JPH09299613A - Video game device and computer readable medium with video game program stored - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To display a player character's figure and a visual field range on a monitor, regardless of the existence of a wall or a floor for dividing game space, in the case of indicating the game space as a bird's-eye view. SOLUTION: A game implementation part 31 issues an instruction to a player character image data generation part 32, regarding the display position of a player character. A background image data generation part 37 generates background image data for showing a game space background made of a floor and a wall as a bird's-eye view. A player character position specifying part 34 checks the player character display position for coming behind the wall or the floor in the game space background image. Furthermore, an image composing part 38 composes the image data of the player character with the game space background image. Also, the player character position specifying part 34, upon judgement that the player character display position comes behind the wall or the floor, changes the wall or the floor hiding the player character, into a translucent status, and corrects the image data so as to show space behind the wall or the floor.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a video game device for executing a video game developed in a three-dimensional virtual space partitioned by walls and floors, and a video game device for executing such a video game. The present invention relates to a computer-readable medium storing a video data program.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In the field of so-called shooting games and role-playing games, a three-dimensional virtual space partitioned by floors and walls (hereinafter referred to as "game space").
There is a type of game that develops a story within the game space.

FIG. 8 shows an example thereof, showing an image displayed on a television monitor during the course of the game. In FIG. 8, 105 is
The frame of the image displayed on the television monitor is shown.
Moreover, 100 shows the floor of the game space, and 101a-c.
Indicates a wall of the game space, and 102 indicates a door formed on the wall 101c. Further, 103 indicates a weapon (gun) of the main character of the game, and 104 indicates an enemy character. The door 102 can be opened and closed. When the main character opens the door 102, the main character can move to the game space defined on the other side of the wall 101c through the door 102.

In the game of FIG. 8, since the game player himself becomes the main character to develop the story,
The viewpoint of the image displayed on the television monitor matches the viewpoint of the main character in the game space. Therefore,
Even if another enemy character, a power-up item, or the like is hidden in the space on the other side of the wall 101c, the wall 1
There is no rationality to display it from the other side of 01c, and it is sufficient to display it when the hero moves to the other side of the wall 101c.

By the way, since it is difficult to grasp the whole image of the game space from such a viewpoint image, it is considered to display the game space as a bird's-eye view by moving the viewpoint of the game player obliquely above the game space. To be In this case, the viewpoint of the game player itself goes out of the game space, so that the operation is controlled by the game player and the player character attacked by the enemy character is displayed in the game space.

However, when the game space is displayed as a bird's-eye view, a shadow of the wall causes an area invisible to the game player, that is, an area not displayed on the television monitor. When the player character enters the area, the game player cannot confirm the appearance of the player character, and it becomes impossible to operate the player character.

Further, the field of view of the player character is different from the field of view of the player, that is, the image of the game space displayed on the television monitor, so that it is a shadow of the wall and cannot be seen by the game player. Even so,
It may be visible from the viewpoint of the player character. In such a case, it is unreasonable for the development of the game story that the player character is abruptly attacked by the enemy character in this area or overlooks the power-up items in this area. .

[0008]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of these problems, and when a game space is displayed as a bird's-eye view, a player character defined as existing in this game space is displayed. A video game device capable of displaying the figure and the range of the player character's field of view on a television monitor regardless of the presence of a wall or a floor separating the game space, and a computer storing such a video game. To provide a readable medium.

[0009]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, a video game device according to claim 1 of the present invention comprises a player image data generating means for generating image data of a player character and a virtual three-dimensional space. Background image data generation means for generating background image data in which the demarcated floor and wall are expressed as a bird's-eye view, and player character position determination for determining the position of the player character in the virtual three-dimensional space according to an operation from a game player. Unit and the image data of the player character generated by the player image data generation unit are combined with the background image data generated by the background image data generation unit according to the position determined by the player character position determination unit. Image synthesizing means and the player character position If the position of the player character in the virtual three-dimensional space determined by the determining means is a position hidden by the floor or the wall, the floor or the wall hiding the player character. And image data processing means for processing the image data synthesized by the image synthesizing means so that the back side of the floor or the wall is also displayed by transmitting.

