System and method for accelerated machine switching

• US 9,308,452 B2
• Filed: 09/22/2015
• Issued: 04/12/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 12/05/2007
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Sony Interactive Entertainment LLC (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Computer Entertainment America LLC (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Perlman, Stephen G., van der Laan, Roger, Cotter, Timothy, Furman, Scott, McCool, Robert, Buckley, Ian
• Primary Examiner(s): D'Agostino, Paul A
• Assistant Examiner(s): DOSHI, ANKIT B
• Application Number:
  US14/862,042
• Publication Number:
  US 20160008716A1
• Time in Patent Office: 203 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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 13/33 using wide area network [WAN] connections
• 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 13/358 Adapting the game course according to the network or server load, e.g. for reducing latency due to different connection speeds between clients
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/49 Saving the game status; Pausing or ending the game
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/493 Resuming a game, e.g. after pausing, malfunction or power failure
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/50 Controlling the output signals based on the game progress
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/402 Communication between platforms, i.e. physical link to protocol
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/407 Data transfer via internet
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/534 for network load management, e.g. bandwidth optimization, latency reduction
• 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: A63F 2300/554 by saving game or status data
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/556 Player lists, e.g. online players, buddy list, black list
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/572 Communication between players during game play of non game information, e.g. e-mail, chat, file transfer, streaming of audio and streaming of video
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/577 for watching a game played by other players
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/636 involving process of starting or resuming a game
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/69 Involving elements of the real world in the game world, e.g. measurement in live races, real video
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/403 Arrangements for multi-party communication, e.g. for conferences data switching systems for conference H04L12/18; arrangements for connecting several subscribers to a common circuit, i.e. affording conference facilities H04M3/56; television conferencing systems H04N7/15
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/611 : for multicast or broadcast systems for broadcast or conference H04L12/18; arrangements for broadcast or distribution combined with broadcast H04H20/00; arrangements for broadcast applications with a direct linkage to broadcast information or to broadcast space-time H04H60/00; selective distribution of broadcast services, e.g. multimedia broadcast multicast service [MBMS], H04W4/06
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/752 : adapting media to network capabilities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/765 : intermediate
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/131 : Protocols for games, networked simulations or virtual reality
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/107 : between spatial and temporal predictive coding, e.g. picture refresh
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/132 : Sampling, masking or truncation of coding units, e.g. adaptive resampling, frame skipping, frame interpolation or high-frequency transform coefficient masking
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/146 : Data rate or code amount at the encoder output
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/169 : characterised by the coding unit, i.e. the structural portion or semantic portion of the video signal being the object or the subject of the adaptive coding
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/172 : the region being a picture, frame or field
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/188 : the unit being a video data packet, e.g. a network abstraction layer [NAL] unit
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/436 : using parallelised computational arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/61 : in combination with predictive coding
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/233 : Processing of audio elementary streams monitoring, identification or recognition of audio in broadcast systems H04H60/58
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2343 : involving reformatting operations of video signals for distribution or compliance with end-user requests or end-user device requirements video transcoding H04N19/40; media packet handling at the source H04L65/762
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2381 : Adapting the multiplex stream to a specific network, e.g. an Internet Protocol [IP] network transmission of MPEG streams over ATM H04L12/5601
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4781 : Games
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6125 : involving transmission via Internet transmission by internet of broadcast information H04H60/82
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6377 : directed to server one-way streaming services wherein the source is controlled by the destination H04L65/613
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6405 : Multicasting data broadcast and multicast in packet switching networks H04L12/18
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/658 : Transmission by the client directed to the server
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6587 : Control parameters, e.g. trick play commands, viewpoint selection
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/106 : for domestic distribution

Abstract

A system and method are described for managing the state of an online video game. A method includes initiating a new online video game in response to user input from a client device, the online video game being in a first state on a first server when initiated; executing the online video game on the server, thereby causing the online video game to enter a second state; pausing or terminating the online video game; determining differences between the first state and the second state and generating difference data containing the differences; transmitting the difference data over a network to a second server; and recreating the second state from the difference data and the first state in response to user input indicating that the user wishes to resume the online video game and in response to the second server being selected as the server on which to execute the video game.

Claims

1. A hosting service server center, comprising:

a server computing device having a processor configured to execute a game application in accordance with signals received from a client computing device, the client computing device remotely located from the server computing device;

a data storage device connected and configured for use by the server for storing data associated with execution of the game application;

video compression logic connected to receive a sequence of video images corresponding to graphical output of the executed game application from the server computing device, the video compression logic configured to compress the received sequence of video images to generate a compressed video stream, the compression logic connected and configured to transmit the compressed video stream to the client computing device; and

a service control system connected and configured to receive a communication from the client computing device requesting execution of the game application, the service control system configured to determine a data communication latency between the client computing device and the hosting service server center, the service control system configured to determine whether or not the data communication latency is acceptable, the service control system configured to direct the server computing device to execute the game application in response to signals received from the client computing device upon determining that the data communication latency is acceptable, the service control system configured to direct the communication from the client computing device requesting execution of the game application to an alternate hosting service server center upon determining that the data communication latency is not acceptable.

2. The hosting service server center as recited in claim 1, wherein the service control system is configured and connected to determine which one of a plurality of hosting service server centers has a lowest data communication latency between itself and the client computing device, wherein the hosting service server center is one of the plurality of hosting service server centers.

