JPH1011253A - Three-dimensional virtual space displaying method - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To allow an operator to conveniently operate a character picture in a short time in a three-dimensional virtual space. SOLUTION: By depressing a short cut key 1 (step 21) from a normal state, the successive scanning of a portal point table is started and a pointer is displayed on a picture. By depressing the short cut key 1 by following this, the pointer is moved on the picture in succession (steps 22 to 25). When the pointer on the picture appears at a portal point desired to select, a short cut key 2 is depressed then to execute portal a selected subuniverse (steps 26 to 28).

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention uses a three-dimensional computer graphics display expressed on a computer, and operates a character image as an alter ego of an operator on the computer graphics display. The present invention relates to a supported three-dimensional virtual space display method.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in order to realize a three-dimensional virtual space, a virtual city is constructed using computer graphics on a computer environment, and a character image called an avatar, which is an alter ego of a user, is arranged in the virtual city. By using a pointing device such as a joystick or the like, the user moves the camera forward, backward, left, or right, and moves in a virtual city or goes in front of another avatar to have a conversation.

[0003]

However, in the conventional three-dimensional virtual space display method, the movement in the virtual space has to be performed through exactly the same procedure as the actual movement operation. For example, when entering a virtual town store,
Until the store entrance, they had to use a pointing device to get in and go through the door. In addition, even when browsing the inside of a store after entering the store, an operation equivalent to actually making a round of walking must be performed using a pointing device.

[0004] An object of the present invention is to eliminate the trouble of operation by performing an operation similar to the real world in a virtual environment, that is, to move to a specific area in the virtual environment,
One round in a specific area, looking around the current position, looking at events in the specific area in order, moving just before another avatar, and moving around from the current position in the specific area And to provide a three-dimensional virtual space display method that can easily escape from a specific area.

[0005]

According to the three-dimensional virtual space display method of the present invention, a first operation in which a character image of an operator enters from a different world entrance on a screen on which three-dimensional computer graphics are displayed. A second operation in which the operator's character image moves in the three-dimensional virtual space; a third operation in which the operator's character image rotates around a position in the three-dimensional virtual space where the operator's character image currently exists; Is a fourth operation in which the operator sequentially looks at events in the specific area, a fifth operation in which the operator's character image moves in front of another operator's character image, until the operator's character image hits an obstacle Sixth operation in which the character image of the operator goes straight, seventh operation in which the character image of the operator moves to the end of the three-dimensional virtual space regardless of the presence or absence of an obstacle, and the character image of the operator goes out of the world. Assigning specific key for each operation of the operation of the eighth, when any key is pressed, achieved by internal processing of the computer operations corresponding to the keys.

The most important feature of the present invention is to prepare a specific key (hereinafter referred to as a shortcut key) for frequently performed operations. As a result, the operation time required to achieve the purpose in the virtual environment is greatly reduced, and the operation is simplified.

According to the embodiment of the present invention, when the operator presses a specific key, the portal point table in which the coordinate values of the location to portal to the sub-universe in the universe are sequentially scanned is displayed on the screen. A pointer is displayed at a corresponding position, and when the operator presses another specific key, the pointer is sequentially moved on the screen, and when the operator further presses a specific key, the sub-universe selected by the operator is pressed. First by portal to
The operation of is realized.

According to the embodiment of the present invention, when the operator presses a specific key, the coordinates of several locations in the universe are registered in the round point table in the order registered in the round point table. The second operation is realized by moving the character image of the operator.

According to the embodiment of the present invention, when the operator presses a specific key, the third operation is realized by sequentially changing the viewing direction of the character image of the operator. According to the embodiment of the present invention, when the operator presses a specific key, the coordinate value of each location and the round event table in which the stay time is registered are sequentially scanned, and the operator is sequentially moved to the registered locations. The fourth operation is realized by moving the character image of the character and staying at the place for the registered staying time.

According to the embodiment of the present invention, when the operator presses a specific key, the operator sequentially scans an avada table in which coordinate values of a place where a character image of another operator exists are registered. The fifth operation is performed by displaying the pointer at a corresponding position on the screen, selecting the pointer by pressing the specific key by the operator, and moving the character image of the operator immediately before the selected pointer. To achieve.

