Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC

John Raymond Justice

Krassimir Emilov Karamfilov

Roderick Michael Toll

Kenneth Alan Lobb

Frank R Morrison, Iii

Alex Aben-Athar Kipman

Brandon T Hunt

Alexander Burba

J Andrew Goossen

Charles Claudius Marais

Euan Peter Garden

Emad Barsoum

David Junzi Wu

David James Quinn

Habib Zargarpour

Nicholas Alexander Allen

Mehmet Akkurt

Eddie Louis Mays, Iii

Erik B Christensen

Stephen Michael Danton

Kenneth David Wolf

Stephen James Millet

David E Langworthy

Jeffrey C Schlimmer

Christopher L Anderson

Elliot Lee Waingold

Michael Steven Vernal

Martin James Gudgin

Eric Kenneth Zinda

Gopal Kakivaya

Noaa Avital

Gersh Payzer

Pedro Ardila

Stefan Keir Gordon

Yaniv Pessach

Stephen John Butler

Dave Lalor

Joshua Boehm

Ray Wayne Davis

Frank R Iii Morrison

David S Wu

Andrew J Goossen

Aspects of the present invention describe a nonhomogeneous server deployment in which different classes of servers are placed within a data center unit, such as a rack or chassis. In one aspect, the cooling capacity for the unit is intentionally sized to be incapable of providing enough cooling to maintain an acceptable operational temperature for the servers, if all servers in the rack are simultaneously in an active processing mode. The control fabric maintains an acceptable operating temperature within the unit by assigning workloads to only a portion of the servers within the unit at a given point in time. In one aspect, servers are arranged within a data center unit according to anticipated peak periods of usage. Units can be arranged to be adjacent to servers optimized for a specialized workload having a peak period of usage that differs from each other.

Nonhomogeneous server arrangement

Embodiments of the present invention enable rich control input data to control video games that are remotely executed. Rich control input includes three-dimensional image data, color video, audio, device orientation data, and touch input. A remotely-executed video game is one executed on a server or other computing device that is networked to a client device receiving the rich control input. Rich control input includes more data than can be uploaded to a game server without degrading game performance. Embodiments of the present invention preprocess the rich control data on the client and into data that may be uploaded to the game server. The rich input stream may be processed in a general way or in a game-specific way.

Client side processing of game controller input

Systems and methods are provided for optimizing allocation of client devices, such as gaming devices, to different available data centers and servers, such as gaming servers, within a data center. The allocation maintains a satisfactory user experience while balancing costs and resource usage. Embodiments of the invention match a client to a data center and server based on a set of criteria related to the client device, user of the client device, game or application the user desires to play, available data centers for supporting the client device, and conditions of the network between the client device and data center. An allocation algorithm may be used to determine resource-efficient allocation. In one embodiment, a bidding process is employed wherein a client and data center are matched based on bids received from data centers. In one embodiment, allocation is periodically evaluated to determine if reassignment to another data center is needed.

Assigning a player to a machine

Embodiments of the present invention split game processing and rendering between a client and a game server. A rendered video game image is received from a game server and combined with a rendered image generated by the game client to form a single video game image that is presented to a user. Control input is received by a client device and then communicated to a game server, potentially with some preprocessing, and is also consumed locally on the client, at least in part. An embodiment of the present invention processes and renders some or all of a character's interactions with game objects on the client device associated with the character. A character is associated with a client device when control input associated with the character is received from a user of the client device.

Client side processing of character interactions in a remote gaming environment

In various embodiments, methods and systems for intelligent streaming of game content based on the level of interactivity of the game content are provided. The level of interactivity of game content is determined using techniques that classify the level of interactivity. The level of interactivity is defined for different components of game content. Streaming techniques are associated with game content having specific levels of interactivity. An edge computing infrastructure may facilitate intelligent streaming in that game assets classified as prefetch game assets or stream game assets are associated with prefetch instructions. The prefetch instructions are communicated from a game server to a game platform to instruct the game platform to prefetch a prefetch game asset to the edge computing infrastructure in advance of an anticipated game context in which the prefetch game asset is used. During the anticipated game context, the assets are retrieved for output at the game platform.

Intelligent streaming of media content

Embodiments of the present invention allow players to instantly access and begin playing games through an online service. To make the games instantly available, an online service keeps instances of games running in active memory waiting for a player to be added. The game instances running in active memory are not attached to a player profile or an I/O channel from a game client. Once the player requests a game, the player's player profile is loaded into the running game instance and an I/O channel is mapped from the game client to the game instance. From the player's perspective, the preloaded game instances allow the player to browse directly from game to game with very little delay. To optimize the usage of server-side resources, historical usage data may be analyzed to anticipate demand for different games.

Game browsing

Aspects of the present invention allow a touch screen device to operate as a gamepad for a video game running on a separate gaming device. Aspects of the present invention provide a virtual control interface through the touch screen that includes virtual game controls that perform the same function as a directional pad, buttons, triggers, and sticks found on a gamepad or other game controller. In one aspect, the virtual control interface provides an output that is substantially similar to an output generated by a gamepad able to interact with the gaming device. Substantially similar outputs allow a gaming device to respond to a functional control from a gamepad and an equivalent functional control from the virtual control interface the same way and without translation. Aspects of the present invention can provide different virtual control interfaces for different video game titles, different genres, and based on user customization.

Touch screen game controller

Embodiments of the present invention split game processing and rendering between a client and a game server. A rendered video game image is received from a game server and combined with a rendered image generated by the game client to form a single video game image that is presented to a user. Game play may be controlled using a rich sensory input, such as three-dimensional image data and audio data. The three-dimensional image data describes the shape, size and orientation of objects present in a play space. The rich sensory input is communicated to a game server, potentially with some preprocessing, and is also consumed locally on the client, at least in part. In one embodiment, latency sensitive features are the only features processed on the client and rendered on the client.

Client rendering of latency sensitive game features

Embodiments of the present invention provide client-side scene movement using imagery generated by a game server. Embodiments of the present invention predictively render additional imagery surrounding the present field of view. The predictive scene imagery may be on all sides of the current field of view. Embodiments of the present invention determine the amount of predictive scene imagery generated according to a likelihood of use. In addition to client-adjusted rotation, embodiments of the present invention may predictively translate the field of view. Translation is moving the point of view forward, backward or side-to-side. Predictive translation imagery may be communicated to the game server for use in local translation functions.

Client side processing of player movement in a remote gaming environment

Embodiments of the present invention allow game play to migrate back and forth between a server-run video game and a client-run video game. For example, a user could start playing a video game running on a server and then migrate play to a client device, such as a game console. When a game is running on the server, the server executes the game code, renders a video image, and communicates the image to the client. The client may communicate game control commands to the server. The game play may also start on the client and transition to a server. For example, a user may reach a point in the game where the user does not have the game files stored on the client.

Game migration

Buffering an interactive digital content item includes downloading the interactive digital content item, and beginning execution of the interactive digital content item with a buffer after enough of the interactive digital content item is downloaded to fill the buffer and before the interactive digital content item is completely downloaded. The size of the buffer is dynamically set as a function of one or more experience parameters.

Dynamic buffer

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Bellevue, WA, United States of America

John Raymond Justice