This past week at CES, Nvidia and ASUS teamed up to show off The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim running on ASUS' latest and greatest tablet - the Transformer Prime.
How'd they do it? There's an app for that. An app called Splashtop THD. Splashtop THD is the new and improved (but not yet available) version of Splashtop, the award winning app that is already available for Android and iOS devices. What Splashtop allows you to do is stream content from your PC to your tablet. You can do this wirelessly, or via an ethernet cable.
Watch below as Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang and old school pro gamer Fatal1ty do some schtick and show off Splashtop THD and Skyrim on the new Transformer Prime.
Once the app is installed and Splashtop finds your network, your PC compresses and streams the visuals to your tablet, and your tablet then streams your inputs to your PC. I asked Nvidia exactly how that all works and I swear they said, "Automagically."
Anyhow, what you get in the end is a very lovely 720p experience on your 10 inch screen. Better yet, you will suffer no frame rate loss, and only have a minimal amount of delay. (Less than 15ms most of the time)
Nothing else is compromised, and what you get is practically a 1:1 gaming experience on your tablet. Nice.
However, there's obviously a catch. A few in fact.
Exactly what do you need in order to make this happen?
1) A high end PC with an Nvidia GPU - I asked Nvidia what would happen if I tried to re-create this demo with an AMD Radeon 6750... they laughed.
2) A high end tablet powered by Nvidia's Tegra 3 processor - I asked Nvidia what would happen if I tried to re-create this demo on a Samsung Galaxy Tab... they laughed.
3) A very fast and reliable network connection - You know, that "good" internet your friends are always talking about
So, if you meet the qualifications above, then congratulations, you're ready to experience the wonders of high end PC gaming on your tablet!
Sure, one could argue the practicality of an application like this, and Skyrim certainly isn't the most practical game to be playing on a tablet, but it's certainly hard to argue how cool this sort of technology will be once it's much more affordable.
If you want to play around with the current version of Splashtop, you can get it here and for more on what ASUS has coming down the line (including the extremely sexy 7 inch Eee Pad tablet they just unveiled) be sure to like them on Facebook.
Headline image by Chad Lakkis