DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
1. In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
2. The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102 of this title, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
3. Claims 1-19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Wihlidal et al. US 2020/0051285 A1, and further in view of Zou et al. US CN 112379949 B.
4. As per claim 1, Wihlidal discloses: A caching apparatus comprising:
an interface for communicating with one or more cloud gaming instances; (Wihlidal, [0019], “The compression server is configured to communicate with the game packaging server 130, and, if present, the game distribution server 150, over the same or another network.”)
processing circuitry (Wihlidal, [0063], “ Referring to FIG. 6, a retrieval and rendering system 600 for retrieving and rendering portions of associated texture data representing a texture map is shown.”) to:
receive a request for a version of texture from a cloud gaming instance via the interface; (Wihlidal, [0038], "the raw pixel data of the texture map is compressed with a first compressor, e.g. a conventional image compressor, to a first compressed representation, e.g. JPEG or JPEG-2000.", [0039]," Each of the respective one or more compression parameters are usable by the second compressor to optimize compression of the respective pixel region in to a second compressed representation. The second compressed representation may be a modern texture block compression format, such as BC7, BC6H or ASTC.", and [0040]," This associated texture data may be stored to any suitable storage media.")
, as taught by Iourcha into the teaching of Wihlidal. The suggestion for doing so would enable low-cost on-the-fly. Therefore, it would have been obvious to combine Iourcha with Wihlidal.
5. Wihlidal in view of Iourcha discloses: provide the retrieved the texture to the cloud gaming instance, (Wihlidal, [028], “Having produced the associated texture data 131, the texture data associator uploads the associated texture data 131 to the game packaging server 130.”, [0029],” The game packaging server 130 stores both the uploaded associated texture data 131 and additional game content 134. The game packaging server also provides a game packager 137.” )
6. Wihlidal in view of Iourcha doesn’ t expressly disclose:
The texture is in transcoded versions of textures.
retrieve a transcoded version of the texture from a storage in response to the request, wherein transcoded versions of one or more textures of one or more cloud games are stored in different formats in the storage and a transcoded version of the texture in a format that is supported by a graphics processing unit of a computer system being used to host the cloud gaming instance is retrieved from the storage;
7. Zhou discloses:
The texture is in transcoded versions of textures. (Zhou, page 19, lines 29-41, and page 20, lines 1-4)
retrieve a transcoded version of the texture from a storage in response to the request, (Zhou, page 19, lines 29-41, and page 20, lines 1-4) wherein transcoded versions of one or more textures of one or more cloud games are stored in different formats in the storage (Zhou, page 21, lines 1-11) and a transcoded version of the texture in a format that is supported by a graphics processing unit of a computer system being used to host the cloud gaming instance is retrieved from the storage; (Zhou, page 23, lines 1-29)
8. Zhou is analogous art with respect to Wihlidal in view of Iourcha because they are from the same field of endeavor, namely image processing. Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art to include the process of that retrieve a transcoded version of the texture from a storage in response to the request, as taught by Iourcha into the teaching of Wihlidal in view of Iourcha. The suggestion for doing so would improve the fluency of the virtual game operation. Therefore, it would have been obvious to combine Iourcha with Wihlidal in view of Iourcha.
9. As per claim 2, Wihlidal in view of Zhou discloses: The caching apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the processing circuitry is configured to cache the transcoded versions of the textures in a memory circuitry and/or a storage circuitry of the caching apparatus. (Zhou, page 19, lines 29-41, page 20, lines 1-4, page 21, lines 1-11, and page 23, lines 1-29)
10. As per claim 3, Wihlidal in view of Zhou discloses: The caching apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the cached transcoded versions of the textures are transcoded versions of textures being included in games being executed in the one or more cloud gaming instances. (Wihlidal, [0019], “The compression server is configured to communicate with the game packaging server 130, and, if present, the game distribution server 150, over the same or another network.”)
