JPH08182023A - Device converting 2-dimension image into 3-dimension image - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To obtain a 3-dimension image by forming a video image for left and right eyes having a parallax based on depth information attended with a 2-dimension image drawn on plural sprite faces. CONSTITUTION: A cartridge 11 consisting of a removable ROM has plural sprite faces and an image drawn on them has depth information. A graphic memory 17 consisting of a V-RAM reads a background image from the cartridge 11 and stores it. A sprite memory 15 comprising a V-RAM reads and stores a background pattern from the cartridge 11. The RAM 14 changes a character image of the sprite memory 15 in response to the progress of a program. A sprite control section 16 generates a sprite image having parallax for left and right eyes based on the depth information corresponding to the character image. Video control signals 18, 19 for left and right eyes composite a background image and a sprite image to obtain a 3-dimensional image of a desired system.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an existing home-use game machine, and more particularly to a device capable of easily converting existing 2D game software into 3D game software.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Generally distributed game software draws characters, backgrounds, etc. appearing in the game individually on independent image forming surfaces called sprites and displays them by superimposing a plurality of sprite surfaces. It provides three-dimensional images.

However, the obtained image is not a left-eye image and a right-eye image having a pair of parallax information, and a stereoscopic image is produced by popping out to the front of the screen or retreating to the rear even if there is a context between the character and the background. There was a problem in that it was not effective and it could not bring out the full power of the game.

By the way, a stereoscopic television that has recently appeared on the market is capable of stereoscopically displaying images having parallax taken by two cameras, and even a normal two-dimensional image has parallax according to its movement. The image of can be created and displayed in 3D.

[0005]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Therefore, the present invention provides an apparatus for converting a two-dimensional image into a three-dimensional image, which can be connected to the above-mentioned three-dimensional television to enjoy an existing two-dimensional three-dimensional game in three dimensions. The purpose is.

[0006]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention is a read-only memory for storing a central processing means, an execution program started by the central processing means, and sprite images drawn on a plurality of sprite surfaces read by the program. Second memory means for storing the image read from the first memory means, and horizontal and horizontal display positions of the sprite surface based on the priority of the sprite surface on which the image read from the first memory means is drawn. Shift sprite control means and left and right eye video control means for reading the images stored in the second memory means and for synthesizing the read images on the two sprite surfaces whose display positions are shifted by the sprite control means. And a display device for displaying the images for the left and right eyes transmitted from the video control means.

[0007]

Operation: Game software as the first memory means (RO
When M) is attached to the device of the present invention, the central processing means activates the first memory means, and the images drawn on the plurality of sprite surfaces along the execution program predetermined in the first memory means show the depth of the sprite surface. The image is read out together with the information and the image is written in the second memory means.

The depth information of the sprite surface is converted by the sprite control means into a horizontal shift amount of the display position of the sprite surface in the horizontal direction to form two sprite surfaces which are shifted to the left and right.

Then, the images read from the first memory are combined on the right and left sprite surfaces, and the combined image 2
The images on the one sprite surface are supplied to the video control means as images for the left and right eyes, respectively, and displayed on the screen via the display means.

As for the display means, a normal television can enjoy a stereoscopic image when viewed using dedicated stereoscopic glasses, and a stereoscopic television can enjoy a stereoscopic image without using dedicated glasses.

[0011]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An apparatus for converting a two-dimensional image into a three-dimensional image according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. First, the structure of existing game software will be described with reference to FIG. A normal display screen (shown in FIG. 1A) displayed on a monitor screen of a television or the like has a character as a background of mountains, a person in front of it, a tree in front of it, and a butterfly in front of it. I shall.

As shown in FIG. 1B, each character is drawn on an image forming plane called a sprite 0 to 2 in which the character is accommodated. One of the backgrounds is drawn as a background graphic 3, which is a plane having a size substantially equal to the size of the display screen.

The background graphics are drawn in a size smaller than that of the display screen, and can be enlarged to a size necessary for combining with the sprite image. The display priority of these sprites 0 to 2 is higher as the sprite with a smaller number. Therefore, the butterfly is always located in front of the tree, and the tree does not erase part or all of the butterfly image. The tree is always located in front of the person, and some or all of the tree image disappears depending on the person. There is no such thing.

As described above, each sprite is considered to have depth information based on, for example, the background surface. If the images for the left and right eyes having parallax are formed according to the depth information, three-dimensionalization is possible.

In this case, the parallax obtained on the basis of the depth information is used as a horizontal frame shift amount, and an image having a higher display priority is controlled so as to be more popped out to the front of the screen.

Specifically, the hardware having the configuration shown in FIG. 2 is used. In FIG. 2, reference numeral 11 indicates a first game program in which existing two-dimensional (two-dimensional three-dimensional) game software is stored.
A ROM cartridge (read-only memory) as a memory means is detachably mounted on the game machine main body 12.

