Live Feed distribution of QA lab
Hello,
I have been given a project to investigate into the possibility of being able to stream 10-15 outputs from game consoles (360, PS3 mainly) to be remotely viewed by other people in the company.
Has anyone ever heard or know of a company that already utilizes this scenario? or anyone have any suggestions about how this might be done? (I have started research into it but its all still very preliminary)
Thanks, any help is greatly appreciated.
I'm curious what would the main goal be for this project? It might help knowing this to help you out.
The final goal would be to allow anyone in the company (Devs mainly) to view how the game is playing.
eg: A level designer changes a significant section of a level and asks the lab to play through it and test it out. This project would allow them to view what the testers are doing in real time.
also another example of how to utilize this project is if clients or visitors stopped by the office we could have a tester play through a portion of the game while they watch on a tv in the conference room.
hope this helps, I have started looking into basically what tsloper said about how this is what the cable companies do.
Yeah, besides getting someone to program an observation mode to every game the best solution would probably be the "control board" that cable stations/news channels use. I don't know if there is a cheaper option though.
Originally posted by fatty13
The final goal would be to allow anyone in the company (Devs mainly) to view how the game is playing.
I believe that when you do a cost-benefit analysis, you'll find that the costs are prohibitive.
I recommend you reconsider what the need is, and see if there's a better way to satisfy that need.
Like buy VCRs (or Tivos) for the testers, then only show recordings to the programmers when there's something they need to see.
Just to clear up a few things I am currently not worried about costs this is all very preliminary findings. In the end this may not even come to be we are simply looking into it to see if it is possible to do this, then determine if the cost is too great.
This is for quick easy viewing of what is happening in the game without having to bother the testing lab with unnecessary tasks.
@tsloper: We are also looking into making it easier for the testers to record gameplay for posting on bugs for the devs to look at.
Originally posted by fatty13
Just to clear up a few things I am currently not worried about costs... we are simply looking into it to see if it is possible to do this, then determine if the cost is too great.
Sure. You're not thinking about costs, but you're going to think about costs. Understood! (^_^)
Streaming video in multiple channels is pretty much what cable companies do. So that tells you that it's possible, but that you'd need what essentially amounts to broadcast equipment and cable wiring.
But I don't see any particular usefulness in doing this.
Tom Sloper
Sloperama Productions
Making games fun and getting them done. www.sloperama.com
Instructor in games, University of Southern California http://itp.usc.edu/
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