11. As per claim 3, Wihlidal in view of Zhou discloses: The caching apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the transcoded version of the textures texture that is provided to the cloud gaming instance is a transcoded version of the texture of textures being included in games being executed in the cloud gaming instance. (Zhou, page 19, lines 29-41, page 20, lines 1-24, page 21, lines 1-11, and page 23, lines 1-29)
12. As per claim 5, Wihlidal in view of Zhou discloses: The caching apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the request comprises an identifier for identifying the texture to be provided, and the transcoded is provided to the cloud gaming instance based on the identifier included in the request. (Zhou, page 19, lines 29-41, page 20, lines 1-24, page 21, lines 1-11, and page 23, lines 1-29)
13. As per claim 6, Wihlidal in view of Zhou discloses: The caching apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the request comprises information on a desired format of the transcoded version of the texture, and wherein the transcoded version of the texture to the cloud gaming instance are provided based on the information on the desired format. (Zhou, page 19, lines 29-41, page 20, lines 1-24, page 21, lines 1-11, and page 23, lines 1-29)
14. As per claim 7, Wihlidal in view of Zhou Iourcha discloses: The caching apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the processing circuitry is configured to obtain information on a cloud game being executed in the cloud gaming instance, and to obtain the transcoded version of the texture for caching in the storage based on the information on the one or more cloud game being executed in the cloud gaming instance. (Zhou, page 19, lines 29-41, page 20, lines 1-24, page 21, lines 1-11, and page 23, lines 1-29)
15. As per claim 8, Wihlidal in view of Zhou discloses: The caching apparatus according to claim 7, wherein the processing circuitry is configured to obtain the transcoded version of the texture from a separate transcoding apparatus. (Zhou, page 21, lines 1-11)
16. As per claim 9, Wihlidal in view of Zhou discloses: The caching apparatus according to claim 8, wherein the processing circuitry is configured to request the transcoded version of the texture based on identifier for identifying the texture to be provided and/or based on a desired format of the texture. (Zhou, page 21, lines 1-11)
17. As per claim 10, Wihlidal in view of Zhou discloses: The caching apparatus according to claim 9, wherein the processing circuitry is configured to determine the desired format of the texture based on a texture format being supported by the graphics processing unit of the computer system being used to host the cloud gaming instance. (Zhou, page 21, lines 1-11)
18. As per claim 11, Wihlidal in view of Zhou discloses: The caching apparatus according to claim 7, wherein the processing circuitry is configured to obtain the transcoded version of the texture by transcoding the texture being included in cloud game being executed in the cloud gaming instance. (Zhou, page 7, lines 1-31)
19. As per claim 12, Wihlidal in view of Zhou discloses: The caching apparatus according to claim 7, wherein the information on the cloud games being executed in the cloud gaming instance is obtained within the request or wherein the information on the cloud game being executed in the cloud gaming instance is obtained separately from the request. (Wihlidal, [0019], “The storage system 100 includes a content designer client computing device 110 operable by a content designer 102, a compression server 120, a game packaging server 130 and either or both of a game distribution server 150 and an external storage medium 160. The content designer client computing device 110 is configured to communicate with the compression server 120 over a network. Similarly, the compression server is configured to communicate with the game packaging server 130, and, if present, the game distribution server 150, over the same or another network. Examples of suitable networks include the internet, intranets, local area networks, wireless networks and cellular networks. For the sake of clarity, the storage system 100 is described as comprising a specific number of computing devices. Any of these may be collocated on a single computing device. For example, two or more of the servers 120, 130 and 150 may be located on a single shared server. Alternatively, one or more of the servers could be distributed across a number of computing devices.”)
20. As per claim 13, Wihlidal in view of Zhou discloses: The caching apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the processing circuitry is configured to provide the transcoded version to a texture load unit of a user space graphics driver being executed in the cloud gaming instance. (Zhou, page 23, lines 1-14, and page 11 lines 11-18)
21. Claim 14, which is similar in scope to claim 1, thus rejected under the same rationale.
22. As per claim 15, Wihlidal in view of Zhou discloses: The driver apparatus according to claim 14, wherein the transcoded version of the texture received from the caching apparatus is a transcoded version of a texture included in the game, wherein the transcoded version of the texture received from the caching apparatus is loaded instead of the texture included with the game. (Zhou, page 22, lines 15-31)
23. As per claim 17, Wihlidal in view of Zhou discloses: The driver apparatus according to claim 14, wherein the driver functionality is provided in user space. (Zhou, page 26, lines 34-36, and page 11, lines 24-32)
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Response to Arguments
24. Applicant’s arguments with respect to claims 1-3,5-15, and 17 filed 11/07/2025have been considered but are moot because Applicant submitted new amended claims. Accordingly, new grounds of rejection are set forth above. The new grounds of rejection conclusion have been necessitated by Applicant's amendments to the claims.
Conclusion
25. Applicants amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any extension fee pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ABDERRAHIM MEROUAN whose telephone number is (571)270-5254. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday to Friday 7:30 AM to 5:00 PM..
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/ABDERRAHIM MEROUAN/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2683