VIDEO GAMING DEVICE WITH REMOTE RENDERING CAPABILITY

• US 20150251095A1
• Filed: 01/09/2014
• Published: 09/10/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 01/09/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Square Enix Holdings Co., Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Square Enix Holdings Co., Ltd.
• Inventors: Perrin, Cyril
• Granted Patent: US 9,901,822 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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 13/352 involving special game server arrangements, e.g. regional servers connected to a national server or a plurality of servers managing partitions of the game world
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/50 Controlling the output signals based on the game progress
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/86 Watching games played by other players
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/048 Interaction techniques based on graphical user interfaces [GUI]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/452 Remote windowing, e.g. X-Window System, desktop virtualisation protocols for virtual reality H04L67/131
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 15/005 General purpose rendering architectures
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2200/16 involving adaptation to the client's capabilities

Abstract

A gaming device for playing a video game. The gaming device executes game software to output rendering commands representing a virtual world of the video game and has a local rendering module for processing the rendering commands to generate an Image data stream of the virtual world. The gaming device has a remote rendering controller for generating second rendering commands for processing by a remote rendering module to generate a rendered graphics output also depicting the virtual world.

Claims

1. A gaming device for playing a video game, the gaming device comprising:

(a) game software to output first rendering commands representing a virtual world of the video game;

(b) a local rendering module for processing the rendering commands to generate an image data stream of the virtual world;

(c) a remote rendering controller for generating second rendering commands for processing by a remote rendering module to generate a rendered graphics output depicting the virtual world;

(d) an output for;

(i) releasing the image data stream;

(ii) transmitting the second rendering commands to a data communication network for transmission to the remote rendering module.

2. A gaming device as defined in claim 1, wherein the remote rendering controller derives the second rendering commands from the first rendering commands.

3. A gaming device as defined in claim 2, wherein the first rendering commands includes rendering instructions, the local rendering module processing geometry data according to the rendering instructions to generate the image data stream.

4. A gaming device as defined in claim 3, wherein the geometry data include vertex data.

5. A gaming device as defined in claim 2, wherein the second rendering commands includes rendering instructions, the remote rendering module processing geometry data according to the rendering instructions to generate the rendered graphics output.

6. A gaming device as defined in claim 2, wherein the remote rendering controller encodes the second rendering commands for transmission to the remote rendering module.

7. A gaming device as defined in claim 1, wherein the game software is a locally executed game software, the output transmits game metrics derived from the locally executed game software to the data communication network for transmission to a remote game hosting server aggregating game metrics from multiple remote gaming devices.

8. A gaming device as defined in claim 1, wherein the second rendering commands include data packetized for transmission to the remote rendering module.

9. A gaming device as defined in claim 1, wherein the remote rendering controller generates identification information to identify one or more spectators to which an output of the remote rendered module depicting the virtual world is to be sent via the data network.

10. A gaming device as defined in claim 1, configured to generate a Graphical User Interface (GUI) on a display displaying the image data stream, the GUI providing a player playing the video game at the gaming device with a plurality of spectator selection options.

11. A gaming device as defined in claim 10, wherein the gaming device is responsive to selection of an option by the player via the GUI to transmit to the remote rendering module identification information associated with the option selected by the player.

12. A server arrangement for performing remote rendering of video game graphics, the server arrangement including:

(a) an input for receiving;

(i) rendering commands transmitted to the input over a data network from a remote location, the rendering commands representing a virtual world of a video game, the video game being played by at least one player controlling a virtual character in the virtual world;

(ii) identification information to identify one or more spectators;

(iii) a rendering module for processing the rendering commands to generate an image data stream depicting the virtual world;

(b) an output for transmitting the image data stream to the one or more spectators over the data network.

13. A server arrangement as defined in claim 12, wherein the rendering commands include rendering instructions, the rendering module processing geometry data according to the rendering instructions to generate the image data stream.

14. A server arrangement as defined in claim 13, including a machine-readable storage for holding a list of identifiers of spectators that are to receive the Image data stream.

15. A server arrangement as defined in claim 14, wherein in response to reception of the identification information at the input, the server arrangement loading the Identification information in the list.

16. A method for allowing a spectator to spectate a video game, the method including:

(a) executing by a CPU game software to generate rendering commands depicting a virtual world of a video game;

(b) processing with a rendering module the rendering commands to generate an image data stream;

(c) outputting the image data stream to a display device;

(d) wherein the rendering commands are first rendering commands, including deriving second rendering commands from the first rendering commands;

(e) transmitting the second rendering commands via a data network to a remote server for rendering and delivery of a rendered output to at least one spectator.

17. A method for performing distributed rendering of a video game, the method including:

(a) processing at a first network node in a data network rendering commands depicting a virtual world of a video game with a first rendering module to generate an image data stream for display to a player that controls a virtual character in the video game;

(b) processing at a second node in the data network that is remote from the first node second rendering commands derived from the first rendering commands with a second rendering module to produce a rendered output depicting the virtual world and the virtual character of the player;

(c) transmitting the rendered output to at least one spectator for viewing.

18. A machine readable storage medium encoded with non transitory program code for execution by a CPU for generating rendering commands to perform remote rendering of video game scenes of a video game, the program code including:

(a) remote rendering program instructions for processing first rendering commands output by game software for driving a local rendering module, to derive second rendering commands for processing by a remote rendering module to generate an image data stream of the video game scenes;

(b) program instructions for transmitting the second rendering commands to a remote rendering module over a data network.

19. A machine readable storage medium as defined in claim 18, wherein the program code includes program instructions to generate a Graphical User Interface (GUI) on a display displaying an image data stream produced by the local rendering module on the basis of the first rendering commands, the GUI providing a player playing the video game with a plurality of spectator selection options.

20. A machine readable storage medium as defined in claim 19, wherein the program code includes program instructions responsive to selection of an option by the player via the GUI to transmit to the remote rendering module identification information associated with the option selected by the player.

21. A machine readable storage medium as defined in claim 20, wherein the identification information identifies at least one spectator to which the image data stream produced by the remote rendering module is to be transmitted.