STORAGE MEDIUM STORING INPUT PROCESSING PROGRAM AND INPUT PROCESSING APPARATUS

• US 20090187863A1
• Filed: 03/24/2009
• Published: 07/23/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 03/10/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nintendo Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Nintendo Company Limited
• Inventors: AJIOKA, Yoshitaka, EBISAWA, Yasushi, MIZUKI, Kiyoshi, KANESHIGE, Tsutomu
• Granted Patent: US 8,139,027 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/850
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/10 Control of the course of the game, e.g. start, progess, end
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/2145 the surface being also a display device, e.g. touch screens
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/26 having at least one additional display device, e.g. on the game controller or outside a game booth
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/426 involving on-screen location information, e.g. screen coordinates of an area at which the player is aiming with a light gun
• 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 13/92 Video game devices specially adapted to be hand-held while playing
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/95 Storage media specially adapted for storing game information, e.g. video game cartridges
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/1075 using a touch screen
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/1093 using visible light
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/301 using an additional display connected to the game console, e.g. on the controller
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/6045 for mapping control signals received from the input arrangement into game commands
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/6661 for changing the position of the virtual camera
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/04806 Zoom, i.e. interaction techniques or interactors for controlling the zooming operation

Abstract

A game system includes a game apparatus and a controller. For example, whether an operation of waving the controller has been performed is determined based on at least one of a pointed position on a display screen by the controller and acceleration. A wind object is generated and moved in virtual game space according to the waving operation. When it is determined that the wind object has collided with a windmill object disposed in the virtual game space, the windmill object is influenced by the wind and its rotation speed is changed.

Claims

1. A storage medium storing an input processing program executable on a computer of an input processing apparatus having a display device for displaying an image obtained by viewing from a virtual camera a three-dimensional space where an object appears, and an input device for pointing a position on a screen of the display device, the input processing program causing the computer to execute:

a first camera setting step of setting a value of a parameter of the virtual camera;

a first display step of causing the display device to display the image in accordance with the parameter set by the first camera setting step;

an object identifying step of identifying an object pointed to by the input device when the image is displayed by the first display step;

a second camera setting step of changing the value of the parameter of the virtual camera so as to zoom in on the identified object;

a second display step of causing the display device to display the image in accordance with the parameter changed by the second camera setting step;

a first condition determination step of determining whether or not a predetermined time has elapsed after having changed the value of the parameter by the second camera setting step; and

a third camera setting step of resetting the value of the parameter of the virtual camera to the value set by the first camera setting step when it is determined by the first condition determination step that the predetermined time has elapsed.

2. The storage medium according to claim 1, wherein the program causes the computer to further execute an area setting step of setting a predetermined area for each object, wherein, in the object identifying step, the object is identified.

3. The storage medium according to claim 2, wherein the area set by the area setting step is a sphere.

4. The storage medium according to claim 2, wherein, in the second camera setting step, a watching point of the virtual camera is caused to coincide with a predetermined point of the identified object, and an angle of view of the virtual camera is set based on the area set for the identified object, thereby changing the value of the parameter of the virtual camera.

5. The storage medium according to claim 1, wherein the program causes the computer to further execute:

a second condition determining step of determining whether or not a pointing duration exceeds a first predetermined value, the pointing duration being a time for which the pointing operation is continued, when an object is identified by the object identifying step,

wherein the second camera setting step changes the value of the parameter when it is determined in the second condition determining step that the pointing duration exceeds the first predetermined value.

6. The storage medium according to claim 5, wherein the program causes the computer to further execute:

an operation type determining step of determining a type of an operation performed by a player based on contents of the operation when the image is displayed by the second display step;

a parameter changing step of changing the value of the parameter of the object based on the determined type; and

a second predetermined value setting step of setting the second predetermined value based on the value of the parameter changed by the parameter changing step.

7. The storage medium of claim 1 wherein the parameter is one of a camera position, camera angle, an angle of view and a watching point for the virtual camera.

8. An input processing apparatus comprising:

a display device of displaying an image obtained by viewing a three-dimensional space from a virtual camera, an object appearing in the three-dimensional space;

an input device for pointing to a position on a screen of the display device; and

a processor executing a program causing the input processing apparatus to perform;

a first camera setting step setting a value of a parameter of the virtual camera;

a first display step causing the display device to display the game image in accordance with the parameter set by the first camera setting step;

a position detecting step detecting the position on the screen pointed by an operation performed with respect to the input device when the game image is displayed by the first display step;

a straight line calculating step calculating a straight line passing through a position corresponding to the position in the three-dimensional space detected by the position detecting step and a position of the virtual camera;

an object identifying step identifying an object, as a target to be zoomed in on, intersecting the straight line;

second camera setting step changing the value of the parameter of the virtual camera to zoom in and display the identified object;

second display step causing the display device to display the image in accordance with the parameter changed by the second camera setting step;

a first condition determination step determining whether a predetermined time has elapsed after the value of the parameter is changed in the second camera setting step; and

a third camera setting step resetting the changed value of the parameter of the virtual camera to the value set by the first camera setting step when it is determined by the first condition determination step that the predetermined time has elapsed.

9. The input processing apparatus according to claim 8 wherein the parameter is one of a camera position, camera angle, an angle of view and a watching point for the virtual camera.

10. The input processing apparatus according to claim 8, wherein the program causes the computer to further execute an area setting step setting a predetermined area for each object, wherein, in the object identifying step, the object is identified.

11. The input processing apparatus according to claim 10, wherein the area set by the area setting step is a sphere.

12. The input processing apparatus according to claim 10, wherein, in the second camera setting step, a watching point of the virtual camera is caused to coincide with a predetermined point of the identified object, and an angle of view of the virtual camera is set based on the area set for the identified object, thereby changing the value of the parameter of the virtual camera.

13. The input processing apparatus according to claim 8, wherein the program causes the computer to further execute:

a second condition determining step of determining whether a pointing duration exceeds a first predetermined value, the pointing duration being a time for which the pointing operation is continued, when an object is identified by the object identifying step,

wherein the second camera setting step changes the value of the parameter after the second condition determining step determines that the pointing duration exceeds the first predetermined value.

14. The input processing apparatus according to claim 13, wherein the program causes the computer to further execute:

an operation type determining step determining a type of an operation performed by a player based on contents of the operation when the image is displayed by the second display step;

a parameter changing step changing the value of the parameter of the object based on the determined type; and

a second predetermined value setting step setting the second predetermined value based on the value of the parameter changed by the parameter changing step.