FILE PREFETCHING FOR GAMING APPLICATIONS ACCESSED BY ELECTRONIC DEVICES

• US 20190015752A1
• Filed: 09/19/2018
• Published: 01/17/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 04/08/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Razer (Asia-Pacific) Pte. Ltd. (Razer Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Razer (Asia-Pacific) Pte. Ltd. (Razer Incorporated)
• Inventors: CHAN, Michael A., FLEMING, Michael K., QUAN, Justin
• Granted Patent: US 10,561,946 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• 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 13/355 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 13/79 involving player-related data, e.g. identities, accounts, preferences or play histories
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/407 Data transfer via internet
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/401 wherein the services involve a main real-time session and one or more additional parallel real-time or time sensitive sessions, e.g. white board sharing or spawning of a subconference
• 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 67/1001 for accessing one among a plurality of replicated servers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/131 Protocols for games, networked simulations or virtual reality
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/568 Storing data temporarily at an intermediate stage, e.g. caching
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/5681 Pre-fetching or pre-delivering data based on network characteristics

Abstract

In some examples, access data for one or more gaming applications accessed by the client device is tracked and the access data for the one or more gaming applications may be sent to a server. A prefetching profile may be received from the server. The prefetching profile may specify a plurality of likelihood values for a plurality of gaming data files that are likely to be accessed by the client device within a specific timeframe. A set of gaming data files may be prefetched from an external source based on the prefetching profile. For example, the set of gaming data files may be selected from the plurality of gaming data files based on the prefetching profile.

Claims

1. A method of prefetching gaming data files, the method comprising:

tracking access data for a gaming application that has been accessed on a client device;

sending the access data for the gaming application to a server;

receiving a prefetching profile from the server, the prefetching profile specifying a plurality of likelihood values for a plurality of gaming data files associated with the gaming application that are likely to be accessed on the client device within a specific timeframe, wherein the prefetching profile is generated based on the access data;

selecting a set of gaming data files from the plurality of gaming data files based on the prefetching profile; and

prefetching and storing at the client device the set of gaming data files prior to the set of gaming data files being requested to be accessed on the client device.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the access data includes one or more levels of the gaming application that have been accessed on the client device.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the access data includes an access time for which the one or more levels of the gaming application have been accessed on the client device.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the access data includes a duration spent on each of the one or more levels of the gaming application that have been accessed on the client device.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the access data includes other applications running concurrently on the client device with the gaming application.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the server is configured to perform an analysis on the access data to generate the prefetching profile.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the analysis includes assigning a greater weight to the access data than to access data for the gaming application received from one or more other client devices when determining the likelihood values for the client device.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a request for a gaming data file of the plurality of gaming data files;

serving the gaming data file from a first storage in response to the request when it is determined that the gaming data file is in the first storage;

determining whether the gaming data file is in a second storage when it is determined that the gaming data file is not in the first storage; and

moving the gaming data file from the second storage to the first storage when it is determined that the gaming data file is in the second storage.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

retrieving the gaming data file from an external source when it is determined that the gaming data file is not in the second storage; and

storing the retrieved gaming data file in the first storage.

10. A method of analyzing gaming application access data, the method comprising:

receiving, by a server, from a plurality of client devices, access data for one or more gaming applications;

for each client device of the plurality of client devices, determining, based on the access data, a plurality of likelihood values for a plurality of gaming data files associated with the one or more gaming applications that are likely to be accessed on the client device within a specific timeframe; and

for each client device of the plurality of client devices, generating a prefetching profile specifying the plurality of likelihood values for the plurality of gaming data files that are likely to be accessed on the client device.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the determining of the plurality of likelihood values for the plurality of gaming data files that are likely to be accessed on a client device of the plurality of client devices comprises attributing greater weight to access data received from the client device than access data received from others client devices of the plurality of client devices.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the plurality of likelihood values for the plurality of gaming data files that are likely to be accessed is determined based on one or more levels of the one or more gaming applications that have been accessed by individual ones of the plurality of client devices.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the plurality of likelihood values for the plurality of gaming data files that are likely to be accessed is determined based on an access time for which the one or more levels of the one or more gaming applications have been accessed by individual ones of the plurality of client devices.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein the plurality of likelihood values for the plurality of gaming data files that are likely to be accessed is determined based on a duration spent on each of the one or more levels of the one or more gaming applications that have been accessed by individual ones of the plurality of client devices.

15. The method of claim 10, further comprising sending the prefetching profile to the corresponding client device.

16. A client device comprising:

a memory; and

at least one processor coupled to the memory and configured to;

track access data for one or more gaming applications accessed by the client device;

send the access data for the one or more gaming applications to a server;

receive a prefetching profile from the server, wherein the prefetching profile specifies a plurality of likelihood values for a plurality of gaming data files that are likely to be accessed by the client device within a specific timeframe; and

prefetch a set of gaming data files from an external source based on the prefetching profile, wherein the set of gaming data files is selected from the plurality of gaming data files based on the prefetching profile.

17. The client device of claim 16, wherein the memory is configured to store gaming data files.

18. The client device of claim 17, further comprising a secondary memory configured to store prefetched gaming data files.

19. The client device of claim 17, wherein the memory is further configured to store the access data and the prefetching profile.

20. The client device of claim 16, wherein the set of gaming data files is prefetched in an order of likelihood of being accessed.