3-D text in a gaming machine

• US 8,012,019 B2
• Filed: 04/11/2008
• Issued: 09/06/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 08/09/2001
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: IGT (International Game Technology)
• Original Assignee: IGT (International Game Technology)
• Inventors: Escalera, Anthony, Antonov, Serge, LeMay, Steven G., Schlottmann, Greg A., Breckner, Robert E., Kryuchkov, Alexey
• Primary Examiner(s): Bumgarner; Melba
• Assistant Examiner(s): Hylinski; Steven J.
• Application Number:
  US12/101,921
• Publication Number:
  US 20080188304A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,243 Days
• Field of Search: 463 31- 32
• US Class Current: 463/32
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/66 for rendering three dimensional images
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 9/24 Electric games; Games using electronic circuits not otherwise provided for video games A63F13/00; computerized gaming systems G07F17/32
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/3211 Display means

Abstract

Methods and apparatus on a gaming machine for presenting a plurality of game outcome presentations derived from one or more virtual 3-D gaming environments stored on the gaming machine are described. While a game of chance is being played on the gaming machine, two-dimensional images derived from a 3-D object in the 3-D gaming environment may be rendered to a display screen on the gaming machine in real-time as part of a game outcome presentation. The 3-D objects in the 3-D gaming environment may include 3-D texts objects that are used to display text to the display screen of the gaming machine as part of the game outcome presentation. Apparatus and methods are described for generating and displaying information in a textual format that is compatible with a 3-D graphical rendering system. In particular, font generation and typesetting methods that are applicable in a 3-D gaming environment are described.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving a wager for a game of chance on a gaming machine, said gaming machine controlled by a master gaming controller and comprising the master gaming controller, a display device, a memory device, and a 3-D graphical rendering system, said gaming machine storing, in the memory device;

     1) a font texture for representing a plurality of characters associated with a particular font style,

     2) one or more font parameters for defining global characteristics of the plurality of characters in the font texture; and

     3) one or more character parameters for defining characteristics of each character in the font texture;

determining a game outcome presentation for the game of chance, said game outcome presentation comprising a text string, corresponding to a game outcome, the text string including a plurality of elements for display on the display device;

generating a plurality of 3-D objects wherein each one of the plurality of 3-D objects corresponds to a respective one of the plurality of elements in the text string and wherein said generating comprises for each of the elements in the text string, i) locating in the font texture a first texture representing a first character corresponding to a first element of the text string;

ii) determining vertices for a first 3-D object defined in a 3-D coordinate system associated with the 3-D graphical rendering system using the font parameters and character parameters associated with the first texture; and

iii) mapping the first texture to the first 3-D object;

determining a location of each of the plurality of 3-D objects relative to one another as defined in the 3-D coordinate system, by applying a plurality of typesetting rules to improve a visual quality of the text string rendered from the plurality of 3-D objects and their associated textures, wherein each of the plurality of typesetting rules is selected from the group consisting of;

(i) applying hinting to small scale characters;

(ii) adjusting the color of text to be rendered;

(iii) insuring that each glyph is readable;

(iv) determining the spacing of characters and words to maximize spacing regularity, (v) adjusting the weight of the strokes used to draw the glyphs;

(vi) adjusting the vertical and horizontal alignments of characters in a text string;

rendering the text string using the 3-D graphical rendering system;

displaying the rendered text string on the display device;

displaying the game outcome using the 3-D graphical rendering system to the display device.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the game of chance is selected from the group consisting of a slot game, a keno game, a poker game, a pachinko game, a video black jack game, a bingo game, a baccarat game, a roulette game, a dice game and a card game.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the text string is rendered to convey textual information associated with one or more of i) a game outcome presentation for the game of chance, ii) a gaming maintenance operation, iii) an attract mode feature, iv) a promotional feature, v) casino information, or vi) a bonus game presentation.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the applying the plurality of typesetting rules comprises justifying the 3-D objects representing the text string.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the applying the plurality of typesetting rules comprises centering the 3-D objects representing the text string.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the applying the plurality of typesetting rules comprises adjusting dimensions of strokes in the first texture associated with the first character including changing one or more of pixels or texels in the first texture.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the applying the plurality of typesetting rules comprises aligning one or more of the 3-D objects representing the text string with a baseline.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the applying the plurality of typesetting rules comprises positioning the 3-D objects representing the text string along two or more lines.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the applying the plurality of typesetting rules comprises adjusting a spacing between two or more lines along which the 3-D objects representing the text string are aligned.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the applying the plurality of typesetting rules comprises adjusting the vertical or horizontal alignment of the 3-D objects representing the text string.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising scaling the one or more 3-D objects to fit within a boundary defined in the 3-D coordinate system.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the 3-D objects comprise two triangular polygons.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising rendering the text string in a sequence of images wherein one or more of a shape, a position and an angular orientation of the 3-D objects representing the text string change in the sequence of images.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the font parameters are one or more of a font name, a font style, a font typeface, a font weight, a font baseline, a font ascent, a font descent, a font slant, a font maximum height, a font maximum width and a number of characters in the font texture.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the character parameters are one or more of a character height, a character width, a character ascent, a character descent, a character origin, character information for indicating where to place an adjacent character, a character shape or character location coordinates for locating the character in the font texture.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein the font texture comprises a bit map.