Bandwidth management during simultaneous server-to-client transfer of game video and game code

• US 9,511,288 B2
• Filed: 03/14/2013
• Issued: 12/06/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 12/15/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sony Interactive Entertainment LLC (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Interactive Entertainment America LLC (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Pereira, Rui Filipe Andrade, Perry, David, Gault, Andrew Buchanan
• Primary Examiner(s): McClellan, James S
• Assistant Examiner(s): Weatherford, Syvila
• Application Number:
  US13/826,744
• Publication Number:
  US 20130203501A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,363 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/33 using wide area network [WAN] connections
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/335 using Internet
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/35 Details of game servers
• 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 13/355 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 13/77 involving data related to game devices or game servers, e.g. configuration data, software version or amount of memory
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/86 Watching games played by other players
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 9/24 Electric games; Games using electronic circuits not otherwise provided for video games A63F13/00; computerized gaming systems G07F17/32
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/365 Dynamic adaptation of the packet size
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/75 Media network packet handling
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/80 Responding to QoS
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/01 Protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/131 Protocols for games, networked simulations or virtual reality

Abstract

A determination is made, using a computer, of an amount of game code data to be included in a data packet containing streaming game video data. A data packet is generated to contain the streaming game video data and to include the amount of game code data. The generated data packet is transmitted from a server computer system to a client computer system.

Claims

1. A method for server-to-client transmission of game code, comprising:

determining, using a computer, an amount of game code data to be included in a data packet containing streaming game video data of a video game to be played at a client computer system;

generating the data packet such that the data packet contains both the streaming game video data and the amount of game code data;

transmitting the data packet from a server computer system to the client computer system, wherein the streaming game video data within the data packet provides for continued play of the video game at the client computer system in conjunction with delivery of the amount of game code data to the client computer system,

wherein the amount of game code data defines a portion of game code for generating game video upon execution of the game code at the client computer system instead of rendering the streaming game video data;

detecting a decrease in a total amount of communication bandwidth available to transmit data from the server computer system to the client computer system; and

upon detecting the decrease in the total amount of communication bandwidth available to transmit data from the server computer system to the client computer system, decreasing the amount of game code data in the data packet and correspondingly increasing an amount of the streaming game video data in the data packet so as to maintain a minimum required quality level of game video at the client computer system.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the amount of game code data includes one or more of executable code, scripts, data structures, images, textures, geographic information, character names, object shapes, user data, and game data.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the amount of game code data to be included in the data packet is determined by subtracting an amount of streaming game video data required per data packet to maintain the minimum required quality level of game video at the client computer system from an available data payload capacity of the data packet.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the amount of game code data to be included in the data packet and generating the data packet is performed by either an encoder or a post processor.

5. The method of claim 1,

wherein the data packet is received at the client computer system, and wherein the client computer system is configured to parse the data packet and decode the streaming game video data separately from the amount of game code data.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

determining, using the computer, that an executable subset of game code has been transmitted to the client computer system; and

transmitting current game state data to the client computer system to enable execution of the game code at the client computer system based on the current game state data to generate game video at the client computer system.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

verifying execution of game code at the client computer system to generate game video; and

stopping transmission of streaming game video data from the server computer system to the client computer system.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

continuing generation and transmission of data packets containing the amount of game code data from the server computer system to the client computer system.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

determining, using the computer, that an executable subset of game code will become unavailable at the client computer system;

resuming generation of the data packet containing the streaming game video data and including the amount of game code data; and

transmitting the data packet from the server computer system to the client computer system.

10. A method for server-to-client transmission of game code, comprising:

determining, using a computer, a total amount of communication bandwidth available to transmit data from a server computer system to a client computer system;

determining, using the computer, an amount of communication bandwidth required for transmission of streaming game video from the server computer system to the client computer system to provide a minimum required quality level of game video at the client computer system;

determining, using the computer, an amount of communication bandwidth available for transmission of game code to the client computer system by subtracting the amount of communication bandwidth required for transmission of streaming game video from the total amount of communication bandwidth;

transmitting data packets containing streaming game video from the server computer system to the client computer system in accordance with the amount of communication bandwidth required for transmission of streaming game video to provide the minimum required quality level of game video at the client computer system;

transmitting data packets containing game code from the server computer system to the client computer system in accordance with the amount of communication bandwidth available for transmission of game code;

detecting a decrease in the total amount of communication bandwidth available to transmit data from the server computer system to the client computer system; and

decreasing a data transmission rate of the data packets containing game code so as to maintain a required data transmission rate of the data packets containing streaming game video to ensure provision of the minimum required quality level of game video at the client computer system.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the data packets containing game code are transmitted between the data packets containing streaming game video.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the data packets containing game code are transmitted at a same time that the data packets containing streaming game video are transmitted.

13. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

maintaining transmission of data packets containing streaming game video from the server computer system to the client computer system in accordance with the amount of communication bandwidth required for transmission of streaming game video to provide the minimum required quality level of game video at the client computer system;

increasing a data transmission rate of the data packets containing game code;

monitoring communication between the server and client computer systems for lost data packets;

upon detecting an unacceptable number of lost data packets, stopping the increase in data transmission rate of the data packets containing game code; and

upon stopping the increase in data transmission rate of the data packets containing game code, decreasing the data transmission rate of the data packets containing game code until an acceptable number of lost data packets is monitored.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

determining, using the computer, that an executable subset of game code has been transmitted to the client computer system;

transmitting current game state data to the client computer system to enable execution of the game code at the client computer system based on the current game state data to generate game video at the client computer system.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

verifying execution of game code at the client computer system to generate game video;

stopping transmission of data packets containing streaming game video from the server computer system to the client computer system; and

increasing the data transmission rate of the data packets containing game code such that the total amount of communication bandwidth available is used to transmit data packets containing game code.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

determining, using the computer, that an executable subset of game code will become unavailable at the client computer system;

resuming transmission of data packets containing streaming game video from the server computer system to the client computer system in accordance with the amount of communication bandwidth required for transmission of streaming game video to provide the minimum required quality level of game video at the client computer system; and

correspondingly reducing the data transmission rate of the data packets containing game code from the server computer system to the client computer system.

17. A non-transitory computer readable medium having program instructions stored thereon for implementing a method for server-to-client transmission of game code, comprising:

program instructions for directing a computer to determine an amount of game code data to be included in a data packet containing streaming game video data of a video game to be played at a client computer system;

program instructions for directing the computer to generate the data packet such that the data packet contains both the streaming game video data and the amount of game code data;

program instructions for directing the computer to transmit the data packet from a server computer system to the client computer system, wherein the streaming game video data within the data packet provides for continued play of the video game at the client computer system in conjunction with delivery of the amount of game code data to the client computer system,

wherein the amount of game code data defines a portion of game code for generating game video upon execution of the game code at the client computer system instead of rendering the streaming game video data;

program instruction for detecting a decrease in a total amount of communication bandwidth available to transmit data from the server computer system to the client computer system; and

program instructions for decreasing the amount of game code data in the data packet and correspondingly increasing an amount of the streaming game video data in the data packet so as to maintain a minimum required quality level of game video at the client computer system upon detecting the decrease in the total amount of communication bandwidth available to transmit data from the server computer system to the client computer system.

18. A non-transitory computer readable medium having program instructions stored thereon for implementing a method for server-to-client transmission of game code, comprising:

program instructions for directing a computer to determine a total amount of communication bandwidth available to transmit data from a server computer system to a client computer system;

program instructions for directing the computer to determine an amount of communication bandwidth required for transmission of streaming game video from the server computer system to the client computer system to provide a minimum required quality level of game video at the client computer system;

program instructions for directing the computer to determine an amount of communication bandwidth available for transmission of game code to the client computer system by subtracting the amount of communication bandwidth required for transmission of streaming game video from the total amount of communication bandwidth;

program instructions for directing the computer to transmit data packets containing streaming game video from the server computer system to the client computer system in accordance with the amount of communication bandwidth required for transmission of streaming game video to provide the minimum required quality level of game video at the client computer system;

program instructions for directing the computer to transmit data packets containing game code from the server computer system to the client computer system in accordance with the amount of communication bandwidth available for transmission of game code;

program instructions for detecting a decrease in the total amount of communication bandwidth available to transmit data from the server computer system to the client computer system; and

program instructions for decreasing a data transmission rate of the data packets containing game code so as to maintain a required data transmission rate of the data packets containing streaming game video to ensure provision of the minimum required quality level of game video at the client computer system.