RENDERING CONTROL APPARATUS, CONTROL METHOD THEREOF, RECORDING MEDIUM, RENDERING SERVER, AND RENDERING SYSTEM

• US 20120299938A1
• Filed: 04/23/2012
• Published: 11/29/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 05/25/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Square Enix Holdings Co., Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Square Enix Holdings Co., Ltd.
• Inventors: IWASAKI, Tetsuji
• Granted Patent: US 8,698,813 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/501
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/213 comprising photodetecting means, e.g. cameras, photodiodes or infrared cells A63F13/219, A63F13/655 take precedence
• 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 13/35 Details of 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 13/525 Changing parameters of virtual cameras
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/63 by the player, e.g. authoring using a level editor
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/655 by importing photos, e.g. of the player
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/538 for performing operations on behalf of the game client, e.g. rendering
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/5593 involving scheduling aspects
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/6615 using models with different levels of detail [LOD]
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/6661 for changing the position of the virtual camera
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 1/20 Processor architectures; Processor configuration, e.g. pipelining
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 15/005 General purpose rendering architectures

Abstract

For each of a plurality of rendering objects to be used to generate a screen to be provided for a client device, identification information and detailed information indicating data necessary for rendering are acquired. By referring to detailed information of each of the plurality of rendering objects, the rendering order of all the rendering objects is determined so as to allocate consecutive ordinal numbers to rendering objects having at least partial data indicated by detailed information in common. A rendering control apparatus transfers data, indicated by detailed information of a rendering object in accordance with the rendering order, to a GPU. In this process, among data indicated by detailed information of rendering objects which are continuous in the rendering order, only data which is not the same as data already transferred to the GPU is read out and transferred.

Claims

1. A rendering control apparatus comprising:

an acquisition unit configured to acquire information of a plurality of rendering objects to be used to generate a screen to be provided for a client device, and store the information in a storage unit, wherein the information of each rendering object includes identification information of the rendering object, and detailed information indicating data necessary to render the rendering object;

a determination unit configured to refer to detailed information of each of the plurality of rendering objects acquired by said acquisition unit, and determine a rendering order of the plurality of rendering objects; and

a transfer unit configured to acquire identification information of a rendering object in accordance with the rendering order determined by said determination unit, read out data indicated by detailed information of a rendering object corresponding to the identification information from a data storage unit, and transfer the data to a rendering unit configured to generate a screen by sequentially rendering the plurality of rendering objects,

wherein said determination unit allocates consecutive ordinal numbers as a rendering order of the rendering objects, to the plurality of rendering objects, which have at least partial data indicated by detailed information in common, and

when performing rendering in accordance with the rendering order, said transfer unit reads out, from said data storage unit, data which is not the same as data already transferred to said rendering unit, among the data indicated by the detailed information of the rendering objects which are continuous in the rendering order, and transfers the readout data.

2. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

detailed information of a rendering object indicates a plurality of attribute data necessary to render the rendering object, and

said determination unit preferentially allocates ordinal numbers as a rendering order of the rendering objects, to the plurality of rendering objects, which have high-priority attribute data indicated by detailed information in common.

3. The apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the priority is set such that when a plurality of attribute data indicated by detailed information are read out from said data storage unit and expanded in an expansion area, a high priority is given to an attribute whose data occupies a large area.

4. The apparatus according to claim 2, wherein said determination unit preferentially allocates ordinal numbers as a rendering order of the rendering objects, to the plurality of rendering objects, in which the number of common attribute data indicated by the detailed information is large.

5. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the detailed information of a rendering object indicates at least one of texture data, model data, a rendering program, and data for rendering calculations.

6. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

said acquisition unit acquires information of the rendering objects to be used to generate screens to be provided for a plurality of client devices, and

said determination unit determines a rendering order of all rendering objects to be used to generate screens to be provided for the plurality of client devices.

8. A recording medium recording a program which causes a computer to function as each unit of a rendering control apparatus cited in claim 1.

