Frame Overlay for Encoding Artifacts in Game Streaming
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing game streaming systems face difficulties in identifying and addressing encoding artifacts such as color changes and feature blurring during the encoding process, as these artifacts are often small and difficult to visually detect within the encoded frames, hindering performance optimization.
Innovation Solution
A method that generates an overlay with visual indicators to highlight encoding artifacts in encoded frames by identifying differences between raw and encoded frames, allowing for adjustments to encoding parameters to reduce these artifacts.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If encoding compression is increased to improve transmission efficiency, then transmission speed and bandwidth utilization are improved, but encoding artifacts such as color changes and feature blurring increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies different encoding compression levels to different regions of the video frame based on their importance. Critical regions (e.g., areas containing game characters or important visual information) are encoded with lower compression to maintain quality, while less important regions use higher compression. This resolves the contradiction by allowing high overall compression while preserving quality where it matters most.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent dynamically adjusts encoding parameters such as quantization level, bitrate, and compression ratio based on the content being encoded and the detected artifacts. When artifacts are detected in certain regions, the encoder modifies parameters for those specific regions to reduce artifact severity, thereby maintaining transmission efficiency while improving local encoding quality.
2Device complexity
If conventional encoding techniques are used to maintain simple encoding processes, then device complexity is reduced, but the ability to identify and address encoding artifacts is insufficient
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces an overlay layer as an intermediary between the encoded video and the viewer. This overlay contains visual indicators (such as colored highlights or annotations) that point to regions with encoding artifacts. The overlay mechanism allows artifact detection and visualization without fundamentally changing the encoding process itself, thus maintaining simplicity while improving detectability.
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements a feedback loop where encoding artifacts are detected in the output, visualized through overlays, and this information is fed back to adjust encoding parameters for subsequent frames. This feedback mechanism enables continuous improvement of encoding quality without requiring complex real-time analysis during the encoding process itself.
3Device complexity
If uniform encoding compression is applied to all frame regions, then encoding complexity is reduced, but important visual features may be degraded due to insufficient localized quality adjustment
Solution Approach 1:
The patent divides the video frame into multiple regions and applies different encoding quality levels to each region based on its visual importance. Regions containing critical visual features (such as game characters, UI elements, or action sequences) are allocated higher quality encoding with lower compression, while background or less important areas use higher compression. This ensures reliable preservation of important features while maintaining overall encoding efficiency.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent segments the video frame into multiple zones or regions, each with its own encoding parameters. This segmentation allows independent optimization of each region's encoding quality based on its content characteristics, thereby preserving important visual features without requiring uniform high-quality encoding across the entire frame, which would increase overall complexity.
Data Source
AI summary
A game streaming system encodes a raw frame to generate an encoded frame for a game stream including a plurality of frames for display. The system identifies a first encoding artifact based on a first difference between the encoded frame and the raw frame, and applies an overlay to the encoded frame. The overlay includes a first visual indicator indicating the first encoding artifact.