Abstract: Apparatuses and methods pertaining to computer handling of three-dimensional volumes are disclosed. One such method comprises obtaining data representing an input set of one or more three-dimensional volumes; selecting a first three-dimensional volume from among the input set of three-dimensional volumes; identifying a concavity in the first three-dimensional volume, the concavity having a region of deepest concavity; splitting the first three-dimensional volume along a split plane or intersection loop contacting or intersecting the region of deepest concavity, such as to provide plural three-dimensional volumes; and providing data representing an output set of two or more three-dimensional volumes.

Abstract: A matchmaking system matches players for online gaming, when some of the players may be human players and others may be simulated players. The matchmaking system may determine a first skill score associated with a first player for an online game, determine a behavior simulation model for a simulated player is available for the online game, determine a second skill score associated with the behavior simulation model for the online game, and determine the behavior simulation model matches with the first player based at on the first skill score being within a threshold of the second skill score. The matchmaking system may then instantiate a simulated player based on the behavior simulation model and instantiate the online game with the first player and the simulated player.

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 may render glyphs based on stored textures without loss of quality at subpixel scales. The system may determine a content of a pixel of a display corresponds to a glyph, determine a subpixel alignment offset of a specified screen coordinates for the glyph with respect to the pixels of the display, based on the subpixel alignment offset, select one or more versions of the glyph from a plurality of versions of the glyph, a first version of the glyph of the plurality of versions of the glyph having a corresponding first subpixel alignment offset and a second version of the glyph of the plurality of versions of the glyph having a corresponding second subpixel alignment offset, and generate a display version of the pixel based on the selected one or more versions of the glyph and the subpixel alignment offset of the specified screen coordinates.

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: A system may provide a programming environment combining visual programming and text based programming. The system may determine a first node and a second node of a first plurality of nodes are native function call nodes of a visual graph-based programming language and determine a third node of the first plurality of nodes is a text-based node including text-based statements in a text-based programming language. In response to determining the third node of the first plurality of nodes is the text-based node, the system may interpret the text-based statements into a second plurality of nodes, the second plurality of nodes being native function call nodes of the visual graph-based programming language. The system may then generate a combined code based on the first plurality of nodes and the second plurality of nodes and compile the combined code.

Abstract: Systems and methods are disclosed for calculating dynamic ambient occlusion (AO) values for character models to yield high-quality approximations of global illumination effects. The approach utilizes a dual component machine-learning model that factorizes dynamic AO computation into a non-linear component, in which visibility is determined by approximating spheres and their casted shadows, and a linear component that leverages a skinning-like algorithm for efficiency. The parameters of both components are trained in a regression against ground-truth AO values. The resulting model accommodates lighting interactions with external objects and can be generalized without requiring carefully constructed training data.

Abstract: Embodiments of the present disclosure provide a route navigation system that can aid the user by providing navigational aids for navigating within a virtual game environment. The navigational aids can provide visual indications to the user within the game environment in order to help direct the character to navigation objects used for traversing the environment. The navigation information used for navigation within the game environment can be determined based on a route navigation grid. A navigation module can utilize the navigation grid to help users navigate characters within the game environments of the game application. The route navigation grid can be generated based on aggregated route information and telemetry data associated with a plurality of users of the game application. The route generation module can be configured to automatically generate navigation links between navigation nodes within game environment based on telemetric data sourced from users of the game application.

Abstract: Systems and methods are provided for enhanced animation generation based on conditional modeling. An example method includes accessing an autoencoder trained based on poses and conditional information associated with the poses, each pose being defined based on location information associated with joints, and the conditional information for each pose reflecting prior poses of the pose, with the autoencoder being trained to reconstruct, via a latent variable space, each pose based on the conditional information. Poses in a sequence of poses, are obtained via an interactive user interface, and the latent variable space is sampled. An output pose is generated based on the sampling, the output pose being included in the interactive user interface.

Abstract: A videogame metrics query system, and related method, has one or more databases and a speculative cache. The system stores videogame metrics and tracks queries relating to videogame metrics. The system generates multiple queries, based on a received query and tracked queries. The system generates a combined query that has greater computational efficiency of execution. From executing the combined query, the system extracts query results relevant to the received query, and caches remaining results in the speculative cache.

Abstract: A method, device, and computer-readable storage medium for generating a proxy mesh are disclosed. The method includes: receiving a reference mesh comprising a polygonal mesh that is a computer representation of a three-dimensional object; receiving a smoothed mesh corresponding to the reference mesh; selecting a given vertex in the smoothed mesh; identifying neighbor vertices of the given vertex in the smoothed mesh; for each neighbor vertex of the given vertex, determining a nearest location on the reference mesh overlaid on the smoothed mesh; determining an average position of the nearest locations on the reference mesh for the neighbor vertices of the given vertex; setting a new location of a vertex in a smoothed output polygonal mesh corresponding to the given vertex to the average position; and outputting the smoothed output polygonal mesh as a proxy mesh for the reference mesh.

