Storage medium storing input processing program and input processing apparatus

• US 8,139,027 B2
• Filed: 03/24/2009
• Issued: 03/20/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 03/10/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nintendo Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Nintendo Company Limited
• Inventors: Kaneshige, Tsutomu, Ajioka, Yoshitaka, Mizuki, Kiyoshi, Ebisawa, Yasushi
• Primary Examiner(s): Eisen, Alexander
• Assistant Examiner(s): Lam, Nelson
• Application Number:
  US12/409,836
• Publication Number:
  US 20090187863A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,092 Days
• Field of Search: 345156-167, 345/419, 463 30- 33
• US Class Current: 345/156
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/10 Control of the course of the game, e.g. start, progess, end
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/2145 the surface being also a display device, e.g. touch screens
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/26 having at least one additional display device, e.g. on the game controller or outside a game booth
• 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 13/45 Controlling the progress of the video game
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/525 Changing parameters of virtual cameras
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/92 Video game devices specially adapted to be hand-held while playing
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/95 Storage media specially adapted for storing game information, e.g. video game cartridges
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/1075 using a touch screen
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/1093 using visible light
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/301 using an additional display connected to the game console, e.g. on the controller
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/6045 for mapping control signals received from the input arrangement into game commands
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/6661 for changing the position of the virtual camera
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/04806 Zoom, i.e. interaction techniques or interactors for controlling the zooming operation

Abstract

A game system includes a game apparatus and a controller. For example, whether an operation of waving the controller has been performed is determined based on at least one of a pointed position on a display screen by the controller and acceleration. A wind object is generated and moved in virtual game space according to the waving operation. When it is determined that the wind object has collided with a windmill object disposed in the virtual game space, the windmill object is influenced by the wind and its rotation speed is changed.

Claims

1. A non-transitory storage medium storing an input processing program executable on a computer of an input processing apparatus having a display device for displaying an image obtained by viewing from a virtual camera a three-dimensional space where an object appears, and an input device for pointing a position on a screen of the display device, the input processing program causing the computer to perform:

a first camera setting operation of setting a value of a parameter of the virtual camera;

a first display operation of causing the display device to display the image in accordance with the parameter set by the first camera setting operation;

an object identifying operation of identifying an object pointed to by the input device when the image is displayed by the first display operation;

a second camera setting operation of changing the value of the parameter of the virtual camera so as to zoom in on the identified object;

a second display operation of causing the display device to display the image in accordance with the parameter changed by the second camera setting operation;

a first condition determination operation of determining whether or not a certain time has elapsed after having changed the value of the parameter by the second camera setting operation; and

a third camera setting operation of resetting the value of the parameter of the virtual camera to the value set by the first camera setting operation when it is determined by the first condition determination operation that the certain time has elapsed.

2. The non-statutory storage medium according to claim 1, wherein the program causes the computer to further perform an area setting operation of setting an area for each object, wherein, in the object identifying operation, the object is identified.

3. The non-statutory storage medium according to claim 2, wherein the area set by the area setting operation is a sphere.

4. The non-statutory storage medium according to claim 2, wherein, in the second camera setting operation, a watching point of the virtual camera is caused to coincide with a point on the identified object, and an angle of view of the virtual camera is set based on the area set for the identified object, thereby changing the value of the parameter of the virtual camera.

5. The non-statutory storage medium according to claim 1, wherein the program causes the computer to further perform:

a second condition determining operation of determining whether or not a pointing duration exceeds a first value, the pointing duration being a time for which the pointing operation is continued, when an object is identified by the object identifying operation,

wherein the second camera setting operation changes the value of the parameter when it is determined in the second condition determining operation that the pointing duration exceeds the first value.

6. The non-statutory storage medium according to claim 5, wherein the program causes the computer to further perform:

an operation type determining operation of determining a type of an operation performed by a player based on contents of the operation when the image is displayed by the second display operation;

a parameter changing operation of changing the value of the parameter of the object based on the determined type; and

a second value setting operation of setting the second value based on the value of the parameter changed by the parameter changing operation.

7. The non-statutory storage medium of claim 1 wherein the parameter is one of a camera position, camera angle, an angle of view and a watching point for the virtual camera.

8. An input processing apparatus comprising:

a display device of displaying an image obtained by viewing a three-dimensional space from a virtual camera, an object appearing in the three-dimensional space;

an input device for pointing to a position on a screen of the display device; and

a processor executing a program causing the input processing apparatus to perform;

a first camera setting operation setting a value of a parameter of the virtual camera;

a first display operation causing the display device to display the game image in accordance with the parameter set by the first camera setting operation;

a position detecting operation detecting the position on the screen pointed by an operation performed with respect to the input device when the game image is displayed by the first display operation;

a straight line calculating operation calculating a straight line passing through a position corresponding to the position in the three-dimensional space detected by the position detecting operation and a position of the virtual camera;

an object identifying operation identifying an object, as a target to be zoomed in on, intersecting the straight line;

second camera setting operation changing the value of the parameter of the virtual camera to zoom in and display the identified object;

second display operation causing the display device to display the image in accordance with the parameter changed by the second camera setting operation;

a first condition determination operation determining whether a certain time has elapsed after the value of the parameter is changed in the second camera setting operation; and

a third camera setting operation resetting the changed value of the parameter of the virtual camera to the value set by the first camera setting operation when it is determined by the first condition determination operation that the certain time has elapsed.

