Display method and apparatus for displaying probability controlled orders of dynamic movements

• US 6,749,508 B2
• Filed: 10/29/2001
• Issued: 06/15/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 11/02/2000
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Konami Corporation (Konami Holdings Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Konami Corporation (Konami Holdings Corp.)
• Inventors: Kohira, Toshio, Shinkai, Tatsuya
• Primary Examiner(s): Harrison, Jessica
• Assistant Examiner(s): Coburn, Corbett B
• Application Number:
  US10/005,589
• Publication Number:
  US 20020052236A1
• Time in Patent Office: 960 Days
• Field of Search: 463/31, 345/473-475
• US Class Current: 463/31
• 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 13/56 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 13/807 Gliding or sliding on surfaces, e.g. using skis, skates or boards
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/6607 for animating game characters, e.g. skeleton kinematics
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/8041 Skating using skis, skates or board

Abstract

A character in a video game space is represented realistically and the demo screen is made enjoyable for a user. A start demo display processing unit 100 comprises a motion order assigning unit 101 which refers to any of a plurality of motion probability setting tables 111 based on the player selection in the player setting unit 122 and randomly assigns, based on the probability, the order of arrangement for the motions, a motion reproduction assigning unit 102 for assigning the reproduction of motion in this order to the image processing unit 11, and a motion interpolation assigning unit 103 for assigning to the image processing unit 11 the interpolation to the next motion close to completion of a motion. In the image processing unit 11, the motion image data 112 that have been stored are selectively referenced and processing for polygon drawing is conducted based on the assignment from the motion reproduction assigning unit 102 and the like, and a demo screen containing motions of the player which differ for each reproduction are displayed on the display device 2.

Claims

1. A computer-readable recording medium storing a display control program which controls a demo screen including a character, said display control program comprising the steps of:

setting a correspondence between each of M dynamic images, corresponding to mutually different motions of the character and serving as portions of the demo screen, and a probability relating a chance of appearance of the dynamic images;

assigning an order for arrangement of N dynamic images based on said probability; and

displaying said N dynamic images according to the assigned order;

wherein said order assignment is conducted by setting that M is no less than N, specifying, based on said probability, a dynamic image that appears in the K-th order among (M−

K+1) dynamic images, which exclude the dynamic images for which the order of appearance has already been specified, and successively repeating said specifying step, while increasing K from 1 to N.

2. The computer-readable recording medium according to claim 1, wherein said demo screen is displayed prior to each of video games simulating a plurality of types of sport games and said correspondence is set so as to be different for each of said plurality of types of sport games.

3. The computer-readable recording medium according to claim 2, wherein any of a plurality of types of characters is specified according to the user'"'"'s input and said correspondence is set so as to be different for each of said plurality of types of characters.

4. The computer-readable recording medium according to claim 1, wherein any of a plurality of types of characters is specified according to the user'"'"'s input and said correspondence is set so as to be different for each of said plurality of types of characters.

5. A display method for displaying an object on a display, the method comprising the steps of:

storing motion image data for generating M types of motions of the object on the display;

storing probabilities which relate a chance of appearance of each of said M types of motions;

assigning an order for arrangement of N number of said M types of motions based on said probabilities; and

displaying said N number of said M types of motions according to the order for arrangement by using said motion image data to generate said N number of said M types of motions according to the order for arrangement, wherein, M is equal to or greater than N, assigning the order for arrangement is done successively for K positions where K increments from 1 to N, and a K-th order one of said N number of said M types of motions is determined based on said probabilities of said M types of motions excluding ones of said M types of motions whose order is previously determined.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein:

the object is displayed moving in a plurality of contexts;

the probabilities are stored in sets corresponding to ones the plurality of contexts; and

the probabilities differ from set to set.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein the plurality of contexts correspond to a plurality of computer games to be executed.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein:

the object is selected from a plurality of objects;

the probabilities are stored in sets corresponding to ones the plurality of plurality of objects; and

the probabilities differ from set to set of the objects.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein the plurality of objects correspond to a plurality of characters in the computer games to be executed.

10. The method of claim 5 wherein:

the object is selected from a plurality of objects;

the probabilities are stored in sets corresponding to ones the plurality of plurality of objects; and

the probabilities differ from set to set of the objects.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein the plurality of objects correspond to a plurality of characters in the computer games to be executed.