Entertainment apparatus, object display device, object display method, recording medium and character display method

• US 7,333,108 B2
• Filed: 10/12/2005
• Issued: 02/19/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 11/16/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sony Computer Entertainment Incorporated (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Computer Entertainment Incorporated (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Takahashi, Keijiro
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen; Phu K.
• Application Number:
  US11/249,673
• Publication Number:
  US 20060103646A1
• Time in Patent Office: 860 Days
• Field of Search: 345/419, 345/420, 345/422, 345/426, 345/629, 345/630, 345/632, 345/633, 345/427
• US Class Current: 345/427
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 15/20 Perspective computation

Abstract

An entertainment system 10 has: a depth computing module 210 which computes a viewpoint distance from viewpoint coordinate to an object; a scaling computing module 208 which computes scaling for a unique size of the object based on the viewpoint distance; a model transforming module 206 which multiples the unique size of the object by the scaling, computes the size of the object, and arranges the object in the computed size; a view transforming module 214 which transforms the arranged object to a viewpoint coordinate system; a perspective transformation module 216 which perspective transforms the transformed object to a screen coordinate system relative to an origin point of the viewpoint coordinate system; and an image output module 218 which displays a part of the screen coordinate system where the object has been perspective transformed on a display 12, the system can properly display an object separated from the viewpoint coordinate by a predetermined distance.

Claims

1. An object display device which transforms an object that is arranged in a world coordinate system and has a unique size defined by three-dimensional coordinates to a viewpoint coordinate system where viewpoint coordinates defined by the world coordinate system are an origin point and a direction of a line of sight from a viewpoint coordinate is a z-axis, perspective transforms the transformed object to a screen coordinate system being a plane perpendicular to the z-axis of the viewpoint coordinate system relative to the origin point of the viewpoint coordinate system, and displays a part of the screen coordinate system where the object has been perspective transformed on a display, the object display device comprising:

a depth computing module which computes a viewpoint distance that is a distance from the viewpoint coordinate to the object, or a distance from the viewpoint coordinate to the object in the direction of a line of sight in the world coordinate system;

a scaling computing module which uses a predetermined rule to compute scaling for the unique size of the object based on the viewpoint distance computed by the depth computing module;

an object arranging module which multiplies the unique size of the object by the scaling computed by the scaling computing module to compute the size of the object and arranges the object in the computed size in the world coordinate system;

a view transforming module which transforms the object arranged in the world coordinate system by the object arranging module to the viewpoint coordinate system;

a perspective transformation module which perspective transforms the object transformed by the view transforming module to a screen coordinate system relative to the origin point of the viewpoint coordinate system; and

a display control module which displays a part of the screen coordinate system where the object is perspective transformed by the perspective transformation module on the display.

2. The object display device according to claim 1,

wherein each of the objects is associated with a collision model having a unique size defined by three-dimensional coordinates and determining whether the objects are contacted with each other or overlapped with each other on the world coordinate system, and

the object arranging module further multiplies the unique size of the collision model associated with the object by the scaling multiplied to the unique size of the object by the scaling computing module, computes the size of the collision model associated with the object, and arranges the collision model in the computed size in the world coordinate system.

3. The object display device according to claim 1,

wherein each of the objects is associated with a collision model having a unique size defined by three-dimensional coordinates and determining whether the objects are contacted with each other or overlapped with each other on the world coordinate system,

the scaling computing module further computes scaling for the unique size of the collision model by using a rule different from the rule that is applied to the object associated with the collision model based on the viewpoint distance computed by the depth computing module, and

the object arranging module further multiplies the unique size of the collision model by the scaling for the collision model computed by the scaling computing module, computes the size of the collision model, and arranges the collision model in the computed size in the world coordinate system.

4. The object display device according to claim 1,

wherein the object display device displays multiple objects, each having an attribute, and

the scaling computing module applies a different rule for every attribute held by each of the multiple objects, and computes the scaling for each of the multiple objects.

5. The object display device according to claim 1, wherein the predetermined rule is a rule that the scaling computing module increases the scaling as the viewpoint distance is increased in a range to a first distance where the viewpoint distance is predetermined.

6. The object display device according to claim 5,

wherein the object display device displays multiple objects, each having an attribute, and

the scaling computing module applies a different rule for every attribute held by each of the multiple objects, and computes the scaling for each of the multiple objects.

7. The object display device according to claim 1,

wherein the predetermined rule is a rule that the scaling computing module decreases the scaling to zero as the viewpoint distance is increased in a range from a second distance to a third distance, and computes the scaling as zero in a range where the viewpoint distance is longer than the third distance, and

the object arranging module does not arrange the object for which the scaling is computed as zero by the scaling computing module in the world coordinate system.

