The growth in network bitrates and server-based processing has provided a renewed opportunity for thin client games, where the server does heavy-weight computations, sending only the visual game frames to the client, ...
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ISBN:
(纸本)9781467345781
The growth in network bitrates and server-based processing has provided a renewed opportunity for thin client games, where the server does heavy-weight computations, sending only the visual game frames to the client, and the client displays frames, sending only the user actions to the server. Understanding the traffic characteristics of thin client games is important for building traffic models and classifiers and planning network infrastructures to meet future demand. This paper provides the first detailed study of the network characteristics of OnLive, a commercially available thin client game system. Carefully designed experiments measure OnLive game traffic for several game genres, analyzing the bitrates, packet sizes and inter-packet times for both upstream and downstream game traffic, with comparisons to traditional game clients and streaming video. Results indicate OnLive rapidly sends large packets downstream, similar but still significantly different than live video. OnLive less frequently sends much smaller packets upstream, significantly different than traditional game client traffic. The results should be a useful beginning for building effective traffic models and classifiers, and for preparing end-host networks to support this upcoming generation of computer games.
Since games typically demand considerable computer resources, game players will often purchase new technologies to improve their game performance. One such technology is the solid state drive (SSD) with the potential ...
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ISBN:
(纸本)9781457719349
Since games typically demand considerable computer resources, game players will often purchase new technologies to improve their game performance. One such technology is the solid state drive (SSD) with the potential to provide significantly better performance than the traditional hard disk drive (HDD). However, while the benefits of SSDs to drive access speeds can be demonstrated, the benefits to computer game performance is largely unknown. This paper presents a detailed study comparing the performance of SSDs to HDDs for several popular computer games. Initial experiments provide read access speeds on both a desktop PC and a laptop to provide a baseline for SSD and HDD comparison. Then, detailed experiments are run for three computer games, Civilization IV, Portal 2, and Torchlight, covering a range of disk activity types. Analysis of the results shows SSDs compared with HDDs provide a 25% improvement to game boot times and game start times, but no significant improvement to game save times.
Computer security has become vital for protecting users, applications and data, yet the field still faces severe shortages in skilled professionals. Typical methods to teach security from textbooks and academic papers...
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ISBN:
(纸本)9781457719349
Computer security has become vital for protecting users, applications and data, yet the field still faces severe shortages in skilled professionals. Typical methods to teach security from textbooks and academic papers are not engaging and take considerable time. Our hypothesis is that a security game that closely emulates real-world systems can improve learning about computer security above and beyond just reading technical documents. Our security game, CounterMeasures, provides a game-type environment for learning and practicing security skills through a series of guided objectives. CounterMeasures uses a real, interactive shell for input and targets a real server for exploits to provide an environment resembling security systems currently deployed. Evaluation with 20 test subjects illustrates the merits and shows the potential of our approach.
The growth in network capacities and availability has been accompanied by a proliferation of online games. While online games perform well under many network conditions, Internet delays can often degrade online game p...
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ISBN:
(纸本)9781605589145
The growth in network capacities and availability has been accompanied by a proliferation of online games. While online games perform well under many network conditions, Internet delays can often degrade online game performance. The precise impact that latency has on online gameplay depends upon the game type and the actions within the game. While the effects of latency on specific games has been studied, knowledge about the effects of latency on classes of games and about the effects of latency on different player actions is lacking. This paper presents a broad, perspective-based classification of games based on player control and camera view. The foundation of the game classification are player actions, each of which is defined by its precision and deadline requirements. Experiments with controlled amount of precision, deadline and latency support the classification. This classification of games should prove useful for game designers, network engineers and game players themselves as they build and play on tomorrow's networks. Copyright 2010 ACM.
This work provides detailed measurements of the motion and scene complexity for a wide variety of video games. Novel algorithms to measure motion and scene complexity are presented and then applied to over twenty-five...
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ISBN:
(纸本)9781605584379
This work provides detailed measurements of the motion and scene complexity for a wide variety of video games. Novel algorithms to measure motion and scene complexity are presented and then applied to over twenty-five games from a range of game genres. Direct comparisons of motion and scene complexity are made to traditional video, with differences highlighted in order to help thin client systems perform better when streaming video games. Preliminary performance measurements of current thin client systems are presented, evaluating the efficacy of streaming video games in the context of the motion and scene complexity measurements provided. Copyright 2009 ACM.
As the interactive entertainment industry matures, a better understanding of what makes software entertaining is needed. A natural starting point is the application of traditional Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) tool...
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ISBN:
(纸本)9781605584379
As the interactive entertainment industry matures, a better understanding of what makes software entertaining is needed. A natural starting point is the application of traditional Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) tools to interactive entertainment software. HCI tools include cognitive models that researchers have used to model users' thought processes and evaluate interface design. This paper users a simple cognitive model to investigate the relationship between the complexity of an interaction and the entertainment experienced by the user. We design a simple computer game, create a normative model for how a user plays this game, and build several variations of this game such that normative models of these variants differed across two factors: pace and complexity. User studies conducted on these variations allow comparison with these factors to user performance and self-reported user enjoyment. Users ingame enjoyment was found to be related to both the subject's performance and the game complexity. Copyright 2009 ACM.
Hardware and platform limitations restrict the display settings for most computer games, forcing a tradeoff between frame rate and resolution to achieve acceptable performance. Previous work has explored the effects o...
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ISBN:
(纸本)9781605584379
Hardware and platform limitations restrict the display settings for most computer games, forcing a tradeoff between frame rate and resolution to achieve acceptable performance. Previous work has explored the effects of frame rate and/or resolution on a variety of multimedia applications, but most of these are less interactive than typical computer games. Previous work within the context of computer games has concentrated primarily on user actions for specific environments, such as combat in a first-person shooter game. This paper provides a detailed study of the effects of frame rate and resolution on discrete, canonical actions common to many games, shooting and navigation. The study uses a novel perspective based classification defined by the position of the camera relative to the user and the visual change in object sizes relative to the camera, to further refine the findings across a broad spectrum of game genres. A custom game with levels that combine actions and perspectives and measures user performance with different display settings provides the core for the user study experiments. Analysis for over 25 users shows that frame rate has a much greater impact on user performance than does resolution across all game perspectives and gameplay actions. Both frame rate and resolution impact user opinion on playability and quality. These insights into the effects of frame rates and resolution on user performance and opinions can guide game players in their choice for game settings and new hardware purchases, and inform system designers in their development of new hardware. Copyright 2009 ACM.
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