Arma 3 - The most tablet friendly game on the market?! Yes I have Arma 3 on tablet!

[sproyd 2]

TL;DR: Play Arma 3 flawlessly on local Wi-Fi and over the internet on an Asus Transformer Prime tablet, with full keyboard and mouse support using Splashtop THD app streaming from your PC (running nVidia or ATI video card). Read on!

Background

So I do a reasonable amount of travel, and am always on the lookout for cool travel tech. At home, I play Arma 3 on a laptop (Asus N56VZ-DS71) which I am very happy with but it really is not practical to travel with because its big and heavy, the GPU has issues when on battery (the battery can't feed enough constant wattage to the GPU) which makes gaming almost a non-event unless plugged in and in any event it has about 2 hours of battery life. So I almost never travel with my laptop.

I usually just travel with my android phone (Xperia T) for casual gaming and music and a 3DS (for Mario and more recently Luigi's Mansion).

nVidia SHIELD

Anyway, as a hardcore gamer (which many on here I am sure are), I was pretty excited to see the Nvidia Shield and have been following it since announcement. I don't really care too much for Android gaming as the good apps tend to be targeted towards mass market rather than taking advantage of high-end hardware. However, one cool thing that the Nvidia Shield claims to do is stream games from your PC to the handheld which I thought is a great idea - your very own personal OnLive service except without subscription fees and you are free to run any game whenever you want including mods etc, with the added benefit of super-fast speeds if you are gaming locally. The Shield is now pre-orderable but I won't be getting one because

1. USD350 is far too expensive for what it is
   
2. It appears fairly bulky for travel
   
3. The screen size and resolution is still too small for really enjoyable hardcore gaming imho
   
4. At this stage there are no real reviews and really only early impressions - it is unproven tech
   

Hmmm... how else to do this?

So I started looking into a software called Splashtop , particularly a software which is about 12mo old now called Splashtop THD which is designed specifically for streaming games from a PC to tablets/phones. THD is only available to those with a Tegra 3/4 mobile device, and is especially optimised for those running an nVidia GPU in their PC. My laptop has a GT650M so a perfect match. Splashtop THD allows for both local and remote access with claims of being able to run up to 60fps including customisable on-screen controls and even USB support for a mouse/360 controller plugged directly into your tablet. Splashtop THD is a one-off purchase of about £6 whereas the newer Splashtop 2 is not optimised for gaming and requires an expensive subscription service (a few £/mo) to access your PC remotely.

Now, to choose a tablet... the number 1 prerequisite was a Tegra 3 of course, but I also wanted something with a decent screen (IPS panel), a reasonable size (10" as 7" I think is too small) although a high "Retina display-esque" resolution wasn't a big factor for two reasons (1) running a high resolution is taxing on the PC which is already outputting a video stream and (2) streaming a high resolution would result in choppier frame rate and less responsiveness. Other major bonuses would be a good battery life, good keyboard compatibility and a USB port for a mouse/360 controller. Also, I'm very value-conscious so I wanted something that was well priced and not necessarily cutting edge.

I arrived on the Asus Transformer Prime (TF201), as the technology is not very new and so I knew I could get it at a good price, it has an available keyboard dock that also happens to double battery life (to c. 16 hours!!!), the keyboard dock has a regular USB port and of course it has the crucial Tegra 3 processor. There are two newer models, specifically the Asus Transformer Pad TF300T which I found out was essentially just a cheaper plastic model of the older one and the Asus Transformer Infinity TF700 which is cutting edge but with a price to match. I just received by Transformer Prime this week for only £180. It is an ex-demo model but in perfect working order with 6mo warranty. I am going to have to buy the dock separately.

How does it run?

Well unfortunately, as I have a laptop, it has Optimus technology which is a common tech in modern laptops with dual graphics (onboard and discreet). It essentially allows for switching back and forward between onboard low-power and your nVidia graphics chip to improve battery life. Turns out that Splashtop THD does not fricking support Optimus and as such I am limited to only partial support and cannot run full screen programs. I get the same pop-up error that AMD users would get "Splashtop does not permit full screen access", when in truth it does support it on nVidia desktop GPUs only (although it looks like even many of those users have issues by reading online)

However, a workaround that people have found is to run games in what is known as "Windowed Full Screen" and incredibly out of all the games I've tested so far (Skyrim, XCom, European Escalation, Far Cry 2) Arma 3 has incredible compatibility for this. It is so impressive I can barely believe it. I get full screen fast streaming Arma 3, highly playable on my tablet and the icing on the cake is two-fold;

1. Arma's longstanding interface size options is a dream for tablets. Set to Very Large I never miss a press on the tablet. This also flows through into the editor so I effectively now have a touch screen Arma 3 editor - although I haven't yet found a way to scroll the map as you can't hold down right mouse button on the touch screen.
   
