Although plenty of games allow players to move around and freely explore fully realized 3D worlds and environments, fans watching their favorite gaming exploits on streaming services are restricted to just that.
Being able to explore the 3D environment of a game while still keeping an eye on the progress of a single player is not a new idea. If you die in a first person shooter, you can follow another player around before you die. Spectator modes allow viewers to float around a map while other players are playing a game. Every player has to have a copy of that particular game installed and running.
A single player's rendered view of a game can be used to broadcast it out to thousands of viewers as a 2D video stream. This approach helps further popularize video games as a spectator sport, but the ability for viewers to change the perspective of the live stream they are viewing would make the experience even more compelling, similar to how alternate camera angles can improve the experience of watching a sports match. It would require every viewer to have a full copy of the game they are watching someone else play, which isn't always possible. You can watch a live stream of a game that requires a high-end gaming PC on a low-end device that could never run it.
Researchers from the University of Waterloo's Cheriton School of Computer Science in Ontario, Canada, have come up with a way to give viewers of a video game stream the ability to actually look around the 3D world being presented, without the need for owning and installing a copy of the game Even low-end mobile devices, like tablets and smartphones, have enough processing power to render simple 3D environments, and here that is used to create a livestream viewing tool with expanded capabilities. Their research can be found in a paper.
The researchers enhanced the 2D video data sent to viewers with additional information pulled from the game, instead of seeding everyone tuning into a livestream with a copy of the game.
On the viewer's end, this additional data allows the 2D video information to be used to recreate a rendered 3D environment that matches the geometries from the game. The environment can be changed by the viewer, just like in-game spectator modes. Want to know where the missile that took out the player came from? You could look at the environment they are in and see for yourself.
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