Game Execution Environments

• US 20100304860A1
• Filed: 05/31/2010
• Published: 12/02/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 06/01/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sony Interactive Entertainment LLC (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Computer Entertainment America LLC (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Pereira, Rui Filipe Andrade, Gault, Andrew Buchanan
• Granted Patent: US 8,506,402 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 463/31
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/00 Video games, i.e. games using an electronically generated display having two or more dimensions gaming systems which provide a financial reward G07F17/32
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/10 Control of the course of the game, e.g. start, progess, end
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/12 involving interaction between a plurality of game devices, e.g. transmisison or distribution systems protocols for networked virtual reality, networked games H04L29/06034
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/30 Interconnection arrangements between game servers and game devices; Interconnection arrangements between game devices; Interconnection arrangements between game servers
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/335 using Internet
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/35 Details of game servers
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/355 Performing operations on behalf of clients with restricted processing capabilities, e.g. servers transform changing game scene into an encoded video stream for transmitting to a mobile phone or a thin client
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/42 by mapping the input signals into game commands, e.g. mapping the displacement of a stylus on a touch screen to the steering angle of a virtual vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/45 Controlling the progress of the video game
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/537 using indicators, e.g. showing the condition of a game character on screen
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/71 using secure communication between game devices and game servers, e.g. by encrypting game data or authenticating players
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/77 involving data related to game devices or game servers, e.g. configuration data, software version or amount of memory
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/795 for finding other players; for building a team; for providing a buddy list
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/86 Watching games played by other players
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/87 Communicating with other players during game play, e.g. by e-mail or chat
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/407 Data transfer via internet
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/409 Data transfer via television network
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/51 Server architecture
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/538 for performing operations on behalf of the game client, e.g. rendering
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/552 for downloading to client devices, e.g. using OS version, hardware or software profile of the client device
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45579 : I/O management, e.g. providing access to device drivers or storage
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45595 : Network integration; Enabling network access in virtual machine instances
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45537 : Provision of facilities of other operating environments, e.g. WINE I/O emulation G06F13/105
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45558 : Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1101 : Session protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/61 : for supporting one-way streaming services, e.g. Internet radio
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/70 : Media network packetisation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/80 : Responding to QoS
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 : in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/131 : Protocols for games, networked simulations or virtual reality
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 : specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/136 : Incoming video signal characteristics or properties
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/42 : characterised by implementation details or hardware specially adapted for video compression or decompression, e.g. dedicated software implementation H04N19/635 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/44 : Decoders specially adapted therefor, e.g. video decoders which are asymmetric with respect to the encoder
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/46 : Embedding additional information in the video signal during the compression process H04N19/517, H04N19/68, H04N19/70 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/70 : characterised by syntax aspects related to video coding, e.g. related to compression standards

Abstract

Systems and methods for executing multiple video games, or other sources of video, include a game execution environment in which each game application is executed on the same operating system but within a virtual I/O shell. The virtual I/O shell includes virtual video, audio and input channels that allow each game application to operate as if it had dedicated drivers. In some embodiments, the systems and methods of the invention are used to provide video streams to a plurality of clients over the internet.

Claims

1. An application execution environment comprising:

a local manager configured to establish a virtual I/O shell around an executable application, the virtual I/O shell configured to appear as a local hardware or software device to the executable application;

a virtual sound channel driver configured to redirect sound received from the executable application to the local manager and optionally to provide sound from the local manager to the executable application, the virtual sound channel driver having an API to the executable application that is included in the virtual I/O shell and is configured to simulate one or more local hardware or software sound devices;

a virtual video channel driver configured to redirect video data received from the executable application and optionally to provide video data from the local manager to the executable application, the virtual video channel driver having an API to the executable application that is included in the virtual I/O shell and is configured to simulate one or more local hardware or software video devices;

memory configured to store the local manager, the virtual input channel driver, the virtual sound channel driver or the virtual video channel driver; and

a microprocessor configured to execute the local manager, the virtual input channel driver, the virtual sound channel driver or the virtual video channel driver.

2. The application execution environment of claim 1, wherein the executable application is a video game.

3. The application execution environment of claim 1, further comprising an virtual input channel driver configured to provide input to the executable application, the virtual input having an API to the executable application that is included in the virtual I/O shell and is configured to simulate one or more local hardware or software input devices, and having an API configured to receive the input from the local manager.

4. The application execution environment of claim 1, wherein the virtual I/O shell does not prevent the executable application from directly accessing functions of an operating system supporting more than one virtual I/O shell.

5. The application execution environment of claim 1, wherein the I/O shell is configured such that one instance of an operating system can support several executable applications, each of the executable applications operating within a different I/O shell.

6. A game delivery system comprising:

plurality of virtual I/O shells each configured to receive and redirect sound and video from a separate video game application;

local manager configured to execute the separate video game applications on a shared operating system, each of the separate video game applications being in one of the virtual I/O shells and accessing the shared operating system for non-I/O operations; and

a streaming server configured to stream video and audio from the separate video game applications, video and audio from each of the video game applications being streamed to a different client.

7. The game delivery system of claim 6, wherein the local manager is configured to simulate a virtual console using key mapping and inputs from different clients, e.g., from different IP addresses.

8. The game delivery system of claim 6, wherein the streaming server is configured to encode to a High Profile H.264 codec lacking B-frames.

9. The game delivery system of claim 6, wherein the streaming server is configured to switch between video codecs mid-stream while streaming the video.

10. The game delivery system of claim 9, wherein the switch between video codecs is responsive to a lag between the streaming server and one of the different clients.

11. The game delivery system of claim 6, wherein the streaming server is configured to switch to a lower quality codec in order to reduce lag between the streaming server and one of the different clients when the lag reaches a threshold value.

12. The game delivery system of claim 6, wherein the streaming server is configured to deliver the video to multiple IP addresses.

13. The game delivery system of claim 12, wherein the presentation of the video at one of the IP addresses includes a link configured to allow a user to play the video game application, join another player in the video game application, or interact in the video game application with another player.

14. The game delivery system of claim 6, wherein the local manager is configured to automatically spawn an additional video game application within a virtual I/O shell responsive to a request to play the video game application.

15. A game delivery architecture comprising:

local components configured to provide those game services for which minimal lag is important, the game services including delivery of game video and audio;

regional components configured to manage non-streaming functionality of a video game and to assign a request for the video game to a member of the local components; and

global components configured to manage the regional and local components.

16. The game delivery architecture of claim 15, wherein the global components include a web server, a web database, a cloud control service, a cloud database and a file server, the file server being configured to deliver executable video games or executable video game clients to the local components.

17. The game delivery architecture of claim 15, wherein the assignment of a request for the video game is based on an ability of the local components to provide streaming video to a requestor.

18. The game delivery architecture of claim 17, wherein the regional components are configured to test the ability of the local components to provide streaming video to a requestor.

19. The game delivery architecture of claim 15, wherein the regional components are configured to reassign execution of the video game from one of the local components to another of the local components.

20. The game delivery architecture of claim 15, wherein the regional components are configured to add a player to a game room responsive to the player selecting a universal resource locator.

21. The game delivery architecture of claim 20 wherein the universal resource locator is imbedded in a social networking website, a blog or an advertisement.

22. The game delivery architecture of claim 15, wherein the regional components are configured to allocate the request for the video game to the local components based on geographic locations of game players.

23. The game delivery architecture of claim 15, wherein the regional components are configured to allocate the request for the video game to the local components based on a time lag between the local components and a game playing device of the requestor