Dynamic player groups for interest management in multi-character virtual environments
First Claim
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1. A method comprising:
- selecting a sub-set of entities from a set of entities in a virtual environment as being of interest to a group of characters in the virtual environment based on a group descriptor determined from at least two of the characters in the group; and
generating a set of messages for clients corresponding to the characters to convey information about the sub-set of entities.
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Abstract
A method and apparatus improve the efficiency of simulating a virtual environment by filtering information about the virtual environment on a group basis instead of a character basis. The filtered information is sent to each client associated with a character in the group.
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Citations
37 Claims
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1. A method comprising:
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selecting a sub-set of entities from a set of entities in a virtual environment as being of interest to a group of characters in the virtual environment based on a group descriptor determined from at least two of the characters in the group; and
generating a set of messages for clients corresponding to the characters to convey information about the sub-set of entities. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
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17. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions for performing steps comprising:
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filtering information about a virtual environment on a group basis instead of a character basis for groups of characters in the virtual environment to form filtered information; and
sending the filtered information for a group to clients associated with each of the characters of the group. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32)
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33. A method of modifying groups of characters in a virtual environment, the method comprising:
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accessing a known-entity list for a group; and
for each character on the known-entity list that is not a member of the group, determining whether to add the character to the group. - View Dependent Claims (34, 35, 36, 37)
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Specification