Revolutionizing Cloud Gaming and Graphics Rendering with NVIDIA GDN

Gaming has always pushed the boundaries of graphics hardware. The most popular games typically required robust GPU, CPU, and RAM resources on a user’s PC or console—that is, until the advent of GeForce NOW and cloud gaming.

Today, with the power of interactive streaming from the cloud, any user on almost any device can play the latest and greatest of today’s games.

However, in a typical cloud gaming arrangement, there are typically still two friction points remaining when the user wants to play:

They must own the game.

They must have one or more accounts, such as the cloud gaming service to which they are subscribed.

NVIDIA Graphics Delivery Network (GDN) is a turnkey platform that removes the remaining friction, enabling seamless one-click play. With GDN, game publishers can stream games built with any 3D engine to almost any device, using the same underlying technology as GeForce NOW.

Publishers choose a virtual machine type that matches the requirements of the game, upload their content to a developer portal, and then let NVIDIA GDN do the rest to stream it to audiences worldwide.

Users can access the content through SDK integration points, such as a deep-link URL, or embedded in a webpage or native application built with the GDN Client SDK.

GDN benefits from over 10 years of research and development of cloud graphics infrastructure. Starting with the Kepler generation of GPUs in 2013 (which powered GRID, NVIDIA’s first cloud gaming service), NVIDIA has continually innovated best-in-class streaming technologies. In 2020, that investment culminated in the launch of the flagship cloud gaming service, GeForce NOW.

In 2023, GDN came to life, using the same cloud infrastructure to serve enterprise needs. Designed originally for other verticals to stream high-fidelity NVIDIA Omniverse experiences such as digital twins and configurators, it wasn’t long before gaming companies also realized the unique potential of GDN for user acquisition and engagement.

High-performance streaming events

GDN provides you with a unique opportunity to host massive, multi-platform events, reaching new users outside traditional platforms or stores. With data centers located in major metropolitan cities globally, GDN ensures that most users can have a low-latency, near-native experience.

Epic Games

Recently, GDN streamed Epic Games’ Metallica: Fuel. Fire. Fury Fortnite concert to mobile devices in the USA, enabling a one-click join. GDN enabled mobile users to easily participate in the touch-enabled virtual concert without requiring a cloud gaming subscription or any Fortnite installation. By clicking a link on their iPhone or Android devices, users instantly joined the touch-friendly experience from within Safari or Chrome mobile browsers. Because the game was already preloaded on reserved virtual machines, users went from click to Fortnite within seconds.

ZENOS

Another showcase of the virtual event engagement opportunity is ZENOS (then known as Virtex Stadium), a virtual stadium available on Steam that provides immersive VR and 3D spectating experiences for esports.

In 2023, ZENOS offered a way for users to join the virtual watch party experience for League of Legends’ Worlds Championship without any downloads, installations, or logins, using GDN’s powerful GPUs and global cloud infrastructure. Fans accessed ZENOS in Chrome, Safari, or Edge browsers through GDN when an event was live, and enjoyed the excitement of Worlds with exceptional visual quality, regardless of what GPU or CPU powered their local device.

Here’s what Tim Mcguinness, CEO and co-founder at ZENOS, had to say. “ZENOS transforms the entertainment viewing experience by creating fully immersive 3D environments for live esports events. GDN’s low-latency, high-fidelity streaming ensures that our fans can enter our virtual stadiums in one click and enjoy smooth, visually stunning experiences from their web browsers. Together, we aim to make all gaming events more accessible and engaging for audiences worldwide.”

Ludeo

Ludeo enhances game discovery by enabling players to access and interact with playable game highlights through social media, using GDN for seamless, high-fidelity streaming. Together, Ludeo and GDN support user acquisition and engagement by enabling you to deliver immediate, bite-sized experiences of core gameplay directly created by gamers themselves.

Integrating Ludeo’s SDK enables players to join a specific state of the game and play user-created game highlights. The content is then streamed from GDN data centers to end users, who can join a specific game challenge with a shared deep link. They can experience that exact game moment within seconds. The seamless interaction creates a frictionless entry point into the most engaging parts of the game.

“Ludeo revolutionizes game discovery by enabling players to discover, play, create, and share playable gaming moments on social media. Together with NVIDIA’s GDN, we are making it easier than ever before for developers to engage users with core gameplay,” said Asaf Gazit, co-founder and CEO at Ludeo.

Infrastructure behind GDN

The backbone of GDN is NVIDIA L40 series GPUs based on the NVIDIA Ada Lovelace architecture, including NVIDIA L40 and L40S. With 48 GB of graphics memory and 142 third-generation RT Cores that enhance real-time ray tracing capabilities, these GPUs are uniquely suited for heavy rendering workloads and high-definition streaming.

GDN offers various instance types or virtual machine profiles, ranging from full to fractional GPUs. You don’t need any orchestration or manual virtualization. Everything is already done by GDN, with one instance streaming to one user.

Making use of NVIDIA virtual GPU (vGPU) technology, the GPU frame buffer is partitioned, dedicating memory to each virtual machine. GPU cycles are time-sliced between each instance, ensuring efficient resource sharing. Dedicated CPU cores, temp storage, and system RAM are also allocated as part of the profile.

Meanwhile, more than 30 strategically placed data centers worldwide—in more than 130 countries—ensure low-latency performance for a large population coverage, crucial for interactive-intensive applications like gaming.

Supported devices

GDN supports a wide range of client devices. It can also stream in low-bandwidth environments as low as 5 Mbps/user. Supported devices include the following:

• PCs and laptops: GDN can stream up to 1600p/1440p and up to 120 FPS in a web browser. Officially supported browsers include Chrome, Edge, and Safari.
• Tablets and smartphones: Both Android and iOS devices are supported with Chrome and Safari browsers, respectively.
• Smart TVs: LG, Samsung, and Android TVs can stream 4K interactive 3D content with the help of the GeForce NOW application.
• Apple Vision Pro (coming soon): As showcased at GTC, Omniverse-based applications will soon be streamed to Apple Vision Pro headsets, with Unreal and Unity support planned.

GDN billing

GDN billing operates on a deposit system where a minimum payment is made in advance, and streaming use is tracked and debited regularly from the account. Pricing takes into account various factors such as instance type, region, and consumption model.

Instance type: Costs vary depending on the type of virtual machine profile selected. Full GPU instance types cost more than those with fractional vGPUs.

Region: There may be a different cost depending on the location of the data center.

Consumption model:

On-demand: Billing is based on the amount of time that the virtual machines are actually used, tracked per minute. On-demand instances are not guaranteed and users may experience queuing during peak hours. When a user joins a session, it will not be revoked.

Reserved: These instances are booked in advance to guarantee access and to prewarm the application to reduce loading times. There is a short-term hourly reserved option for events, and a long-term reserved option (1 month or longer). There is also the possibility to schedule a reservation for a recurring period such as every Monday to Friday, 8AM to 5PM.