Method for moving grouped characters, recording medium and game device

• US 6,525,736 B1
• Filed: 08/03/2000
• Issued: 02/25/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 08/20/1999
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: KOEI Company Limited (Koei Tecmo Holdings Co., Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: KOEI Company Limited (Koei Tecmo Holdings Co., Ltd.)
• Inventors: Tsuda, Junpei, Erikawa, Yoichi
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Phu K.
• Application Number:
  US09/631,993
• Time in Patent Office: 936 Days
• Field of Search: 345/473, 345/474, 345/475, 345/618, 345/619, 345/629
• US Class Current: 345/473
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/426 involving on-screen location information, e.g. screen coordinates of an area at which the player is aiming with a light gun
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/52 involving aspects of the displayed game scene
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/56 Computing the motion of game characters with respect to other game characters, game objects or elements of the game scene, e.g. for simulating the behaviour of a group of virtual soldiers or for path finding
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/822 Strategy games; Role-playing games A63F13/825, A63F13/828 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/833 Hand-to-hand fighting, e.g. martial arts competition A63F13/837 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/66 for rendering three dimensional images
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/6607 for animating game characters, e.g. skeleton kinematics
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/6623 for animating a group of characters
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/8029 Fighting without shooting
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/807 Role playing or strategy games

Abstract

The present invention is to provide a method for moving grouped characters whose interaction can be expressed realistically. When an acceleration for moving a character away from anther character when the another character exists within a short distance region of the character, an acceleration for matching the character with speed and direction of another character moving as so to follow a leader when the another character exists within a middle distance region, and an acceleration for moving the character away from another character when the another character exists within a long distance region are calculated (steps 308 to 312), and a position of the character on a three-dimensional virtual space is calculated on the basis of summed acceleration obtained by sing the calculated accelerations for each of components x, y, z on the three-dimensional virtual (steps 314, 316). Since each character can move while changing its speed and direction according to motion of other characters, motion of each character can be expressed realistically.

Claims

1. A method for moving grouped characters where a plurality of characters which are displayed on a three-dimensional virtual space and in which a leader is included form a group and the grouped characters are moved towards a predetermined target point, comprising the steps of:

calculating a first acceleration for moving a character away from another character when the another character exists within a predetermined first region for the character, and a second acceleration for matching the character with moving speed and direction of another character which is moving so as to follow the leader when the another character exists within a predetermined second region for the character, respectively; and

calculating a position of the character on the three-dimensional virtual space on the basis of summed acceleration obtained by summing the calculated first and second accelerations for each of x, y and z components on the three-dimensional virtual space within a predetermined time.

2. A method for moving grouped characters according to claim 1, wherein the first acceleration changes so as to increase sharply as a distance between the character and the another character becomes small.

3. A method for moving grouped characters according to claim 1, wherein the first and second regions are spheres or circles defined by predetermined vertical angles and predetermined radii centering the character, and the predetermined vertical angle for the first region is larger than that for the second region and the predetermined radius for the former is smaller than that for the latter.

4. A method for moving grouped characters according to claim 1, further comprising a wandering step where the character wanders about within a predetermined region at a predetermined velocity on the basis of predetermined information.

5. A method for moving grouped characters according to claim 4, wherein when the character moves outside the predetermined region, the character moves towards a reference point which is arbitrarily set within the predetermined region at a velocity larger than the predetermined velocity until the character returns within the predetermined region.

6. A method for moving grouped characters according to claim 1, further comprising an agglutinated state canceling step where when the character is agglutinated with another character and put in an agglutinated state in which the character is immovable, an advancing direction of the character is changed so as to cancel the agglutinated state.

7. A method for moving grouped characters according to claim 1, further comprising the step of calculating a third acceleration for moving the character away from another character when the another character exists within a predetermined third region for the character, wherein the calculation of the position of the character on the three-dimensional virtual space is performed on the basis of summed acceleration obtained by summing the calculated first to third accelerations for each of components x, y, z on the three-dimensional virtual space within the predetermined time.