According to the embodiment of the present invention, the specific key is composed of four moving keys of front, rear, left and right, and when the operator presses the specific moving key, the position of the object in the virtual space is changed. Refers to the object arrangement table in which the coordinate values of are registered, determines whether or not the object is in contact with the registered object in the traveling direction from the current position. The sixth operation is realized by moving the character image of the operator to the position immediately before the object.

According to the embodiment of the present invention, the specific key is composed of front, rear, left and right movement keys, and when the operator presses the specific key, the coordinate value of the location of the wall in the three-dimensional virtual space is obtained. The seventh operation is realized by calculating the wall and the contact point with reference to the registered wall table and moving the operator's character image until immediately before that.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, when a particular key is pressed, the current universe, the parent universe leading to the current universe, the point of portal to the current universe in the parent universe, and the traveling direction to the portal point are determined. The eighth operation is realized by referencing the registered universe table and moving the character image of the operator immediately before the portal point of the current sub-universe in the parent universe in an inclusion relationship.

[0014]

Next, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

In this embodiment, shortcut keys are used for frequently performed operations. Table 1 shows shortcut key numbers and their contents.

[0016]

[Table 1] In Table 1, “ctrl-x” indicates that the x key is pressed while the control key is pressed, and the same applies to “shift-x”. The operation in parentheses after “ctrl-x” indicates the operation in which the key is used in English. For example, the shortcut key 1 means that a shortcut key is defined using an initial letter F of “Find”, and an operation of “search” is instructed by simultaneously pressing the control key and the F key.

Next, each movement in the virtual space will be described.

1) Movement to a specific area in the virtual environment A list table (portal point table) of places where portals (move) to a sub-universe (another virtual world) in a universe (a virtual world) is sequentially scanned. And
A pointer is displayed at a corresponding position on the screen to grasp the intention of the user.

That is, the display on the screen is as shown in FIG. 1. For example, when the shortcut key 1 is pressed a plurality of times, the pointer indicated by the black arrow moves sequentially. FIG. 1 shows a state where the shortcut key 1 is pressed for the second time.

FIG. 2 shows the flow of the processing at this time. When the shortcut key 1 is pressed from the normal state (step 21), sequential scanning of the portal point table is started, and a pointer is displayed on the screen. Subsequently, by further pressing the shortcut key 1, the pointer moves one after another on the screen (step 22).
~ 25). When the pointer on the screen appears at the portal point to be selected, the user presses the shortcut key 2 to portal to the selected sub-universe (steps 26 to 28).

Table 2 shows the portal point table to be scanned. In the portal point table, the position coordinate values (x, y, z) of the place to be portalized and the sub-universe id (universe number) of the portal destination are registered.

[0022]

[Table 2] 2) One cycle in a specific area Several places are set in advance in the universe, and their position coordinate values (x, y, z) are registered in the round point table. Registration is sorted so that the trajectory following the order of registration is simple. Table 3 shows an example of the round point table.

When the shortcut key 3 is depressed, it moves to each position in order in the order registered in the round point table. It is also conceivable that the movement between the registered positions is automatically interpolated and moves smoothly.

[0024]

[Table 3] 3) Look around the current position. Assuming that the current position is (x0, y0, z0) and the current position one sampling time ago is (xp, yp, zp), the vector d = (dx, dy, dz) = (X0-xp, y0-yp, z0-zp). Since the line of sight at the current position is in the direction indicated by the vector d, when the shortcut key 4 is pressed, (dx, y, dz) → (−dy, dx, dz) → (−d
x, −dy, dz) → (dy, −dx, dz), that is, forward → 90 ° leftward → backward → 90
° Change the line of sight in the right direction. In the meantime, the matrix

[0025]

(Equation 1) Is multiplied by (dx, dy) to interpolate the angle θ
Is changed finely. As a result, it is possible to smoothly change the direction of the line of sight.

4) Look at events in a specific area in order Create a round event table equivalent to the round point table (Table 3). Table 4 shows an example of the round event table.

