Stadia has officially been out for a week now, and some shade is being thrown Google’s way for a promise that may or may not have been met. When Google unveiled Stadia they made a claim that people will be able to stream games at up to 4k resolution and at a smooth 60 frames per second. While technically ‘4k’ has been achieved it’s not what all the early adopters of Stadia had in mind.
A lot of Stadia’s player base are saying that even though their internet speed is considered ‘Great’ for the service and well within the range for 4k streaming that they’re just not getting 4k. Which is partially right. You see, most if not all the games on Stadia have what’s called ‘Dynamic Resolution’. It’s a built in function of a game to upscale the resolution from 1080p and make it ‘seem’ like it’s 4k by adding pixels to the screen to give the illusion of a sharper image. According to the official release information from Google:
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 frame rate on Stadia and we are impressed with what they have been able to achieve for day one.
Okay so, what the hell? Google both claims that the developers have the control, and that Stadia streams at 4k. But there's the careful wording of that statement: Stadia streams to your TV at 4K/60 but it doesn't state that's what the input is. Many, including myself, feel like people are being cheated out of the 4k experience that was promised. The obvious target to point the finger at for deceiving everyone with upscaled 1080p as "4K" would be Google, however things aren't exactly what they seem. When the Verge asked Bungie about it, they commented with:
"When streaming at 4K, we render at a native 1080p and then upsample and apply a variety of techniques to increase the overall quality of effect,"
Wait what? Google isn't in the wrong?!?
I can understand if a game developer needs time and testing with the service. This can help determine if raising the quality of the game is a viable option, while still keeping the high frame rate and responsiveness of controls. Remember, this is gamers we're talking about here, who would famously respond to their 4K game stream being choppy with level heads and calm demeanor. So the issue here isn't exactly that Google deceived customers, but that
The response from Google felt like a quick witted attempt to remove the heat from themselves. Still, there are no graphics settings in any of the games on Stadia, which makes me believe that maybe the developers actually do set the parameters of the games. Which would make playing at true 4k impossible due to them lowering the bar on resolution within the game before it even touches Google’s servers.
Only time will really tell if actual 4k comes to Stadia’s games. If it’s even a feasible option to stream a game at 4k and 60fps with little input delay for a smooth experience.
