System for designing a virtual environment utilizing locales
First Claim
1. A system for generating a virtual environment in which graphical objects are to be depicted within required accuracy regardless of location within said virtual environment and so as to avoid the use of a global coordinate system for said virtual environment, comprising:
- means for generating a number of locales each having a predetermined boundary and origin, each of said locales defining a subdivision of said virtual environment;
means for locating a graphical object in a locale based on positions measured from the origin thereof, such that location and movement of a graphical object can be made with the required precision due to the utilization of a local origin within a locale as opposed to using a single point within said virtual environment, whereby the problems of providing a global coordinate system and positional inaccuracies associated with graphical objects located at large distances from a single origin are eliminated; and
a network having multiple work stations to accommodate multiple designers for said virtual environment, each designer responsible for a different locale, and means for ascertaining when two of said locales overlap and for automatically indicating to said designers to the existence of overlapping regions of said locales, whereby multiple designers can work independently to create different locales within said virtual environment while at the same time being given means for resolving conflicts due to overlap of locales.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A system for virtual environments in which graphical objects are depicted in a space to achieve the required high accuracy regardless of location through establishing locales or subdivisions of the global coordinate system and establishing an origin for each locale, such that the specification of position and movement of a graphical object in the locale can be made with greater precision than using a global coordinate system, thus eliminating the need for high-precision floating point processors or emulation. The system permits designers of virtual environments to work independently on their locales, with overlap being controlled through specifying distance between locale origins as well as relative orientation between the locales. The system also permits ignoring information from non-relevant distant locales to, minimize processing and network bandwidth requirements.
91 Citations
14 Claims
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1. A system for generating a virtual environment in which graphical objects are to be depicted within required accuracy regardless of location within said virtual environment and so as to avoid the use of a global coordinate system for said virtual environment, comprising:
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means for generating a number of locales each having a predetermined boundary and origin, each of said locales defining a subdivision of said virtual environment; means for locating a graphical object in a locale based on positions measured from the origin thereof, such that location and movement of a graphical object can be made with the required precision due to the utilization of a local origin within a locale as opposed to using a single point within said virtual environment, whereby the problems of providing a global coordinate system and positional inaccuracies associated with graphical objects located at large distances from a single origin are eliminated; and a network having multiple work stations to accommodate multiple designers for said virtual environment, each designer responsible for a different locale, and means for ascertaining when two of said locales overlap and for automatically indicating to said designers to the existence of overlapping regions of said locales, whereby multiple designers can work independently to create different locales within said virtual environment while at the same time being given means for resolving conflicts due to overlap of locales. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
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8. A system for generating a virtual environment in which graphical objects are to be depicted within required accuracy regardless of location within said virtual environment and so as to avoid the use of a global coordinate system for said virtual environment, comprising:
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means for generating a number of locales each having a predetermined boundary and origin, each of said locales defining a subdivision of said virtual environment; means for locating a graphical object in a locale based on positions measured from the origin thereof, such that location and movement of a graphical object can be made with the required precision due to the utilization of a local origin within a locale as opposed to using a single point within said virtual environment, said locale being neighbors of other locales, each of said neighboring locales having a set of transformations that relate its coordinate system to that of neighboring locales, whereby the problems of providing a global coordinate system and positional inaccuracies associated with graphical objects located at large distances from a single origin are eliminated; and a network having multiple work stations to accommodate multiple designers for said virtual environment, each designer responsible for a different locale, and means for ascertaining when two of said locales overlap and for automatically indicating to said designers to the existence of overlapping regions of said locales, whereby multiple designers can work independently to create different locales within said virtual environment while at the same time being given means for resolving conflicts due to overlap of locales. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14)
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Specification