Abstract: Methods and systems are provided for cooperating routers in communication networks. The cooperating routers conduct a handshake to exchange information with respect to “cooperation types” which they are capable of performing and/or are configured to perform. In an exemplary “emergency connection” cooperation type, one cooperating router may use the ISP connection of another cooperating router to send and receive packets. In an exemplary “bandwidth sharing” cooperation type, one cooperating router may make excess bandwidth available for use by other cooperating routers. In an exemplary “latency optimization” cooperation type, one cooperating router may use another cooperating router to transmit duplicates of packets or to implement suppression techniques.

Abstract: Methods and systems are provided for latency-oriented router. An incoming packet is received on a first interface. The type of the incoming packet is determined. Upon the detection that the incoming packet belongs to latency-critical traffic, the incoming packet is duplicated into one or more copies. Subsequently, the duplicated copies are sent to a second interface in a delayed fashion where the duplicated copies are spread over a time period. The duplicated copies are received and processed at the second interface.

Abstract: The systems and methods described herein provide improved texture compression techniques by identifying pixels of a texture that are not used or needed for rendering a three-dimensional model and taking into account the “unused” nature of those pixels. The unused pixels may be identified based on the UV mapping of the texture onto the three-dimensional model. According to one aspect of the invention, the systems and methods described herein may modify a compression method (or compression algorithm) to be used to treat the unused pixels as “wildcards” that may produce any color when decoded (and therefore the most efficiently coded representation can be chosen for such unused pixels). According to another aspect of the invention, the systems and methods described herein may pre-process unused pixels to enable the compression method to work more efficiently.

Abstract: The systems and methods described herein provide improved texture compression techniques by identifying pixels of a texture that are not used or needed for rendering a three-dimensional model and taking into account the “unused” nature of those pixels. The unused pixels may be identified based on the UV mapping of the texture onto the three-dimensional model. According to one aspect of the invention, the systems and methods described herein may modify a compression method (or compression algorithm) to be used to treat the unused pixels as “wildcards” that may produce any color when decoded (and therefore the most efficiently coded representation can be chosen for such unused pixels). According to another aspect of the invention, the systems and methods described herein may pre-process unused pixels to enable the compression method to work more efficiently.

Abstract: Systems and methods for updating and maintaining a game state at a game client based on information provided by a game server are disclosed herein. The systems and methods described herein may enable a game client (or client computer system) to perform ongoing reconciliation in an almost-deterministic system. In various implementations, instead of consistently providing updated game state data, the game server may publish aggregated information calculated based on only a portion of the updated game state data that may be used by a game client to perform ongoing reconciliation of simulations performed on the game client and simulations performed on the game server. In some implementations, the aggregated information may comprise a hash calculated based on the updated game state data. In some implementations, the aggregated information published by the game server may relate to a particular grouping of information representing a portion of the updated game state data.

Abstract: Systems and methods for communicating and synchronizing game state data for online games are described herein. A game server described herein may be configured to use predictive coding to provide game state data that includes all the information necessary to calculate a position of an object at a future point in time. If the movement of the object indeed does not change, the game server may forego publishing an update to the data related to that object. Instead, the client computer system may be configured to render the object based on the information already received. In some implementations, the published game state data may be included within User Datagram Protocol (UDP) packets. In some implementations, the game state data may be published by the game server immediately in response to input received. For example, the game state data may be published without waiting for a subsequent network tick.

Abstract: Systems and methods for implementing an authoritative universal game server configured to support game modifications are disclosed herein. A game server may include at least a simulator configured to modify a simulator and published state based on input received or as a result of time passing, and one or more nodes each comprising a sandbox responsible for running third-party code within the game server. The third-party code run on the game server may include both base assets corresponding to a version of an online game provided by a publisher of the online game and overridden assets that comprise base assets that have been modified by a user. Thus, the game server may be configured to run a modified version of the online game when using overridden assets. Systems and methods for improving performance of server-side simulations by skipping simulation ticks or abolishing simulation ticks entirely are also described herein.

