Portable game machine and computer-readable recording medium

• US 20050227761A1
• Filed: 08/20/2004
• Published: 10/13/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 03/31/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nintendo Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Nintendo Company Limited
• Inventors: Ohta, Keizo, Yoshino, Hiroshi, Yasumoto, Yoshitaka, Nishida, Kenji
• Granted Patent: US 7,786,997 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 463/30
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/1075 using a touch screen
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/203 Image generating hardware
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/204 the platform being a handheld device
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/301 using an additional display connected to the game console, e.g. on the controller
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/63 for controlling the execution of the game in time
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/6669 using a plurality of virtual cameras concurrently or sequentially, e.g. automatically switching between fixed virtual cameras when a character change rooms
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1438 using more than one graphics controller
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 15/005 General purpose rendering architectures
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 3/003 to produce spatial visual effects
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4781 Games

Abstract

In each odd-numbered frame, a game image generated by a three-dimensional image processing unit 31 is supplied to a first LCD 11, and then a game image identical to the generated game image is stored in a first VRAM 21a. Also, a two-dimensional image processing unit 37 supplies the game image stored in the immediately-preceding even-numbered frame in a second VRAM 21b to a second LCD 12. On the other hand, in each even-numbered frame, a game image generated by the three-dimensional image processing unit 31 is supplied to the first LCD 12, and then a game image identical to the generated game image is stored in the second VRAM 21b. Also, the two-dimensional image processing unit 37 supplies the game image stored in the immediately-preceding odd-numbered frame in the first VRAM 21a to the first LCD 11. With this, in a portable game machine including two display units, different three-dimensional game images can be simultaneously displayed by a single three-dimensional image processing unit on the two display units without flicker on the display screens.

Claims

1. A portable game machine comprising:

a first display;

a second display;

a three-dimensional image processing unit which generates a first game image based on three-dimensional model data for each frame;

a capture circuit which captures the first game image generated by the three-dimensional image processing unit as two-dimensional image data;

storage locations that stores the two-dimensional image data captured by the capture circuit;

a two-dimensional image processing unit which generates a second game image based on two-dimensional image data in a previous frame already stored in the storage locations; and

an output destination setting circuit which sets one of the first display and the second display as an output destination of the first game image and another one of the first display and the second display as an output destination of the second game image.

2. The portable game machine according to claim 1, wherein

in an n-th frame,

the first game image, generated by the three-dimensional image processing unit, is output to the first display and is simultaneously captured, and

the second game image, captured in an (n−

1)-th frame and based on the two-dimensional image data, is output to the second display, and

in an (n+1)-th frame,

the first game image, generated by the three-dimensional image processing unit is output to the second display and is simultaneously captured, and

the second game image, based on the two-dimensional image data and captured in the n-th frame, is output to the first display.

3. The portable game machine according to claim 1, further comprising:

a first line buffer which temporarily stores data for one line of the first game image generated by the three-dimensional image processing unit, wherein

the data for one line stored in the first line buffer is sequentially output to one of the first display and the second display, thereby eventually outputting an entirety of the first game image to the one of the first display and the second display, and

the capture circuit sequentially captures the data for one line stored in the first line buffer, thereby eventually storing the entirety of the first game image in the storage locations.

4. The portable game machine according to claim 3, wherein

the storage locations includes a first storage area and a second storage area,

the portable game machine further comprises:

a second line buffer which temporarily stores data for one line of the second game image generated by the two-dimensional image processing unit;

a first selector which switches an output destination of the capture circuit between the first storage area and the second storage area;

a second selector which switches an output destination of the two-dimensional image processing unit between the first storage area and the second storage area;

a third selector which switches an output destination of the first line buffer and an output destination of the second line buffer between the first display and the second display; and

a controller which controls a time of switching of each of the first selector, the second selector, and the third selector.

5. The portable game machine according to claim 1, wherein

the storage locations are provided with storage areas that correspond to at least two virtual screens to be used when the two-dimensional image processing unit generates the second game image,

the capture circuit outputs the captured game image alternately to the storage areas in the storage locations that correspond to the at least two virtual screens, and

the two-dimensional image processing unit outputs one of the at least two virtual screens to the first display and another one of the at least two virtual screens to the second display.

6. The portable game machine according to claim 1, wherein

the three-dimensional image processing unit alternately generates and outputs, for each frame, game images representing two different states of a virtual three-dimensional game space.

7. The portable game machine according to claim 1, wherein

the three-dimensional image processing unit alternately generates and outputs two different game images representing a state of a single virtual three-dimensional game space captured by a virtual camera with two different settings.

8. A computer-readable storage medium having stored therein a program causing a computer connected to a display to function as:

a display mechanism for causing the display to display a first screen and a second screen;

a three-dimensional image processing mechanism which generates a first game image for each frame based on three-dimensional model data;

a capture mechanism which captures the first game image generated by the three-dimensional image processing mechanism as two-dimensional image data;

storage locations which stores the two-dimensional image data captured by the capture mechanism;

a two-dimensional image processing mechanism which generates a second game image based on two-dimensional image data in a previous frame already stored in the storage location; and

an output destination selector which selects one of the first display screen and the second display screen as an output destination of the first game image and another one of the first display screen and the second display screen as an output destination of the second game image.

9. A computer-readable storage medium having stored therein a program to be executed in a portable game machine including:

a first display;

a second display;

a three-dimensional image processing unit which generates a first game image based on three-dimensional model data for each frame;

a capture circuit which captures the first game image generated by the three-dimensional image processing unit as two-dimensional image data;

storage locations that stores the two-dimensional image data captured by the capture circuit;

a two-dimensional image processing unit which generates a second game image based on two-dimensional image data in a previous frame already stored in the storage location; and

an output destination setting circuit which sets one of the first display and the second display as an output destination of the first game image and another one of the first display and the second display as an output destination of the second game image, the program causing a computer of the portable game machine to perform steps comprising;

in an n-th frame,

a step of causing the three-dimensional image processing unit to generate the first display image;

a step of causing the capture circuit to capture the first display image;

a step of causing the two-dimensional image processing unit to generate the second game image based on two-dimensional image data captured in the n-th frame; and

a step of causing the output destination setting circuit to set the first display as the output destination of the first game image and the second display as the output destination of the second game image; and

in an (n+1)-th frame,

a step of causing the three-dimensional image processing unit to generate the first display image;

a step of causing the capture circuit to capture the first display image;

a step of causing the two-dimensional image processing unit to generate the second game image based on two-dimensional image data captured in the n-th frame; and

a step of causing the output destination setting circuit to set the second display as the output destination of the first game image and the first display as the output destination of the second game image.

10. The computer-readable storage medium according to claim 9, wherein

the three-dimensional image processing unit generates game images representing a virtual three-dimensional game space viewed from a first view point and a second view point that are different from each other,

the program causes the computer to performs the steps further comprising:

a step of causing the three-dimensional image processing unit to generate, in the n-th frame, a first game image based on the first view point; and

a step of causing the three-dimensional image processing unit to generate, in an (n+1)-th frame, a first game image based on the second view point.