ENTERTAINMENT APPARATUS, STORAGE MEDIUM, AND METHOD OF DISPLAYING AN OBJECT

• US 20020091005A1
• Filed: 03/21/2001
• Published: 07/11/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 03/21/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sony Computer Entertainment Incorporated (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Computer Entertainment Incorporated (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Seki, Hiroyuki, Eguchi, Makoto, Abe, Kouichi, Fujii, Yasuhiko, Okita, Shigeru, Morinaga, Hideki, Fukuda, Izumi, Hirabayashi, Masaki, Shoji, Mitsunori
• Granted Patent: US 6,520,861 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 472/65
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/10 Control of the course of the game, e.g. start, progess, end
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/45 Controlling the progress of the video game
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/525 Changing parameters of virtual cameras
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/57 Simulating properties, behaviour or motion of objects in the game world, e.g. computing tyre load in a car race game A63F13/56 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/65 automatically by game devices or servers from real world data, e.g. measurement in live racing competition
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/64 for computing dynamical parameters of game objects, e.g. motion determination or computation of frictional forces for a virtual car
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/66 for rendering three dimensional images
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/663 for simulating liquid objects, e.g. water, gas, fog, snow, clouds
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/8017 Driving on land or water; Flying
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 13/60 of natural phenomena, e.g. rain, snow, water or plants

Abstract

More reality is given to weather phenomena reflected on an image displayed on a screen of a display unit and on operability of an operatable object. A global weather deciding part 901 decides weather in each global area obtained by dividing the whole map of a virtual world into a plurality of global areas. The weather in the global area in question is decided at intervals of a first time, in accordance with a preset behavior model and considering area information of each global area in advance. A local weather deciding part 902 decides weather in each local area obtained by dividing each global area into a plurality of local areas. The weather in the local area in question is decided at intervals of a second time, which is shorter than the first time, in accordance with the weather of the global area concerned decided by the global weather deciding part 901, and considering area information of each local area.

Claims

1. An entertainment apparatus that displays a dynamic image, which is obtained by a virtual camera photographing an operatable object moving in a virtual world in accordance with contents of player'"'"'s operation received through an operating unit, on a screen of a display unit, said entertainment apparatus comprising;

a global weather deciding means for deciding weather at predetermined time intervals in each global area obtained by dividing a map expressing whole of said virtual world into a plurality of global areas, said weather being decided in accordance with a behavior model that sets a condition for the global area in question and in consideration of area information given in advance to said global area, with said condition being decided from a cyclically-changing event;

a local weather deciding means for deciding weather at predetermined time intervals in each local area obtained by dividing each global area into a plurality of local areas, said weather being decided in accordance with weather of the global area in question, and in consideration of area information given in advance to the local area in question, with said weather of the global area being decided by said global weather deciding means; and

an image reflecting means for obtaining weather of a local area that includes a location of the operatable object, from said local weather deciding means, and for reflecting the obtained weather on an image of the virtual world, which includes said operatable object, displayed on the screen of said display unit, with said location of the operatable object being decided by the contents of the player'"'"'s operation received through the operating unit.

2. A storage medium for displaying a dynamic image, which is obtained by a virtual camera photographing an operatable object moving in a virtual world in accordance with contents of player'"'"'s operation received through an operating unit, on a screen of a display unit, wherein said program is read by a computer from said storage medium and executed so as to establish:

a global weather deciding means for deciding weather at predetermined time intervals in each global area obtained by dividing a map expressing whole of said virtual world into a plurality of global areas, said weather being decided in accordance with a behavior model that sets a condition for the global area in question, and in consideration of area information given in advance to said global area, with said condition being decided from a cyclically-changing event;

a local weather deciding means for deciding weather at predetermined time intervals in each local area obtained by dividing each global area into a plurality of local areas, said weather being decided In accordance with weather of the global area in question, and in consideration of area information given in advance to the local area in question, with said weather of the global area being decided by said global weather deciding means; and

an image reflecting means for obtaining weather of a local area that includes a location of the operatable object, from said local weather deciding means, and for reflecting the obtained weather on an image of the virtual world, which includes said operatable object, displayed on the screen of said display unit, with said location of the operatable object being decided by the contents of the player'"'"'s operation received through the operating unit, on said computer.