2. Arma 3 seamlessly switches between my streaming resolution (1280x720) and my native resolution (1080p) when I connect/disconnect with my tablet within game. So I can basically be playing Arma 3 on my PC, move to the bedroom with my tablet, launch Splashtop THD in a few seconds and continue where I left off but now at the correct resolution almost instantaneously.
   
3. 
   

I haven't tried accessing the PC remotely from a good internet connection yet but what I did do was turn my Xperia phone into a WiFi hotspot over 3G (4G in the UK is not widely available and £££) and it fully worked although as you can imagine streaming a 1280x720 constant stream over 3G and then via local hotspot to a tablet was slow and not very responsive...

I am fully expecting that once I get my keyboard dock I will be able to travel around London with effectively a mobile Arma 3 mission editing center wherever I can pick-up WiFi (Costa, Starbucks, Tube!! etc). What's even better is the touchscreen is almost the perfect editing interface. Double tap anywhere on the map to place a unit etc, and with the very large interface size its easy to edit mission boxes. Coding/scripting will of course be simple once I get the keyboard dock too.

What's more, with Arma 3's highy effective windowed full screen mode this tech is available to mobile GPU users and AMD users alike!

Let me know what you think!

Screenshots (Proof of concept)

http://s14.postimg.org/ckj98yz5d/P1000953.jpg (169 kB)

http://s10.postimg.org/y8tffm255/P1000961.jpg (203 kB)

http://s21.postimg.org/6vlr4enyf/P1000955.jpg (151 kB)

Edited June 1, 2013 by sproyd

[Dwarden 1125]

what's the delay ?

[sproyd 2]

what's the delay ?

On Wi-Fi N - negligible. Fully playable in-game on tablet. Over the internet it's more than fine for using the Editor. I'm planning on putting a YouTube video up at some stage once I get my dock.

[Tonci87 163]

Wow, this is quite cool.

[Guest]

lol did this already with ARMA 2 on my TF101 didn't like it that much though there is a slight lagg... and you do have to have a pretty good wifi to stream it HD (which is still not everywhere, lets say +10mb/s) but really good point and nice post :)

[Minoza 11]

I just got this working on my Galaxy S3, here's a proof of concept:

[Hoax 10]

Impressive, had to see it to believe it

[sproyd 2]

lol did this already with ARMA 2 on my TF101 didn't like it that much though there is a slight lagg... and you do have to have a pretty good wifi to stream it HD (which is still not everywhere, lets say +10mb/s) but really good point and nice post :)

TF 101 is Tegra 2 so not compatible with splashtop THD, and therefore you are going to have hardware lag as well as software lag and network lag. I'm streaming at 1280x720 with almost no lag on a bog standard SKY UK router.

---------- Post added at 18:10 ---------- Previous post was at 18:09 ----------

I just got this working on my Galaxy S3, here's a proof of concept:

Nice- although it's obviously too small a screen to be fully playable. Question: how did you get splashtop THD on the s3 if you don't have a Tegra chip?

[DaRkL3AD3R 1]

Wow that is incredible! Going to check this out on my Galaxy Note 2 for sure!

Wait a second, just noticed the tidbit that it requires a Tegra 3/4 based device. How did you get it to work on your Galaxy S3? Doesn't that have a Snapdragon or Exynos chip?

Edited June 2, 2013 by DaRkL3AD3R

[Minoza 11]

I answered sproyd on PM, but anyways... I simply got apk from net, which installs and runs fine, it has compatibility mode under options which I had to check in order to avoid rendering issues.

Edited June 2, 2013 by Minoza

[sproyd 2]

Thanks minoza. My concern would be that the game isn't optimized for non Tegra devices so the performance may not be as good. Also, when you say thou got the apk from the net do you mean you pirated it?

