Abstract: One or more streams of signals (e.g., audio/video sequences) are associated with the different possible processing paths of processing intersections of an interactive computer application. For example, in a computer-based video game, the flow of processing may approach an intersection where the user may select any one of a number of different paths, each path being associated with a different audio/video sequence corresponding to that path. As the flow of the application progresses towards the intersection, the different audio/video sequences associated with the different paths of that intersection are preprocessed. Preprocessing may include preloading the audio/video sequences and optionally partially decompressing the audio/video sequences. When the flow of the application reaches the intersection, one of the possible paths is selected based on the actions taken by the user. The application causes the audio/video sequence associated with the selected path to be played and the other sequences to be dropped.

Abstract: A display mixer exports a first set of functions adapted to be called by one or more object libraries to create one or more generic objects. A surface/attribute manager exports a second set of functions adapted to be called by an application to manipulate the generic objects. The display mixer and the surface/attribute manager cause the generic objects to be rendered into a common draw surface. The display mixer and the surface/attribute manager manage a set of common attributes shared by the generic objects and manage attachments between the generic objects. A first object library calls a create-object function in the display mixer to create one or more first generic objects. The first object library generates display data for the first generic objects and the display mixer coordinates the display of the display data for the first generic objects.

Abstract: A file-processing subsystem exports functionality to an application to select optional preloading of a file by the file-processing subsystem. The application optionally selects preloading of the file and the file-processing subsystem preloads the file in accordance with the optional selection by the application. In one embodiment, video frames may be preloaded from a video file, where preloading may include decompressing the video frames. In addition, the preloaded video frames may be retained in memory for repeated display.