8. A method for moving grouped characters according to claim 7, wherein the first to third regions are spheres or circles defined by predetermined vertical angles or predetermined radii centering the character, the vertical angle for the first region is made larger than that for the second region and the vertical angle for the second region is made larger than that for the third region, and the radius for the first region is made smaller than that for the second and the radius for the second region is made smaller than that for the third region.

9. A method for moving grouped characters according to claim 7, wherein the first acceleration changes so as to increase sharply when a distance between the character and the another character is small, and the third acceleration changes so as to increase at a constant rate when the distance between the character and the another character is small.

10. A method for moving grouped characters according to claim 7, further comprising a wandering step where the character wanders about within a predetermined region at a predetermined velocity on the basis of predetermined information.

11. A method for moving grouped characters according to claim 10, wherein when the character moves outside the predetermined region, the character moves towards a reference point which is arbitrarily set within the predetermined region at a velocity larger than the predetermined velocity until the character returns within the predetermined region.

12. A method for moving grouped characters according to claim 7, further comprising an agglutinated state canceling step where when the character is agglutinated with another character and put in an agglutinated state in which the character is immovable, an advancing direction of the character is changed so as to cancel the agglutinated state.

13. A computer-readable recording medium comprising information that moves grouped characters where a plurality of characters are displayed on a three-dimensional virtual space a leader is included from a group and the groused characters are moved towards a predetermined target point comprising:

information that calculates a first acceleration for moving a character away from another character when the another character exists within a Predetermined first region for the character, and a second acceleration for matching the character with moving speed and direction of another character which is moving so as to follow the leader when the another character exists within a predetermined second region for the character, respectively; and

information that calculates a Position of the character on the three-dimensional virtual space on the basis of summed acceleration obtained by summing the calculated first and second accelerations for each of x, y and z components on the three-dimensional virtual space within a Predetermined time.

14. The computer-readable recording medium of claim 13, further comprising:

information that calculates a third acceleration for moving the character away from another character when the another character exists within a predetermined third region for the character, wherein the calculation of the position of the character on the three-dimensional virtual space is Performed on the basis of summed acceleration obtained by summing the calculated first to third accelerations for each of component x, y, z on the three-dimensional virtual space within the predetermined time.

15. A game device, where a software which is read from a recording medium by operating an inputting section can be loaded to a storing section, and which is provided with a position calculating section, which is called at a predetermined period, for calculating a position of each character of a group of characters which is moved to a predetermined target point, the group being formed with a plurality of characters including a leader, wherein the position calculating section comprises:

a first acceleration calculator for calculating a first acceleration for moving a character away from another character when the another character exists within a predetermined first region for the character;

a second acceleration calculator for calculating a second acceleration for matching the character with moving speed and direction of another character which is moving so as to follow the leader when the another character exists within a predetermined second region for the character; and

a position calculator for calculating a position of the character on a three-dimensional virtual space on the basis of summed acceleration obtained by summing the accelerations calculated by the first and second acceleration calculator for each of x, y and z components on the three-dimensional virtual space.

16. A game device according to claim 15, wherein the first acceleration changes so as to increase sharply as a distance between the character and the another character becomes small.

17. A game device according to claim 15, wherein the first and second regions are spheres or circles defined by predetermined vertical angles and predetermined radii centering the character, and the predetermined vertical angle for the first region is larger than that for the second region and the predetermined radius for the former is smaller than that for the latter.

18. A game device according to claim 15, further comprising a third acceleration calculator for calculating a third acceleration for moving the character away from another character when the another character exists within a predetermined third region for the character, wherein the position calculator calculates the position of the character on the three-dimensional virtual space on the basis of summed acceleration obtained by summing the first to the third accelerations for each of components x, y, z on the three-dimensional virtual space.

19. A game device according to claim 18, wherein the first to third regions are spheres or circles defined by predetermined vertical angles or predetermined radii centering the character, the vertical angle for the first region is made larger than that for the second region and the vertical angle for the second region is made larger than that for the third region, and the radius for the first region is made smaller than that for the second and the radius for the second region is made smaller than that for the third region.

20. A game device according to claim 18, wherein the first acceleration changes so as to increase sharply when a distance between the character and the another character is small, and the third acceleration changes so as to increase at a constant rate when the distance between the character and the another character is small.