[columdrum 11]

You can do it with Kainy ( http://www.kainy.com/) for a while, other thing the delay its not bad, i mean its playable, what isn't playable its to map the number of buttons arma3 needs on a touchscreen :P

[Minoza 11]

Thanks minoza. My concern would be that the game isn't optimized for non Tegra devices so the performance may not be as good. Also, when you say thou got the apk from the net do you mean you pirated it?

You can see in the video, it runs great, no lag at all. I'll just say I did what I needed to in order to get it running on my phone, piracy talk is a no no so I'll stop there.

[sproyd 2]

You can do it with Kainy ( http://www.kainy.com/) for a while, other thing the delay its not bad, i mean its playable, what isn't playable its to map the number of buttons arma3 needs on a touchscreen :P

I've tried Kainy its not a stable solution - Splashtop THD is leagues better and puts it into playable territory.

Once I have my Transformer Dock I won't need to map the buttons on screen - I'll have a full keyboard with USB port for a mouse... ooh yeah

---------- Post added at 20:40 ---------- Previous post was at 20:39 ----------

You can see in the video, it runs great, no lag at all. I'll just say I did what I needed to in order to get it running on my phone, piracy talk is a no no so I'll stop there.

The best way to show the lag (or lack thereof) is to have it filmed next to the source so you can see the delay between your PC and the tablet (or in your case phone)

[Minoza 11]

Oh I see, I'll report after more testing in that case.

Edited June 2, 2013 by Minoza

[columdrum 11]

I've tried Kainy its not a stable solution - Splashtop THD is leagues better and puts it into playable territory.

Once I have my Transformer Dock I won't need to map the buttons on screen - I'll have a full keyboard with USB port for a mouse... ooh yeah

Nice :), yeah i know Splashtop THD its way better, the only problem its that low-end mobile devices have hard times to keep up with full resolution streaming( for example i can't use it on my mobile, its just too laggy), and with Kainy thx to the rescaling, you can do it from almost any device. But on Kainy crashes a lot, has worse image quality... i just explained what i used sucesfully before, not that it was the best :P

Edited June 3, 2013 by columdrum

[DaRkL3AD3R 1]

Compatibility mode was the trick to fix the wierd colors :) works great on my Galaxy Note 2. Worth mentioning is that the Galaxy S4 doesn't work with it. At least not the American - Snapdragon variant. So as I predicted, all my Exynos fanboying paid off :D Love me some original Samsung parts!

Now, about the lag. The only perceptible lag was with audio. Control input to video display is pretty much instant, and this is coming from someone who notices VSYNC input lag and hates it with a passion. So yeah, this is pretty awesome!

[liquidpinky 11]

Awesome for Carrier Command too BTW. ;)

[Leon86 13]

I tried splashtop2 from pc to pc, the graphics and response seemed ok, audio worked.

Unfortunately the mouse is unusable because splashtop sends coordinates instead of input, so once you move the mouse you're looking at the ground.

[sproyd 2]

I tried splashtop2 from pc to pc, the graphics and response seemed ok, audio worked.

Unfortunately the mouse is unusable because splashtop sends coordinates instead of input, so once you move the mouse you're looking at the ground.

In Splashtop THD that is not the case. It has a mouse mode which is, relative instead of co-ordinates so plays like a typical touchscreen shooter. Also Splashtop 2 streams at a lower frame rate and is not as optimised for gaming like THD so I would advise against it as a solution. As I mentioned in my OP it also has a subscription based model for remote access.

[Leon86 13]

But is there a THD client for pc? seems to be a tablet only thing. thd seems to be discontinued, cant find it on the splashtop website.

[Minoza 11]

Feel free to use latest PC client (www.splashtop.com/streamer), it works with THD.

[Leon86 13]

that's the streamer, dont see a thd client for a pc, seems to be a tegra only thing or something.

anyway, they say it'll be fixed end of june

http://support-remote.splashtop.com/entries/20470223-Hyper-sensitive-mouse-input-in-DirectX-games

Edited June 2, 2013 by Leon86

[Defunkt 431]

I just got this working on my Galaxy S3, here's a proof of concept:

That's amazing. Pointless, but amazing nonetheless.

[Minoza 11]

that's the streamer, dont see a thd client for a pc, seems to be a tegra only thing or something.

There's a Splashtop Gamepad THD app, which you install on your tablet/mobile device and Splashtop Streamer which you install on your PC. Are you trying the opposite or something?