In order to solve the above problems, a computer-readable medium according to claim 2 of the present invention determines a player character position for determining the position of a player character in a virtual three-dimensional space in accordance with an operation from a game player. A step of generating image data of the player character, a background image data generating step of generating background image data expressing a bird's-eye view of a floor and a wall that partition the virtual three-dimensional space, An image synthesizing step of synthesizing the image of the player character generated in the player image data generating step with the background image data generated in the background image data generating step in accordance with the position determined in the player character position determining step; , Said play If the position of the player character determined in the character position determination step in the virtual three-dimensional space is a position hidden by the floor or the wall, the floor hiding this player character or An image data processing step of processing the image data combined by the image combining step so that the floor or the back of the wall is displayed through the wall, and the image data processed by the image data processing step. And a video game program including a display step for displaying.

[0011]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a video game device that executes a video game by being loaded with a computer-readable medium according to an embodiment of the present invention.

This video game device comprises a device main body and a controller 21. In this device body,
A CD-ROM 23 as a computer-readable medium storing a game program is loaded and a television monitor 22 is connected.

This apparatus main body includes a CPU 1 and this CPU
Graphics data generation processor 3 directly connected to 1
And an interface circuit 4, a main memory 5, a ROM 6, a decompression circuit 7, a parallel port 8, a serial port 9, and a drawing process which are mutually connected to the CPU 1 via a bus (address bus, data bus and control bus) 2. Processor 10, audio processor 12, decoder 14, interface circuit 19, buffer 11 connected to rendering processor 10, buffer 13 and amplifier circuit 17 connected to audio processor 12
, A speaker 18 connected to the amplifier circuit 17, a buffer 15 and a CD-ROM connected to the decoder 14.
The driver 16 and the memory 20 connected to the interface circuit 19 are included. Controller 19 described above
Are connected to the interface circuit 19. Also,
The above-mentioned television monitor 22 is connected to the drawing processor 10.

Graphics data generation processor 3
Functions as a so-called coprocessor of the CPU 1. That is, the graphic data generation circuit 3 performs coordinate conversion and light source calculation, for example, calculation of a fixed-point matrix or vector by parallel processing. The main processing executed by the graphics data generation circuit 3 is a processing target based on the coordinate data, movement amount data, and rotation amount data of each vertex in the two-dimensional or three-dimensional plane of the image data supplied from the CPU 1. The address in the image display area is calculated and the address data is CP again.
It is a process of returning to U1, a process of calculating the brightness of an image according to a distance and an angle from a virtually set light source, and the like.

The interface circuit 4 is a peripheral device,
For example, it is a circuit for an interface such as a pointing device such as a mouse or a trackball. ROM6
Stores program data as an operation system of the apparatus body. The main memory 5 is a CD-
It is a memory into which the game program from the ROM 23 is loaded. Programs and data are appropriately paged from the main memory 5 to the CPU 1 and processed by the CPU 1.

The expansion circuit 7 is an MPEG (Moving Picture)
Engineering Group) and JPEG (Joint Picture Engi)
decompression processing is applied to a compressed image compressed by intra coding conforming to the Neering Group). The decompression process is
Decoding processing (decoding of data encoded by VLC: Variable Length Code), inverse quantization processing, I
DCT (Inverse Discrete Cosine Transform) processing,
For example, the restoration process of an intra image.

The drawing processing processor 10 performs drawing processing on the buffer 11 based on a drawing command issued by the CPU 1, and outputs the image drawn in the buffer 11 to the television monitor 22. The buffer 11
It consists of a display area and a non-display area. The display area is
This is a development area of data displayed on the display surface of the television monitor 22. The non-display area is a storage area for texture data, color palette data, and the like. Here, the texture data is two-dimensional image data.
The color pallet data is data for specifying a color such as texture data. The drawing command issued by the CPU 1 is, for example, a drawing command for drawing a line, a drawing command for drawing a three-dimensional image using polygons, a drawing command for drawing a normal two-dimensional image, or the like. Is.

The voice processor 13 is a CD-ROM.
The ADPCM data read from No. 23 is stored in the buffer 1
4 and the ADPCM stored in this buffer 14
Data is read at a clock frequency of, for example, 44.1 KHz, and the read ADPCM data is subjected to processing such as pitch change, noise addition, envelope setting, level setting, and reverb addition. CD-ROM2
The audio data read from CD 3 is CD-DA (Compact
In the case of PCM data such as Disk Digital Audio), the PCM data is converted into ADPCM data by the audio processor 13. Also. The CDPCM data processed by the audio processor 13 is output as audio from the speaker 16.

