CloudTracker

CloudTracker - System Performance and Player Experience in Cloud-based Games

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The growth in cloud computing coupled with high-capacity networks has brought the potential for cloud-based game systems. These game systems seek to provide the growing ranks of gamers and their wide variety of networked devices with an alternative way to have a high quality gaming experience. Companies like Sony, Microsoft, Amazon and Google are pushing this market to triple in revenue from last year to USD $585 million this year and $4.8 billion by 2023 [1].

Cloud-based game streaming differs from traditional games in that game clients do not run full versions of the game engine. Instead, only the cloud-based server handles the game engine logic - applying physics to game objects, resolving collisions, processing AI, etc. - and renders the game frames, streaming the game as video to the game client. This allows the game client to be relatively lightweight, only sending user input (e.g., key presses and mouse movements) and receiving and playing game output as streaming audio and video.

While promising, cloud-based games face two major challenges when compared to traditional games: 1) bitrates - cloud-based games require significantly higher network bitrates from the server to the client than do traditional network games, with newer games always pushing the boundaries of screen resolutions and frame rates; and 2) latency - cloud-based game clients cannot immediately act on player input but must instead send the input to the server, have it processed, the result rendered and sent back to the client for display.

We seek to understand the effects of cloud-based game systems on networks and the effects of latency on cloud-based games, and game players, of all types.

Our methodologies include studying cloud-based systems "in the wild" as they are played over the Internet, but also in laboratory environments where conditions can be carefully measured and controlled. Commercial games are definitely of interest and are studied, but we also develop open source games and systems to allow for an better understanding and insights in how to build and deploy cloud-based game systems.

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Publications

Xiaokun Xu and Mark Claypool. "Measurement of Cloud-based Game Streaming Systems Competing with DASH Flows", In Proceedings of the IEEE International Symposium on Local and Metropolitan Area Networks (LANMAN), Boston, MA, USA, July 2024. Online at: https://web.cs.wpi.edu/~claypool/papers/game-stream-dash-lanman-24/

Xiaokun Xu and Mark Claypool. "Measurement of Cloud-based Game Streaming System Response to Competing TCP Cubic or TCP BBR Flows", In Proceedings of the ACM Internet Measurement Conference (IMC), Nice, France, October 25-27, 2022. Online at: https://web.cs.wpi.edu/~claypool/papers/game-stream-imc-22/

Xiaokun Xu, Michael Bosik, Adam Desveaux, Alejandra Garza, Alex Hunt, Cameron Person, James Plante, Joseph Swetz, Nina Taurich, Brian Clark, Doris Hung, Philip Lamoureux, and Mark Claypool. "Compensating for Latency in Cloud-based Game Streaming using Attribute Scaling", In Proceedings of the 14th International Conference on Quality of Multimedia Experience (QoMEX), Lippstadt, Germany, September 5-7, 2022. Online at: http://www.cs.wpi.edu/~claypool/papers/game-scale-qomex-22/

Xiaokun Xu and Mark Claypool. "Measurement of the Responses of Cloud-based Game Streaming to Network Congestion", In Proceedings of the 32nd ACM International Workshop on Network and Operating Systems Support for Digital Audio and Video (NOSSDAV), Athlone, Ireland, June 17, 2022. Online at: https://web.cs.wpi.edu/~claypool/papers/game-stream-nossdav-22/

Edward Carlson, Tian Fan, Zijian Guan, Xiaokun Xu and Mark Claypool. "Towards Usable Attribute Scaling for Latency Compensation in Cloud-based Games", In Proceedings of the Game Systems Workshop (GameSys), Istanbul, Turkey, September 28 - October 1, 2021. Online at: http://www.cs.wpi.edu/~claypool/papers/scale-gamesys-21/

Xiaokun Xu and Mark Claypool. "A First Look at the Network Turbulence for Google Stadia Cloud-based Game Streaming", In Proceedings of the IEEE Global Internet Symposium (GI), Virtual Conference, May 10, 2021. Online at: http://www.cs.wpi.edu/~claypool/papers/stadia-net-gi-21/

Jiawei Sun and Mark Claypool. "Evaluating Streaming and Latency Compensation in a Cloud-based Game", In Proceedings of the 4th IARIA International Conference on Advances in Computation, Communications and Services (ACCSE), Nice, France, July 28 - August 2, 2019. Online at: http://www.cs.wpi.edu/~claypool/papers/drizzle/

Meng Luo and Mark Claypool. "Uniquitous: Implementation and Evaluation of a Cloud-based Game System in Unity", In Proceedings of the IEEE Games, Entertainment, Media Conference (GEM), Toronto, Canada, October 2015. Online at: http://www.cs.wpi.edu/~claypool/papers/uniquitous/

David Finkel, Mark Claypool, Sam Jaffe, Thinh Nguyen, and Brendan Stephen. "Assignment of Games to Servers in the OnLive Cloud Game System", In Proceedings of the 13th ACM Network and System Support for Games (NetGames), Nagoya, Japan, December 4-5, 2014. Online at: http://www.cs.wpi.edu/~claypool/papers/onlive-servers/

Mark Claypool, David Finkel, Alexander Grant and Michael Solano. "On the Performance of OnLive Thin Client Games", Springer Multimedia Systems Journal (MMSJ) - Special Issue on Network Systems Support for Games, Volume 20, Issue 5, Pages 471-484, DOI 10.1007/s00530-014-0362-4, February 2014. Online at: http://www.cs.wpi.edu/~claypool/papers/onlive-journal/

Mark Claypool and David Finkel. "The Effects of Latency on Player Performance in Cloud-based Games", In Proceedings of the 13th ACM Network and System Support for Games (NetGames), Nagoya, Japan, December 4-5, 2014. Online at: http://www.cs.wpi.edu/~claypool/papers/cloud-games/

Mark Claypool. "Motion and Scene Complexity for Streaming Video Games", In Proceedings of the 4th ACM International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games (FDG), Florida, USA, April 2009. Online at: http://www.cs.wpi.edu/~claypool/papers/game-motion/

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