3. The storage medium according to claim 2, wherein:

said program is read by the computer from said storage medium and executed so as to further establish an operation reflecting means on said computer, said operation reflecting means obtaining weather of a local area that includes a location of the operatable object, from said local weather deciding means, and reflecting the obtained weather on movement of the operatable object in the virtual world, said movement being caused by said operating unit.

4. The storage medium according to claim 2, wherein:

said global weather deciding means decides weather in each global area at intervals of a first time; and

said local weather deciding means decides weather in each local area at intervals of a second time shorter than that of said first time.

5. The storage medium according to claim 2, wherein:

said condition that is set for each global area by said behavior model and decided from a cyclically-changing event is quantity of sunshine per a unit time in each date and time in each global area, said quantity of sunshine being decided by one year fluctuation of quantity of sunshine owing to revolution of the earth and one day fluctuation of quantity of sunshine owing to rotation of the earth.

6. The storage medium according to claim 5, wherein:

said global weather deciding means comprises;

a first means for deciding a temperature, pressure and water vapor content in each global area at predetermined time intervals, based on the quantity of sunshine per a unit time at a time concerned, the area information given in advance to said global area, and last-decided temperatures, pressures, and water vapor contents of the global area in question and global areas adjacent to said global area, with said quantity of sunshine being set for the global area in question by said behavior model; and

a second means for generating a model expressing a global weather phenomenon located in each global area, as a global weather model, at predetermined time intervals, and based on the temperature, pressure and water vapor content in each global area, decided by said first means; and

said local weather deciding means comprises;

a third means for deciding a temperature, pressure and water vapor content in each local area at predetermined intervals, based on the temperature, pressure and water vapor content of a global area to which the local area in question belongs, the area information given in advance to said local area, and last-decided temperatures, pressures and water vapor contents of the local area in question and local areas adjacent to said local area with the temperature, pressure and water vapor content of said global area being decided by said first means; and

a fourth means for generating a model expressing a local weather phenomenon located in each local area, as a local weather model, at predetermined time intervals, and based on the temperature, pressure and water vapor content in each local area, decided by said third means, the area information given in advance to said local area, and the global weather model located in said local area by said second means.

7. The storage medium according to claim 6, wherein:

said first means comprises;

a means for deciding a temperature in each global area, based on a temperature variation per a unit time in said global area and last-decided temperatures of said global area and global areas adjacent to said global area, with said temperature variation being decided based on the quantity of sunshine per a unit time at a time concerned and the area information given to said global area, and with said quantity of sunshine being set for the global area in question by said behavior model;

a means for deciding a pressure in each global area, based on the temperature given to the global area in question by said means for deciding a temperature in each global area; and

a means for deciding a water vapor content in each global area, based on a generated water vapor generated per a unit time in the global area in question, last-decided water vapor contents of said global area and global areas adjacent to said global area, and a saturated vapor decided from the temperature/pressure given to said global area by said means for deciding a temperature/pressure, with said generated water vapor being decided based on the quantity of sunshine per a unit time at a time concerned set for said global area by said behavior model, and the area information given to said global area.

8. The storage medium according to claim 6, wherein:

said second means sets a global weather model expressing a high or low pressure area such that, in locating pressure lines in said map expressing whole of the virtual world using pressure of each global area given by said first means, when there is a part whose pressure is higher than a pressure in the neighborhood and a rate of pressure change is larger than a predetermined value, said second means sets said part as a global weather model expressing a high pressure area, and when there is a part whose pressure is lower than a pressure in the neighborhood and a rate of pressure change is larger than a predetermined value, said second means sets said part as a global weather model expressing a low pressure area.

9. The storage medium according to claim 8, wherein:

said second means sets a global weather model expressing an air current based on the global weather model expressing a high/low pressure area located in said virtual world, and on a preset deflecting force in advance.

