Dual-mode program execution

摘要

A computing system is configured to execute a computer program on a server and to provide a video stream of the program output to a geographically remote client over a communication network. The computing system is further configured to provide executable content of the computer program to the client over the communication network in parallel with the video stream. When a sufficient amount of the executable content has been provided to the client execution of the computer program is transitioned from the server to the client. The transition optionally includes communicating a state of the computer program from the server to the client. The executable content can be provided to the client in an order that is determined based on the state of the computer program. Those parts of the executable content deemed most likely to be necessary to support game play on the client are given priority.

主权项

1. A method of providing a computer game, the method comprising:
executing game logic on a video server, to generate a server-generated video stream based on a game state of a game session defined between a game server and the video server; providing the server-generated video stream from the video server to a client over a communication network; presenting the server-generated video stream on the client; providing executable game code to the client in parallel with the providing of the server-generated video stream; in response to determining that a sufficient portion of the executable game code has been provided to the client,
transferring the game session from being defined between the game server and the video server to being defined between the game server and the client,terminating the presentation of the server-generated video stream on the client,executing the executable game code on the client to generate client-generated video on the client based on the game state, andpresenting the client-generated video on the client.