Screen provision apparatus, screen provision system, control method and storage medium

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016110841-A1
Application number	US-201514980575-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Dec 28, 2015
Priority date	Jul 5, 2013
Publication date	Apr 21, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

A screen provision apparatus receives, from a client device, account identification information corresponding to the client device, renders a screen corresponding to that identification information, and transmits to the client device. Also, the screen provision apparatus, in a case where it determines that management information that is managed in association with the identification information satisfies a predetermined condition, obtains rendering grade information that defines the content of screen rendering processing. Then, the screen provision apparatus modifies the content of the screen rendering processing in accordance with the rendering grade information.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A screen provision apparatus, comprising:
a receiver which is able to receive, from a client device, account identification information corresponding to the client device; a renderer which is able to execute rendering processing to render a screen corresponding to the identification information received by the receiver; a transmitter which is able to transmit, to the client device corresponding to the identification information, the screen rendered by the renderer; a determiner which is able to determine whether or not management information managed in association the identification information satisfies a predetermined condition; and an obtainer which is able to obtain, in a case where it is determined by the determiner that the management information satisfies the predetermined condition, rendering grade information defining content of rendering processing of the screen, wherein the renderer, in a case where it is determined by the determiner that the management information satisfies the predetermined condition, modifies the content of the rendering processing of the screen in accordance with the rendering grade information obtained by the obtainer.

2 . The screen provision apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the rendering grade information is information defining a priority order for processing items in the rendering processing of the screen, and wherein
the renderer renders the screen by executing processing items, among processing items in the rendering processing of the screen, having a priority order up until an order according to the management information.

3 . The screen provision apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the rendering grade information is information defining a priority order in the rendering processing of the screen for at least one of a resolution of the screen, a refresh rate of the screen, a level of application of effect processing corresponding to the screen, a resolution of a texture applied to a rendering object, a level of application of tessellation of a rendering object, and information restricting a number of rendering objects rendered in the screen.

4 . The screen provision apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein a plurality of client devices can connect to the screen provision apparatus, and wherein the screen provision apparatus
further comprises a specifier which is able to specify a rendering resource that can be allocated for the client device corresponding to identification information for rendering processing by the renderer, and wherein the determiner determines, in a case where the rendering resource that can be allocated specified by the specifier is less than a predetermined amount, that the management information satisfies the predetermined condition.

5 . The screen provision apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the management information includes information indicating whether or not a setting of the rendering grade information is accepted from a client device, and wherein
the determiner determines, in a case where information indicating the setting of the rendering grade information is accepted is included in the management information associated with the identification information, that the management information satisfies the predetermined condition.

6 . The screen provision apparatus according to claim 1 , further comprising a setter which is able to set a transmission bandwidth that can be allocated for the client device corresponding to the identification information, wherein
the determiner determines, in a case where the transmission bandwidth that can be allocated set by the setter is narrower than a predetermined value, that the management information satisfies the predetermined condition.

7 . The screen provision apparatus according to claim 6 , wherein the setter sets the transmission bandwidth that can be allocated based on at least one of a received data rate in the client device corresponding to the identification information, and a data rate of transmission to a client device connected to the screen provision apparatus by the transmitter.

8 . The screen provision apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the management information includes information indicating whether or not an account corresponding a client device is an account for receiving a provisioning service of the screen by paying a real world predetermined monetary consideration, and wherein
the determiner determines, in a case where information indicating the account for receiving the provisioning service of the screen by paying the real world predetermined monetary consideration is included in the management information associated with the identification information, that the management information satisfies the predetermined condition.

9 . The screen provision apparatus according to claim 1 , further comprising an encoder which is able to generate encoded moving image data by encoding the screen rendered by the renderer, wherein
the encoder modifies content of encoding processing in accordance with content of rendering processing executed in the rendering of the screen, and wherein the transmitter transmits encoded moving image data generated by the encoder as the screen.

10 . The screen provision apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the receiver further receives information of an operation performed on a client device, and wherein
the screen provision apparatus further comprises an updater which is able to update, in accordance with the information of the operation received from the client device corresponding to the identification information, information corresponding to a configuration of the screen associated with the identification information, and wherein the renderer renders the screen in accordance with the information corresponding to the configuration of the screen.

11 . A screen provision system for providing a screen rendered in a screen provision apparatus to a client device, wherein
the client device comprises: a first transmitter which is able to transmit account identification information corresponding to the client device; a first receiver which is able to receive the screen rendered in the screen provision apparatus; and a reproducer which is able to display the screen received by the first reception means on a display, and the screen provision apparatus comprises: a second receiver which is able to receive the identification information from the client device; a renderer which is able to render the screen corresponding to the identification information by executing rendering processing; a second transmitter which is able to transmit, to the client device the screen rendered by the renderer; a determiner which is able to determine whether or not management information managed in association the identification information satisfies a predetermined condition; and an obtainer which is able to obtain, in a case where it is determined by the determiner that the management information satisfies the predetermined condition, rendering grade information defining content of rendering processing of the screen, wherein the renderer, in a case where it is determined by the determiner that the management information satisfies the predetermined condition, modifies the content of the rendering processing of the screen in accordance with the rendering grade information obtained by the obtainer.

12 . A method of controlling a screen provision apparatus, comprising:
receiving, from a client device, account identification information corresponding to the client device; executing rendering processing to render a screen corresponding to the received identific

Assignees

• Square Enix Co Ltd

Inventors

• Kamiyama Mitsuru
• Morimoto Hiroki

Classifications

• G06T1/20 Primary

  Processor architectures; Processor configuration, e.g. pipelining · CPC title

• A63F13/355 Primary

  Performing operations on behalf of clients with restricted processing capabilities, e.g. servers transform changing game scene into an encoded video stream for transmitting to a mobile phone or a thin client · CPC title

• H04L67/42

  Electricity · mapped topic

• A63F13/77

  involving data related to game devices or game servers, e.g. configuration data, software version or amount of memory · CPC title

• H04L67/04

  specially adapted for terminals or networks with limited capabilities; specially adapted for terminal portability · CPC title