Decoupling of the graphical presentation of a game from the presentation logic

• US 7,837,556 B2
• Filed: 05/02/2005
• Issued: 11/23/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 09/28/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: IGT (International Game Technology)
• Original Assignee: IGT (International Game Technology)
• Inventors: LeMay, Steven G., Benbrahim, Jamal, Beaulieu, Nicole M., Schlottmann, Greg A., Breckner, Robert E., Nelson, Dwayne R., Palchetti, Johnny
• Primary Examiner(s): Laneau; Ronald
• Application Number:
  US11/120,908
• Publication Number:
  US 20050192092A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,031 Days
• Field of Search: 463/1, 463 16- 22, 463 30- 34, 463/43, 463 10- 13, 345/629, 345/630, 345/636, 345/473
• US Class Current: 463/30
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/6018 where the game content is authored by the player, e.g. level editor or by game device at runtime, e.g. level is created from music data on CD
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/32 for games, toys, sports, or amusements
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/323 wherein the player is informed, e.g. advertisements, odds, instructions

Abstract

A disclosed gaming machine is designed to execute a modular gaming software architecture. A plurality of gaming software modules may be loaded into RAM on the gaming machine and executed to play a game of chance. Many of the gaming software modules are designed to communicate via application program interfaces so that the logic in many of the gaming software modules may be designed independently of each other. In particular, the modular gaming software architecture allows presentation state logic to be decoupled from implementations of presentation components, such as graphical, audio and gaming device components, used in a presentation of the game of chance on a gaming machine.

Claims

1. A method of generating a presentation component used in a play of a plurality of games of chance on a gaming machine, the method comprising:

receiving a request to generate a first presentation component for a presentation state in a first game of chance played on the gaming machine;

receiving a request to generate a second presentation component in a second game of chance played on the gaming machine, wherein the second game of chance is different than the first game of chance;

executing a first set of one or more method sequences to generate the first presentation component;

executing a second set of one or more method sequences to generate the second presentation component, wherein the one or more method sequences of the first set comprises one or more input parameters that are used to modify the first presentation component generated by the one or more method sequences of the first set, and the one or more method sequences of the second set comprises one or more input parameters that are used to modify the second presentation component generated by the one or more method sequences of the second set;

establishing communication between the first or second presentation component and a gaming software module via one or more application program interfaces;

generating the first and second games of chance on the gaming machine by using the same game flow logic with the first and second presentation components; and

displaying the first or second presentation component on the gaming machine.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first or second presentation component is at least one of a graphical component, an audio component, a gaming device component and combinations thereof.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the graphical component is an animation sequence.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the gaming machine includes a display screen, an audio output device, a lighting device, a bonus wheel, a mechanical reel, a tactile feedback device and a scent generation device.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

sending a message acknowledging the completion of a presentation of the first or second presentation component.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the gaming software module is a gaming operating system software module that loads and unloads gaming software modules into a random access memory (RAM) from a memory device and controls the play of the first and second games of chance.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the gaming software module is a game flow software module that generates the game flow for the first and second games of chance.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the presentation state comprises a plurality of presentation substates.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

executing one or more method sequences to generate a presentation component for at least one of the presentation substates.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the first or second presentation component is designed to stimulate a game player'"'"'s sight, hearing, touch, smell, taste and combinations thereof.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

specifying the input parameters for the one or more method sequences of the first set;

executing the one or more method sequences of the first set using the input parameters of the first set to generate the first presentation component;

specifying the input parameters for the one or more method sequences of the second set; and

executing the one or more method sequences of the second set using the input parameters of the second set to generate the second presentation component.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

operating on a model file using the one or more method sequences of the first set to generate the first presentation component.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the model file comprises graphical components, audio components, gaming device components and combinations thereof.

14. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

selecting a first model file;

operating on the first model file using the one or more method sequences of the first set to generate the first presentation component;

selecting a second model file; and

operating on the second model file using the one or more method sequences of the second set to generate the second presentation component.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more method sequences of the first set or the one or more method sequences of the second set is used to change a property of a graphical object displayed on a display screen of the gaming machine.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the property is a color, a size, a position, a shading and a texture.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more method sequences of the first set or the one or more method sequences of the second set is used to generate an animation sequence.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the one or more method sequences of the first set or the one or more method sequences of the second set is used to generate a sequence of video frames that provide an animated transition between a first video frame and a second video frame.

