Method for extending a virtual environment through registration

• US 8,957,914 B2
• Filed: 07/25/2008
• Issued: 02/17/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 07/25/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Dolbier, George R., Hamilton, Rick A. II, Katz, Neil A., O'Connell, Brian M.
• Primary Examiner(s): Zarka, David
• Assistant Examiner(s): NGUYEN, PHONG X
• Application Number:
  US12/179,798
• Publication Number:
  US 20100020100A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,398 Days
• Field of Search: 715/706, 715/757
• US Class Current: 345/629
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/10 Control of the course of the game, e.g. start, progess, end
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/12 involving interaction between a plurality of game devices, e.g. transmisison or distribution systems protocols for networked virtual reality, networked games H04L29/06034
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/30 Interconnection arrangements between game servers and game devices; Interconnection arrangements between game devices; Interconnection arrangements between game servers
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/352 involving special game server arrangements, e.g. regional servers connected to a national server or a plurality of servers managing partitions of the game world
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/45 Controlling the progress of the video game
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/60 Generating or modifying game content before or while executing the game program, e.g. authoring tools specially adapted for game development or game-integrated level editor
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/513 server hierarchy, e.g. local, regional, national or dedicated for different tasks, e.g. authenticating, billing
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/5533 using program state or machine event data, e.g. server keeps track of the state of multiple players on in a multiple player game
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/6009 for importing or creating game content, e.g. authoring tools during game development, adapting content to different platforms, use of a scripting language to create content
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/8082 Virtual reality
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04815 Interaction with a metaphor-based environment or interaction object displayed as three-dimensional, e.g. changing the user viewpoint with respect to the environment or object
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0484 for the control of specific functions or operations, e.g. selecting or manipulating an object, an image or a displayed text element, setting a parameter value or selecting a range
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/131 Protocols for games, networked simulations or virtual reality

Abstract

A method for providing virtual world functionality to a user of a base virtual world having base virtual world functionality and a base world list of base virtual world users, includes providing a virtual world layer, communicating to the base virtual world that the virtual world layer will overlay the base virtual world and adding the virtual world layer to the base world list in order to register the virtual world layer with the base virtual world.

Claims

1. A method for extending base virtual world functionality of a base virtual world, comprising:

coupling a virtual world layer to the base virtual world via a registration process that registers objects, textures, and scripts that describe the virtual world layer with the base virtual world to provide an extended base virtual world functionality through implementation of one or more virtual world infrastructures, wherein the registration process adds the virtual world layer to a user list of the base virtual world, wherein the base virtual world and the virtual world layer maintain segregated user lists and the base virtual world does not require knowledge of a user list of the virtual world layer;

coupling a further virtual world layer to the virtual world layer which adds the further virtual world layer to the user list of the base virtual world; and

providing access to the extended base virtual world functionality by way of any of the virtual world layer and the further virtual world layer.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

communicating to the base virtual world a base virtual world functionality to be augmented by the virtual world layer.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

executing the base virtual world functionality by the virtual world layer.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

coupling the virtual world layer to a virtual world layer user community; and

providing the virtual world layer user community with access to the base virtual world functionality and a virtual world layer functionality by way of the virtual world layer.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the base virtual world and the virtual world layer each have a respective user community that are segregated from each other.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

notifying the base virtual world which base virtual world object the virtual world layer will use to provide a used base virtual world object.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

managing the used base virtual world object by the virtual world layer to provide a layer managed base virtual world object.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

altering a texture of the layer managed base virtual world object.

9. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

altering a persistence of the layer managed base virtual world object.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

notifying the virtual world layer which base virtual world objects are available to the virtual world layer.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

notifying the base virtual world which base virtual world data the virtual world layer will use to provide used base virtual world data.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the registration process includes a base virtual world registration list that comprises at least users of the base virtual world and the registered virtual world layer.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the base virtual world operates on a base virtual world infrastructure, the virtual world layer operates on a virtual world layer infrastructure, and the base virtual world infrastructure is separate from the virtual world layer infrastructure.

14. The method for providing virtual world functionality to a user of claim 1, further comprising:

managing a state of a base virtual world object by the base virtual world to provide a base managed object;

managing a state of a virtual world layer object by the virtual world layer to provide a layer managed object;

managing a state of the base managed object by the virtual world layer to provide a further managed object; and

providing user access to any of the base managed object, the layer managed object, and the further managed object by the virtual world layer.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the further managed object is independent of any instantiation of the base virtual world object in the virtual world layer.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein the layer managed object is independent of any instantiation of the virtual world layer object in the base virtual world.

17. The method of claim 14, wherein a further managed state of the further managed object comprises an object persistence.