Decoupling of the graphical presentation of a game from the presentation logic

• US 20050192092A1
• Filed: 05/02/2005
• Published: 09/01/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 09/28/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: IGT (International Game Technology)
• Original Assignee: IGT (International Game Technology)
• Inventors: LeMay, Steven G., Benbrahim, Jamal, Beaulieu, Nicole M., Schlottmann, Greg A., Breckner, Robert E., Nelson, Dwayne R., Palchetti, Johnny
• Granted Patent: US 7,837,556 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 463/31
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/6018 where the game content is authored by the player, e.g. level editor or by game device at runtime, e.g. level is created from music data on CD
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/32 for games, toys, sports, or amusements
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/323 wherein the player is informed, e.g. advertisements, odds, instructions

Abstract

A disclosed gaming machine is designed to execute a modular gaming software architecture. A plurality of gaming software modules may be loaded into RAM on the gaming machine and executed to play a game of chance. Many of the gaming software modules are designed to communicate via application program interfaces so that the logic in many of the gaming software modules may be designed independently of each other. In particular, the modular gaming software architecture allows presentation state logic to be decoupled from implementations of presentation components, such as graphical, audio and gaming device components, used in a presentation of the game of chance on a gaming machine.

Claims

1. A method of generating a presentation component used in a play of a game of chance on a gaming machine, the method comprising:

receiving a request to generate a presentation component for a presentation state in the game of chance played on the gaming machine;

executing one or more method sequences to generate the presentation component;

displaying the presentation component on a gaming device; and

communicating with gaming software modules via one or more application program interfaces.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the presentation component is at least one of a graphical component, a audio component, a gaming device component and combinations thereof.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the graphical component is an animation sequence.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the gaming device is a display screen, an audio output device, a lighting device, a bonus wheel, a mechanical reel, a tactile feedback device and a scent generation device.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

sending a message acknowledging the completion of a presentation of the presentation component.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the gaming software module is a gaming operating system software module that loads and unloads gaming software modules into the RAM from a memory device and controls the play of the game of chance.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the gaming software module is a game flow software module that generates the game flow for the game of chance.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the gaming software module is a presentation state logic module that determines the presentation components that are used in the presentation state.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the presentation state comprises a plurality of presentation substates.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

executing one or more method sequences to generate a presentation component for at least one of the presentation substates.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the presentation component is designed to stimulate a game player'"'"'s sight, hearing, touch, smell, taste and combinations thereof.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein a method sequence comprises one or more input parameters that are used to modify the presentation component generated by the method sequence.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

specifying a first set of input parameters for the method sequence;

executing the method sequence using the first set of input parameters to generate a first presentation component;

specifying a second set of input parameters for the method sequence; and

executing the method sequence using the second set of input parameters to generate a second presentation component.

14. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

operating on a model file using a method sequence to generate the presentation component.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the model file comprises graphical components, audio components, gaming device components and combinations thereof.

16. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

selecting a first model file;

operating on the first model file using a method sequence to generate a first presentation component;

selecting a second model file; and

operating on the second model file using the method sequence to generate a second presentation component.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein the method sequence is used to change a property of a graphical object displayed on a display screen of the gaming machine.

19. The method of claim 1, wherein the method sequence is used to generate an animation sequence.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the method sequence is used to generate a sequence of video frames that provide an animated transition between a first video frame and a second video frame.

21. The method of claim 1, wherein the game of chance is selected from group consisting of slot games, poker games, pachinko games, multiple hand poker games, pai-gow poker games, black jack games, keno games, bingo games, roulette games, craps games, checkers, board games and card games.

18. The method of claim 40, wherein the property is a color, a size, a position, a shading and a texture.

22. A presentation design system for designing presentation components for a game of chance on a gaming machine, said presentation design system comprising:

a presentation module design interface for generating a presentation module for a game of chance;

a gaming simulator that generates;

     1) game states and presentation states for the game of chance and

     2) presentation components for each presentation state wherein at least one presentation component is generated using the presentation module; and

a presentation interface for outputting the presentation components.

23. The presentation design system of claim 22, wherein the presentation module design interface comprises input mechanisms and output mechanisms for 1) completing method sequence templates used to generate a method sequence, 2) selecting methods used to generate the method sequence from a method library, 3) selecting graphical models from a graphical model library, 4) selecting sounds from a sound library, 5) selecting gaming devices from a gaming device model library, 6) selecting scents from a scent library, 7) selecting tastes from a taste library, 8) selecting tactile feedback from a tactile feedback library, 9) selecting an animation sequence from an animation sequence library and 10) converting model formats using a model format converters.

24. The presentation design system of claim 22, wherein the presentation interface comprises one or more of display devices, audio output devices, light panels, bonus wheels, kinetic feedback devices, scent generation devices and combinations thereof.

25. The presentation design system of claim 22, wherein the gaming simulator comprises:

1) a gaming operating system comprising logic to load and unload gaming software modules into a RAM from a memory device and control the play of the game of chance;

     2) a presentation logic module comprising logic to generate the presentation for the game of chance; and

     3) game flow logic software module comprising logic to generates a sequence of game states used to play the game of chance.

26. The presentation design system of claim 22, wherein the game of chance is selected from group consisting of slot games, poker games, pachinko games, multiple hand poker games, pai-gow poker games, black jack games, keno games, bingo games, roulette games, craps games, checkers, board games and card games.

27. The presentation design system of claim 22, further comprising:

graphical design software for generating a graphical model used in the presentation module.

28. The presentation design system of claim 22, wherein the presentation module comprises one or more model files and one or more script files with method sequences that operate on the one or more model files.

29. The presentation design system of claim 22, wherein the presentation module generates the presentation component for the game of chance on the gaming machine.

30. The presentation design system of claim 22, wherein the presentation component is designed to stimulate a game player'"'"'s sight, hearing, touch, smell, taste and combinations thereof while the game player is playing the game of chance on the gaming machine.