Abstract: The present invention comprises a system for delivering an interactive multimedia work from a storage device, for example a hard disk drive, a CD-ROM drive, a network server, etc. to a playback device, for example a personal computer, in a manner that provides improved performance regardless of the playback sequence selected by a user. In one embodiment of the present invention, for each segment of an interactive multimedia work, a probability factor is assigned to each possible alternative succeeding segment. In addition a retrieval and delivery time cost factor is also assigned to each possible succeeding segment. In one embodiment of the invention, the time cost factor for each resource is assigned a fixed value. In another embodiment, the time cost factor is recalculated periodically to reflect changes in location and status of resources. The probability and time cost factor for each possible succeeding segment are combined to produce a relative priority ranking.

Abstract: The present invention comprises a system for delivering an interactive multimedia work from a storage device, for example a hard disk drive, a CD-ROM drive, a network server, etc. to a playback device, for example a personal computer, in a manner that provides improved performance regardless of the playback sequence selected by a user. In one embodiment of the present invention, for each segment of an interactive multimedia work, a probability factor is assigned to each possible alternative succeeding segment. In addition a retrieval and delivery time cost factor is also assigned to each possible succeeding segment. In one embodiment of the invention, the time cost factor for each resource is assigned a fixed value. In another embodiment, the time cost factor is recalculated periodically to reflect changes in location and status of resources. The probability and time cost factor for each possible succeeding segment are combined to produce a relative priority ranking.