After uploading the native game build to the ROCKITPLAY, the internal service ROCKIT Engine generates ROCKIT images and ROCKIT patches which will be automatically deployed to the CDN origin. A game launcher which is linked against the ROCKIT RTE downloads the ROCKIT image / patches from the CDN. After the game play session ROCKIT Trace data (block access pattern) is uploaded to the ROCKITPLAY Cloud Service in order to enable the FastStart experience. Typically, only a few iterations are necessary to obtain a ROCKIT FastStart image. The process is illustrated below:This process is referred to as training and will be discussed in the following paragraphs The ROCKITPLAY Cloud Service constantly monitors uploaded ROCKIT trace files. Once a specified number of traces have been received it automatically triggers the ROCKIT trace file processing processes. If the new trace files lead to a significant quality improvement of the computed sequence, a new ROCKIT image will be generated and deployed automatically. The training process is applicable to various scenarios such as:
QA – Use traces obtained during the QA process prior to publishing
Live – Dynamically improve progressive download through user activity (crowd sourcing).
Hybrid – A combination of pre-release and post-release training.
When uploading subsequent game builds the current training state is being applied automatically. The system represents this training state as a single trace. However, after uploading new game builds additional traces may need to be collected and processed to achieve an optimal FastStart result.
Trace length and coverage. Valuable information is mainly obtained from longer game sessions which access many files (file access coverage) during gameplay. Furthermore, unique first-time game sessions, i.e., game sessions from the beginning of the game, are of particular interest for sequencing the ROCKIT image. Only those data generated from long-lasting first-time game sessions should be considered when generating new ROCKIT images.Unique traces. In order to obtain long first-time game file access information, ROCKIT trace files are concatenated as the gamer progresses through the game during multiple sessions. Thus, a gamer generates several ROCKIT trace files in multiple game sessions that are merged into a single ROCKIT trace. In the discussion below these concatenated ROCKIT traces are referred to as unique ROCKIT traces.
Besides the above mentioned quality criteria ROCKITPLAY allows controlling the compute cycle in order to reduce compute costs and to avoid unnecessary ROCKIT image computations and update cycles. This section discusses the corresponding parameters.Received Traces. ROCKITPLAY will not trigger the ROCKIT trace processing before the specified number of ROCKIT traces have been received.Reliable traces. In order to avoid unnecessary ROCKIT image computation and update cycles, the ROCKIT image process depends on the minimum of reliable ROCKIT traces that have been received. Reliable traces are those unique long-lasting first-time ROCKIT traces with a minimum file access coverage. Only if a given number of reliable traces are available the ROCKIT image processing is being triggered.Additional information about the above described parameters can be found in the documentation of the endpoint PATCH /be/v1/trainings.
