Abstract: Embodiments of the systems and methods disclosed herein provide a request distribution system in which a request for resources may be executed by a plurality of workers. Upon receiving a request for resources from a user computing system, the request distribution system may select a subset of workers from the plurality of workers to execute the request within a time limit. Once the workers generate a plurality of outputs, each output associated with a quality level, the request distribution system may transmit the output associated with the highest quality level to the user computing system.

Abstract: A video compression system and method may be used to compress video data using both resolution compression and texture compression. The compression may involve converting the video format from a first format to a second format and then performing resolution compression across blocks of pixels within each frame of the video. The resolution compressed data may then be arranged as data triplets spanning three consecutive frames of the video. The data triplets may be texture compressed using ETC or other texture compression techniques. The compressed video may be part of other applications, such as a video to be played within a video game. A client device may be able to decompress the compressed video by reversing the texture compression, reversing the resolution compression, and performing a format conversion to generate uncompressed video data that can be used to play the video.

Abstract: Embodiments presented herein include systems and methods for performing dynamic difficulty adjustment. Further, embodiments disclosed herein perform dynamic difficulty adjustment using processes that may not be detectable or are more difficult to detect by users compared to static and/or existing difficulty adjustment processes. In some embodiments, historical user information utilized by a machine learning system to generate a prediction model that predicts an expected duration of game play, such as for example, an expected churn rate, a retention rate, the length of time a user is expected to play the game, or an indication of the user's expected game play time relative to a historical set of users who have previously played the game. Before or during game play, the prediction model can be applied to information about the user to predict the user's expected duration of game play.

Abstract: According to an aspect of this specification, there is described a computer implemented method comprising: receiving input data, the input data comprising data relating to a user of a computer game; generating, based on the input data, one or more candidate challenges for the computer game; determining, using a machine-learned model, whether each of the one or more of the candidate challenges satisfies a threshold condition, wherein the threshold condition is based on a target challenge difficultly; in response to a positive determination, outputting the one or more candidate challenges that satisfy the threshold condition for use in the computer game by the user.

Abstract: Embodiments of the systems and methods described herein provide a virtual object aging system. The virtual object aging system can utilize artificial intelligence to modify virtual objects within a video game to age and/or deteriorate for a certain time period. The virtual object aging system can be used to determine erosion, melting ice, and/or other environmental effects on virtual objects within the game. The virtual object aging system can apply aging, rust, weathering, and/or other effects that cause persistent change to object meshes and textures.

Abstract: Systems and methods for generating a customized virtual character are disclosed. A system may obtain video data or other media depicting a real person, and then may provide the obtained media to one or more machine learning models configured to learn visual appearance and behavior information regarding the particular person depicted in the video or other media. The system may then generate a custom visual appearance model and a custom behavior model corresponding to the real person, which may subsequently be used to render, within a virtual environment of a video game, a virtual character that resembles the real person in appearance and in-game behavior.

Abstract: A streaming system may improving online gaming experiences for streaming players and/or providing device independent input processing. The streaming system may receive, from a client device, a selection of a game to be played via a streaming system, determine network connection parameters based at least in part on the game, determine a current streaming quality of the network connection of the client device, and determine the current streaming quality does not meet the network connection parameters. Based on the determination that the current streaming quality does not meet the network connection parameters, the streaming system may cause a prompt to be displayed to a player associated with the client device regarding alternative content for the player to play or cause at least a portion of the gameplay of the game to be slowed based at least in part on the current streaming quality and the network connection parameters.

Abstract: A matchmaking system matches players for online gaming using privacy compliant connectivity prediction between the players being matched. The matchmaking system may receive historical data relating to network connections between a first respective internet service provider (ISP) of a first player device of a first player and one or more of a hosting system or a second respective ISP of a second device of a second player and determine, based at least in part on the historical data, a predicted connectivity between one or more of the first respective ISP and the second respective ISP, the first respective ISP and the hosting system, or the second respective ISP and the hosting system. Then, based at least in part on the predicted connectivity, the matchmaking system may instantiate an online game between at least the first device of the first player and the second device of the second player.

Abstract: Various aspects of the subject technology relate to systems, methods, and machine-readable media for contextual matchmaking. The method includes receiving player information for a plurality of players, the player information for each player comprising at least one of player statistics, player tendencies, and player preferences. The method also includes generating player archetypes for each of the plurality of players based on the player information, each of the player archetypes comprising at least one premier scenario. The method also includes matching the players based on the player archetypes. The method also includes generating in-game objectives based on the player archetypes.

Abstract: A matchmaking system matches players for online gaming using privacy compliant connectivity prediction between the players being matched. The matchmaking system may receive historical data relating to network connections between a first respective internet service provider (ISP) of a first player device of a first player and one or more of a hosting system or a second respective ISP of a second device of a second player and determine, based at least in part on the historical data, a predicted connectivity between one or more of the first respective ISP and the second respective ISP, the first respective ISP and the hosting system, or the second respective ISP and the hosting system. Then, based at least in part on the predicted connectivity, the matchmaking system may instantiate an online game between at least the first device of the first player and the second device of the second player.