The CD-ROM driver 16 is a CD-RO.
Program data, data such as map information, and audio data are read from M23, and the read data are supplied to the decoder 14.

The decoder 14 is a CD-ROM driver 1
ECC (Error Correcti
error correction processing by on code), and the data subjected to the error correction processing is supplied to the main memory 5 or the voice processor 13.

The memory 20 is a card type memory,
In order to maintain the state at the time of the game interruption, various parameters at the time of the game interruption are stored. Controller 22
Is a cross key 21g formed by integrating the left key, the right key, the up key, and the down key, the left button 21L, and the right button 21.
R, start button 21a, select button 21b
And first to fourth buttons 21c to 21f. The cross key 21g is a key for the game player to give a command indicating up, down, left and right to the CPU 1. The start button 21a is used by the game player in a CD-ROM.
Start the game program loaded from 23 by the CPU
This is a key for instructing 1. Select button 21b
Indicates that the game player selects various selections regarding the game programs loaded on the main memory 5 from the CPU 1
It is a key to instruct.

Next, the game program for the video game in this embodiment and the data (map information) used for executing this game program are the CD-R.
CPU1 when loaded from OM23 to main memory
The functions developed within will be described with reference to FIG. This video game grows stronger as the player character collects power-up items in a game space that envisions the interior of a building separated by floors and walls, and at the same time controls the building while fighting against enemy characters. Is a game that develops. In FIG. 2, only the CPU 1, the drawing processor 10, the controller 21 and the CD-ROM 23 of the various configurations of the video game device shown in FIG. 1 are shown, and the other configurations are omitted.

As shown in FIG. 2, the functions developed in the CPU 1 include a program reading section 30 for reading game programs one after another from the CD-ROM 23 (via the main memory 5), and this program reading section. A game execution section 31 that receives the game program read by 30 and input information from the controller 21, an enemy character & item image data generation section 33 to which the data from this game execution section 31 is input, a player character image The data generation unit 32 and the map information reading unit 35, the map information holding unit 36 to which the data from the map information reading unit 35 is input, and the background image data generation unit 37 to which the data from the map information holding unit 36 is input. And the player character image data generation unit 32 and the background image data generation A player character position specifying unit 34 the data from section 37 is input, the enemy character and the item image data generating unit 33, the player character image data generating unit 32, the player character position specifying unit 34
And an image synthesizing section 38 to which the data from the background image data generating section 37 is input, and an image data output section 39 to which the data from the image synthesizing section 38 is input.

The game executing unit 31 as the player character position determining means executes the game program received from the program reading unit 30 by using the input data from the controller 21 as a parameter. The game execution unit 31 instructs the map information read unit 35 to read the map information as the game program is executed, and based on the map information notified from the map information read unit 35, sets the game space. Recognize logically. Then, the game execution unit 31 appropriately arranges power-up items in this game space, moves the enemy character (that is, moves and attacks) based on a randomly generated random number, etc. Move the player character based on commands entered by the player (ie, move, attack, collect power-up items and open doors). Game execution unit 31
Specifies the display positions of the enemy character & item image data generation unit 33 for each predetermined cycle,
Order the generation of image data for displaying enemy characters and power-up items. In addition, the game execution unit 31
Instructs the player character image data generation unit to generate image data for displaying the player character at predetermined intervals while designating the display position.

The map information reading section 35 is used by the game executing section 3
The map information is read from the CD-ROM 23 in accordance with the instruction from 1, and is notified to the game execution unit 31 and the map information holding unit 36. This map information is defined in the form of a plan view of the floor constituting the game space, as shown in FIG. In this map information, the solid line W defines the position of the wall surrounding the game space, the figure S defines the stairs to the lower floor, the figure D defines the openable door, and the figure T is fixed. Defined furniture. The map information is read from the CD-ROM 23 in units of the area surrounded by the wall W and the door D. That is, FIG.
It shows map information of two units consisting of A and B.

The map information holding section 36 is a section for holding the map information read from the map information reading section 35. The map information holding unit 36 has a capacity capable of holding a maximum of two pieces of map information, and defines a region far from the current position of the player character each time new map information is read by the map information reading unit 35. Discard the current map information.

