At Bethesda's showcase, id Software’s Chief Technology Officer, Robert Duffy, and the Director of Publishing at Bethesda Softworks, James Altman, presented Orion.

Orion is a patented collection of software technologies that optimize game engines for superior performance in a streaming environment. Orion enables games to stream with greatly reduced latency and bandwidth, making streaming games accessible to more people, in more areas, at higher quality.

Developed by the engineers at id Software, renowned for the industry-leading id Tech 6 game engine, Orion is a game- and platform-agnostic game streaming technology that will stream video games at lower latency and lower bandwidth, making streaming games accessible to more people, in more areas, at higher quality.

In contrast to game streaming services that focus on hardware solutions to stream games, Orion is game engine-based technology that optimizes a game for the cloud. Integrated within the game engine itself, Orion can achieve dramatic latency reductions of up to 20% per frame and requires up to 40% less bandwidth. The Orion technology is complementary to the hardware technology in data centers built by other streaming providers, ensuring much better results when paired together.

“We leveraged our extensive experience in game engine technology to tackle streaming from a different angle – the game engine itself,” said Duffy. “We wanted a faster, better streaming experience for players, at the level of performance intended by the game’s developers, and at reduced cost and expanded reach for streaming providers. Orion delivers on those goals and will vastly improve streaming video games.”

For players, Orion means enjoying high-speed performance with imperceptible latency even in a twitchy shooter [as demoed live on stage with DOOM (2016)]; lower usage against ISP bandwidth caps; and a wider availability, making quality play available to players living far from data centers.

For developers, the Orion SDK is easily integrated into a game, which means they can be confident in delivering a best-in-class experience to players while streaming, with minimal additional effort.

For streaming providers, Orion means reaching a bigger audience, at reduced costs, with a superior level of service. Orion makes possible substantially reduced capital investments in data centers and can materially lower the cost in operating a streaming service.

“Consumers demand low latency when playing high-performance games, and those games need to be playable by a mass audience – not just those near a datacenter, or those with lightning-fast internet speeds,” said Altman. “With Orion, players can live far from data centers and still be able to stream DOOM at 60 FPS, with 4K resolution and without perceptible latency. An Orion-enabled game will be faster, more fluid, and provide a fundamentally better streaming experience for fans.”

Bethesda will begin public trials of the Orion technology soon, offering fans a chance to stream DOOM at home, for free. To sign-up for a chance to participate in the Orion public trials, fans should register now for the DOOM Slayers Club.