Abstract: Embodiments of systems and methods for enabling access to an online game, modifying user progress within the online game, monitoring user interactions with the online game, or adjusting user gameplay with the online game, via multiple platforms. The multiple platforms may include virtual reality platforms and non-virtual reality platforms.

Abstract: Embodiments of systems presented herein may perform automatic granular difficulty adjustment. In some embodiments, the difficulty adjustment is undetectable by a user. Further, embodiments of systems disclosed herein can review historical user activity data with respect to one or more video games to generate a game retention prediction model that predicts an indication of an expected duration of game play. The game retention prediction model may be applied to a user's activity data to determine an indication of the user's expected duration of game play. Based on the determined expected duration of game play, the difficulty level of the video game may be automatically adjusted.

Abstract: Various aspects of the subject technology relate to systems, methods, and machine-readable media for extracting information from videos. The method includes annotating portions of interest within screen captures. The method also includes receiving at least a first set of videos for a video game. The method also includes training a first machine-learning model to identify the portions of interest within the first set of videos. The method also includes generating validation data based on results of the first machine-learning model. The method also includes extracting information based on the portions of interest identified in the first set of videos.

Abstract: A bot detection system and method analyzes application programming interface (API) data associated with an online gaming player account to make a determination of whether the player account is engaging in cheating by using a bot during online game play. The API data may be analyzed to generate API metadata that is descriptive of the API data, such as an indication of how many API calls were made to a particular API during a particular time period on behalf of the player account. The API data may be applied to one or more bot detection models to make an assessment of whether the player account is using a bot. If bot usage is detected with a player account, enforcement actions, such as slowing down game play or banning the player account, may be implemented for that player account.

Abstract: A system and method for providing live gameplay updates receives a modification for a videogame, the modification affecting a gameplay aspect of the videogame during execution of the videogame. The system and method determine a target group for deploying the modification. The target group includes first one or more live instances of the videogame. The system and method deploy the modification to the target group and receive gameplay data associated with the gameplay aspect from the target group. The system and method deploy the modification to second one or more live instances of the videogame based at least in part on an analysis of the received gameplay data.

Abstract: A system and method for implementing an acceleration structure are disclosed. The method includes: determining a position of an entity; mapping the position to a 3D (three-dimensional) voxel grid coordinate in the acceleration structure, which comprises a central grid structure and six additional grid structures each comprising a set of voxels; determining a first offset value corresponding to the 3D voxel grid coordinate that corresponds to either the central grid structure or one of the six additional grid structures; and determining a second offset value corresponding to the 3D voxel grid coordinate that corresponds to a particular voxel within either the central grid structure or one of the six additional grid structures corresponding to the first offset value, wherein data corresponding to the entity is stored in memory a location based on the first offset value and the second offset value.

Abstract: A method, computer-readable storage medium, and device for generating a character model. The method comprises: receiving an input image of a reference subject; processing the input image to generate a normalized image; identifying a set of features present in the normalized image, wherein each feature in the set of features corresponds to a portion of a head or body of the reference subject; for each feature in the set of features, processing at least a portion of the normalized image including the feature by a neural network model corresponding to the feature to generate a parameter vector corresponding to the feature; and combining the parameter vectors output by respective neural network models corresponding to respective features in the set of features to generate a parameterized character model corresponding to reference subject in the input image.

Abstract: An autoplayer system and method enables one or more automated player(s) (autoplayers) that can be used to populate and/or fill a multiplayer online game. The autoplayers may emulate a human player in playing the online game. By filling the online game, the autoplayers may enhance the enjoyment of the human players in playing the online game. Additionally, autoplayer(s) may be used to replace players who drop out of the online game during gameplay of the online game, so that the remaining players can experience a sufficiently filled online game that continues in a similar manner as when the online game was initiated. Autoplayer(s) can also be used to test an online game, such as with a relatively large number of players, prior to deployment for players to play. New features that have been added to an online game can also be tested using autoplayers.

Abstract: An identity authenticator receives a first authentication credential from a first application at a first computing device. The identity authenticator then determines that the first authentication credential is associated with a second authentication credential for the first application at a second computing device based on a stored authentication identity. The identity authenticator then provides a stored execution state for the first application to the first computing device, wherein the stored execution state is associated, based on the stored authentication identity, with at least one of the first authentication credential or the second authentication credential.

Abstract: The present invention introduces an in-game API wrapper to perform identification and transcription of in-game visual and audio data by way of identifiable tags. Identified tags for visual and audio data are sent to an external audio API for transcribing into Morse code. The Morse code transcribing is sent back to the in-game API wrapper for transcription into haptic feedback. Identified tags for available on-screen button selections are transcribed by the in-game API wrapper into haptic feedback.