3. The hosting service server center as recited in claim 2, wherein the service control system is configured and connected to communicate to the client computing device an identity of the one of the plurality of hosting service server centers that has the lowest data communication latency between itself and the client computing device.

4. The hosting service server center as recited in claim 3, wherein the identity of the one of the plurality of hosting service server centers that has the lowest data communication latency between itself and the client computing device is communicated to the client computing device in a form of an Internet address.

5. The hosting service server center as recited in claim 1, wherein the service control system is configured to determine whether or not the hosting service server center is overloaded, the service control system configured to direct the server computing device to execute the game application in response to signals received from the client computing device upon both determining that the data communication latency is acceptable and determining that the hosting service server center is not overloaded.

6. The hosting service server center as recited in claim 5, wherein the service control system is configured to direct the communication from the client computing device requesting execution of the game application to an alternate hosting service server center upon determining that the hosting service server center is overloaded.

7. The hosting service server center as recited in claim 1, wherein the service control system is configured to determine that the hosting service server center has become overloaded during execution of the game application by the server computing device and redirect execution of the game application by a server computing device of an alternate hosting service server center.

8. The hosting service server center as recited in claim 7, wherein the service control system is configured to pause execution of the game application by the server computing device and store game state data of the game application corresponding to an instance at which execution of the game application is paused prior to redirecting execution of the game application to the server computing device of the alternate hosting service server center, and wherein the service control system is configured and connected to transfer the stored game state data of the game application to the server computing device of the alternate hosting service server center.

9. The hosting service server center as recited in claim 8, wherein the service control system is configured to pause execution of the game application by the server computing device when execution of the game application reaches a natural pausing point.

10. The hosting service server center as recited in claim 8, wherein the service control system is configured to pause execution of the game application by the server computing device when the server computing device has not received signals directing execution of the game application from the client computing device for a specified period of time.

11. A method for operating a hosting service server center, comprising:

operating a server computing device to receive and process signals received from a client computing device, the client computing device remotely located from the server computing device, the server computing device having a processor configured to process the signals received from the client computing device and execute a game application in accordance with the signals received from a client computing device, the server computing device configured to generate a sequence of video images corresponding to graphical output of the executed game application;

operating video compression logic to receive the sequence of video images corresponding to graphical output of the executed game application from the server computing device;

operating the video compression logic to compress the received sequence of video images to generate a compressed video stream;

operating the video compression logic to transmit the compressed video stream to the client computing device;

operating a service control system to receive a communication from the client computing device requesting execution of the game application;

operating the service control system to determine a data communication latency between the client computing device and the hosting service server center;

operating the service control system to determine whether or not the data communication latency is acceptable;

upon determining that the data communication latency is acceptable, operating the service control system to direct the server computing device to execute the game application in response to signals received from the client computing device; and

upon determining that the data communication latency is not acceptable, operating the service control system to direct the communication from the client computing device requesting execution of the game application to an alternate hosting service server center.

12. A method for operating a hosting service server center as recited in claim 11, further comprising:

operating the service control system to determine which one of a plurality of hosting service server centers has a lowest data communication latency between itself and the client computing device, wherein the hosting service server center is one of the plurality of hosting service server centers.

13. A method for operating a hosting service server center as recited in claim 12, further comprising:

operating the service control system to communicate to the client computing device an identity of the one of the plurality of hosting service server centers that has the lowest data communication latency between itself and the client computing device.

14. A method for operating a hosting service server center as recited in claim 13, wherein the identity of the one of the plurality of hosting service server centers that has the lowest data communication latency between itself and the client computing device is communicated to the client computing device in a form of an Internet address.

15. A method for operating a hosting service server center as recited in claim 11, further comprising:

operating the service control system to determine whether or not the hosting service server center is overloaded; and

upon both determining that the data communication latency is acceptable and determining that the hosting service server center is not overloaded, operating the service control system to direct the server computing device to execute the game application in response to signals received from the client computing device.

16. A method for operating a hosting service server center as recited in claim 15, further comprising:

operating the service control system to direct the communication from the client computing device requesting execution of the game application to an alternate hosting service server center upon determining that the hosting service server center is overloaded.

17. A method for operating a hosting service server center as recited in claim 11, further comprising:

operating the service control system to determine that the hosting service server center has become overloaded during execution of the game application by the server computing device and responsively redirect execution of the game application by a server computing device of an alternate hosting service server center.

18. A method for operating a hosting service server center as recited in claim 17, further comprising:

operating the service control system to pause execution of the game application by the server computing device and store game state data of the game application corresponding to an instance at which execution of the game application is paused prior to redirecting execution of the game application to the server computing device of the alternate hosting service server center; and

operating the service control system to transfer the stored game state data of the game application to the server computing device of the alternate hosting service server center.

19. A method for operating a hosting service server center as recited in claim 18, further comprising:

operating the service control system to pause execution of the game application by the server computing device when execution of the game application reaches a natural pausing point.

20. A method for operating a hosting service server center as recited in claim 18, further comprising:

operating the service control system to pause execution of the game application by the server computing device when the server computing device has not received signals directing execution of the game application from the client computing device for a specified period of time.