Gaikai Native Client Port Can Improve Cloud Gaming Experience on Linux

At Google I/O 2012 this week, Gaikai presented a new demo of their popular cloud gaming service running on Google's cross platform Native Client (NaCl) technology.

NaCl is a Chrome/Chromium plugin that runs hardware-accelerated 3D graphics (via OpenGL ES 2.0) and its features include sandboxed local file storage, dynamic loading, full screen mode, and mouse capture.

Gaikai at present uses a Java plugin for games and the support for Linux is not as good as other platforms. I have never been able to run Gaikai on Linux because of Java/OpenJDK issues and many othe users have faced similar issues. Also if you are able to run Gaikai on Linux then you have to keep your Java installation up to date and grant it permissions before you can play a game.

NaCl plugin is installed in Chrome by default and it is automatically updated with every new Chrome release. Also NaCl Linux support has been improved with Chrome 20 and now NaCl games/apps will work on most Linux system without any workarounds (unless your graphic card has been blacklisted). 

In the video below, Google demonstrated Electronic Arts' Bulletstorm, made by Epic Games and People Can Fly, in the Google Native Client on a Samsung Chromebox. No need for Flash or Java.

There is no word on when full version of Gaikai for Chrome will be available but it is coming soon.

via The Verge