经济学人下载:云计算:电子行业的新趋势(2)

It all sounds promising in theory. Whether cloud gaming will catch on, though, remains uncertain, for it is technically much more demanding than existing streaming services. Unlike films or music, games are interactive, which means they must respond instantly to a player’s input. The laws of physics impose limits on how quickly a player’s commands can traverse the internet to reach a data-centre to be processed, and then how quickly the resulting video can be sent back. For the twitchy action games that dominate bestseller lists, even delays of a fraction of a second are an irritation for players. Such technical glitches are one reason that previous attempts at cloud gaming, by firms such as OnLive (which launched its service in 2010 but shut down in 2015), failed to catch on.
从理论上讲，这一切听起来都很有希望。不过，仍不确定云游戏是否会流行，因为它在技术上比现有的流媒体服务要求高得多。与电影或音乐不同，游戏是互动的，这意味着它们必须对玩家的输入做出即时反应。物理定律限制了玩家的命令通过互联网到达要处理的数据中心的速度，以及由此产生的视频返回的速度。对于那些在畅销书排行榜上占据主导地位的动作类游戏来说，哪怕是一眨眼的延迟都会让玩家感到恼怒。此类技术故障是OnLive(该公司于2010年推出了云游戏服务，但在2015年关闭)等公司此前尝试的云游戏未能流行起来的原因之一。

The cloud giants insist that times have changed. Microsoft, Amazon and Google have data-centres dotted around the world, which should help keep response times low. Consumer internet connections are faster than ever and data allowances more generous. And although dedicated gamers may turn up their noses at even short timelags, cloud gaming could prove attractive to the less hard-core.
云计算巨头坚称时代已经改变。微软、亚马逊和谷歌在全球各地都设有数据中心，这应该有助于降低响应时间。消费者上网速度比以往任何时候都快，数据补贴也更慷慨。尽管资深玩家可能会对短时间段里的内容不屑一顾，但事实可能证明，云游戏对不那么铁杆的玩家具有吸引力。

Cloud computing can be used in other ways, too. Rather than running the whole game remotely, one intermediate option is to use it for tricky calculations that are also relatively insensitive to small delays. ”Crackdown 3”, an action game released for the xbox and PC in February, uses cloud computing for complex physics calculations, allowing players to blow up their environment in a realistic way without overtaxing their computers. An updated version of Microsoft’s “Flight Simulator”, shown at e3, was also, according to its trailer, “powered by Azure”. Cloud computing has already disrupted everything from films to corporate IT departments. Gaming, it seems, is now also in play.
云计算也可以以其他方式使用。与其远程运行整个游戏，一个中间选择是使用它进行复杂的计算，这些计算对较小的延迟也相对不敏感。二月份为xbox和个人电脑发行的动作游戏《除暴战警3》使用云计算进行复杂的物理计算，玩家可以在不增加电脑负担的情况下以一种现实的方式破坏环境。微软在e3展上展示的“飞行模拟器”的升级版，根据预告片，也是“由Azure提供动力”的。云计算已经颠覆了从电影到企业信息技术部门的一切。游戏似乎也在发挥作用。