The Vreo plug-ins are available for the most popular graphical engines in the world, including Unity 3D and Unreal Engine 4. These plug-ins retrieve, show, and evaluate ads by communicating with a web backend, where the ads are provided and statistical data is rehashed for the analytics part of the marketplace.

The communication between the plug-in and the backend happens through JSON over HTTP(s), using request and response bodies. The plug-in then downloads the asset provided via media_url and renders it within the game. That media is cached for future use to minimise data transfers. After the ad is rendered and viewed by the gamer, the plug-in sends back View Data. The plug-in provides information about the user experience, such as how long the gamer looked at the ad, and the overall visibility during that time. This information is sent at regular intervals.

The plug-in sends a POST request to ApiUrl + ApiSendViewDataPath with a JSON body.

The plug-ins for Vreo are written in C# and C++ and now available for the two most popular graphical engines in the world, Unity3D and Unreal Engine 4. To cover as much as of the market as possible, Vreo will create plug-ins for additional engines such as Cocos2d-x, CRYENGINE, Lumberyard, and Marmalade SDK.

Thanks to our intuitive plug-in mechanisms, game developers can create surfaces for ads in their software and find suitable advertisers in the Vreo marketplace quickly and easily, all within a few seconds.

Another positive aspect of ads embedded in a game is that — unlike more intrusive formats — ad blockers have no effect. Since gamers are rewarded for viewing ads, they no longer want to block ads. And a gamer can’t put down the device or walk away for a break while an ad is running. The ads are available only when a gamer is focused on the game.

From the developer’s view

Whether a developer is just starting out with Vreo (onboarding), in the middle of developing a game, or about to ship a game, only a few basic steps and minimal data exchanges are required.

The plug-in enables a developer to sell advertising space in a game. To identify themselves, developers provide the plug-in with their developer_id, developer_access_token, and developer_game_id.

At runtime, when a level contains advertising space, the game requests random ads from the backend. When a gamer sees an ad, the plug-in returns information about the time and visibility to the backend. The plug-in creates an anonymized hash based on the hardware it was executed on, used to identify the gamer across sessions and games.

The field device_id is sent with every request. This ID contains three components, with one responsible for managing the other two:

Vreo component: This is the core component that implements the logic for every ad space. This component accumulates view data and sends it to the backend whenever sufficient new data has been collected. This component is also responsible for managing ad planes and audio components, requesting random ads, loading the media assets from the Content Delivery Network (CDN), and managing the other two components of field device_id.

Vreo plane component: This represents the visible ad and its textures, which are set here.

Vreo audio component: This is a thin layer to control the ad’s audio. This can be used to add audio effects, such as scaling the volume with the gamer’s distance from the ad.

Developers already working with a popular game engine to create their software will have a very gentle learning curve. The plug-in enables a developer to create ad spaces quickly and easily and make those advertising opportunities available through the Vreo marketplace. This opens the door to a new revenue stream.