9. The input processing apparatus according to claim 8 wherein the parameter is one of a camera position, camera angle, an angle of view and a watching point for the virtual camera.

10. The input processing apparatus according to claim 8, wherein the program causes the computer to further perform an area setting operation setting an area for each object, wherein, in the object identifying operation, the object is identified.

11. The input processing apparatus according to claim 10, wherein the area set by the area setting operation is a sphere.

12. The input processing apparatus according to claim 10, wherein, in the second camera setting operation, a watching point of the virtual camera is caused to coincide with a point on the identified object, and an angle of view of the virtual camera is set based on the area set for the identified object, thereby changing the value of the parameter of the virtual camera.

13. The input processing apparatus according to claim 8, wherein the program causes the computer to further perform:

a second condition determining operation of determining whether a pointing duration exceeds a first value, the pointing duration being a time for which the pointing operation is continued, when an object is identified by the object identifying operation,

wherein the second camera setting operation changes the value of the parameter after the second condition determining operation determines that the pointing duration exceeds the first value.

14. The input processing apparatus according to claim 13, wherein the program causes the computer to further perform:

an operation type determining operation determining a type of an operation performed by a player based on contents of the operation when the image is displayed by the second display operation;

a parameter changing operation changing the value of the parameter of the object based on the determined type; and

a second value setting operation setting the second value based on the value of the parameter changed by the parameter changing operation.

15. A non-transitory storage medium storing an input processing program executable on a computer associated with a display device for presenting an image captured by a virtual camera of a virtual three-dimensional space, and an input device for pointing to a position on the presented image, the input processing program causing the computer to:

set a first value of a parameter of the virtual camera;

cause the display device to present a first image captured by the virtual camera, while the first value is set for the parameter of the camera;

identify a virtual object in the displayed image and pointed to by the input device;

change the parameter of the virtual camera to a second value to cause the virtual camera to zoom in on the identified virtual object;

cause the display device to present a second image captured by the virtual camera while the parameter is set to the second value and wherein the second image is a zoomed-in image of the identified virtual object, and

reset the parameter to the first value after expiration of a certain period starting when the parameter is changed from the first value to the second value.

16. An input processing apparatus comprising:

a display device presenting an image of a three-dimensional virtual space taken from a view point of a virtual camera;

an input device which points to a position on the presented image, and

a processor causing the input processing apparatus to;

set a first value of a parameter of the virtual camera;

cause the display to present a first image generated from the view point of the virtual camera, while the first value is set for the parameter of the camera;

identify a virtual object in the displayed image and pointed to by the input device;

change the parameter of the virtual camera to a second value to cause the virtual camera to zoom in on the identified virtual object;

cause the display device to present a second image generated from the view point of the virtual camera while the parameter is set to the second value and wherein the second image is a zoomed-in image of the identified virtual object, and

reset the parameter to the first value after expiration of a certain period starting when the parameter is changed from the first value to the second value.

17. A method to display images of a virtual three-dimensional space comprising:

set a first value of a parameter of the virtual camera;

display a first image captured by the virtual camera while the parameter is set to the first value;

identify a virtual object that is in the displayed first image and pointed to by an input device;

change the parameter of the virtual camera to a second value to cause the virtual camera to zoom-in on the identified virtual object;

display a second image captured by the virtual camera while the parameter is set to the second value, wherein the second image is a zoomed-in image of the identified virtual object;

reset the parameter to the first value after expiration of a certain period starting when the parameter is changed from the first value to the second value, and

display a third image captured by the virtual camera while the parameter is set to the first value, wherein the third image is displayed after the second image.

18. A system for displaying an image of a three-dimensional virtual space, the system comprising:

a display device which displays an image of a three-dimensional virtual space;

an input device which may be used to select to a position on the presented image, and

an information processing system which;

sets a first value of a parameter of a virtual camera;

generates a first image of the three-dimensional virtual space,

wherein the first image corresponds to a view of the three-dimensional virtual space taken by the virtual camera while the parameter of the camera is set to the first value;

cause the first image to be displayed by the display device;

identify a virtual object in the displayed first image based on the position selected using the input device;

change the parameter of the virtual camera to a second value to cause the virtual camera to zoom-in on the identified virtual object;

cause a second image to be displayed by the display device, wherein the second image corresponds to a view of the three-dimensional virtual space taken by the virtual camera while the parameter is set to the first value and the second image is a zoomed-in image of the identified virtual object,

reset the parameter to the first value after expiration of a certain period starting when the parameter is changed from the first value to the second value, and

cause a third image to be displayed by the display device wherein the third image is captured by the virtual camera while the parameter is set to the first value, and is displayed after the second image.