Teleport Preview Provisioning In Virtual Environments

• US 20110050699A1
• Filed: 08/28/2009
• Published: 03/03/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 08/28/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Kyndryl Incorporated
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Dawson, Christopher J., Hamilton, Rick A. II, Graham, Barry M., Pickover, Clifford A.
• Granted Patent: US 8,638,332 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/428
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/52 involving aspects of the displayed game scene
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/66 for rendering three dimensional images
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/8082 Virtual reality
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 15/00 3D [Three Dimensional] image rendering
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2210/36 Level of detail
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/377 for mixing or overlaying two or more graphic patterns G09G5/02, G09G5/397 take precedence

Abstract

Upon a request for a teleportation operation, a user of a virtual universe is provided with an interface for specification of image resolution parameters for initial rendering of a teleportation destination and the user'"'"'s avatar which are degraded from a full resolution rendering of the teleportation destination and avatar. Degradation of resolution can be in regard to any of a plurality of image qualities such as spatial resolution, temporal resolution colors or color depth, light modeling and rendering style or the like or combinations thereof. Alternatively, a degraded copy of the teleportation destination can be provided as an alternative initial teleportation destination image. Since a rendering of a degraded image can be done with reduced response time, the user is thus provided with full control over a trade-off between image quality and response time and teleportation operations are thus encouraged.

Claims

1. A method for improving response time of a teleportation operation in a virtual universe system, said method comprising:

storing image resolution parameters at a client processor corresponding to an avatar of said virtual universe;

in response to a teleport operation request to a teleportation destination for said avatar, changing said image resolution parameters or confirming that said image resolution parameters are acceptable to a user for rendering an image of said avatar and said teleportation destination; and

rendering an image of said avatar and said teleportation destination in the course of said teleportation operation in accordance with resolution parameters determined in said changing or confirming step.

2. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising

rendering an image of said avatar an said teleportation destination at full resolution.

3. The method as recited in claim 2, wherein said rendering an image at full resolution is performed a predetermined time subsequent to said step of rendering in accordance with said resolution parameters determined in said confirming or changing step.

4. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein said resolution parameters are set in a client configuration panel of a client processor.

5. The method as recited in claim 1, further including

reducing resolution of said step of rendering at full resolution within said rendering parameters determined in said confirming or changing step in response to processing load at a processor performing said rendering step.

6. The method as recited in claim 1, further including

providing a degraded copy of a teleportation destination, wherein the teleport operation provides initial teleportation to said degraded copy of a teleportation destination.

7. A computer program product comprising a machine readable medium or communication link, said machine readable medium or communication link containing signals comprising a program which, when run on a processor, causes said processor to perform steps of:

prompting a user to store image resolution parameters at a client processor corresponding to an avatar of said virtual universe;

in response to a teleport operation request to a teleportation destination for said avatar, changing said image resolution parameters or confirming that said image resolution parameters are acceptable to a user for rendering an image of said avatar and said teleportation destination; and

rendering an image of said avatar and said teleportation destination in the course of said teleportation operation in accordance with resolution parameters determined in said changing or confirming step.

8. The computer program product as recited in claim 7, further comprising a step of

rendering an image of said avatar an said teleportation destination at full resolution.

9. The computer program product as recited in claim 8, wherein said step of rendering and image at full resolution is performed a predetermined time subsequent to said step of rendering in accordance with said resolution parameters determined in said confirming or changing step.

10. The computer program product as recited in claim 7, wherein said resolution parameters are set in a client configuration panel of a client processor.

11. The computer program product as recited in claim 7, including further signals to perform a further step of

reducing resolution of said step of rendering at full resolution within said rendering parameters determined in said confirming or changing step in response to processing load at a processor performing said rendering step.

12. The computer program product as recited in claim 7, further including providing a degraded copy of a teleportation destination.

13. The computer program product as recited in claim 12, wherein the teleport operation provides initial teleportation to said degraded copy of a teleportation destination.

14. A virtual universe system including:

a client configuration panel for storing image resolution parameters at a client processor corresponding to an avatar of said virtual universe,

a teleport request control for generating an interface in response to a teleport operation request to a teleportation destination for said avatar, said interface prompting a user to confirm that said image resolution parameters are acceptable for rendering an image of said avatar and said teleportation destination or changing said image resolution parameters, and

means for rendering an image of said avatar and said teleportation destination in the course of said teleportation operation in accordance with resolution parameters determined using said interface.

15. The virtual universe system as recited in claim 14, further comprising

means for rendering an image of said avatar an said teleportation destination at full resolution.

16. The virtual universe system as recited in claim 15, wherein said rendering and image at full resolution is performed a predetermined lime subsequent to rendering in accordance with said resolution parameters determined in said confirming or changing step.

17. The virtual universe system as recited in claim 14, wherein said resolution parameters are set in a client configuration panel of a client processor.

18. The virtual universe system as recited in claim 14, including the further step of

reducing resolution of said step of rendering at full resolution within said rendering parameters determined in said confirming or changing step in response to processing load at a processor performing said rendering step.

19. The virtual universe system as recited in claim 14, further including

means for providing a degraded copy of said teleportation destination.

20. A method of operating a virtual universe system in which teleportation is encouraged, said method comprising:

providing an interface for a user to specify image resolution parameters which are degraded from full resolution of a teleportation destination but acceptable to said user for initial rendering of an image of said teleportation destination and an avatar; and

providing an image of said teleportation destination and said avatar which is rendered in accordance with said degraded image parameters or an image of a degraded copy of said teleportation destination.

21. A method of operating a virtual universe system on a plurality of networked data processors in which teleportation is encouraged, said method including steps of

configuring a client data processor of said plurality of networked data processors to provide

a client configuration panel for storing image resolution parameters at a client processor corresponding to an avatar of said virtual universe, and

a teleport request control for generating an interface in response to a teleport operation request to a teleportation destination for said avatar, said interface prompting a user to confirm that said image resolution parameters are acceptable for rendering an image of said avatar and said teleportation destination or changing said image resolution parameters, and

configuring at least one data processor of said plurality of data processors to provide

means for rendering an image of said avatar and said teleportation destination in the course of said teleportation operation in accordance with resolution parameters determined using said interface.