The ROM cartridge 11 stores image data and a program for reading the data. A power source (not shown) in the game machine main body, a CPU (central processing unit) 13 that is driven by turning on the power source and gives an instruction to read the game software from the ROM cartridge 11, and based on the instruction from the CPU 13. A graphic V-RAM (read-write memory) 17 as second memory means for reading image data from the ROM cartridge 11 according to the execution program and storing the read image data, and the ROM cartridge 11 for reading the image data. Sprite VR as third memory means for storing sprite information of an image read out according to an execution program
The frame shift amount of the sprite surface corresponding to the left and right parallax is calculated according to AM15 and the depth information of the sprite surface stored in the sprite V-RAM15, and the frame shift amount is read from the ROM cartridge 11 based on the calculated shift amount. The controller 16 as sprite control means for creating left and right eye sprite surfaces by shifting the emitted sprite surface to the left and right, and a state of various data at a certain time and holding the image of the sprite V-RAM 15 as the image. RAM 14 for changing the data to the next state data in accordance with the movement of the above, and information on the left and right sprite surfaces from the controller 16 and the graphic V-RAM 17
Video controllers 18 and 1 as video control means for synthesizing images of images and creating an image having parallax for the left and right eyes.
9 and the images of these video controllers 18 and 19
It is composed of D / A converters 21 and 22 that perform A / A conversion and supply to the stereoscopic display 20 as display means.

If the game machine is a display-integrated type such as Game Boy (trademark), the three-dimensional display 20 is used.
Also becomes a component in the apparatus main body 12. Further, the display 20 may be a lenticular type or a direct-viewing type stereoscopic display without glasses, and liquid crystal shutter glasses are used in which overlappingly displayed images for the left and right eyes are incident on the right eye or the left eye by a shutter. A system may be used.

In such a configuration, the ROM cartridge 1
When the power supply is turned on after the mounting of No. 1, the CPU 13 issues a command to read from the ROM cartridge 11. The information read from the ROM cartridge 11 is fixed image data such as a background and a character drawn for each sprite, and the fixed image is a graphic VR.
It is transferred to AM17 and the sprite image is Sprite V-
It is transferred to the RAM 15.

Since the priority information is not transmitted in the existing 2D game software, the sprite V-RAM is used.
It is necessary to specify in advance by 15 programs. However, if the game software is not limited to the existing game software, that is, if the game software is newly created, the priority information of each sprite can be sent from the ROM cartridge 11 to the sprite V-RAM 15.

For the sprite image transferred from the sprite V-RAM 15 to the sprite controller 16, sprite position information that is horizontally deviated from side to side in accordance with depth information is calculated, and such a sprite that is horizontally deviated from side to side is calculated. Left and right video controller 18, 1
Supply to 9.

In this case, the vertical coordinate is left as it is and a horizontal shift is generated by the horizontal coordinate conversion. In this way, the display position information of the sprite surfaces for the left and right eyes having parallax is sent to the video controllers 18 and 19.

On the other hand, the background image is a graphic V-RAM1.
The same image is transmitted from 7 to the two video controllers 18, 19. The video controller synthesizes the transmitted left and right horizontal position shifted sprite images and the background image to create a digital NTSC signal, and the DAC2
It is converted to analog NTSC via 1 and 22 and sent to the display 20.

FIGS. 3A and 3B are views for explaining a horizontal shift pattern of a sprite surface taking a butterfly character as an example. FIG. 3A is the original position, and FIG. 3B is the position in the image for the left eye.
(C) shows the position in the image for the right eye.

FIG. 4 shows a left-eye image (b) and a right-eye image (c) obtained for the original image (a). The positions of the sprite surfaces on the left and right eye screens are set to be larger as the sprite surfaces have higher priorities. The interval is also set large when it is desired to increase the pop-out amount.

In the above embodiment, the description has been made on the assumption that the depth information of the sprite is fixed, but a program prepared in 14 for controlling variables such as position coordinates for image display is externally switched. By adjusting the pop-out amount by switching, or by preparing some of the programs and providing command information that changes to the switch on the ROM cartridge side to be mounted, and selectively using the program according to the ROM cartridge, three-dimensionalization can be achieved. It is also possible to adjust the degree.

[0027]

As described above, according to the present invention, the images for the left and right eyes can be easily created from the existing two-dimensional game software by using the sprite information, and the three-dimensional display device is used. It is possible to provide the played game.

[Brief description of drawings]

1A and 1B are diagrams illustrating the principle of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a system configuration of the device of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating horizontal position shift of a sprite surface in the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an original image and left and right eye images according to the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 11 First Storage Means 13 Central Processing Means 14 RAM 16 Sprite Control Means 17 Second Storage Means 18, 19 Video Control Means 20 Stereoscopic Display

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A read-only first memory means for storing a central processing means, an execution program started by the central processing means, and a sprite image drawn on a plurality of sprite surfaces read by the program. Second memory means for storing the formed image, and sprite control means for shifting the display position of the sprite surface horizontally and horizontally based on the priority of the sprite surface on which the image read from the first memory means is drawn, From the video control means, the left and right video control means for reading the image stored in the second memory means and for synthesizing the read images on the two sprite surfaces whose display positions are shifted by the sprite control means. Device for converting a two-dimensional image into a three-dimensional image, comprising a display device for displaying the transmitted images for the left and right eyes .