MicroPlay: A Networking Frameworkfor Local Multiplayer Games
A. Le †, L. Keller ‡, C. Fragouli ‡, A. Markopoulou †
† University of California, Irvine‡ École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne
Mobile Games are the Killer Apps
• Platform with enormous growth rate:700 million (2011) – 2.2 billion (2016)
• Games dominated App StoresOut of Top 10 Paid Apps: - iOS: 6 are games - Android: 4 are games
• Bike Baron: - Finnish developer: 7 employees- 1 million revenue in 3 months
MicroPlay: Networking Framework for Smartphone GamesAnh Le, UC Irvine 2
Local Multiplayer Games
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• Highly entertaining
• Social interaction- Team building
Smartphones are an Ideal Platform for Local Multiplayer Games
• Powerful: - Quad-core CPU, Quad-core GPU
• Rich connectivity:- 4G, WiFi, Bluetooth, NFC
• Portability:- Carried all the time- Small footprint- Operate on battery
MicroPlay: Networking Framework for Smartphone GamesAnh Le, UC Irvine 4
Overview of MicroPlay Key Design Aspects and Benefits
• Characteristics of Local Multiplayer Games– Common wireless network, e.g., WiFi– Close proximity of players
• Game is hosted locally– Avoid large latency from remote server– Support spontaneous, on-demand setup
• Exploit WiFi overhearing – Reduce latency and overhead– Simplify game development
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Outline
1. Introduction
2. Regular Networking
3. MicroPlay Networking
4. Performance Evaluation
5. Conclusion
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Regular Networking Model
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Game Latency and Player RenderingRegular Scheme
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Game Latency and Player RenderingRegular Scheme
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Game Latency and Player RenderingRegular Scheme
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Game Latency and Player RenderingRegular Scheme
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Game Latency and Player RenderingRegular Scheme
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Game Latency and Player RenderingRegular Scheme
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Game Latency and Player RenderingRegular Scheme
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Outline
1. Introduction
2. Regular Networking
3. MicroPlay Networking
4. Performance Evaluation
5. Conclusion
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MicroPlay Networking Model
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Game Latency and Player RenderingMicroPlay
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Game Latency and Player RenderingMicroPlay
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Game Latency and Player RenderingMicroPlay
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Game Latency and Player RenderingMicroPlay
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Benefits of Overhearingin MicroPlay networking
• Very low game latency- No interpolation is needed- Loss of state packet is not critical
• Precise rendering- All rendering is based on inputs
Rendering of remote players can be done similar to the local player!
• Simplified game development - No prediction (inter/extrapolation) is needed
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MicroPlay Architecture
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Outline
1. Introduction
2. Regular Networking
3. MicroPlay Networking
4. Performance Evaluation
5. Conclusion
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Racer: Car Racing Game on MicroPlay
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Racer: Car Racing Game on MicroPlay
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Racer: Car Racing Game on MicroPlay
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Racer: Car Racing Game on MicroPlay
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Evaluation: Dissemination TimeCan overhearing help disseminating packets faster?
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Evaluation: Overhearing QualityHow reliable is direct-input rendering?
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Server2.7 m
3.5 m
Evaluation: Overhearing QualityHow reliable is direct-input rendering?
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ConclusionMicroPlay: A Networking Framework for Local Multiplayer Games
• Host game locally
• Exploit broadcast nature of wireless medium
Key benefits:
• Spontaneous, on-demand setup
• Simplified game development
• Very low game latency
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Live Demo(During Coffee Break)
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Evaluation: Sync Errors4 Phones in a room
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Evaluation: Overhearing Quality6 Phones on a line
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Evaluation: Overhearing Quality4 Phones on a Table
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Evaluation: Overhead of Sending a State Packet from the Server
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MicroPlay with Network Coding
Inter-Session Network Coding
• Reliability, extended range
• Gesture-Flow [Feng 2011]
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