Home Gaming How laggy is PS4/Vita remote play?

How laggy is PS4/Vita remote play?

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One of the best things about the Wii U is the ability on many games to play off-screen, using just the system’s GamePad. It works like magic, with no discernible lag, at a full 60 frames per second. PlayStation 4 Vita remote play tries to emulate that. Bad news for those who were hoping to use the feature extensively though; according to Eurogamer’s Digital Foundry, it just isn’t near as good as the Wii U.

They did a number of tests, using all manner of different networking hardware and games, and found that the very important latency involved in Vita remote play is just too high, and gets in the way of having a good time. It’s all quite game dependant, of course – and some games fared better than others.

Killzone: Shadow Fall, apparently, has some pretty poor latency – whether connected ad-hoc or through a router on the same network. They found a 160ms latency in the remote play, which when coupled with the 80ms of input lag made it so that it would take 240ms before actions you carried out on the Vita took place on screen.

Image quality is also not quite up to scratch, with pretty obvious and evident marcoblocking and the whole image downscaled from a 720p stream.

That’s a little disappointing, mostly because it’s a feature I was planning on using quite a bit. It seems that it works – but the latency is just too high for games that require speed and precision, like first person shooters.

Remote Play just isn’t the killer feature that’ll save the Vita, unfortunately.

“However, in the here and now, Vita Remote Play is a cute function that’s useful for some games but not for others – and right now we definitely see it as a cool value-added extra rather than the saviour of Sony’s brilliant – but beleaguered – handheld,” says Eurogamer.

Last Updated: December 2, 2013

71 Comments

  1. John's (JJ's) finest excuse

    December 2, 2013 at 11:36

    I was expecting worse, actually.
    Edit: Second video is a bit worse.

    Reply

  2. Admiral Chief of Souls

    December 2, 2013 at 11:45

  3. Jim Lenoir (Banana Jim)

    December 2, 2013 at 11:46

    Not that bad really, I’ll be waiting anxiously for the 13th to come so that I can too can Unleash THE GREATNESS!!! WOHOO!!!

    Reply

    • TiMsTeR1033

      December 2, 2013 at 11:50

      You be getting a ps4?

      Reply

      • Jim Lenoir (Banana Jim)

        December 2, 2013 at 11:51

        Hell yeah!

        Reply

    • Hammersteyn

      December 2, 2013 at 11:51

      Indeed, look what happens when you don’t preorder

      http://d24w6bsrhbeh9d.cloudfront.net/photo/aAY0Px9_460sa.gif

      Reply

      • Jim Lenoir (Banana Jim)

        December 2, 2013 at 11:57

        Wouldn’t it be funny if there was also a stampede In SA when the PS4 launches? The Germans can’t be the only ones with all the fun.

        Reply

        • geelslang

          December 2, 2013 at 15:15

          You sure thats in Germany? I cant read the signs, the quality is too bad. Thats very ungerman behaviour.

          Reply

      • RyseandRepeat

        December 2, 2013 at 11:57

        Those people are whack man,..

        Reply

        • Jim Lenoir (Banana Jim)

          December 2, 2013 at 11:58

          Power of the PS4 man… it changes people! 😛

          Reply

        • TiMsTeR1033

          December 2, 2013 at 12:02

          thats when you break a bottle and say the following “I am taking my Ps4 to the counter, try and stop me bitches and ill cut you a new one!”

          Reply

          • RyseandRepeat

            December 2, 2013 at 12:02

            Hahaha!

          • Jim Lenoir (Banana Jim)

            December 2, 2013 at 12:05

            And Germany learnt a hard lesson…. crowd control… isn’t… a joke!

      • Vampyric Squirrel of the Sith

        December 2, 2013 at 12:16

        All you need at that time… is… a… Flashbang! hahahahaha

        Reply

        • TiMsTeR1033

          December 2, 2013 at 12:17

          hahahahaha LMAO!! that would work perfectly!

          Reply

          • Jim Lenoir (Banana Jim)

            December 2, 2013 at 12:20

            I love how the one guy with the red cap just stands there confused…

            You can just see the “What the fuck just happened?” on his face.

          • TiMsTeR1033

            December 2, 2013 at 12:21

            be like “I cant go this way, umm not that way either… how the fuck I get into this mess”

          • Jim Lenoir (Banana Jim)

            December 2, 2013 at 12:23

            That’s the face of a man that knows the sting of tear gas. I think he was anxiously anticipating being gassed by the riot police.

        • TiMsTeR1033

          December 2, 2013 at 12:20

          • Vampyric Squirrel of the Sith

            December 2, 2013 at 12:24

            That’s quite the fail

          • Jim Lenoir (Banana Jim)

            December 2, 2013 at 12:25

            Wow… I wonder how long it takes to recover from that… ?

          • TiMsTeR1033

            December 2, 2013 at 12:30

            Rpob third and maybe 4th degree burns… could take some time… plus have alot of scar tissue. Or worse case took out his balls.