19. The method of claim 1, wherein the first game of chance or the second game of chance is selected from a group consisting of slot games, poker games, pachinko games, multiple hand poker games, pai-gow poker games, blackjack games, keno games, bingo games, roulette games, craps games, checkers, board games and card games.

20. A presentation design system for designing presentation components for a plurality of games of chance on a gaming machine, said presentation design system comprising:

a presentation module design interface configured to generate a first presentation module used to generate a first game of chance and a second presentation module used to generate a second game of chance, wherein the first and second presentation modules are used with the same game flow logic, with the first game of chance being different than the second game of chance;

a gaming simulator configured to generate;

     1) a plurality of game states and presentation states for the first and second games of chance and

     2) a plurality of presentation components for each presentation of the presentation states wherein at least two of the presentation components are generated using the first and second presentation modules, wherein the first presentation module includes logic for one or more method sequences of a first set executed to generate a first one of the presentation components and the second presentation module includes logic for one or more method sequences of a second set executed to generate a second one of the presentation components, wherein the one or more method sequences of the first set comprises one or more input parameters that are used to modify the first presentation component generated by the one or more method sequences of the first set, and the one or more method sequences of the second set comprises one or more input parameters that are used to modify the second presentation component generated by the one or more method sequences of the second set; and

a presentation interface configured to output the presentation components.

21. The presentation design system of claim 20, wherein the presentation interface comprises one or more of display devices, audio output devices, light panels, bonus wheels, kinetic feedback devices, scent generation devices and combinations thereof.

22. The presentation design system of claim 20, wherein the gaming simulator comprises:

1) a gaming operating system comprising logic configured to load and unload gaming software modules into a random access memory (RAM) from a memory device and control the play of the first and second games of chance;

     2) a set of presentation logic modules comprising logic configured to generate presentations for the first and second games of chance; and

     3) game flow logic software module comprising logic configured to generate a sequence of game states used to play the first and second games of chance.

23. The presentation design system of claim 20, wherein each of the first and second games of chance is selected from a group consisting of slot games, poker games, pachinko games, multiple hand poker games, pai-gow poker games, blackjack games, keno games, bingo games, roulette games, craps games, checkers, board games and card games.

24. The presentation design system of claim 20, further comprising:

graphical design software configured to generate a graphical model used in the first or second presentation module.

25. The presentation design system of claim 20, wherein the first or second presentation module comprises one or more model files and one or more script files with method sequences that operate on the one or more model files.

26. The presentation design system of claim 20, wherein the first presentation module generates the first presentation component for the first game of chance on the gaming machine and the second presentation module generates the second presentation component for the second game of chance on the game machine.

27. The presentation design system of claim 20, wherein the first presentation component is designed to stimulate a game player'"'"'s sight, hearing, touch, smell, taste and combinations thereof while the game player is playing the first game of chance on the gaming machine, and the second presentation component is designed to stimulate the game player'"'"'s sight, hearing, touch, smell, taste and combinations thereof while the game player is playing the second game of chance on the gaming machine.

28. A presentation design system for designing presentation components for a game of chance on a gaming machine, said presentation design system comprising:

a presentation module design interface configured to generate a presentation module for a game of chance;

a gaming simulator configured to generate;

     1) a plurality of game states and presentation states for the game of chance and

     2) a plurality of presentation components for each presentation state wherein at least one of the presentation components is generated using the presentation module; and

a presentation interface configured to output the presentation components, wherein the presentation module design interface comprises a set of input mechanisms and a set of output mechanisms configured to

     1) complete method sequence templates used to generate a method sequence,

     2) select methods used to generate the method sequence from a method library,

     3) select graphical models from a graphical model library,

     4) select sounds from a sound library,

     5) select gaming devices from a gaming device model library,

     6) select scents from a scent library,

     7) select tastes from a taste library,

     8) select tactile feedback from a tactile feedback library,

     9) select an animation sequence from an animation sequence library and

     10) convert model formats using a model format converters.