Crysis, On Your iPhone?

Sep 11 2009, 11:49am CDT | by Robert Evans

Alright, one of two things has happened. Either Jon Stokes of Ars Technica has fallen down a magical well and emerged into a wonderous dream world where anything is possible, or he actually played Crysis on an iPhone.

For those of you who don't know, Crysis is widely considered to be one of the biggest graphics hogs in the gaming world. If your machine can run Crysis well, you have a top-of-the-line gaming rig. You can understand, then, why it's a little weird to hear about it being played on a computer small enough to fit inside my pocket.

And yet, the iPhone has been used to play Crysis, Grand Theft Auto, and World of Warcraft, all thanks to a company called OTOY. So how on earth does this work? Basically, OTOY renders the game server-side, and then compresses and sends the frames over to their client across the network. This uses a very small amount of code (780k) so the tiny processors in the iPhone can handle it. The games lag a bit, but according to Stokes not enough to make them unplayable.

So there you have it. WoW, and other major PC titles, are now playable on smartphones. There's no telling how long it will take before major PC titles start arriving for smartphone gamers, but the fact that better hardware isn't required to handle these games should speed things up tremendously. Who knows, by this time next year we could all be playing WoW on our iPhones.

Y'know, because texting while driving wasn't bad enough.

where to buy

Buy from Amazon

What Others Say about This

TSX Gold Stock, GTA Resources and Mining (TSX.V:GTA) Gives Investors Valentines Day Surprise; Stock up over 600%

New York, NY February 14, 2012 - Investorideas.com, a leader in sector research for independent investors issues a trading alert for TSX gold stock, GTA Resources and Mining Inc. (TSX.V:GTA). The stock is trading up at $1.85, up 1.61(655.10%) 1:31PM EST ...
Full article at: InvestorIdeas.com More like this 35 minutes ago

International Speedway Corporation Joins Forces with Sportsblast to “Smoke Your Tires”

LOS ANGELES -- (BUSINESS WIRE) -- To celebrate the launch of the 2012 stock car racing season, International Speedway Corporation (“ISC”), the leading promoter of motorsports activities in the United States, has lent its track marks to a new iTunes app, ...
Full article at: Freshnews.com More like this 36 minutes ago

Haptic Thermometer Lets You Feel How Hot or Cold It Is Outside [Video]

We once tuned into morning radio or the early television news to catch the weather forecast for the day and dress accordingly. These days the forecast is omnipresent, available in web browsers and on smartphone home screens, but the presentation of that ...
Full article at: Tested More like this 44 minutes ago

Don't miss ...

Gaming

New Xbox to be unveiled at E3 2012?

Robert Evans
The excitement about new smartphones, tablets and anything mobile drive Robert to unearth the latest rumors and developments in this fast moving space. He adopted 4G as soon as it become available and knows where the mobile market is going.
Robert can be contacted directly at robert@i4u.com.