Streaming PC games to the masses
Everyone has long known that in a competitive market environment, the one who will achieve greater consumer loyalty will win. Companies that seduce compliant customers with super service are ready to do a lot ... However, for any buyer, a description of a good service will fit in three words - quickly, efficiently, and easily. “Not in Russia,” skeptics will say ... And perhaps they will be right ... The Triple Alliance in our country is more an exception than a rule.
However, there are exceptions. Digital Solutions, the Russian company of Singapore's PlayFast Technologies, charged with PlayFast’s proprietary technology for quickly transferring game (and not only) content over the Internet, is rapidly gaining points both among users and partners - leading publishers and distributors of video games.
The company itself, it is not difficult to assume, specializes in the digital distribution of video games. The effectiveness of the previously mentioned progressive download technology is complemented by many useful features integrated into the PlayFast distribution platform (www.playfast.ru). But the service component is not the subject of this article. And although we understand that IT works for a business, we are more interested in the technology itself - principles, advantages, disadvantages.
Thanks to the development of PlayFast, the life of a gamer becomes much simpler - hours of long waiting for the download of the game are a thing of the past. Now, all you need is a few minutes of patience to load only 5% -15% of the total game file. Then the game starts, and the rest of the data is loaded in the background according to a deliberately calculated schedule, without interrupting the game session.
When starting any software, numerous data must be read from a physical storage medium (for example, from a hard disk) into the computer memory so that the processor can process the information and execute the program.
As a rule, files and data are not read all at once, but only those that are necessary to perform the primary tasks are processed.
The same is true in PlayFast technology: before the game is ready for streaming, it will go through several stages of testing, training and conversion. What exactly will they do with it?
When a game is received from the publisher’s server, it gets to the PlayFast server and undergoes initial testing for correct operation in the OS (Windows Vista / XP / 7). Also at this stage, with the help of certain software, all changes in the system files, registry and what additional programs and codecs are needed for the game to work properly are tracked. Subsequently, this becomes a hint to the user - the PlayFast-Manager plugin will inform him if a piece of software is not enough to run, and prompts him to install.
Now the company’s own development comes into play. Using the program developed by Digital Solutions specialists, a disk image is created, all game files, including system files, are written to it and an appropriate script is created for its launch from the company's servers. Another round of testing - and the game is ready for training.
During the so-called training, the game is played out several times according to a certain scenario in advance, the calculated number of hours. Meanwhile, a special file system driver captures all calls to data blocks, as well as the time to access each of them. This information is transmitted to a central server that stores all the logs of training sessions.
The next step, in accordance with the information stored in the logs, will be the redistribution and alignment of the data blocks on the virtual disk in a certain sequence. Thus, the data that was accessed earlier will be placed before those that the system accessed at a later time. And as soon as the information is organized in the “correct” sequence, a progressive download map will be compiled.
At the very last stage, all data and FAT are subject to compression and breakdown into micro-blocks.
Now, after all the manipulations, this virtual disk with a reorganized data sequence can be placed on the company's combat server, and users can evaluate the game and download it up to 20 times faster than usual.
And this is not all miracles that can pleasantly surprise. The PlayFast platform based on this technology offers game lovers flexible solutions for the purchase, subscription and rental of games. Partners get a ready-made store for digital distribution of video games, as they say, “turnkey”. But still, the main role is played by the availability of progressive data loading technology, because there are no analogues on the Russian market.
However, there are exceptions. Digital Solutions, the Russian company of Singapore's PlayFast Technologies, charged with PlayFast’s proprietary technology for quickly transferring game (and not only) content over the Internet, is rapidly gaining points both among users and partners - leading publishers and distributors of video games.
The company itself, it is not difficult to assume, specializes in the digital distribution of video games. The effectiveness of the previously mentioned progressive download technology is complemented by many useful features integrated into the PlayFast distribution platform (www.playfast.ru). But the service component is not the subject of this article. And although we understand that IT works for a business, we are more interested in the technology itself - principles, advantages, disadvantages.
Thanks to the development of PlayFast, the life of a gamer becomes much simpler - hours of long waiting for the download of the game are a thing of the past. Now, all you need is a few minutes of patience to load only 5% -15% of the total game file. Then the game starts, and the rest of the data is loaded in the background according to a deliberately calculated schedule, without interrupting the game session.
When starting any software, numerous data must be read from a physical storage medium (for example, from a hard disk) into the computer memory so that the processor can process the information and execute the program.
As a rule, files and data are not read all at once, but only those that are necessary to perform the primary tasks are processed.
The same is true in PlayFast technology: before the game is ready for streaming, it will go through several stages of testing, training and conversion. What exactly will they do with it?
When a game is received from the publisher’s server, it gets to the PlayFast server and undergoes initial testing for correct operation in the OS (Windows Vista / XP / 7). Also at this stage, with the help of certain software, all changes in the system files, registry and what additional programs and codecs are needed for the game to work properly are tracked. Subsequently, this becomes a hint to the user - the PlayFast-Manager plugin will inform him if a piece of software is not enough to run, and prompts him to install.
Now the company’s own development comes into play. Using the program developed by Digital Solutions specialists, a disk image is created, all game files, including system files, are written to it and an appropriate script is created for its launch from the company's servers. Another round of testing - and the game is ready for training.
During the so-called training, the game is played out several times according to a certain scenario in advance, the calculated number of hours. Meanwhile, a special file system driver captures all calls to data blocks, as well as the time to access each of them. This information is transmitted to a central server that stores all the logs of training sessions.
The next step, in accordance with the information stored in the logs, will be the redistribution and alignment of the data blocks on the virtual disk in a certain sequence. Thus, the data that was accessed earlier will be placed before those that the system accessed at a later time. And as soon as the information is organized in the “correct” sequence, a progressive download map will be compiled.
At the very last stage, all data and FAT are subject to compression and breakdown into micro-blocks.
Now, after all the manipulations, this virtual disk with a reorganized data sequence can be placed on the company's combat server, and users can evaluate the game and download it up to 20 times faster than usual.
And this is not all miracles that can pleasantly surprise. The PlayFast platform based on this technology offers game lovers flexible solutions for the purchase, subscription and rental of games. Partners get a ready-made store for digital distribution of video games, as they say, “turnkey”. But still, the main role is played by the availability of progressive data loading technology, because there are no analogues on the Russian market.