startStreamSession

This action initiates a new stream session and outputs connection information that clients can use to access the stream. A stream session refers to an instance of a stream that Amazon GameLift Streams transmits from the server to the end-user. A stream session runs on a compute resource that a stream group has allocated. The start stream session process works as follows:

• Prerequisites:

• You must have a stream group in ACTIVE state

• You must have idle or on-demand capacity in a stream group in the location you want to stream from

• You must have at least one application associated to the stream group (use AssociateApplications if needed)

• Start stream request:

• Your backend server calls StartStreamSession to initiate connection

• Amazon GameLift Streams creates the stream session resource, assigns an Amazon Resource Name (ARN) value, and begins searching for available stream capacity to run the stream

• Session transitions to ACTIVATING status

• Placement completion:

• If Amazon GameLift Streams is successful in finding capacity for the stream, the stream session status changes to ACTIVE status and StartStreamSession returns stream connection information

• If Amazon GameLift Streams was not successful in finding capacity within the placement timeout period (defined according to the capacity type and platform type), the stream session status changes to ERROR status and StartStreamSession returns a StatusReason of placementTimeout

• Connection completion:

• Provide the new connection information to the requesting client

• Client must establish connection within ConnectionTimeoutSeconds (specified in StartStreamSession parameters)

• Session terminates automatically if client fails to connect in time

For more information about the stream session lifecycle, see Stream sessions in the Amazon GameLift Streams Developer Guide.

Timeouts to be aware of that affect a stream session:

• Placement timeout: The amount of time that Amazon GameLift Streams has to find capacity for a stream request. Placement timeout varies based on the capacity type used to fulfill your stream request:

• Always-on capacity: 75 seconds

• On-demand capacity:

• Linux/Proton runtimes: 90 seconds

• Windows runtime: 10 minutes

• Connection timeout: The amount of time that Amazon GameLift Streams waits for a client to connect to a stream session in ACTIVE status, or reconnect to a stream session in PENDING_CLIENT_RECONNECTION status, the latter of which occurs when a client disconnects or loses connection from a stream session. If no client connects before the timeout, Amazon GameLift Streams terminates the stream session. This value is specified by ConnectionTimeoutSeconds in the StartStreamSession parameters.

• Idle timeout: A stream session will be terminated if no user input has been received for 60 minutes.

• Maximum session length: A stream session will be terminated after this amount of time has elapsed since it started, regardless of any existing client connections. This value is specified by SessionLengthSeconds in the StartStreamSession parameters.

To start a new stream session, specify a stream group ID and application ID, along with the transport protocol and signal request to use with the stream session.

For stream groups that have multiple locations, provide a set of locations ordered by priority using a Locations parameter. Amazon GameLift Streams will start a single stream session in the next available location. An application must be finished replicating to a remote location before the remote location can host a stream.

To reconnect to a stream session after a client disconnects or loses connection, use CreateStreamSessionConnection.