Method for providing a virtual world layer

• US 10,166,470 B2
• Filed: 08/01/2008
• Issued: 01/01/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 08/01/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Dolbier, George R., Hamilton, II, Rick A., Katz, Neil A., O'Connell, Brian M.
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Phong
• Application Number:
  US12/184,309
• Publication Number:
  US 20100031164A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,805 Days
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/12 involving interaction between a plurality of game devices, e.g. transmisison or distribution systems protocols for networked virtual reality, networked games H04L29/06034
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/30 Interconnection arrangements between game servers and game devices; Interconnection arrangements between game devices; Interconnection arrangements between game servers
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/352 involving special game server arrangements, e.g. regional servers connected to a national server or a plurality of servers managing partitions of the game world
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/77 involving data related to game devices or game servers, e.g. configuration data, software version or amount of memory
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/209 characterized by low level software layer, relating to hardware management, e.g. Operating System, Application Programming Interface
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/5533 using program state or machine event data, e.g. server keeps track of the state of multiple players on in a multiple player game
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/6063 for sound processing
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 9/003 for military purposes and tactics
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1822 Conducting the conference, e.g. admission, detection, selection or grouping of participants, correlating users to one or more conference sessions, prioritising transmission

Abstract

A method for providing virtual world functionality to a user of a base virtual world having base virtual world functionality, including providing a virtual world layer having virtual world layer functionality beyond the base virtual world functionality, coupling the virtual world layer to the base virtual world and coupling the virtual world layer to the user. User access to the base virtual world functionality and to the virtual world layer functionality by the virtual world layer is provided.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:

providing a base virtual world having base virtual world functionality and having a list of base virtual world users;

coupling a first virtual world layer to the base virtual world, the first virtual world layer having first virtual world layer functionality not provided by the base virtual world and having a list of first virtual world layer users;

coupling a second virtual world layer to the first virtual world layer, the second virtual world layer having second virtual world layer functionality not provided by the first virtual world layer and not provided by the base virtual world layer and having a list of second virtual world layer users;

coupling a third virtual world layer to the second virtual world layer, the third virtual world layer having third virtual world layer functionality not provided by the second virtual world layer, not provided by the first virtual world layer, and not provided by the base virtual world layer and having a list of third virtual world layer users; and

providing access to at least a portion of each of the base virtual world functionality, the first virtual world layer functionality, the second virtual world layer functionality, and the third virtual world layer functionality via the third virtual world layer, wherein the first virtual world layer, the second virtual world layer, and the third virtual world layer are each registered as users of the base virtual world via the list of base virtual world users, wherein the base virtual world is added to a registration list of each of the first, second, and third virtual world layers.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

providing user access to any of the base virtual world, the first virtual world layer, the second virtual layer, and any combination thereof according to a user command.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

managing a state of a base virtual world object by the base virtual world to provide a base managed object;

managing a state of a layer virtual world object by the first virtual world layer to provide a layer managed object;

managing a state of the base managed object by the first virtual world layer to provide a further managed object; and

providing user access to the layer managed object and to the further managed object by the first virtual world layer.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

providing user access to the base managed object by the first virtual world layer; and

providing user access to the base managed object by the second virtual world layer.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein the further managed object is independent of any instantiation of the base virtual world object in the first virtual world layer.

6. The method of claim 3, wherein the layer managed object is independent of any instantiation of the layer virtual world object in the base virtual world.

7. The method of claim 3, wherein a further managed state of the further managed object comprises an object persistence.

8. The method of claim 3, wherein a further managed state of the further managed object comprises an object texture.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

managing a state of a base virtual world object by the base virtual world to provide a base managed object; and

managing a state of a base managed object by the second virtual world layer.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

managing a second layer world virtual object by the second virtual world layer to provide a second layer managed object.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

providing user access to the second layer managed object by the second virtual world layer.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein a further user is coupled to the second virtual world layer and the first virtual world layer communicates with the further user using substantially the same communication protocol that the second virtual world layer uses to communicate with the further user.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein a further user is coupled to the second virtual world layer and the first virtual world layer communicates with the further user using a communication protocol that is substantially different from the communication protocol that the second virtual world layer uses to communicate with the further user.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the base virtual world has a base virtual world object which is unalterable by the first virtual world layer.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the base virtual world operates on base virtual world infrastructure, the first virtual world layer operates on first virtual world layer infrastructure, the second virtual world layer operates on second virtual world layer infrastructure, and the base virtual world infrastructure is separate from both the first virtual world layer infrastructure and the second virtual world layer infrastructure.

16. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

segregating a user and a further user that are both coupled to the base virtual world for accessing the base world functionality.

17. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

each of the first virtual world layer, the second virtual world layer, and the base virtual world managing its own list of users independently of each other.