 4k TVs, with the appropriate internet connection. Developers making Stadia games work hard to deliver the best streaming experience for every game. Like you see on all platforms, this includes a variety of techniques to achieve the best overall quality. We give developers the freedom of how to achieve the best image quality and framerate on Stadia and we are impressed with what they have been able to achieve for day one. We expect that many developers can, and in most cases will, continue to improve their games on Stadia. And because Stadia lives in our data centres, developers are able to innovate quickly while delivering even better experiences directly to you without the need for game patches or downloads."
In other Stadia news, users have taken to Reddit to complain about overheating. It looks like the Chromecast Ultras that gamers are using with their TV is overheating causing the device to shut down. A post on the Reddit thread reads, “I was in the middle of a fight in Destiny 2 when suddenly my Chromecast died and lost connectivity to the network. I went to unplug it from the power and it was extremely hot. Has anyone else experienced overheating with the new Chromecast Ultras that come with the Founder's Edition? I hadn't seen other posts about that.”
Google has responded to the thread. Stadia Community manager GraceFromGoogle has responded by saying “Thanks for bringing this to our attention. We know any sort of heat on a device can be worrisome, but we can confirm there is no thermal overheating issue with Chromecast Ultra. During normal usage (like watching cat videos on YouTube), the surface of the device may get warm to the touch, but this is working as designed. The team has done extensive testing on the hardware, services and games—this includes tests of long Stadia play and video sessions—and have not seen thermal shutdown problems”.
Users have been coming up with their own solutions for the overheating problem and you can check them out here.
Stadia is off to a rocky start, but then again so was the Xbox One, but Microsoft did take all the right steps to ensure that the Xbox One becomes a desirable proposition.
When it comes to cloud gaming, many speculated that Stadia would be the Netflix of gaming but sadly, that doesn't seem to be the case. The one service that is going to be the Netflix of cloud gaming is Microsoft’s Project xCloud combined with Game Pass. Stadia may not be coming to India anytime soon, but Microsoft has confirmed that Project xCloud will come to India in 2020. You can read more about Project xCloud coming to India here.
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Sameer Mitha
Sameer Mitha lives for gaming and technology is his muse. When he isn’t busy playing with gadgets or video games he delves into the world of fantasy novels. View Full Profile
