Dynamic player groups for interest management in multi-character virtual environments

• US 20060003823A1
• Filed: 06/30/2004
• Published: 01/05/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 06/30/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Zhang, Bo, Shum, Heung-Yeung, Guo, Baining
• Granted Patent: US 7,537,523 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 463/1
• 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 13/358 Adapting the game course according to the network or server load, e.g. for reducing latency due to different connection speeds between clients
• 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 2300/534 for network load management, e.g. bandwidth optimization, latency reduction
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/535 for monitoring, e.g. of user parameters, terminal parameters, application parameters, network parameters
• 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

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.

Claims

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.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the group descriptor comprises an average position of characters of the group.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein selecting a sub-set of entities from a set of entities in a virtual environment as being of interest to a group comprises determining the distance between the position of the entities in the virtual environment and the average position of the characters of the group.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising defining a group of characters.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein defining a group of characters comprises examining a character in a known-entity list associated with a group to determine if the character should be added to the group.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein determining if a character should be added to the group comprises determining if the character has been in the virtual environment more than a threshold period of time.

7. The method of claim 5 wherein determining if a character should be added to the group comprises determining if the character is within a minimum distance of a group center of the group.

8. The method of claim 5 wherein determining if a character should be added to the group comprises determining if a client associated with the character has a bandwidth that exceeds a minimum bandwidth.

9. The method of claim 5 wherein determining if a character should be added to the group comprises determining if the group has at least as many characters as a current group of which the character is currently a member.

10. The method of claim 4 wherein defining a group comprises adding a character to the group by intersecting a known-entity list associated with the character and a known-entity list associated with the group to form a known-entity list for the group.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein intersecting the known-entity list associated with the character with the known-entity list associated with the group comprises intersecting while ensuring that all of the characters that are members of the group are in the known-entity list of the group.

12. The method of claim 4 wherein defining a group comprises determining whether to remove a character from a group.

13. The method of claim 12 wherein determining whether to remove a character from a group comprises determining if the distance between the character and a group center exceeds a maximum distance for remaining a member of the group.

14. The method of claim 13 wherein defining a group further comprises determining whether to add a character to the group by determining if the distance between the character and the group center is less than a maximum distance for joining the group, the maximum distance for joining the group being less than the maximum distance for remaining a member of the group.

15. The method of claim 12 wherein determining whether to remove a character from a group comprises determining if a client associated with the character has a bandwidth that has dropped below a minimum bandwidth required to remain in the group.

16. The method of claim 15 wherein defining a group further comprises determining whether to add a character to the group by determining if the a client associated with the character has a bandwidth that is above a minimum bandwidth required to join the group, the minimum bandwidth required to join the group being greater than the minimum bandwidth required to remain in the group.

17. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions for performing steps comprising:

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.

18. The computer-readable medium of claim 17 wherein filtering information about a virtual environment comprises identifying a set of entities in the virtual environment that are of interest to a group.

19. The computer-readable medium of claim 18 wherein identifying an entity that is of interest to a group comprises determining a distance from the group to the entity.

20. The computer-readable medium of claim 19 wherein determining a distance from the group to the entity comprises determining the average position of characters in the group and determining the distance from the average position to the entity.

21. The computer-readable medium of claim 17 further comprising identifying a group of characters.

22. The computer-readable medium of claim 21 wherein identifying a group of characters comprises determining if a character in a known-entity list for the group should be added to the group.

23. The computer-readable medium of claim 22 wherein only characters in the known-entity list for the group are examined to determine if they should be added to the group.

24. The computer-readable medium of claim 22 wherein determining if a character should be added to the group comprises determining if the character is within a minimum distance of the group.

25. The computer-readable medium of claim 22 wherein determining if a character should be added to the group comprises determining if a client associated with the character has a bandwidth that is at least as large as a minimum bandwidth.

26. The computer-readable medium of claim 22 wherein determining if a character should be added to the group comprises determining if the group that the character would be added to is at least as large as a group that the character currently belongs to.

27. The computer-readable medium of claim 22 wherein determining if a character should be added to the group comprises determining if the character has been present in the virtual environment for more than a minimum period of time.

28. The computer-readable medium of claim 21 wherein identifying a group of characters comprises adding a character to a group by intersecting a known-entity list of the group with a known-entity list of the character to form a new known-entity list for the group.

29. The computer-readable medium of claim 28 wherein intersecting a known-entity list of the group with a known-entity list of the character further comprises ensuring that all of the characters in the group are in the new known-entity list for the group.

30. The computer-readable medium of claim 21 wherein identifying a group of characters comprises determining whether to remove a character from a group.

31. The computer-readable medium of claim 30 wherein determining whether to remove a character from a group comprises determining whether the character is positioned more than a maximum distance from the group in the virtual environment.

32. The computer-readable medium of claim 30 wherein determining whether to remove a character from a group comprises determining whether a client associated with the character has a bandwidth that is below a minimum required bandwidth.

33. A method of modifying groups of characters in a virtual environment, the method comprising:

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.

34. The method of claim 33 wherein the step of determining whether to add a character to the group is performed only for characters that are controlled by a client.

35. The method of claim 33 wherein determining whether to add the character to the group comprises determining if the character has been present in the virtual environment for more than a set amount of time.

36. The method of claim 33 wherein determining whether to add the character to the group comprises determining whether a client that controls the character has a bandwidth that exceeds a required bandwidth.

37. The method of claim 33 wherein determining whether to add the character to the group comprises determining whether the character is positioned within a minimum distance of the group in the virtual environment.