This thesis analyzes current status of software distribution in gaming industry and its biggest challenges. Thesis also includes insight in completely different approach to the software distribution -- Cloud Gaming. In practical part are thoroughly tested existing solutions and done functionality analysis. Practical part also includes experiment which regards to building own platform using currently existing tools and it is followed by discussion of results.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-06-02T19:06:14Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 6118.pdf: 3001954 bytes, checksum: 5643531722be67da01c9dfa9c79f4ecb (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-05-22 / Financiadora de Estudos e Projetos / Computer graphics and virtual reality technologies allow audiovisual experiences with high level of realism, as the ones achieved in video games and movies. The synthetization of media with high degree of audiovisual realism demands specialized systems with high performance computing capacity. The profusion in the last decade of personal computing consumer electronics such as mobile and portable devices, encourages the interest in making possible, also in these devices, applications with high level of visual realism. However, due to the intrinsic limitations of the computing capability of mobile and portable devices, regarding to the physical characteristics of these devices, such as dimensions, electrical consume and heat dissipation, it s not possible directly process media with the same level of visual realism that is found in specialized systems. This research suggests the exploration of a traditional solution: the remote interaction with these applications. Challenges resulting from this approach are identified and studied. Solutions are proposed, analyzed and formalized in a architecture for reference. As a proof of concept the architecture is used in the development of applications on two scenarios: one in a local network with a media characterized by its low tolerance in delay of interaction response and another with a high tolerance media through the Internet. Also is showed the flexibility of the proposed architecture by integrating one of the applications developed with a multimedia context. / As tecnologias de computação gráfica e realidade virtual permitem experiências visuais e auditivas com alto nível de realismo sensorial, como alcançado em jogos eletrônicos e no cinema. A sintetização de mídia com alto grau de realismo visual e auditivo demanda sistemas especializados com capacidade computacional de alto desempenho. A profusão na última década de eletrônicos de consumo computacionais pessoais, como dispositivos móveis e portáteis, desperta o interesse em tornar possível, também nesses dispositivos, aplicações visuais com alto nível de realismo. Devido às limitações da capacidade computacional intrínsecas dos dispositivos móveis, decorrentes de suas características físicas, como dimensões, restrições de consumo e dissipação térmica, não é possível a execução direta de mídia interativa com o mesmo grau de realismo encontrado em sistemas especializados. Este trabalho sugere a exploração de uma solução tradicional: o processamento e a interação remota com esse tipo de mídia. Desafios decorrentes dessa solução são identificados e estudados. Soluções são propostas, analisadas e formalizadas em uma arquitetura de referência. Como prova de conceito da arquitetura explorou-se o desenvolvimento de aplicações em dois cenários: um em rede local com mídia de baixa tolerância a atrasos no tempo de resposta às interações e outra através da Internet com mídia de maior tolerância a atrasos. Mostrouse também a flexibilidade da arquitetura desenvolvida com a integração do componente cliente a um sistema com múltiplas mídias, em que a mídia remota relaciona-se integralmente com o contexto multimídia.

The topic of this thesis is to analyze the business models currently used in the gaming industry. The aim is to provide a comprehensive overview of the current economic situation of the industry, distribution channels, used technologies and business practices from the perspective of all market participants. The theoretical part is due to less frequent topic devoted to the description of all entities of gaming industry. It analyzes not only all the actors involved in the development of video games and their subsequent sale but also the technical tools used to play games and also the players themselves. Video games are divided into two main streams (hardcore and casual) which also determine the structure and analysis. The analytical part focuses on capturing the most widely used business models and their combination for the sale of the video games. Models are then categorized into two groups (goods and services) and represent two different approaches to pricing scenarios. For each business model describes the basic principle, its pros and cons, the factors influencing the successful implementation and an example of the use of the model in practice. The analysis also includes the socio-economic profiles of two major market segments. In conclusion, based on the current developments and current trends in the field across the gambling industry the work tries to predict the future development of business models and for video games respectively. the whole industry.

Cloud gaming over mobile networks enables players to play high-resource consuming games on low-end devices with various intrinsic restrictions such as limited battery lifetime and computational capacity. For mobile cloud gaming(MCG), the remaining battery level on the device is one of the critical factors that affect the sensitivity of user satisfaction. Thus, an android application is developed to measure the energy consumption of mobile devices that measure the power consumption of the device such that the obtained values correspond with the specific network conditions and users. The collected values are studied to identify if the energy consumption of the device is impacted by the network degradation that might occur during MCG in cellular networks. Results demonstrate that the energy consumption is at its highest when packet loss is 45% at 2ms RoundTrip Time (RTT) delay. Moreover, a qualitative study on the perceived Quality of Experience (QoE) of MCG over mobile networks is conducted and its impact on the energy consumption of the device is investigated where 31 users play a cloud-based First Person Shooter (FPS) for approximately 2 hours each. The results demonstrate the existence of the relationship between energy consumption and perceived QoE whereas negates the hypothesis of the existence of the relationship between QoE and CPU resources. In addition, to make comparisons of energy consumption of MCG with online mobile gaming (OMG), another test is carried out where each user plays another non-cloud-based FPS game and it is found that MCG is more efficient than OMG under the least energy-consuming network condition (2ms RTT delay) by 33.3% and the most energy consuming network condition (45% packet loss at 2ms RTT) by 32.7% in 4G cellular network.

本研究架構以Wixom & Todd(2005)提出的使用者滿意與科技接受整合模式為基礎，以資訊系統成功模式中「系統品質」、「資訊品質」、「服務品質」構面以及Roger(1995)提出的創新擴散中「相對好處」、「相容性」作為研究架構的探討構面，針對雲端遊戲平台的使用者進行實證研究，探討使用者參與雲端遊戲平台之影響因素。 研究中，得知資訊系統成功模式「系統品質」、「資訊品質」、「服務品質」與「資訊系統滿意度」存在正向影響關係，創新擴散「相對好處」、「相容性」也與「資訊系統滿意度」呈現正向的影響關係；而資訊系統成功模式「資訊系統滿意度」與科技接受模式的「知覺有用性」、「知覺易用性」確實有著密切關連；另外，研究發現創新擴散構面對於「知覺有用性」存在影響關係，但對於「知覺易用性」證實不存在顯著的影響關係，而科技接受模式「知覺有用性」、「知覺易用性」、「態度」、「使用意圖」彼此皆存在影響關係。 / This study bases its structure on Theoretical Integration of User Satisfaction and Technology Acceptance Wixom & Todd (2005) proposed, in which “System Quality”, “Information Quality”, “Service Quality” dimensions in Information System Success Model, and “Relatively Advantage” & “Compatibility” in Innovation Diffusion that Roger (1995) proposed constitute discussion dimension. For discussing factors that influence users to take part in cloud gaming platform, the empirical research targets at those users. From the research, we found “System Quality”, “Information Quality”, “Service Quality” and “IS Satisfaction” in Information System Success Model have positive correlation, and “Relatively Advantage” & “Compatibility” and “IS Satisfaction” present a positive correlation as well while “IS Satisfaction” in Information System Success Model and “Perceived Usefulness”, “Perceived Ease of Use” in Technology Acceptance Model are closely related; besides, this study discovered Innovation Diffusion dimension has effect on “Perceived Usefulness”, but doesn’t have significant effect on “Perceived Ease of Use” while “Perceived Usefulness”, “Perceived Ease of Use”, “Attitude” and “Intention to Use” in Technology Acceptance Model are related.