3 ms·

Is the game that data-intensive? What data is there to send/receive that you're comparing it with streaming video?

sigmar 9y ago
how many people are live streaming a concert at a given moment? maybe 5-10 on periscope, in addition to maybe 2x that number on facebook. definitely not 15k.
Schampu 9y ago
The game uses google's protobuf protocol which makes communication more efficient and the game updates (I can only tell from <= 0.35 analysis) all 10-30 seconds like loading pokemon spawns and map entities of the current map area. The most expensive data in 0.35 was: - Pokemon models (They were dynamically loaded but cached then) - Pokestop images (Server sends image url and client searches for a chached version) - Syncing the player state with the client (Inventory, rewards, egg states..) - Updating the map (Future pokemon spawns, pokestops/gyms in view..) If a player is idle and doesn't move, just keeps farming a single pokestop and battles sometimes, then it should be relatively low cost since the game doesn't use a realtime communication (It's actually HTTPS based lol).
- RugnirViking 9y ago
  The pokemon models are loaded over the network? Whatever for? Seems like a big waste of precious data
  - dimillian 9y ago
    So you can add/update them without doing an .ipa/.apk update ? Seems really convenient, and a one time deal if it's cached.
    - Schampu 9y ago
      Last year I developed a server emulator for the game - On the server's first run, it cloned all models from the official servers to a local folder. The download urls and the models itself were encrypted, also their urls got disabled after ~24 hours. Other informations like how big a model gets displayed inside the game world was declared inside a GAME_MASTER file. When connecting to the custom server, the client asks for the GAME_MASTER file and the models as needed. It was pretty fun to edit these and send the players custom models like a GIANT snorlax or a red pikachu. I'm not 100% sure, but I think the GAME_MASTER file even contained a "model signature" to trigger a forced model update, so it's possible to overwrite already cached models. In the first weeks Niantic broke the model of Starmie (it turned full black) and I'm pretty sure they fixed it without a full game update. You can checkout the emulator project here: https://github.com/maierfelix/POGOserver https://github.com/maierfelix/POGOserver
fencepost 9y ago
I haven't actually measured anything, I know when it first came out there was some concern about people possibly hitting bandwidth caps. I think part of the issue may be overhead - it's regularly communicating back to the servers with current location, and getting back a list of coordinates for stops within a certain distance (with a bit of other data), coordinates and other data for Pokemon spawns, etc. It's also using Google Maps data to draw a map of the terrain including roads, water and building outlines, so all of that is also something that changes as you move around. Finally, people are also supposed to "spin" Pokestops and gyms, each of which also has a photo of the piece of artwork, etc. that the stop is located at. Along with the map data, those photos are not preloaded in the app so they have to be downloaded at least once. I don't know how much caching of those images is done - hopefully some, but if they're doing little or no caching then that's yet another chunk of data to pull down. Looking at the screen and a map, it looks like the game renders an outline for every structure within 600-650 meters of me, so for an area with a lot of structures that could be a fair amount of downloaded data depending on how good their caching is. If their download process isn't good at handling missing data or transmission errors, it could also be pretty vulnerable to problems on a congested network.
- Operyl 9y ago
  Slight correction, as far as I know they were using OSM, not Google Maps.
  - maxerickson 9y ago
    They use Google for the base map everywhere except South Korea, where they do use OpenStreetMap. There are rumors that some game features (biomes and such) are influenced by features in OpenStreetMap, but no clear statement from Niantic, just a bunch of weak correlations (like OSM having a path where a bunch of people go and try to play the game...).
    - Operyl 9y ago
      There was a big problem where people were manipulating biomes in the game by messing with OSM, so unless there's some sharing going on with Google..?

how many people are live streaming a concert at a given moment? maybe 5-10 on periscope, in addition to maybe 2x that number on facebook. definitely not 15k.

Schampu 9y ago

The game uses google's protobuf protocol which makes communication more efficient and the game updates (I can only tell from <= 0.35 analysis) all 10-30 seconds like loading pokemon spawns and map entities of the current map area. The most expensive data in 0.35 was: - Pokemon models (They were dynamically loaded but cached then) - Pokestop images (Server sends image url and client searches for a chached version) - Syncing the player state with the client (Inventory, rewards, egg states..) - Updating the map (Future pokemon spawns, pokestops/gyms in view..) If a player is idle and doesn't move, just keeps farming a single pokestop and battles sometimes, then it should be relatively low cost since the game doesn't use a realtime communication (It's actually HTTPS based lol).

RugnirViking 9y ago
The pokemon models are loaded over the network? Whatever for? Seems like a big waste of precious data
- dimillian 9y ago
  So you can add/update them without doing an .ipa/.apk update ? Seems really convenient, and a one time deal if it's cached.
  - Schampu 9y ago
    Last year I developed a server emulator for the game - On the server's first run, it cloned all models from the official servers to a local folder. The download urls and the models itself were encrypted, also their urls got disabled after ~24 hours. Other informations like how big a model gets displayed inside the game world was declared inside a GAME_MASTER file. When connecting to the custom server, the client asks for the GAME_MASTER file and the models as needed. It was pretty fun to edit these and send the players custom models like a GIANT snorlax or a red pikachu. I'm not 100% sure, but I think the GAME_MASTER file even contained a "model signature" to trigger a forced model update, so it's possible to overwrite already cached models. In the first weeks Niantic broke the model of Starmie (it turned full black) and I'm pretty sure they fixed it without a full game update. You can checkout the emulator project here: https://github.com/maierfelix/POGOserver https://github.com/maierfelix/POGOserver

fencepost 9y ago

I haven't actually measured anything, I know when it first came out there was some concern about people possibly hitting bandwidth caps. I think part of the issue may be overhead - it's regularly communicating back to the servers with current location, and getting back a list of coordinates for stops within a certain distance (with a bit of other data), coordinates and other data for Pokemon spawns, etc. It's also using Google Maps data to draw a map of the terrain including roads, water and building outlines, so all of that is also something that changes as you move around. Finally, people are also supposed to "spin" Pokestops and gyms, each of which also has a photo of the piece of artwork, etc. that the stop is located at. Along with the map data, those photos are not preloaded in the app so they have to be downloaded at least once. I don't know how much caching of those images is done - hopefully some, but if they're doing little or no caching then that's yet another chunk of data to pull down. Looking at the screen and a map, it looks like the game renders an outline for every structure within 600-650 meters of me, so for an area with a lot of structures that could be a fair amount of downloaded data depending on how good their caching is. If their download process isn't good at handling missing data or transmission errors, it could also be pretty vulnerable to problems on a congested network.

Operyl 9y ago
Slight correction, as far as I know they were using OSM, not Google Maps.
- maxerickson 9y ago
  They use Google for the base map everywhere except South Korea, where they do use OpenStreetMap. There are rumors that some game features (biomes and such) are influenced by features in OpenStreetMap, but no clear statement from Niantic, just a bunch of weak correlations (like OSM having a path where a bunch of people go and try to play the game...).
  - Operyl 9y ago
    There was a big problem where people were manipulating biomes in the game by messing with OSM, so unless there's some sharing going on with Google..?