Client-Server Content Coordination for Latency Reduction
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
The existing model of streaming content items, such as video games, from a remote server to a client can result in significant delays between user input and the corresponding visual feedback, leading to an unnatural and potentially frustrating experience due to latency issues.
Innovation Solution
The coordination of content presentation operations involves the client generating metadata associated with user events, such as firing a weapon, and transmitting this information to the content provider, which then uses this data to generate subsequent frames, while the client may also render temporary local images until confirmation is received from the server, ensuring more responsive and natural user interactions.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Power
If content items are streamed from a remote server to a client, then enhanced computing capabilities and graphics processing are available at the server, but significant delay occurs between user input and visual feedback
Solution Approach 1:
The client predicts the state of objects and pre-renders image data before receiving confirmation from the server. When a user fires a weapon, the client immediately generates image data showing the projectile launched, rather than waiting for the server to process and return the updated state. This preliminary action eliminates the perceptible delay between user input and visual feedback.
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of the traditional model where the client waits passively for the server to provide authoritative state information, the patent inverts the approach by having the client take the active role of predicting and rendering state information. The server's response then serves to confirm or correct the client's predictions, rather than the client merely requesting and receiving state data.
2Reliability
If the client waits for server confirmation before rendering, then data consistency is maintained, but user experience becomes unnatural and frustrating
Solution Approach 1:
The system implements a feedback mechanism where the client sends predictions to the server and receives confirmation or correction in return. The server compares the client's predicted state with its own authoritative state and sends back feedback indicating whether the prediction is correct or needs adjustment. This maintains data consistency while enabling immediate rendering.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces an intermediary prediction mechanism that bridges the gap between the client and server. Rather than direct communication where the client waits for server responses, the prediction acts as an intermediary that allows the client to proceed with rendering immediately while the server feedback processes in the background to ensure consistency.
Data Source
AI summary
Techniques for coordination of content presentation operations are described herein. In some cases, a client may generate client metadata associated with client event data. The client metadata may include, for example, an indication of any one or more of a time, a frame, a location, an angle, a direction, a speed, a force, or other information associated with the client event data. Also, in some cases, the content provider may generate content provider metadata associated with image data. For example, the content provider metadata may indicate a location of a virtual camera associated with the respective image data and/or a location of one or more objects represented within the respective image data.