@playonshaga
Dec 17, 2024
Contents
Contents
Shaga has Solana’s DNA: The Speed of Light Will Be Defeated
To help put latency into context, it's the delay between pressing an arrow key and seeing the character move in that direction. Latency is measured in milliseconds (ms) and the lower the number, the faster the response.
High latency affects network performance as it leads to delays between a gamer’s control and the game’s on-screen actions. Lagging, freezing and unresponsive gameplay happens at anything above 100ms, and anything above 200ms makes playing online games almost impossible. Keeping latency as low as possible is crucial for quality of experience. So much so that studies have shown the negative effects of network latency on player gaming experience to reveal “a decrease in player performance and an increase in stress levels as latency increased.”10
In the worst cases, gamers quit in droves when experiencing latency issues.11 A report, Online Gaming Connectivity Report 2022, drew insights from an in-depth survey of 2,000 regular gamers (UK and USA) across console, PC and mobile regarding their top frustrations when it comes to the performance of online games and how they perceive key issues like lag and latency. The key findings were:
- 39% of gamers find latency issues to be their top frustration
- 42% of the gamers they spoke to said latency issues stop them from playing as much as they’d like
- While many gamers try quick fixes to solve the issue, 44% of gamers stop playing and try again later, and nearly a quarter (24%) quit and play something else
- 20% of gamers experience latency issues frequently, with the problem even more prevalent on mobile (30%)
The design and objectives of Shaga are centered around achieving the lowest possible latency in remote gaming to solve these prevalent issues. Such levels of latency reduction have been unattainable due to traditional, centralized data models simply not having the efficient infrastructure needed. The absence of comprehensive data is also enabling many of Shaga’s competitors to propagate false claims regarding the decentralization of their systems and infrastructure, despite reliance on centralized data servers.
A key insight underpinning Shaga's architecture is the critical role of geographical proximity in determining latency. The fundamental principle is straightforward: the shorter the distance between the gaming source and the end-user, the fewer the network hops and the less physical distance data must travel, resulting in significantly reduced latency. This direct relationship between proximity and latency is a cornerstone of Shaga's network design, aiming to deliver an unparalleled gaming experience through a decentralized approach by leveraging the existing network connections. There will be no need for round-trips to and from data centers because there is a direct link between the users and the Nodes, making the streaming fully peer-to-peer so the absolute minimum latency that's physically possible is achieved with Shaga. This optimizes the physical network path between the game source and its players. By de-centralizing the gaming sources, Shaga aims to minimize the physical distance that data must travel through edge rendering.
Edge Rendering/Gaming
Edge gaming encompasses various interpretations, but at Shaga, we define it as delivering top-tier gaming experiences by tapping into a distributed network of computing resources positioned at the network's edge, close to our users.
Through a decentralized network of community-contributed Edge Nodes, Shaga aims to offer a superior cloud gaming experience, boasting zero latency, scalability, and flexibility. This setup fosters a community-driven ecosystem where users both contribute to and benefit from shared computing resources.
Shaga eschews centralized data centers in favor of a decentralized network of Edge Nodes provided by individual gaming PC owners. This is the DePIN approach. These nodes, located nearer to end-users/gamers, minimize data travel distance and therefore reduce latency. Essentially, these Edge Nodes are high-performance gaming PCs owned by Shaga’s community members (gamers) who contribute their idle resources. Processing game data at the edge (closer to the user's location), ensures a true zero-latency gaming experience, eliminating input lag and visual disruptions common in traditional cloud gaming services.
Edge gaming empowers users to access high-end gaming experiences on any smart device, including smartphones, tablets, and low-powered laptops, by offloading computational workload to nearby Edge Nodes.
As more users contribute their gaming PCs as Edge Nodes, Shaga’s network capacity and geographic reach expands drastically. This expansion will also incentivize community participation and contribute to a more equal Creator Economy within the gaming industry. As Shaga rewards Node Providers with various incentives and rewards, not only will users/gamers be encouraged to contribute their idle resources to the network, but they will also most likely provide them with a platform to earn passive income and showcase their skills.
Through its decentralized network and commitment to empowering gamers, Shaga plays a vital role in building a more inclusive infrastructure that leaves no-one behind. We want to make it possible for people living on the "Edge" of the world to thrive and succeed by leveraging their passion for shared gaming.
10 To isolate the effects of network latency in a 36-person user test, two games were designed to represent fundamental actions: "Sushi Shooter" for shooting and "Square Dodger" for movement. The games introduced incremental latency, and player performance was assessed using game metrics. Player stress was measured using emotion detection software and heart rate monitors.- Zha, Mei, and Ying Zhang. 2019. “Digital WPI Interactive Qualifying Projects (All Years) Interactive Qualifying Projects the Effects of Network Latency on Player Gaming Experience.”
https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/213002493.pdf
11 MCV Editors. 2022. “[from the Industry] the First-Ever Survey of Online Gaming Connectivity Finds Gamers Quit in Droves When Experiencing Latency Issues.” MCV. July 18, 2022.