The background image data generation unit 37 as the background image data generation means, based on the map information held in the map information holding unit 36, as shown in FIG. Data of a background image that is three-dimensionally represented as a bird's-eye view is generated, and is notified to the image synthesizing unit 38 and the player character position specifying unit 34. At this time, the walls W that surround the periphery of the game space are represented by the same height. Since the stairs S can be considered as a structure in which a floor and walls are finely combined, in the following description, unless otherwise specified, “wall” includes the walls forming the stairs S, The “floor” includes the walls that form the stairs S. Further, in FIG. 5, F indicates a frame of the display unit of the television monitor 22.

The enemy character & item image data generating section 33 generates image data of the enemy character and image data of power-up items etc. in accordance with the instruction from the game executing section 31, and designates their display positions, The image combining unit 38 is notified.

The player character image data generation unit 32 as a player character image data generation unit generates image data of the player character according to an instruction from the game execution unit 31, and synthesizes images while designating their display positions. Notify the section 38. The display position of the player character is determined by the player character position specifying unit 34.
Will also be notified.

The player character position specifying unit 34, which is a part of the image data processing unit, is a part where the display position of the player character becomes a shadow of a wall or floor in the background image generated by the background image data generating unit 37, or It is checked whether or not it is in the vicinity, and the check result is notified to the image synthesizing unit 38. Specifically, it is checked whether the player character is closer than a predetermined distance to the upper edge and the side edge of the image of the wall generated by the background image data generation unit 37. Based on.

The image synthesizing unit 38 compares the background image data notified from the background image data generating unit 37 with the image data of the enemy character and the power-up item notified from the enemy character & item image data generating unit 33. Image data and player character position specifying unit 3
The image data of the player character notified from 4
Incorporate them according to their display position (corresponding to image synthesizing means). At the time of this incorporation, as a general rule, the image synthesizing unit 38 does not display the part of the wall or floor included in the data of the background image (wall, floor, enemy character, power-up item, furniture, etc.) that is hidden. To do. However, the player character position specifying unit 34 notifies that the display position of the player character is a part behind the wall or floor in the background image generated by the background image data generating unit 37 or in the vicinity thereof. In this case, the wall or floor that overlaps the display position of the player character or is located in the vicinity of the display position is displayed semitransparently so that the back of the wall or floor is displayed (corresponding to image data processing means). The image synthesizing unit 38 passes the image data thus synthesized to the image data output unit 39.

The image data output section 39 is an image synthesizing section 38.
An area corresponding to the frame F in the vicinity of the player character is cut out from the image data passed from the player and sent to the drawing processor 10.

Next, the operation of the video game device according to the present embodiment configured as described above will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. 3 and the image examples of FIGS. FIG.
The flowchart of 1 starts when a game start is instructed via the controller 21. And
First, the CPU 1 reads the first map information from the CD-ROM 23 (S01), determines the display position of the player character (S02), and determines the display positions of the power-up item and the enemy character (S03) (player character). Equivalent to the position determination step).

Next, the CPU 1 displays a background image of the game space near the player character display position on the display screen of the television monitor 22 based on the map information read in S01 or S14 (S04) (background). Equivalent to image data generation step). Then, the player character is displayed at the display position determined at S02, and the power-up item and the enemy character are displayed at each display position determined at S03 (S05) (corresponding to the image combining step).

Next, the CPU 1 controls the player character P.
It is checked whether the display position of is in the shadow of the wall or floor in the background image or in the vicinity thereof (S0).
6). Then, as shown in FIG. 5, when the display position of the player character P is away from the portion of the background image behind the wall or floor by a predetermined distance or more, the CPU
In No. 1, the process proceeds directly to S08.

On the other hand, when the display position of the player character P is a part behind the wall or floor in the background image, or when the display position of the player character P is behind the wall or floor in the background image. If the player character P is in the shadow of the wall W, the CPU 1 is shown in FIG. 6 (when the player character P is behind the wall W) or FIG. 7 (when the player character P is behind the floor). like,
A wall or floor overlapping or near the display position of the player character P is displayed semitransparently, and the floor, the wall, the player character P, the enemy character E, located behind it are displayed.
The power-up item I and the like are displayed (S07) (corresponding to the image data processing step). After that, the CPU 1 advances the process to S08.

