Programming APIS for an Extensible Avatar System

• US 20100009747A1
• Filed: 11/14/2008
• Published: 01/14/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 07/14/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Madsen, Bjorn Toft, Boyd, Rodney Alan, Langan, Thomas A., Smith, Derek H., Reville, Brendan, Law, Stacey, Kroymann, Dan B.
• Granted Patent: US 8,446,414 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 463/31
• 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 13/355 Performing operations on behalf of clients with restricted processing capabilities, e.g. servers transform changing game scene into an encoded video stream for transmitting to a mobile phone or a thin client
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/52 involving aspects of the displayed game scene
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/63 by the player, e.g. authoring using a level editor
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/77 involving data related to game devices or game servers, e.g. configuration data, software version or amount of memory
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/79 involving player-related data, e.g. identities, accounts, preferences or play histories
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/513 server hierarchy, e.g. local, regional, national or dedicated for different tasks, e.g. authenticating, billing
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/538 for performing operations on behalf of the game client, e.g. rendering
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/552 for downloading to client devices, e.g. using OS version, hardware or software profile of the client device
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/5553 user representation in the game field, e.g. avatar
• 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: A63F 2300/6607 for animating game characters, e.g. skeleton kinematics

Abstract

Disclosed is an application programming interface (API) that provides for an extensible avatar system. In one embodiment an API may allow video game applications to retrieve structures of data which represent an avatar. The game can then take those structures and incorporate the data into its own rendering system. In another embodiment an API may allow a video game application to render an avatar to a render target or texture wherein the video game system performs rendering and animation functions.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method for implementing an application programming interface (API) for allowing a video gaming system including an avatar renderer to render an avatar to a destination provided by a video game application executing on the video gaming system, the method comprising:

informing the video game application that the avatar renderer is enabled;

receiving an indication of whether the video game application is using a left-handed or right-handed coordinate system;

informing the video game application of an amount of memory to be allocated for the avatar renderer and the avatar'"'"'s metadata;

communicating metadata for one or more player profiles; and

indicating whether a shadow map should be allocated for the avatar.

2. The method according to claim 1 further comprising communicating additional animations provided with the video gaming system.

3. The method according to claim 1 further comprising informing the video game application which animation is currently playing.

4. The method according to claim 1 further comprising querying the video gaming system for model and view matrices based on one of head, head-and-shoulders, or full-body views.

5. The method according to claim 1 further comprising querying an online gaming service to retrieve avatar data.

6. The method according to claim 1 wherein the avatar data is three dimensional data.

7. The method according to claim 1 further comprising providing access to a plurality of random avatars.

8. The method according to claim 7 further comprising specifying a male or female body for one of the plurality of random avatars.

9. The method according to claim 2 further comprising retrieving avatar data from profiles on the video gaming system that are not currently signed in.

10. A computer readable storage medium storing thereon computer executable instructions for instantiating an API for allowing a video game application executing in a video game system to render one or more avatars at a rendering destination selected by the video game application, comprising instructions for:

instantiating a programming interface for allowing the video game application to access data for rendering the avatar to a render target selected by the video game application, wherein the video game system provides rendering and animation functions and the video game application presents a rendered avatar on a two-dimensional surface presented by the video game application.

11. The computer readable storage medium according to claim 10 further comprising instructions for communicating additional animations provided by the video gaming system.

12. The computer readable storage medium according to claim 10 further comprising instructions for informing the video game application which animation is currently playing.

13. The computer readable storage medium according to claim 10 further comprising instructions for querying the video gaming system for model and view matrices based on one of head, head-and-shoulders, or full-body views.

14. The computer readable storage medium according to claim 10 further comprising instructions for querying an online gaming service to retrieve avatar data.

15. The computer readable storage medium according to claim 10 further comprising instructions for providing access to a plurality of random avatars.

16. The computer readable storage medium according to claim 10 further comprising instructions for retrieving avatar data from profiles on the video gaming system that are not currently signed in.

17. A system adapted to instantiate an application programming interface (API) for allowing a video game application including an avatar rendering function executing in a video game system to receive data for constructing, rendering and animating an avatar, the system comprising:

at least one processor; and

at least one memory communicatively coupled to said at least one processor, the memory having stored therein computer-executable instructions implementing the API, the API configured to expose a programming interface for allowing the video game application to access data for representing said avatar and incorporate the data into said rendering function, the computer-executable instructions capable of;

requesting a data buffer size for storing the data;

allocating memory space in accordance with said buffer size;

specifying components of the avatar for retrieval, wherein an entire body of said avatar may be requested; and

requesting the data for said avatar.

18. The system according to claim 17, wherein the video gaming system includes an avatar renderer, further comprising instructions for allowing the avatar renderer to render said avatar to a destination provided by the video game application.

19. The system according to claim 17, further comprising instructions for querying an online gaming service to retrieve avatar data released after the video game application is released.

20. The system according to claim 17, further comprising avatar asset retrieval logic that can be updated independently of the video game application.