8. The object display device according to claim 7,

wherein the object display device displays multiple objects, each having an attribute, and

the scaling computing module applies a different rule for the attribute held by each of the multiple objects, and computes the scaling for each of the multiple objects.

9. An object display method for an object display device which transforms an object that is arranged in a world coordinate system and has a unique size defined by three-dimensional coordinates to a viewpoint coordinate system where viewpoint coordinate defined by the world coordinate system are an origin point and a direction of a line of sight from the viewpoint coordinate is a z-axis, perspective transforms the transformed object to a screen coordinate system being a plane perpendicular to the z-axis of the viewpoint coordinate system relative to the origin point of the viewpoint coordinate system, and displays a part of the screen coordinate system where the object has been perspective transformed on a display,

wherein the object display device implements the steps of:

computing a viewpoint distance that is a distance from the viewpoint coordinate to the object, or a distance from the viewpoint coordinate to the object in the direction of a line of sight in the world coordinate system;

using a predetermined rule to compute scaling for a unique size of the object based on the computed viewpoint distance;

multiplying the unique size of the object by the computed scaling to compute the size of the object and arranging the object in the computed size in the world coordinate system;

transforming the object arranged in the world coordinate system to the viewpoint coordinate system;

perspective transforming the transformed object to a screen coordinate system relative to the origin point of the viewpoint coordinate system; and

displaying a part of the screen coordinate system where the object is perspective transformed on the display.

10. A storage medium readable by an object display device, the storage medium storing a program which controls the object display device which transforms an object that is arranged in a world coordinate system and has a unique size defined by three-dimensional coordinates to a viewpoint coordinate system where viewpoint coordinate defined by the world coordinate system are an origin point and a direction of a line of sight from the viewpoint coordinate is a z-axis, perspective transforms the transformed object to a screen coordinate system being a plane perpendicular to the z-axis of the viewpoint coordinate system relative to the origin point of the viewpoint coordinate system, and displays a part of the screen coordinate system where the object has been perspective transformed on a display,

wherein the object display device implements the steps of:

computing a viewpoint distance that is a distance from the viewpoint coordinate to the object, or a distance from the viewpoint coordinate to the object in the direction of a line of sight in the world coordinate system;

using a predetermined rule to compute scaling for a unique size of the object based on the computed viewpoint distance;

multiplying the unique size of the object by the computed scaling to compute the size of the object and arranging the object in the computed size in the world coordinate system;

transforming the object arranged in the world coordinate system to the viewpoint coordinate system;

perspective transforming the transformed object to a screen coordinate system relative to the origin point of the viewpoint coordinate system; and

displaying a part of the screen coordinate system where the object is perspective transformed on the display.

11. An entertainment apparatus which implements a game having a capability that changes coordinates of an object arranged in a world coordinate system in accordance with a manipulation input by a player, perspective transforms the changed object, and displays it on a display, the entertainment apparatus comprising:

an input module which accepts a manipulation from the player;

an object control module which changes the coordinates of the object in the world coordinate system in accordance with the manipulation from the player accepted by the input module;

a view computing module which computes viewpoint coordinate in the world coordinate system and a direction of a line of sight from the viewpoint coordinate in accordance with the manipulation from the player accepted by the input module;

a model data storing module which stores a unique size defined by three-dimensional coordinates for every object; and

an object display module which transforms an object with a unique size to be arranged in the world coordinate system to a viewpoint coordinate system where the viewpoint coordinate computed by the view computing module are an origin point and the direction of a line of sight computed by the view computing module is a z-axis, perspective transforms the transformed object to a screen coordinate system being a plane perpendicular to the z-axis of the viewpoint coordinate system relative to the origin point of the viewpoint coordinate system, and displays a part of the screen coordinate system where the object has been perspective transformed on a display,

wherein the object display module includes;

a depth computing module which computes a viewpoint distance that is a distance from the viewpoint coordinate to the object, or a distance from the viewpoint coordinate to the object in the direction of a line of sight in the world coordinate system;

a scaling computing module which uses a predetermined rule to compute scaling for a unique size of the object based on the viewpoint distance computed by the depth computing module;

an object arranging module which multiplies the unique size of the object by the scaling computed by the scaling computing module to compute the size of the object and arranges the object in the computed size in the world coordinate system;

a view transforming module which transforms the object arranged in the world coordinate system by the object arranging module to the viewpoint coordinate system;

a perspective transformation module which perspective transforms the object transformed by the view transforming module to a screen coordinate system relative to the origin point of the viewpoint coordinate system; and

a display control module which displays a part of the screen coordinate system where the object is perspective transformed by the perspective transformation module on the display.