10. The storage medium according to claim 6, wherein:

said third means comprises;

a means for deciding a temperature in each local area, based on a temperature of a global area to which said local area belongs, the area information given in advance to said local area, and last-decided temperatures of said local area and local areas adjacent to said local area, with said temperature of the global area being decided by said first means;

a means for deciding a pressure in each local area, based on the temperature given to said local area by said means for deciding a temperature in each local area; and

a means for deciding a water vapor content in each local area, based on a water vapor content of a global area to which said local area belongs, last-decided water vapor contents of local area and local areas adjacent to said local area, and a saturated vapor decided from the temperature/pressure given to said local area by said means for deciding a temperature/pressure, with said water vapor content of the global area being decided by said first means.

11. The storage medium according to claim 6, wherein:

said fourth means sets a local weather model expressing cloud for each local area, based on a humidity of said local area decided from the temperature/pressure and water vapor content in said local area, the area information given in advance to said local area, and a global weather model located in said local area, when said humidity is more than or equal to a predetermined value, with said temperature/pressure and water vapor content being decided by said third means.

12. The storage medium according to claim 11, wherein:

said fourth means sets a local weather model expressing rain or snow for each local area when the local weather model expressing cloud is located in said local area such that, when the humidity of said local area decided from the temperature/pressure and water vapor content in said local area is more than or equal to a predetermined value, and the humidity of said local area is more than or equal to a predetermined value, said fourth means sets a local weather model expressing rain for said local area, and when the humidity of said local area is more than or equal to a predetermined value and the temperature of said local area is less than a predetermined value, said fourth means sets a local weather model expressing snow.

13. The storage medium according to claim 6, wherein:

said fourth means sets a local weather model expressing wind located in each local area, based on pressures of said local area and local areas adjacent to said local area, the area information given in advance to said local area, and the global weather model expressing an air current located in said local area.

14. The storage medium according to claim 6, wherein:

said image reflecting means obtains a local area model located in a local area that includes the location of the operatable object, from said fourth means, and reflects a weather phenomenon specified by the obtained local weather model on the image of the virtual world, which includes said operatable object, displayed on the screen of said display unit, with said location of the operatable object being decided by the contents of the player'"'"'s operation received through the operating unit.

15. A method of displaying an object, in which a dynamic image obtained by a virtual camera photographing an operatable object moving in a virtual world in accordance with contents of player'"'"'s operation received through an operating unit is displayed on a screen of a display unit, comprising steps of:

deciding global weather at predetermined time intervals in each global area obtained by dividing a map expressing whole of said virtual world into a plurality of global areas, said global weather being decided in accordance with a behavior model that sets a condition for the global area in question and in consideration of the area information given in advance to said global area, with said condition being decided from a cyclically-changing event;

deciding local weather at predetermined time intervals in each local area obtained by dividing each global area into a plurality of local areas, said local weather being decided in accordance with weather of said global area in question decided by said step of deciding global weather and in consideration of the area information given in advance to said local area; and

reflecting weather of a local area that includes a location of the operatable object, out of the weather of local areas decided by the step of deciding local weather, on an image of the virtual world, which includes said operatable object, displayed on the screen of said display unit, with said location of the operatable object being decided by the contents of the player'"'"'s operation received through the operating unit.

16. A program for displaying a dynamic image obtained by a virtual camera photographing an operatable object moving in a virtual world in accordance with contents of player'"'"'s operation received through an operating unit, on a screen of a display unit, wherein said program is stored in a storage unit and read by a computer from said storage unit to be execute so as to establish:

a global weather deciding means for deciding weather at predetermined time intervals in each global area obtained by dividing a map expressing whole of said virtual world into a plurality of global areas, said weather being decided in accordance with a behavior model that sets a condition for the global area in question, and in consideration of area information given in advance to said global area, with said condition being decided from a cyclically-changing event;

a local weather deciding means for deciding weather at predetermined time intervals in each local area obtained by dividing each global area into a plurality of local areas, said weather being decided in accordance with weather of the global area in question, and in consideration of area information given in advance to the local area in question, with said weather of the global area being decided by said global weather deciding means; and

an image reflecting means for obtaining weather of a local area that includes a location of the operatable object, from said local weather deciding means, and for reflecting the obtained weather of the local area on an image of the virtual world, which includes said operatable object, displayed on the screen of said display unit, with said location of the operatable object being decided by the contents of the player'"'"'s operation received through the operating unit, on said computer.