Cloud Server Game State Suspension and Resumption
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current video gaming systems require users to restart games from the beginning after suspension, involving lengthy loading times and navigation through menus to resume play from a saved location, which is inconvenient for users wanting to pick up gameplay at a specific point.
Innovation Solution
A cloud server system that generates and encodes display rendering information as a video stream, allowing users to directly suspend and resume gameplay at a current frame using user-initiated commands, bypassing startup screens and saved game selection processes by storing and restoring the game state in memory.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of time
If users use traditional saved game features to resume gameplay, then the game can be resumed from a previous location, but users must go through lengthy loading times and navigate through menus to restore the saved game
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary actions by continuously rendering game frames and maintaining them in a suspended state in memory. When a user wants to resume, the game is already prepared and can be restored instantly without loading or menu navigation, as the preliminary rendering and memory retention work has already been completed.
Solution Approach 2:
The system creates a copy of the current game frame state and stores it in memory when suspension is requested. This copied state can be instantly restored without re-rendering or reloading, eliminating the need for lengthy loading processes while maintaining the ability to resume from the exact suspension point.
2Ease of operation
If users restart a game from the beginning after suspension, then the game can be played, but it requires going through startup screens and menus which is inconvenient
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary actions by maintaining the game state in an active but suspended rendering mode. The game is kept ready in memory with all graphical elements pre-rendered, so when resumption is requested, the user bypasses all startup screens and menus because the preliminary preparation work has already been completed.
Solution Approach 2:
The system introduces an intermediary mechanism between game suspension and resumption by maintaining a suspended state in memory. This intermediary state allows the game to be neither fully active nor completely closed, enabling instant restoration without going through the full startup sequence or menu navigation that would normally be required.
3Speed
If the cloud server maintains continuous rendering of video games, then games can be quickly resumed, but energy consumption increases
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of continuous rendering, the system uses periodic action by suspending the rendering process when the game is not actively being played. The game state is maintained in memory during suspension periods, and rendering only resumes periodically when the user requests to continue playing, thereby reducing energy consumption while maintaining fast resume capability.
Solution Approach 2:
The system applies dynamics by making the rendering process adaptable and changeable based on user activity. The rendering can be dynamically suspended and resumed, allowing the system to consume less energy during idle periods while maintaining the capability for fast resumption when needed, thus optimizing the balance between speed and energy usage.
Data Source
AI summary
Many times, users play games to certain places in the game and decide to save the game and resume it later. When users resume the game, they have to wait for it to load, wade through menus to select the saved game, and wait again for the game to resume. The introduced technique directly suspends and resume games that are rendered on a cloud server based on user initiated suspend and resume control commands. As the games are directly suspended and resumed, the users can skip past menu and screen loading. The introduced technique can track game information of multiples users in cloud tokens, and can move these cloud tokens from one memory location to another based on the user initiated suspend and resume control commands.