Uniquitous: Implementation and evaluation of a cloud-based game system in Unity

Cloud gaming is an emerging service based on cloud computing technology which allows games to be run on a server and streamed as video to players on a lightweight client. Commercial cloud gaming systems, such as Playstation Now and StreamMyGame remain proprietary, limiting access for game developers and researchers. In order to address this shortcoming, we present an open source cloud-based game system prototype in Unity called Uniquitous that gives game developers and researchers control over both the cloud system and the game content. Detailed experiments evaluate the performance of Uniquitous for two main parameters, game resolution and game image quality, using two different games. The evaluation results are used in a data model that can predict in-game frame rates for systems with configurations beyond those tested. Validation experiments show the accuracy of our model and complement the release of Uniquitous as a potential research and development platform.