AWS News Blog
Amazon AppStream Update – New Features and New Docs
|
Amazon AppStream is a very cool service that lets you build and stream resource-intensive applications from the AWS Cloud. AppStream deploys your application on AWS infrastructure and streams its output to a variety of mass-market devices including personal computers, tablets, and mobile phones. You can eliminate device constraints and address a larger market by making use of AppStream.
I am writing today to bring you up to date on the latest and greatest AppStream features and debugging tools. I would also like to call your attention to some new sample code and some additional documentation!
New Features
As part of this release, we added support for the ARM64 architecture. This improves performance on 64-bit iOS devices by up to 20%.
Late last month, we added additional GPU metrics to the Utilization Logs generated by each AppStream application. We also simplified the Application Resource Properties and improved the overall adaptability to changes in bandwidth in the face of a varied frame rate.
For more information about this and other updates, take a look at the Product Updates section of the AppStream Developer Guide.
New Debugging Tools
You can now debug your streaming application running in Amazon AppStream Standalone mode by using the Remote Tools for Visual Studio (2012 or 2013) on your EC2 instance. To learn more, read the new documentation on AppStream Standalone Mode Debugging.
Improved Sample Code
We have put the AppStream sample code on a diet and reduced it from over 2,000 lines of code to 600 or so. The new sample code shows you how to use the API calls offered by AppStream’s high-fidelity, low-latency STX protocol. This application should help you to figure out how to use the AppStream SDK to implement application streaming, input handling, and scaling.
bool initializeD3D()
{
g_D3D9 = Direct3DCreate9(D3D_SDK_VERSION);
if (!g_D3D9) return false;
UINT32 AdapterOrdinal = 0;
D3DDEVTYPE DeviceType = D3DDEVTYPE_HAL;
D3DCAPS9 caps;
g_D3D9->GetDeviceCaps(AdapterOrdinal, DeviceType, &caps);
D3DPRESENT_PARAMETERS params;
ZeroMemory(¶ms, sizeof(D3DPRESENT_PARAMETERS));
...
More Documentation
We have updated several sections of the documentation to increase clarity and to help you to get started more quickly. Here’s a summary:
- The Getting Started section now does a better job of laying out and helping you to choose the best option to get started with AppStream.
- The new section on Adding Streaming to Your Application contains the new, simplified code from the sample application, as does the existing section on Deploying a Streaming Application.
- There’s a new section that will show you how to Debug Your Streaming Application in Amazon AppStream Standalone Mode.
Other Goodies
We updated the AppStream Use Cases page to tell you more about how the CAD, Simulation, and Life Sciences industries can make use of AppStream.
Finally, we added a new video with even more information about popular AppStream use cases:
I hope that you have enjoyed this quick AppStream update!
— Jeff;