It's essentially the gaming version of cloud computing - everything is computed, rendered and housed online. In its simplest description, your controller inputs are uploaded, a high-end server takes your inputs and plays the game, and then a video stream of the output is sent back to your computer. Think of it as something like Youtube or Hulu for games.
The service works with pretty much any Windows or Mac machine as a small browser plug-in. Optionally, you will also be able to purchase a small device, called the OnLive MicroConsole, that you can hook directly into your TV via HDMI, though if your computer supports video output to your TV, you can just do it that way instead. Of course, you can also just play on your computer's display if you don't want to pipe it out to your living room set.
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OnLive has worked diligently to overcome lag issues. The first step in this was creating a video compression algorithm that was as quick as possible.
It's basically games-over-VNC. Obviously they use video compression; of what sort I'm not sure. The two obvious alternatives would seem to be something fairly computationally lightweight, such as motion JPEG or even MPEG 2, running on the same server that's running the game, or something more computationally intensive but compact, such as H264, running on dedicated hardware.
Personally, If I were designing the service, I'd go for the latter: It allows you to have better compression without massively upgrading all your servers, for the cost of a relatively inexpensive codec chip. Because the video stream is smaller, you can attract people who have connections that would have been marginal or too slow using a poorer codec.
这就是我的理解：这是一个基于瘦客户端的游戏解决方案。 与 Wii、X-Box 或 Play Station 等游戏机不同，玩家端不需要 CPU/GPU 或任何处理。 该游戏通过互联网从怪物服务器进行流式传输，就像 HiFi 终端会话（RDP/远程桌面）一样，但具有高清图形。 控件（输入）被发送到服务器，图形被发送回。 它可以通过网络浏览器插件在 Mac 或 PC 上播放，也可以通过连接到服务器的小型设备在电视上播放。 高清需要 5mbps 连接，标清需要 1.5mbps。 几乎所有游戏都将可用或移植到该平台。 无需购买控制台或游戏。 不需要高端游戏电脑……只需宽带连接（当然这应该是高端的）。
This is what I understood: It is a thin client based gaming solution. Different from the gaming consoles like Wii, X-Box or Play Station, no CPU/GPU or any processing is needed at player’s side. The game is streamed from a monster server via internet, just like a HiFi terminal session (RDP/Remote Desktop) but with HD graphics. Controls (inputs) are sent to the server and graphics is sent back. It can be played on Mac or PC via a web browser add-in or in a TV with a small unit to connect to the server. Requires a 5mbps connection for HD and a 1.5mbps for SD. Almost all game titles will be available or ported to this platform. No need to buy a console or a game. No need of high end gaming PCs… Just a broadband connection (of course this should be high end).
I think that they are using something like an HDMI video h264 encoder in order to stream a video directly from an hdmi audio/video output. Something like this HDMI encoder or this h264 realtime encoder
There is also one more solition now. If you have a recent Nvidia graphics card, you can have the benefits of hardware accelerated capture, without the extra hardware. It's called "Gamestream" You can buy one of the Nvidia devices supporting the protocol, or you can download an open source app called "Moonlight" http://moonlight-stream.com
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它基本上是通过 VNC 进行游戏。 显然他们使用了视频压缩； 我不确定是什么类型的。 两个明显的替代方案似乎是计算量相当轻的东西，例如运动 JPEG 甚至 MPEG 2，在运行游戏的同一服务器上运行，或者是计算量更大但紧凑的东西，例如在专用硬件上运行的 H264。
就我个人而言，如果我要设计该服务，我会选择后者：它可以让您获得更好的压缩效果，而无需大规模升级所有服务器，而只需相对便宜的编解码器芯片的成本。 由于视频流较小，您可以吸引那些使用较差的编解码器时连接有限或速度太慢的用户。
It's basically games-over-VNC. Obviously they use video compression; of what sort I'm not sure. The two obvious alternatives would seem to be something fairly computationally lightweight, such as motion JPEG or even MPEG 2, running on the same server that's running the game, or something more computationally intensive but compact, such as H264, running on dedicated hardware.
Personally, If I were designing the service, I'd go for the latter: It allows you to have better compression without massively upgrading all your servers, for the cost of a relatively inexpensive codec chip. Because the video stream is smaller, you can attract people who have connections that would have been marginal or too slow using a poorer codec.
这就是我的理解：这是一个基于瘦客户端的游戏解决方案。 与 Wii、X-Box 或 Play Station 等游戏机不同，玩家端不需要 CPU/GPU 或任何处理。 该游戏通过互联网从怪物服务器进行流式传输，就像 HiFi 终端会话（RDP/远程桌面）一样，但具有高清图形。 控件（输入）被发送到服务器，图形被发送回。 它可以通过网络浏览器插件在 Mac 或 PC 上播放，也可以通过连接到服务器的小型设备在电视上播放。 高清需要 5mbps 连接，标清需要 1.5mbps。 几乎所有游戏都将可用或移植到该平台。 无需购买控制台或游戏。 不需要高端游戏电脑……只需宽带连接（当然这应该是高端的）。
This is what I understood: It is a thin client based gaming solution. Different from the gaming consoles like Wii, X-Box or Play Station, no CPU/GPU or any processing is needed at player’s side. The game is streamed from a monster server via internet, just like a HiFi terminal session (RDP/Remote Desktop) but with HD graphics. Controls (inputs) are sent to the server and graphics is sent back. It can be played on Mac or PC via a web browser add-in or in a TV with a small unit to connect to the server. Requires a 5mbps connection for HD and a 1.5mbps for SD. Almost all game titles will be available or ported to this platform. No need to buy a console or a game. No need of high end gaming PCs… Just a broadband connection (of course this should be high end).
我认为他们正在使用 HDMI 视频 h264 编码器之类的东西，以便直接从 hdmi 音频/视频输出流式传输视频。
像这样的 HDMI 编码器 或这个 h264 实时编码器
您还可以使用图像采集卡，如下所示：http://www.epiphan.com/products/frame-grabbers/vga2ethernet/
还有一个现在孤立无援。 如果您有最新的 Nvidia 显卡，则无需额外的硬件即可享受硬件加速捕捉的优势。 它称为“Gamestream”，您可以购买支持该协议的 Nvidia 设备之一，也可以下载名为“Moonlight”的开源应用程序 http://moonlight-stream.com
I think that they are using something like an HDMI video h264 encoder in order to stream a video directly from an hdmi audio/video output.
Something like this HDMI encoder or this h264 realtime encoder
You can also use a frame-grabber card like this: http://www.epiphan.com/products/frame-grabbers/vga2ethernet/
There is also one more solition now. If you have a recent Nvidia graphics card, you can have the benefits of hardware accelerated capture, without the extra hardware. It's called "Gamestream" You can buy one of the Nvidia devices supporting the protocol, or you can download an open source app called "Moonlight" http://moonlight-stream.com