Abstract: A method, computer-readable storage medium, and device for generating an animation sequence are disclosed. The method comprises: receiving an input animation sequence, wherein the input animation sequence comprises character position information over a series of frames and a first style tag; executing an encoder to process the input animation sequence to generate a compressed representation of the input animation sequence, wherein the compressed representation of the input animation sequence comprises a vector representing the input animation sequence; and executing a decoder to generate an output animation sequence, wherein executing the decoder is based on the compressed representation of the input animation sequence, wherein the output animation sequence comprises character position information over a series of frames, and wherein the output animation sequence is based on the input animation sequence and comprises a second style tag.

Abstract: Systems and methods are provided for enhanced pose generation based on conditional modeling of inverse kinematics. An example method includes accessing an autoencoder trained based on poses, with each pose being defined based on location information of joints, and the autoencoder being trained based on conditional information indicating positions of a subset of the joints. The autoencoder is trained to reconstruct, via a latent variable space, each pose based on the conditional information. Information specifying positions of the subset of the joints is obtained via an interactive user interface and the latent variable space is sampled. An output is generated for inclusion in the interactive user interface based on the sampling and the positions.

Abstract: Systems and methods for conservation of bandwidth and improved user experience via enhanced streaming of video games. An example method includes receiving a request to remotely play a video game, the video game being executed by the system and streamed to a user device for presentation. The video game is executed, and rendered image frames are generated. Geometry data associated with the rendered image frames is generated, with the geometry data representing locations of geometric elements that form geometry utilized, by the video game, to generate the rendered image frames. The rendered image frames are encoded into a gameplay stream. A first stream comprising the encoded gameplay stream and a second stream comprising the geometry data are provided to the user device. The user device is configured to perform post-processing effects on the rendered image frames encoded in the gameplay stream prior to display on the user device.

Abstract: An example distributed database includes a first instance and a second instance. The first instance is configured to: responsive to performing, within a scope of a database update transaction, a first database update operation, invalidate a cache entry residing in the first database cache maintained by the first instance, wherein the first database update operation is reflected by a transaction log maintained by the first instance; perform, within the scope of the database update transaction, a second database update operation to insert an identifier of the cache entry into a predetermined table of the distributed database, wherein the second database update operation is reflected by the transaction log; and responsive to committing the database update transaction, transmit the transaction log to the second instance.

Abstract: Various aspects of the subject technology relate to systems, methods, and machine-readable media for game state synchronization. The method includes recording game state changes in a distributed queue. The method also includes updating a global state based on the recorded game state changes in the distributed queue. The method also includes recording a snapshot of the global state, the snapshot comprising an offset from a latest game state change recorded in the distributed queue. The method also includes updating at least one in-sync service of a plurality of in-sync services based on the game state changes and the snapshot of the global state.

Abstract: The present disclosure provides a state stream game engine for a video game application. The state stream game engines can decouple the simulation of a video game application from the rendering of the video game application. The simulation of the video game is handled by a simulation engine. The rendering of the video game is handled by a presentation engine. The data generated by the simulation engine can be communicated to the presentation engine 124 using a state stream.

Abstract: An example method of photometric image processing may comprise: receiving a plurality of images of a three-dimensional object, wherein the plurality of images has been acquired by a plurality of cameras using a plurality of illumination and polarization patterns; performing color calibration of the plurality of images to produce a plurality of color-calibrated images; generating, using the plurality of color-calibrated images, a polygonal mesh simulating geometry of the three-dimensional object; producing a plurality of partial UV maps by projecting the plurality of color-calibrated images onto the polygonal mesh; generating a plurality of masks, wherein each mask of the plurality of masks is associated with a camera of the plurality of cameras, wherein the mask defines a UV space region that is covered by a field of view of the camera; blending, using the plurality of masks, the plurality of partial UV maps; and generating one or more texture maps representing the three-dimensional object.

Abstract: Methods for providing multi-objective experiments with dynamic group assignment are provided. In one aspect, a method includes receiving, from a configuration component of an experiment management system, a plurality of objectives and at least one constraint for an experiment. The method also includes assigning a test population of the experiment into a plurality of groups. The method also includes determining a progress summary that predicts completion rates for the plurality of objectives according to the at least one constraint. The method also includes modifying a prioritization of the plurality of objectives to optimize the predicted completion rates. The method also includes receiving a request to add additional users into the test population. The method also includes distributing the additional users into the plurality of groups according to the modified prioritization. Systems and machine-readable media are also provided.

Abstract: Approaches for secondary-game-mode sessions based on primary-game-mode arrangements of user-controlled elements are provided. Actions by user-controlled elements of a first user or other game-space elements in a primary game mode of a game space may be managed. A session request for a session in a secondary game mode of the game space may be received from the first user. A first session for the first user may be executed in the secondary game mode such that: the first session involves artificial-intelligence-controlled elements as opponents against the user-controlled elements; (ii) an arrangement of the user-controlled elements at a beginning of the first session is the same as an arrangement of the user-controlled elements in the primary game mode at a time of the session request; and (iii) impacts on the user-controlled elements during the first session in the secondary game mode are not reflected in the primary game mode.