In S08, the CPU 1 causes the controller 2
It is checked whether or not a move command is input by the player through 1 (S08). And CPU1
When a move command is input, checks whether it is possible to move according to the move command (S12). Then, when the movement is impossible, as in the case where the wall W is at the movement destination, the CPU 1 executes the process S
If the movement is possible, the process returns to S02 to determine the position of the player character according to the movement command.

On the other hand, when the move command is not input, the CPU 1 checks whether or not the door open command is input by the player (S).
09). The door open command is input when the player character P contacts a switch (not shown) displayed near the door D. And CP
If U1 receives the door open command,
Door D in the map information read in S01 or S14
Is moved in the opening direction (S13), the map information corresponding to the side of the door D is read from the CD-ROM 23 (S14), and the process is returned to S02. As a result, the game space on the other side of the door D is displayed on the display screen of the television monitor 22.

On the other hand, when the door open command is not input, the CPU 1 controls the controller 2
It is checked whether or not another command is input by the player through 1 (S10). And CPU
If another command is input, 1 executes the process according to the input command (S11) and returns the process to S08.

On the other hand, if no other command is input, the CPU 1 directly executes the processing at S0.
Return to 8. According to the game device of the present embodiment described above, a virtual game space partitioned by a wall and a floor is displayed as a bird's-eye view, and a video game in which the player character P is operated according to an instruction from the player in this game space. However, at the display position of the player character and its vicinity, even the portion that would otherwise be shaded by the wall and floor is displayed by making the wall or floor semitransparent. There is. Therefore, the player can always visually recognize the appearance of the player character P, and can recognize the image of the portion that should be naturally seen from the viewpoint of the player character P. In addition, since the walls and the floor remain opaque in the part that is not related to the motion of the player character, there is no adverse effect that the image becomes too complicated. Therefore, the player can enjoy the game without feeling uncomfortable.

[0041]

According to the present invention configured as described above, although the game space is displayed as a bird's-eye view,
The appearance of the player character and the range of the field of view of this player character, which are defined as those existing in this game space, can be displayed on the television monitor regardless of the presence of the wall or floor that separates this game space. .

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a video game device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing functions inside the CPU of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing processing executed by the CPU of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a plan view showing map information.

5 is a background image data of a game space generated based on the map information of FIG.

FIG. 6 is an image display example when the display position of the player character is behind a wall.

FIG. 7 is an image display example when the display position of the player character is behind the floor.

FIG. 8 is an image display example of a conventional video game.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 CPU 10 Drawing Processing Processor 22 Television Monitor 21 Controller 23 CD-ROM 31 Game Execution Section 32 Player Character Image Data Generation Section 34 Player Character Position Specification Section 35 Map Data Reading Section 37 Background Image Data Generation Section 38 Image Synthesis Section

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A player image data generating means for generating image data of a player character, a background image data generating means for generating background image data expressing a floor and a wall that divide a virtual three-dimensional space as a bird's-eye view, and a game. The player character position determining means for determining the position of the player character in the virtual three-dimensional space in accordance with an operation from the player, and the image data of the player character generated by the player image data generating means, Image combining means for combining the background image data generated by the background image data generating means in accordance with the position determined by the position determining means, and the virtual tertiary of the player character determined by the player character position determining means. The position in the original space When the position is hidden by the floor or the wall, the image composition is performed such that the floor or the wall hiding the player character is made transparent and the floor or the back of the wall is also displayed. And a video data processing means for processing the image data synthesized by the video game apparatus. 2. A player character position determining step of determining a position of a player character in a virtual three-dimensional space according to an operation from a game player, a player image data generating step of generating image data of the player character, The background image data generating step of generating background image data expressing a floor and a wall that divides a virtual three-dimensional space as a bird's-eye view, and the image data of the player character generated by the player image data generating step An image synthesizing step of synthesizing with the image data of the background generated by the background image data generating step in accordance with the position determined by the position determining step; and the player character determined by the player character position determining step. When the position in the virtual three-dimensional space is a position hidden by the floor or the wall, the floor or the wall hiding the player character is transmitted through the floor or the back of the wall. A video game program including an image data processing step for processing the image data synthesized by the image synthesizing step so that the contents are displayed, and a display step for displaying the image data processed by the image data processing step. A computer-readable medium characterized by being stored.