RENDERING AVATAR DETAILS

• US 20100134485A1
• Filed: 12/02/2008
• Published: 06/03/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 12/02/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: PICKOVER, Clifford A., O'CONNELL, Brian M., BHOGAL, Kulvir S., HAMILTON, Rick A. II
• Granted Patent: US 8,988,421 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/419
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/10 Control of the course of the game, e.g. start, progess, end
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/45 Controlling the progress of the video game
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/52 involving aspects of the displayed game scene
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/60 Generating or modifying game content before or while executing the game program, e.g. authoring tools specially adapted for game development or game-integrated level editor
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/798 for assessing skills or for ranking players, e.g. for generating a hall of fame computing the game score A63F13/46
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/558 by assessing the players' skills or ranking
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/66 for rendering three dimensional images
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/663 for simulating liquid objects, e.g. water, gas, fog, snow, clouds
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 13/40 of characters, e.g. humans, animals or virtual beings
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 15/00 3D [Three Dimensional] image rendering

Abstract

The rendering of avatars in a virtual universe is selectively controlled by the avatar owner. Avatar ranking by several criteria, operating either jointly or independently, is employed to control avatar rendering in ways intended to reduce computational loading while not significantly impacting the virtual universe experience.

Claims

1. A method for rendering avatars in a virtual universe environment, said method comprising the steps of:

capturing user ranking with respect to at least one avatar; and

dynamically rendering said at least one avatar in accordance with said user ranking.

2. The method of claim 1 in which said ranking includes three levels.

3. The method of claim 1 in which said ranking determines the resolution used for display of said avatar.

4. The method of claim 1 in which said ranking is selected by an owner of said avatar.

5. The method of claim 1 in which said ranking is selected automatically.

6. The method of claim 5 in which said ranking is selected automatically based upon interaction with at least one other avatar.

7. The method of claim 5 in which said ranking is selected automatically based upon avatars having overlapping inventory.

8. The method of claim 5 in which said ranking is selected automatically based upon at least one business transaction with another avatar.

9. The method of claim 5 in which said ranking is selected automatically based upon a company hierarchy.

10. The method of claim 1 in which said capturing is carried out both from ranking selection provided directly by an avatar owner and indirectly from ranking influencing data provided by said owner.

11. The method of claim 10 in which said ranking influencing data is selected from the group consisting of avatar interaction, inventory similarity, business transaction and company hierarchy.

12. The method of claim 1 in which said rendering is computationally facilitated by an avatar owner in response to at least one purpose selected from the group consisting of:

observation of system slowdown, preference for enhanced performance, a need to be undistracted by unimportant avatars, a desire to find important avatars and a desire to find avatars of interest.

13. The method of claim 1 in which said rendering is computationally facilitated by default.

14. The method of claim 1 in which said rendering is computationally facilitated as a result of measuring computational load.

15. The method of claim 1 in which said rendering is computationally facilitated by reducing in number polygons used to render said at least one avatar.

16. The method of claim 1 in which said rendering is computationally facilitated by reducing frame rate for said at least one avatar.

17. The method of claim 1 in which said rendering is computationally facilitated by eliding said at least one avatar.

18. The method of claim 1 in which said rendering is computationally facilitated by eliminating at least a portion of texture mapping applied to said at least one avatar.

19. The method of claim 1 in which said rendering is computationally facilitated by employing flat textures.

20. The method of claim 1 in which said rendering is computationally facilitated by displaying said at least one avatar in wireframe format.

21. The method of claim 1 in which said rendering is computationally facilitated by displaying said at least one avatar without one or more light sources being present.

22. The method of claim 1 in which said rendering is computationally facilitated by entirely eliminating an avatar from the rendering.

23. A method for deploying an application for rendering avatars in a virtual universe environment, said method comprising providing a computer infrastructure being operable to capture user ranking with respect to at least one avatar and to dynamically render said at least one avatar based upon said user ranking, such that the avatar is rendered in accordance with said ranking.

24. A computer readable medium containing thereon program instructions for a data processing system to render at least one avatar in a virtual universe environment by capturing user ranking with respect to said at least one avatar and by dynamically rendering said at least one avatar in accordance with said user ranking.

25. A data processing system whose memory includes program instructions for a data processing system to render at least one avatar in a virtual universe environment by capturing user ranking with respect to said at least one avatar and by dynamically rendering said at least one avatar in accordance with said user ranking.