Patent application number | Description | Published |
20140024457 | GAME BROWSING - Embodiments of the present invention allow players to instantly access and begin playing games through an online service. To make the games instantly available, an online service keeps instances of games running in active memory waiting for a player to be added. The game instances running in active memory are not attached to a player profile or an I/O channel from a game client. Once the player requests a game, the player's player profile is loaded into the running game instance and an I/O channel is mapped from the game client to the game instance. From the player's perspective, the preloaded game instances allow the player to browse directly from game to game with very little delay. To optimize the usage of server-side resources, historical usage data may be analyzed to anticipate demand for different games. | 01-23-2014 |
20140057722 | GAME MIGRATION - Embodiments of the present invention allow game play to migrate back and forth between a server-run video game and a client-run video game. For example, a user could start playing a video game running on a server and then migrate play to a client device, such as a game console. When a game is running on the server, the server executes the game code, renders a video image, and communicates the image to the client. The client may communicate game control commands to the server. The game play may also start on the client and transition to a server. For example, a user may reach a point in the game where the user does not have the game files stored on the client. | 02-27-2014 |
20140179421 | CLIENT RENDERING OF LATENCY SENSITIVE GAME FEATURES - Embodiments of the present invention split game processing and rendering between a client and a game server. A rendered video game image is received from a game server and combined with a rendered image generated by the game client to form a single video game image that is presented to a user. Game play may be controlled using a rich sensory input, such as three-dimensional image data and audio data. The three-dimensional image data describes the shape, size and orientation of objects present in a play space. The rich sensory input is communicated to a game server, potentially with some preprocessing, and is also consumed locally on the client, at least in part. In one embodiment, latency sensitive features are the only features processed on the client and rendered on the client. | 06-26-2014 |
20140179436 | CLIENT SIDE PROCESSING OF GAME CONTROLLER INPUT - Embodiments of the present invention enable rich control input data to control video games that are remotely executed. Rich control input includes three-dimensional image data, color video, audio, device orientation data, and touch input. A remotely-executed video game is one executed on a server or other computing device that is networked to a client device receiving the rich control input. Rich control input includes more data than can be uploaded to a game server without degrading game performance. Embodiments of the present invention preprocess the rich control data on the client and into data that may be uploaded to the game server. The rich input stream may be processed in a general way or in a game-specific way. | 06-26-2014 |
20140256420 | UNIVIED GAME PREVIEW - Embodiments of the present invention provide a video game preview. The video game preview may run on a game client or on a game server associated with a game service. A current preview experience is maintained by causing the client or server to access a central preview file that defines the preview experience. The preview may be provided by the game service or on the game client depending on circumstances. In one embodiment, if game code for the preview is present locally on the client, then the client provides the preview. If the video game code is not available locally at the game client, then the preview is either generated by the game service and streamed to the game client or the code is downloaded to the game client to enable the client to generate the preview. | 09-11-2014 |
20140267429 | CLIENT SIDE PROCESSING OF PLAYER MOVEMENT IN A REMOTE GAMING ENVIRONMENT - Embodiments of the present invention provide client-side scene movement using imagery generated by a game server. Embodiments of the present invention predictively render additional imagery surrounding the present field of view. The predictive scene imagery may be on all sides of the current field of view. Embodiments of the present invention determine the amount of predictive scene imagery generated according to a likelihood of use. In addition to client-adjusted rotation, embodiments of the present invention may predictively translate the field of view. Translation is moving the point of view forward, backward or side-to-side. Predictive translation imagery may be communicated to the game server for use in local translation functions. | 09-18-2014 |
20140274379 | CLIENT SIDE PROCESSING OF CHARACTER INTERACTIONS IN A REMOTE GAMING ENVIRONMENT - Embodiments of the present invention split game processing and rendering between a client and a game server. A rendered video game image is received from a game server and combined with a rendered image generated by the game client to form a single video game image that is presented to a user. Control input is received by a client device and then communicated to a game server, potentially with some preprocessing, and is also consumed locally on the client, at least in part. An embodiment of the present invention processes and renders some or all of a character's interactions with game objects on the client device associated with the character. A character is associated with a client device when control input associated with the character is received from a user of the client device. | 09-18-2014 |
20150141152 | GAME BROWSING - Embodiments of the present invention allow players to instantly access and begin playing games through an online service. To make the games instantly available, an online service keeps instances of games running in active memory waiting for a player to be added. The game instances running in active memory are not attached to a player profile or an I/O channel from a game client. Once the player requests a game, the player's player profile is loaded into the running game instance and an I/O channel is mapped from the game client to the game instance. From the player's perspective, the preloaded game instances allow the player to browse directly from game to game with very little delay. To optimize the usage of server-side resources, historical usage data may be analyzed to anticipate demand for different games. | 05-21-2015 |