          • Jim Lenoir (Banana Jim)

            December 2, 2013 at 12:35

            A life time of hormone treatment and the harsh reality of prosthetic balls in the sack…

      • Gr8_Balls_o_Fire

        December 2, 2013 at 12:21

        How embarrassing. For all of humanity

        Reply

        • Jim Lenoir (Banana Jim)

          December 2, 2013 at 12:21

          Dude, PS4 is serious business! I’m just surprised it remained so civil. No fists flying, no axe swinging, and no one pulling out a magnum and going all gangsta!

          Reply

  4. Hammersteyn

    December 2, 2013 at 11:51

    As long as it’s still playable. Sounded to good to be true when I first heard about the feature tbh

    Reply

    • Exalted Overlord Geoffrey Tim

      December 2, 2013 at 12:01

      It works like /proper/ magic on the Wii U – but I guess that it’s built from the ground up for that purpose.

      Reply

      • TiMsTeR1033

        December 2, 2013 at 12:02

        Wii u use Wifi or Bluetooth?

        Reply

        • Jim Lenoir (Banana Jim)

          December 2, 2013 at 12:04

          Good question… And do you get a choice when you “pair” your Vita to your PS4 via wiifi or bluetooth? I’d imagine the performance difference between the two would be significant.

          Reply

          • TiMsTeR1033

            December 2, 2013 at 12:08

            Id imagine that aswell! The thing is, this is going threw a server first then to your Vita as I would imagine… I wonder if there is a way to stream it without using the internet like the Wii u does.

          • Jim Lenoir (Banana Jim)

            December 2, 2013 at 12:10

            That’s what I want to test next week, also if you do have the option to choose between wiifi and bluetooth, then why are these noobs using wifi? But if you can only use wifi, then I need to tweet @yosp

          • Jim Lenoir (Banana Jim)

            December 2, 2013 at 12:16

            Turns out you can choose remote play (PS4/vita) via bluetooth or wifi. So why the fuck are these idiots using wifi?

            If you have a decent connection sure… but for the rest of us, it’s going to be idiotic to use wifi.

          • Exalted Overlord Geoffrey Tim

            December 2, 2013 at 12:30

            I have found nothing to say remote play can be used via BT. From Sony:

            Remote Play will enable users to stream their PS4 gameplay to their PS Vita system via WiFi, freeing up the television for other uses. SCEA expects that most PS4 titles will support Remote Play unless the title requires a special peripheral like PlayStation Camera.

          • Jim Lenoir (Banana Jim)

            December 2, 2013 at 12:36

            Apparently some nutcase on a forum said you could… sigh! But if Sony’s mum on it, then I guess bluetooth is long in the tooth. :/

          • HvR

            December 2, 2013 at 12:22

            Probably range, with bluetooth you will have to be in the same room as the PS4 so why use the Vita?

            Except if build a toilet stall in your living room.

          • Jim Lenoir (Banana Jim)

            December 2, 2013 at 12:24

            HOW BIG IS YOUR HOUSE!!? :O If your toilet is too far from your TV, it’s time to downscale!!! heheheh

          • HvR

            December 2, 2013 at 12:25

            Big enough to not shit where I eat.

            I think you are looking at 4m range max with the bluetooth.

          • Jim Lenoir (Banana Jim)

            December 2, 2013 at 12:27

            HAHAHAHAHAHAH

          • Exalted Overlord Geoffrey Tim

            December 2, 2013 at 12:17

            the result were ad hoc and router based; so straight wifi connection.

        • Exalted Overlord Geoffrey Tim

          December 2, 2013 at 12:17

          It uses a proprietary protocol based on 802.11n…so Wifi.

          Reply

        • HvR

          December 2, 2013 at 12:19

          Propriety wireless connection directly between the controller and console on 5.4GHz.

          So it is like the connection between DS controller and the Playstation.

          Only way you are going to get <80ms response times.

          Reply

  5. Devourer of Small Bunnies

    December 2, 2013 at 11:56

    And there it is ladies and gentleman. Any bit of “want” for next gen in my house has officially died. The king is dead. Long live the king.

    Reply

  6. Devourer of Small Bunnies

    December 2, 2013 at 11:58

    And you know whats the real kicker right? Even on a shabby constantly screwed wifi network in my house I can still stream 1080p to either TV or ipad, even at the same time, with absolutely no lag. Tell me again, whered all the money go into for R&D? The fucking cloud.

    Next gen can totally die. Im done *drops mic, walks out*

    Reply

    • Jim Lenoir (Banana Jim)

      December 2, 2013 at 12:01

      I don’t know man, looks more like an optimization issue, and that’s bound to be corrected with a firmware update.

      Reply

      • Devourer of Small Bunnies

        December 2, 2013 at 12:03

        Its not good enough for a nearly 8k piece of kit. If my 2 year old ipad can without a hitch stream RDP locally there is absolutely no excuse. Hell, Ive seen teamviewer sessions with less lag.

