Dual-Mode Program Execution

• US 20120005316A1
• Filed: 09/13/2011
• Published: 01/05/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 12/15/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sony Interactive Entertainment LLC (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Computer Entertainment America LLC (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Perry, David, Gault, Andrew Buchanan, Pereira, Rui Filipe Andrade
• Granted Patent: US 8,840,476 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/219
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/4025 where none of the additional parallel sessions is real time or time sensitive, e.g. downloading a file in a parallel FTP session, initiating an email or combinational services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/61 for supporting one-way streaming services, e.g. Internet radio
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/131 Protocols for games, networked simulations or virtual reality
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/142 Managing session states for stateless protocols; Signalling session states; State transitions; Keeping-state mechanisms
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/34 involving the movement of software or configuration parameters network booting or remote initial program loading [RIPL] G06F9/4416

Abstract

A computing system is configured to execute a computer program on a server and to provide a video stream of the program output to a geographically remote client over a communication network. The computing system is further configured to provide executable content of the computer program to the client over the communication network in parallel with the video stream. When a sufficient amount of the executable content has been provided to the client execution of the computer program is transitioned from the server to the client. The transition optionally includes communicating a state of the computer program from the server to the client. The executable content can be provided to the client in an order that is determined based on the state of the computer program. Those parts of the executable content deemed most likely to be necessary to support game play on the client are given priority.

Claims

1. A game system comprising:

a video source configured to provide a streaming video to a first client geographically remote from the video source, the streaming video being generated at the video source and being based on a state of a computer program; and

a download manager configured to download executable content of the computer program from a code source to the first client via a network while the streaming video is being provided to the first client from the video source.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the video source is configured to generate a first streaming video based on a point of view of a first user and a second streaming video based on a point of view of a second user, and to provide the first and second streaming videos to the first client and a second client respectively.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the state of the computer program is dependent on commands received from the first and second clients.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the video source is configured to produce the streaming video using a graphic processing unit.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the graphics processing unit is configured to generate two or more video streams in parallel, and the video source is configured to communicate these video streams to different clients.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the state of the computer program is dependent on commands received from the first client.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the computer program is a computer game and the streaming video is rendered at the video source from a three dimensional game environment.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the state of the computer program is provided to the first client while the streaming video is being provided to the first client.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the state of the computer program is dependent on commands received from the first client.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the download manager is configured to give greater priority to providing the streaming video to the first client relative to providing the executable content to the first client.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the download manager is configured to provide the executable content at a bit rate that is dependent on a bandwidth of a communication channel between the code source and the first client and is also dependent on an amount of data in the streaming video.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein the download manager is configured to download the executable content to the first client at a rate that is limited by a rate at which the streaming video is provided to meet a minimum acceptable quality of the streaming video as displayed on the first client.

13. The system of claim 1, further comprising a state source configured to provide the state of the computer program to the first client.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the state source is further configured to update a copy of the state of the computer program stored on the first client.

15. The system of claim 13, wherein the state source is further configured to update a copy of the state of the computer program stored at the state source based on data received from a game server.

16. The system of claim 1, further comprising transition logic configured to determine when an executable subset of the executable content has been provided to the first client.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the transition logic is configured to provide notice to a user of the first client that execution of the computer program can be transitioned from the video source to the first client.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the notice is provided as a video overlay on the streaming video or in a same browser window as the streaming video is presented.

19. The system of claim 17, wherein the notice includes an amount of time remaining before the streaming video will be terminated.

20. The system of claim 16, wherein the transition logic is further configured to initiate execution of the executable subset on the first client.

21. The system of claim 20, wherein the execution of the executable content on the first client is initiated while the first streaming video is being provided to the first client from the video source.

22. The system of claim 16, wherein the download manager is configured to continue providing executable content of the computer program to the client after initiation of execution of the executable subset.

23. The system of claim 16, wherein the transition logic is configured to transition execution of the computer program from the video source to the first client.

24. The system of claim 16, wherein the computer program includes a video game and the transition logic is configured to transition execution of the computer program from the video source to the first client without interrupting a game session.

25. The system of claim 1, further comprising transition logic configured to synchronize execution of the executable content on the client with execution of the computer program at the video source.

26. The system of claim 1, further comprising transition logic configured to initiate execution of the executable content on the first client.

27. The system of claim 1, further comprising transition logic configured to provide an IP address of the first client to a game server, the video source being configured to receive a state of the computer program from the game server.

28. The system of claim 27, wherein the transition logic is configured to cause the game server to provide updates of the state of the computer program to the first client.

29. The system of claim 1, further comprising qualification logic configured for determining if the first client is capable of receiving the executable content and the streaming video at a minimum level of quality in parallel.

30. The game server of claim 1, wherein a total rate at which the streaming video and executable content are provided to the client in parallel is greater than a bandwidth of a communication channel through which the streaming video is communicated.