It has been awhile since the last Rainway patch was released and what better time to do so than the week of E3? Let’s go on a journey of what our team has been working hard on the last few weeks.

The Boring Protocol

We love the web. We believe client-less is one of the best approaches to game streaming (and most applications) as it allows for instant engagement across a diverse amount of platforms.

So it didn’t sit well with us that Rainway’s performance on mobile browsers and some weaker devices left a lot to be desired. After taking a long hard look at our design, the Boring Protocol was born.

Boring is just that, dead simple. No complex structured data or serialization and highly optimized for use on the web.

This new protocol has allowed us to go from 120ms of deserialization time to just 1ms **on average on mobile devices. Of course, you’ll also see a performance boost on all systems too.

A Meaner, Leaner, MSG.

Our primary focus this patch has been on improving our graphics pipeline, MSG. We wanted stable 60 FPS on more systems, lower latency and more stability in games. While the job is never done, we hit these goals, and Rainway is better than ever.

Overwatch encoded via Intel Quick Sync (i5–4440)Halo 5 encoded via Radeon RX 480

Better Support for Firefox and Friends

We are committed to making Rainway work well in all web browsers, and as part of that commitment, we optimized the performance of Rainway in the latest versions of Firefox.

Crysis in Firefox vs RainwayOf course, it wouldn’t be fair to all of our users out there who use alternative browsers if we didn’t support them too. So now we do, with all their neat, unique features.

Minecraft in Opera via Rainway with a pop-out stream windowDragon Ball FighterZ in Vivaldi via Rainway with native screen captureSonic Mania in Brave via Rainway

We’ve got more where that came from!

Actual Controller Names

Since launch, we’ve had deep controller support for many gamepads. As we’ve found, a lot of people have multiple ones connected, and our user interface was less than telling about which one you had selected. Well, no more guessing as we’ve taught our code how to read.

No more random numbers

Improved Game Scanning

We’ve improved our game analysis engine, Mist, so that it can find more games even faster. You’ll also see it now does ahead-of-time lookups, so your game list is ready the second you connect.

Cloud Gaming Support

We understand there is a growing number of gamers out there who love what PC gaming has to offer but don’t quite have the rigs to take advantage of it. So they turn to cloud-based GPU’s to solve that problem.

We want to enhance the gaming experience of all users, no matter what system they choose to use. We’re happy to announce Rainway now fully supports cloud-based virtual machines so you can play all your favorite games anywhere.

You can see some gameplay below from various titles all running on Azure and utilizing our game streaming technology.

PC Gaming on Azure via Rainway AWS and other providers are supported as well.

No Sleep Till Chicken Dinner

The release of 0.3.0 signals a new stage for Rainway. When we launched January 20th, we came to play hard and create a technology that is miles ahead of the rest. We are well on our way, but exiting the solar system is going to take a few more updates — here is what we have planned.

0.3.2 will introduce even more improvements to MSG. This includes further optimizations to Nvidia based GPU’s, secondary encoders (Intel or a second GPU), stability updates in our core technology and our new and improved updater (trust me, you’re going to love it).

0.3.3 will introduce our new networking protocol, Coffee. This undertaking is to improve the reliability of Rainway on noisy networks (public Wi-Fi, Ethernet over A/C) or when playing from hundreds if not thousands of miles away.

0.3.4 will introduce the brand new Rainway. We can’t say much, but this should give you a hint.

Rainway transformation Circa 2018

Please keep in mind, these updates can sometimes introduce bugs, which (while often minor) can be troublesome. To help the team, be sure to join the discussion and send any feedback you have to our bug tracker: here.

In Closing

We want to thank you all for your continued support. It means the world to our team that you trust us for your daily gaming needs. Your ideas, bug reports, feedback, and encouragement have shaped the future of Rainway. That future is bright, and we look forward to continuing building Rainway with you.

Now go play!