        Reply

    • HvR

      December 2, 2013 at 12:15

      Can not compare, this input lag. You have similar lag (about 100ms since it is only one way) when stopping, pausing and playing the video.

      Latency versus bandwith

      Reply

      • Devourer of Small Bunnies

        December 2, 2013 at 14:39

        Was referring to RDP. Shoulda been clear about that, my bad.

        Reply

    • Jim Lenoir (Banana Jim)

      December 2, 2013 at 12:17

      Turns out you can choose between wifi and bluetooth,

      Reply

  7. HvR

    December 2, 2013 at 12:13

    What were they expecting; that is typical lag you will get with a wifi router connection.

    And people want to use cloud computing to off load processing for real time gaming. Pffft

    Reply

    • Exalted Overlord Geoffrey Tim

      December 2, 2013 at 12:15

      That is with an ad-hoc connection as well; ie: Vita to Ps4 directly.

      Reply

      • HvR

        December 2, 2013 at 12:25

        Even with ad hoc you are still dealing with the non optimized 802.1 wifi protocol which wasn’t design for a low latency application but rather for high bandwidth and it is now competing with your home wifi network so there will be contention as well.

        Reply

  8. Vampyric Squirrel of the Sith

    December 2, 2013 at 12:13

    Finally something Nintendo can pull off well that Sony fails at! 🙂

    Reply

    • TiMsTeR1033

      December 2, 2013 at 12:15

      I still want a Wii U!

      Reply

  9. veggiesaurus ZA

    December 2, 2013 at 12:17

    I can’t see any hardware-based reason why it shouldn’t work at least as well as wii-u. The ps4 and vita have hardware h264 encoders / decoders, and they both use similar network protocols. Rather odd.

    Reply

  10. nicksimp101

    December 2, 2013 at 13:19

    The lag issue only relates to games like multiplayer COD, BF, not sure about racers, but for things like RPGs, Action adventure, strategy games etc, this is awesome. Vita, take my money!

    Reply

    • bowlingotter

      December 2, 2013 at 18:01

      I can say that Need for Speed: Rivals plays great with the remote play. BF4 multiplayer, as you pointed out, not so much, but it was more to do with control scheme than lag IMO.

      Reply

  11. bowlingotter

    December 2, 2013 at 17:59

    Actually playing it feels not unlike playing a native Vita game as far as latency goes. There’s some inherent input latency with all Vita games — just play Killzone: Mercenary. I was playing some BF4 last night with remote play and it worked quite well, but it’s the control set that hurts more than the latency. You don’t have the same range with the analog sticks, obviously, and you need to use regions on the rear touchpad to trigger L1-R1 and L3-R3, requiring you to hold the Vita in an extremely awkward way to avoid touching the back when you don’t want to.

    Shooters don’t work as well primarily because you’re playing against people who are using the wonderful DS4 controller. But Need for Speed: Rivals played quite well, felt great.

    Reply

  12. Brian Murphy

    December 2, 2013 at 18:03

    Well, can’t argue the numbers, but I have seen allot of people rave about it on Google+, so I guess to some it’s bearable.

    Reply

  13. UE

    December 2, 2013 at 18:07

    A bit of an over reaction actually… The lag is minimal on a decent router and the picture quality is fine IF you adjust the contrast and brightness levels in games. (the reason for this is how .h264 compresses)

    Reply

  14. Vitaowner

    January 12, 2014 at 01:56

    Am i missing something here ?! Its only my vita is 2 feet away from the Ps4 and it still F’ing lags !
    The ps4 itself it connected up to the internet through cable so what is the bloody problem

    Reply

  15. jayjay

    January 12, 2014 at 23:06

    Although I have not used the Wii u (and I don’t want to if it will ruin my PS vita /ps4 remote play) I have to say remote play has worked very well for me, I have yet to get it working on another WiFi connection to be honest but around the house its been pretty damn sweet, in fact latency is the least of my worries as its yet to effect me at all, what bugs me more while playing BF4 for instance is seeing targets a bit further away, its extremely difficult and along with that using the rear pad is simply not quick enough, so yes in the heat of multiplayer competition its not ideal, but everything else, Lego marvel, need for speed etc all seem to work very well indeed, a friend tells me the Wii u pad also does not work away from the same room as console which sucks as you would at least want to play in bed etc etc. Still I’m unsure how true this is?

    Reply

  16. Letthewookiewin

    January 31, 2014 at 21:23

    I found that unchecking the box for “Connect directly with ps vita” greatly improves remote play for some reason.

    Reply

  17. Anthony Tarantino

    April 1, 2014 at 05:12

    Wii U’s GamePad has absolutely zero lag, even when displaying the game on both the TV and GamePad screen simultaneously. It’s amazing how well Nintendo made it all work. Sony’s version is just half-assed. Hopefully their next console makes Remote Play a priority.

    Reply

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