Abstract: A system for implementing three-dimensional model-based game streaming and corresponding methods of use are described herein. The system may include a universal game client configured to run on a client computer system or device that is capable of running various types of three-dimensional games. The universal game client may be configured to receive game state data published by a game server and render a virtual scene for an online game based on the game state data, one or more game assets downloaded over the Internet (e.g., as part of an initial game download or on-demand), and/or predicted information or simulations run by the universal game client. In some implementations, the universal game client may be configured to translate representations of game state data (e.g., from 2D-representations to 3D-representations) as needed for rendering. In some implementations, the universal game client may be embedded as a part of a web browser.

Abstract: Methods and systems are provided for latency-oriented router. An incoming packet is received on a first interface. The type of the incoming packet is determined. Upon the detection that the incoming packet belongs to latency-critical traffic, the incoming packet is duplicated into one or more copies. Subsequently, the duplicated copies are sent to a second interface in a delayed fashion where the duplicated copies are spread over a time period. The duplicated copies are received and processed at the second interface.

Abstract: Systems and methods for identifying a path for a game object in two-dimensional polygon space in which the polygons making up the two-dimensional polygon space have different movement speeds are described herein. To find an optimal path, a graph may be generated for a two-dimensional polygon space including a polygon for at least each area associated with a different movement speed. A set of routing points may be added along each boundary between the polygons, and a set of segments may be identified between the routing points and each of the starting point and ending point. For each of the individual segments, a cost may be calculated that corresponds to a minimum time required to travel between the routing point and either the starting point or ending point. Using a graph search method, an optimal path along at least one segment in each polygon may be identified.

Abstract: Systems and methods for protecting game assets for online games are described herein. The systems and methods described herein may be configured to perform obfuscated encryption of game assets used to render computer-generated three-dimensional models in online games. Code may be generated for encrypting a game asset using a bijective function. The code may consist of a set of pseudo-randomly generate bijection primitives, including at least one encryption algorithm. In some implementations, at least one of the bijection primitives may use encryption in counter (CTR) mode. In some implementations, the encryption key associated with the encryption algorithm and/or the code for the encryption algorithm may be obfuscated prior to being embedded within the generated code. Techniques for protecting game assets stored persistently and by obfuscating an encryption key using a key schedule are also described herein.

Abstract: Systems and methods for reducing asset size and loading time of digital assets are disclosed herein. Asset sizes and load times may be reduced by storing images in a decompression-friendly format and/or by performing hybrid decompression of compressed images using both a central processing unit (CPU) and a graphics processing unit (GPU). Such hybrid decompression may be performed on an image compressed using discrete cosine transform (DCT)-based compression. The CPU may be configured to decompress a compressed image using an entropy decoding method. DCT coefficients may then be passed to the GPU for further DCT processing. The GPU may be configured to recompress the decompressed image and write the recompressed image directly to a texture memory of the GPU (i.e., without providing the recompressed image to the CPU).

Abstract: The systems and methods described herein provide techniques for performing fast, incremental, dynamic loading of game assets. A client computer system may be configured to receive updated game state data from a game server and request game assets as needed based on the game state data. The game server may make game assets available for download by the client computing system in the form of downloadable resource comprising, for example, mesh data and texture data. The mesh data and the texture data may be organized within the downloadable resource based on levels of detail (LODs) and provided as a progressive stream. As data related to a game asset is downloaded from the game server, the client computer system may be configured to update the version of the game asset rendered within the virtual scene to incrementally improve the quality of the game asset until it reaches a target LOD.

Abstract: The systems and methods described herein provide techniques for improving asset download time using forward error correction to recover lost packets or data. In various implementations, a sending device may be configured to encode redundant data in a data stream that enables a receiving device to reconstruct the data in the file if a portion of the data is not received. The redundant data may be based on single parity, in which the redundant data is generated using XOR (similar to the RAID-5 encoding methods), or the redundant data may be based on dual parity, in which the redundant data is generated using Galois fields (similar to the RAID-6 encoding methods). In some embodiments, the redundant data may be transmitted in separate packets. In other embodiments, the redundant data may be included as part of the data stream.

