Computer graphics processing and selective visual display system – Computer graphics processing – Animation
Reexamination Certificate
1999-01-22
2002-05-14
Nguyen, Phu K. (Department: 2671)
Computer graphics processing and selective visual display system
Computer graphics processing
Animation
Reexamination Certificate
active
06388667
ABSTRACT:
TECHNICAL FIELD
This invention relates to an image generation device and an information storage medium.
BACKGROUND ART
In game machines and computer graphics, a virtual world configured of a plurality of display objects or the like is constructed with the intention of generating an image that is highly realistic, by creating a field-of-view image within that virtual world.
However, in image generation techniques up to the present, the movements and other actions of display objects in a virtual world must be under the direct control of an application program, increasing the load on the author of the application program, and thus making it extremely difficult to construct a large-scale virtual world that has the complications of a real world.
Taking a three-dimensional game machine as an example, the application program has to provide all control, such as that over the three-dimensional coordinates of display objects disposed within the virtual world, which imposes restrictions on the number of display objects that can be disposed in the virtual world and the complexity of their movements and interactions. This is insufficient for implementing a virtual reality.
For that reason, the world is waiting for the appearance of software for constructing and manipulating a virtual world, inserted between the low-level program (OS) secreted within the hardware, or a graphics library, and the application program. In this case, the software is preferably highly generic, which does not need to be provided for each application program. In other words, it is preferable that a world constructed on this software and the structural components thereof maintain compatibility, even between different application programs. It is also preferable that this software is capable of assimilating any hardware differences, even if it is ported to other platforms (systems).
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
This invention was devised in the light of the above technical problems and has as an objective thereof the provision of an image generation device and information storage medium that can simplify the construction of a virtual world for image generation.
In order to solve the above described problems, there is provided an image generation device comprising: actor management means for managing at least one of the generation, activation, execution per unit time, sleep, halt, restart and termination of an actor which is an instance of a class and is also a process that can be executed in parallel; and means for generating an image including a plurality of display objects, each represented by the actor.
This invention makes it possible for the actor management means to manage the generation, activation, execution per unit time, and the like of an actor that has both of the characteristic of multi-processing and characteristic of an instance of a class. It also enables the generation of an image that comprises display objects represented by actors. Since this invention makes it possible for the actor management means to manage the execution per unit time (for example, every frame or every field) of actors, simply launching actors into a virtual world causes them to start to move around and perform their given roles. Since actors also have the characteristic of multi-processes, a plurality of actors can be operated in parallel within the virtual world and each actor can perform the task it is responsible for. This makes it possible to simplify the construction of a virtual world in which a large number of display objects appear. With this invention, each actor also has the characteristic of an instance of a class. Therefore, encapsulation and inheritance can be utilized to simplify the design of actors. Furthermore, actors are highly independent, so that an actor designed for one application program can be used in other application programs. This restricts any further increase in load on the programmer to a minimum, even when constructing a large-scale virtual world in which a large number of actors appear.
At least one of an actor for representing a display object, an actor for sound control, an actor for interface, an actor for actor-to-actor communications, and an actor for storage management may be provided. An actor of this invention can not only perform the task of representing a display object, it can also be assigned a variety of other tasks.
The actor for sound control may perform sound control based on disposition information from the actor for representing a display object. When the position of a display object is at a specific location, for example, a sound that is appropriate for that specific location can be generated based on the disposition information of the display object, thus increasing the realism of the generated sounds.
For each actor that is generated, actor information may be provided. This actor information can include at least one of: information for indicating whether an actor is enabled or disabled; information for indicating whether display of a display object represented by an actor is enabled or disabled; information for indicating whether a time count of an actor is enabled or disabled; information for indicating whether a time count loop is enabled or disabled; information for identifying a self actor; information for identifying a parent actor; information for identifying a child actor; information for identifying a method for an actor; information for identifying a model of a display object represented by an actor; disposition information for a display object represented by an actor; actor-related time information; information for identifying an actor that causes an action with respect to the self actor and the type of the action; information relating to communications between actors; and information for identifying a storage region in which an actor's variable is stored. By providing a variety of actor information for each actor in this manner, it is possible to increase the independence and manipulation capabilities of each actor unit, simplify actor management, and further increase the realism and amount of variety of the virtual world implemented by these actors.
As the information for identifying actors, a plurality of types of specification information may be provided. For example, by providing real specification information and virtual specification information, it is possible to make other actors believe that an action, actually done by a self actor, was done by a different actor. By providing specification information of a parent actor for a first hierarchical structure and other specification information of that parent actor for a second hierarchical-structure, it is possible to simplify the control or description of a display object having joints, for example.
The information for identifying a method for an actor may include at least one of information for identifying a script for describing a method of an actor and information for identifying from a plurality of methods a method to be executed every unit time. It is possible to facilitate the design of an actor by the application programmer by providing a script for describing the method of an actor, for example. It is also possible to increase the amount of variety in methods executed every unit time, by selecting the method to be executed every unit time from a plurality of method.
The actor-related time information may include at least one of time information relating to elapsed time from when a time count of an actor was enabled, time information relating to total elapsed time on condition that a time count loop is enabled, and time information relating to the sleeping of an actor. It is possible to give each actor a personal time axis by providing them with elapsed time information starting from when a time count became valid, for example. In addition, by providing each actor with total elapsed time information when a time count loop is enabled and time information relating to the sleeping of the actor, a variety of processes can be executed on the basis of such time information when the time count loop is enable
Masuyama Takashi
Sato Kotaro
Namco LTD
Nguyen Phu K.
Oliff & Berridg,e PLC
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