9. A rendering server comprising a rendering control apparatus cited in claim 1.

7. A control method of a rendering control apparatus, comprising:

an acquisition step of acquiring information of a plurality of rendering objects to be used to generate a screen to be provided for a client device, and storing the information in a storage unit, wherein the information of each rendering object includes identification information of the rendering object, and detailed information indicating data necessary to render the rendering object;

a determination step of referring to detailed information of each of the plurality of rendering objects acquired in the acquisition step, and determining a rendering order of the plurality of rendering objects; and

a transfer step of acquiring identification information of a rendering object in accordance with the rendering order determined in the determination step, reading out data indicated by detailed information of a rendering object corresponding to the identification information from a data storage unit, and transferring the data to a rendering unit configured to generate a screen by sequentially rendering the plurality of rendering objects,

wherein in the determination step, consecutive ordinal numbers as a rendering order are allocated to the rendering objects, among the plurality of rendering objects, which have at least partial data indicated by detailed information in common, and

in the transfer step, when performing rendering in accordance with the rendering order, data which is not the same as data already transferred to the rendering unit, among the data indicated by the detailed information of the rendering objects which are continuous in the rendering order, is read out from the data storage unit and transferred.

10. A rendering system which provides a screen generated by a rendering server for each of one or more client devices connected to a center server,

said center server comprising:

a reception unit configured to receive input data from said one or more client devices;

a specifying unit configured to specify, for each of said one or more client devices, a rendering object contained in a screen to be provided for the client device, in accordance with the input data received by said reception unit;

a transmission unit configured to transmit, to said rendering server, information of a plurality of rendering objects contained in a screen to be provided for said one or more client devices, which are specified by said specifying unit, wherein information of each rendering object includes identification information of the rendering object, and detailed information indicating data necessary to render the rendering object; and

a distribution unit configured to receive a screen to be provided for each of said one or more client devices, which is rendered by said rendering server, and distribute the screen to a corresponding client device, and

said rendering server comprising;

an acquisition unit configured to acquire information of the plurality of rendering objects transmitted by said transmission unit, and store the information in a storage unit;

a rendering unit configured to render the plurality of rendering objects in order, and generate a screen to be provided for each of said one or more client devices;

a determination unit configured to refer to detailed information of each of the plurality of rendering objects acquired by said acquisition unit, and determine a rendering order of the plurality of rendering objects; and

a transfer unit configured to acquire identification information of a rendering object in accordance with the rendering order determined by said determination unit, read out data indicated by detailed information of a rendering object corresponding to the identification information from a data storage unit, and transfer the data to said rendering unit,

wherein said determination unit allocates consecutive ordinal numbers as a rendering order of the rendering objects, to the plurality of rendering objects, which have at least partial data indicated by detailed information in common, and

when performing rendering in accordance with the rendering order, said transfer unit reads out, from said data storage unit, data which is not the same as data already transferred to said rendering unit, among the data indicated by the detailed information of the rendering objects which are continuous in the rendering order, and transfers the readout data.

11. The system according to claim 10, wherein

detailed information of a rendering object indicates a plurality of attribute data necessary to render the rendering object, and

said determination unit preferentially allocates ordinal numbers as a rendering order of the rendering objects, to the plurality of rendering objects, which have high-priority attribute data indicated by detailed information in common.

12. The system according to claim 11, wherein the priority is set such that when a plurality of attribute data indicated by detailed information are read out from said data storage unit and expanded in an expansion area, a high priority is given to an attribute whose data occupies a large area.

13. The system according to claim 11, wherein said determination unit preferentially allocates ordinal numbers as a rendering order of the rendering objects, to the plurality of rendering objects, in which the number of common attribute data indicated by the detailed information is large.

14. The system according to claim 10, wherein the detailed information of a rendering object indicates at least one of texture data, model data, a rendering program, and data for rendering calculations.

15. The system according to claim 10, wherein said specifying unit refers to a camera parameter which changes in accordance with the input data received by said reception unit and defines a screen of each of said one or more client devices, classifies client devices for which rendering ranges specified by the camera parameter overlap each other by a predetermined amount into one group, and specifies the rendering objects contained in screens to be provided for the client devices in the group.

16. The system according to claim 10, wherein said specifying unit refers to camera coordinates which change in accordance with the input data received by said reception unit and define a screen of each of said one or more client devices, classifies client devices for which the camera coordinates fall within a predetermined distance into one group, and specifies the rendering objects contained in screens to be provided for the client devices in the group.

17. The system according to claim 10, wherein

said acquisition unit acquires the information of the rendering objects to be used to generate screens to be provided for a plurality of client devices,

said determination unit determines a rendering order of all rendering objects to be used to generate screens to be provided for the plurality of client devices, and

said rendering unit simultaneously renders screens to be provided for the plurality of client devices.