Traditionally, streaming hosts can only run games in their local system, which has high requirements for hardware configurations such as the computing power of the graphics card, meaning that not everyone can become a game streaming host. Additionally, the local device needs to be continuously powered on and running, resulting in high maintenance costs.
By hosting the application in the cloud, CAR enables games and live streaming applications to run in the cloud while pushing a stream of the game video to specified platforms in real time. This provides smooth and clear gameplay and video streaming without needing to install game software or configur the runtime environment locally.
Concepts
Currently, on-screen commenting and interactive gameplay features in many live rooms are developed based on the game engine. For example:
Battle game: Users can select a faction and join the battle by sending comments. Sending gifts can trigger more powerful equipment.
Cloud dancing: Users can join the dance floor with a virtual avatar by sending a specific comment. They can also send gifts to switch songs or change the avatar's appearance.
Survival/Cultivation game: Users can send comments to generate characters, survive, and level up in the game. Gift rewards can accelerate growth.
The above scenarios are all based on the Windows system. The streaming host manually installs and runs an application locally, and then the app client captures the video stream and pushes it to the live room.
CAR helps to quickly start a stream for games developed with engines such as UE and Unity, with no local downloads or installations required.
The application runs in the cloud and automatically retrieves the specified on-screen comments and gift information to trigger various in-game interactions in real time. The game video is captured and pushed to the specified live streaming platform from the cloud.
Strengths
On-cloud running: Applications and games can run in the cloud. Games developed with engines such as UE and Unity can be quickly deployed and loaded in seconds, regardless of the size of the game. Game content does not need to be repeatedly redeveloped for different architectures, which saves costs and time.
Cloud stream push: The cloud video streams are directly pushed to the specified platform to save local bandwidth and device performance, making video images smoother and clearer.
Offline stream push: Applications/Games can run in the clientless mode on the cloud 24/7 without needing to depend on a local device.
Multi-person control: Applications/Games can be controlled by multiple users on the cloud, allowing for remote multi-player gaming.
Directions
First, you need to develop an application that can run stably on Windows and implement required features in the application.
The capability to retrieve on-screen comments and gift information from the live room. This can be developed via open APIs provided by each live streaming platform.
After you have an application, you can perform the following steps.
2. Deploy an application as instructed in User Guides.
3. Deploy your frontend and backend service and successfully start the application in the cloud. For details, see Integration Demo.
Performance optimization:
In most cases, games that use on-screen commenting use CAR to start streams through mobile phones, which have varying screen resolutions. To better achieve a full-screen display without black bars, we recommend you use Adaptive Resolution.
When a game starts, it needs to be associated with the live room where the streaming host is located. In most cases, the host needs to enter a room number when starting a stream locally. This step may create a barrier to the host. We recommend game developers support obtaining the room number through startup parameters or listening ports. To use a listening port, you need to use the Data Channelfeature. To use a startup parameter, you need to call the CreateSession API and set the ApplicationParameters value.
If the technical conditions permit, we recommend you use a data channel. This is because startup parameters must be passed before the game starts. In this case, the game cannot be prefetched, resulting in a slower startup speed compared to using a data channel.
4. Start the stream push. Two stream push methods are supported:
Push a cloud video stream to CSS by binding a push domain. For more information, see Pushing Streams to CSS.
Push a cloud video stream to a third-party address according to the destination URL you enter. For more information, see Pushing Streams to Third-Party Addresses.
If you do not need to view the application in the frontend window on your local computer, you can use the clientless mode. Set RunMode to RunWithoutClient when calling CreateSession, which allows the application to keep running on the cloud even when there are no client connections.
Note:
If you need help with the production of games or interactive content, please submit a ticket for a project assessment.
Selection of Concurrency Specifications
To ensure the smooth operation of bullet screen games, it is essential to select appropriate CAR concurrency specifications. In the scenarios of bullet screen games, the application's hardware requirements do not directly depend on the number of viewers in the live room. Instead, they are associated with the hardware configuration requirements of the game itself, the complexity of the images, the number of bullet screens, and the number of units on the same screen. Given the varying popularity of platforms and anchors, the configuration requirements often differ significantly.
Therefore, when choosing CAR concurrency specifications, it is recommended to conduct stress tests/gray tests for each game and select the appropriate concurrency specifications in conjunction with the characteristics of the live streaming platforms.
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