Abstract: The systems and methods described herein provide techniques for constructing during runtime, on a client computer system, three-dimensional objects to be rendered within a virtual scene. In various implementations, meshes and/or textures for the objects to be rendered within a virtual scene may be stored at a client computer system. Stored meshes and/or textures may comprise meshes and textures associated with resizable and non-resizable portions of the target three-dimensional model. The client computer system may be configured to perform runtime construction of the target three-dimensional model based on the stored meshes and/or textures, and the target model may be used to render one or more objects within a virtual scene. Generating the three-dimensional virtual scene may comprise constructing individual objects within the virtual scene, with at least one of appearance, size, and position being randomized.

Abstract: The systems and methods described herein provide techniques for constructing computer-generated three-dimensional objects to be rendered within a virtual scene. In various implementations, base meshes, base textures, and texture overlays may be stored on a client computer system and used to render a three-dimensional object based on instructions received from a game server. Each base mesh may correspond to a different shape for a given type of three-dimensional object. For example, the base mesh may be for a body type of a character, the base mesh may represent a body shape for the character, and the one or more textures may represent skin tone and/or one or more types of clothing to be rendered on the character. In various implementations, the client computer system may receive instructions from the game server in which the data needed to identify the three-dimensional object may be encoded using a single-digit number of bytes.

Abstract: The systems and methods described herein provide improved display techniques for rendering computer-generated three-dimensional models. According to one aspect of the invention, a level of detail (LOD) used to render a computer-generated three-dimensional model may be generated that meets a pre-defined quality target. The LOD may be generated by first testing a minimum LOD against a reference rendering. If the minimum LOD does not satisfy an image quality target, a two-dimensional function of mesh number of triangles and texture pixel dimensions may be used to select an LOD for the three-dimensional model that satisfies the image quality target and where another quality metric is optimized. Once an LOD that satisfies the image quality target is identified, the resultant LOD may be assigned as the LOD to be used to render the three-dimensional model for a predefined scene and/or a predefined range of distances.

Abstract: The systems and methods described herein may improve the rendering of computer-generated three-dimensional models using progressive mesh compression. In various implementations, an initial mesh may be obtained and encoded into a data stream. Subsequent meshes may then be encoded based on a superset relationship between consecutive meshes. If the vertices of the mesh are not a superset of a prior mesh, the mesh may be encoded within an intermediate symbol stream using a non-incremental mesh compression technique. If the vertices of the mesh are a superset of a prior mesh, a sequence of per-triangle operators may be applied to the mesh to produce a progressive mesh. The mesh may then be encoded by encoding the operators applied to the mesh in sequence. When encoding the mesh, coordinates of vertices may be defined based on the difference between the coordinates and predicted values generated using a prediction function.

Abstract: Systems and methods for encoding and compressing structured data for rendering computer-generated graphics in three-dimensional applications are described herein. In various implementations, structured data may be encoded into an intermediate symbol stream using frequency tables specifically for a type of structured data object, field, or value being encoded. In some implementations, additional information may be incorporated into the symbols used to encode individual structured data objects. In some implementations, structured data objects may be encoded based on a context associated with the structured data object. Once structured data is encoded as an intermediate symbol stream, the intermediate symbol stream may be compressed using one or more entropy coding methods. By taking into account the underlying structure of the data, the systems and methods described herein reduce redundancies, thereby improving compression of the structured data.

Abstract: The systems and methods described herein provide improved techniques for compressing texture maps used to render three-dimensional models in computer-generated graphics. In various implementations, the systems and methods described herein may be used to compress normal maps or similar texture maps used to render three-dimensional models. When compressing an image, a conversion may be applied to the image. For example, an integrating conversion or a color-space conversion may be applied to the image. Quantization may then be applied to the resulting integrated or color-converted image. Using an existing compression method, the resulting image may then be compressed before it is transferred and/or stored. When decompressing the image, an existing decompression method may be used that is complementary to the compression method used to compress the compressed image. The resulting decompressed integrated or color-converted image may then be converted back into the original image as described herein.