Spectator Client Device Buffering for Smooth Game Playback
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional multiplayer game spectating systems face bandwidth limitations, resulting in incomplete views and discontinuities due to the use of predicted physics state information, which leads to a non-smooth viewing experience for spectators.
Innovation Solution
A method that involves receiving and buffering actual physics state information from a server to determine simulated playback states at a common playback time, allowing for a delayed depiction of the game session, enabling more frequent and complete updates to spectators.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Speed
If the server provides predicted physics state information to enable real-time spectating, then the spectator can view the game in real-time, but the bandwidth requirement exceeds the available network bandwidth
Solution Approach 1:
The patent creates a simulated copy of the game physics state by buffering actual physics states and using prediction algorithms to generate intermediate positions. This simulated copy allows the spectator to view the game smoothly without requiring all the actual physics data, thereby reducing bandwidth consumption while maintaining real-time viewing capability
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs preliminary buffering of actual physics states at the spectator device. By preparing and storing physics state data locally before it is needed for rendering, the system reduces the amount of data that needs to be transmitted in real-time over the network, thus lowering bandwidth requirements while maintaining real-time viewing
2Quantity of substance
If the server limits updates to a partial view of the game to conserve bandwidth, then bandwidth consumption is reduced, but the spectator can only see a zoomed-in view of a subset of game objects
Solution Approach 1:
By creating a complete simulated physics state for all game objects through buffering and prediction, rather than receiving actual physics states for only selected objects, the system enables the spectator to view the entire game scene without requiring high bandwidth for transmitting partial view data
3Speed
If the spectator device uses predicted physics state information for rendering, then real-time viewing is enabled, but discontinuities occur between predicted future positions and actual positions resulting in non-smooth viewing experience
Solution Approach 1:
The system creates a simulated copy of the actual physics states by buffering real physics data and using prediction algorithms to generate intermediate positions. This simulated physics state copy provides smooth transitions between actual positions while maintaining accuracy, eliminating the discontinuities that occur when directly using predicted physics states for rendering
Data Source
AI summary
A spectator client device receives a plurality of spectator update frames that include respective actual physics state information for game objects of respective participants in a multiplayer game session. The spectator client device buffers respective ones of the spectator update frames for respective participants, and determines based on respective downlink spectator update frames buffered for the respective participants, respective simulated playback physical states at a common playback time of a current simulation period. A particular simulated playback physical state for a particular participant is determined based on actual physics state information obtained from at least two respective downlink spectator update frames buffered for the particular participant. The spectator client device renders a delayed depiction of the multiplayer game session at the common playback time of the current simulation period based on the playback physical states determined, for the respective participants, for the current simulation period.