[0027]

[Table 4] The difference from the round point table is that the stay time t at each location is given to each entry, and the entry module stays at the position where each event module is generated for this time. The event referred to here means that a still image pops up on the screen when approaching. By pressing the shortcut key 5, the shortcut key 3
As in the case where is pressed, the cursor sequentially moves to the position registered in the round event table.

5) The client moves just before another avatar. The client has an avatar table for displaying other avatars on the screen. Table 5 shows an example of the avatar table.

[0029]

[Table 5] By pressing the shortcut key 6, the avatar table is sequentially scanned, a pointer is displayed at a corresponding position on the screen, and by pressing the shortcut key 6 again, the pointer on the avatar table is advanced in order. Use the shortcut key 7 to select.

After the selection, the avatar moves to a position one step backward. The moving position is determined by the following method as an example.

If the current position is P0 = (x0, y0, z0),
Assuming that the selected partner is P1 = (x1, y1, z1), the direction vector d01 between them is as follows: d01 = (dx, dy, dz) = (x1-x0, y1-y0, z1-z0) . Here, the moving position is determined by the following equation.

PO + d01 * (1-Δ / | d01 |) Here, | d01 | is the magnitude of the vector d01.
Further, Δ is a value calculated based on the avatar's height size, and is set to a position where the user stands in front of the avatar without any uncomfortable feeling, which is approximately the avatar's height size.

6) Move from the current position until there are obstacles in front, back, left and right within the specific area.

When an object arrangement table in the universe is provided and shortcut keys 8, 9, 10, and 11 (keys for moving forward, backward, left, and right, respectively) are pressed,
It is determined in order from the current position in the front, rear, left, and right directions whether or not to contact the registered object. Table 6 shows an example of the object arrangement table. The coordinates (x, y, z) of the center of gravity of each object and the normal vector (v
x, vy, vz) and the size (dx, dy, dz) of the cuboid circumscribing the object are registered.

[0035]

[Table 6] By the determination, the object is automatically moved to the position immediately before the closest object. The contact determination and the determination of the movement position are performed, for example, when the angle formed by the vector connecting the current position and the center of gravity of the object registered in the object arrangement table and the predetermined traveling direction vector is closest to 0 °, and The object whose distance is the closest is selected, and the angle between the normal vector of the surface of the selected object and the traveling direction vector is the closest to 180 ° (facing directly in front). I do.

FIG. 3 shows these relationships.
0, the position of the target object is P1, the angle between the vector connecting P0 and P1 and the vector in the traveling direction is α, and the angle between the vector connecting P0 and P1 and the normal vector of a certain plane of the object is β. An object in which α is close to 0 ° is searched, and a surface in which β is close to 180 ° is searched.

7) Move from the current position to the end of the specific area in the front, rear, left and right in the specific area. Provide a wall table instead of the object arrangement table in the universe, and use shortcut keys 12, 3, and 1.
When the buttons 4 and 15 are pressed, the point of contact with the wall is calculated and moved immediately before. There are various methods for calculating the point of contact with the wall (usually, a design tool such as CAD has a function of automatically calculating it). Considering in two dimensions for simplicity, it results in finding the intersection of the two lines. As for which wall, as in the case of 6), a wall whose angle between the normal vector and the traveling direction vector is closest to 180 ° is selected. Table 7 shows an example of the wall table. The coordinate value (x, y, z) of the center of gravity of the wall and the normal vector (vx, v) are shown in Table 7.
y, vz) are registered.

[0038]

[Table 7] 8) Escape from the specific area When the shortcut key 16 is pressed, the user moves to the portal just before the portal point of the current sub-universe in the parent universe in the inclusive relation by looking at the universe table as shown in Table 8. If you are in sub-universe 3 in Table 2 (entry number 2 in portal point table)
No.), when the shortcut key 16 is pressed, the parent universe is moved immediately before the portal position (80, 120, 10) to the sub-universe 3 of the universe 0.

Table 8 shows an example of the universe table.

[0040]

[Table 8] In the entry number -1, the coordinate value (x, y, z) of the place to be portalized in the parent universe and the direction (entering direction) (vx, vy, vz) to the place to be portalized are registered. The coordinate value (x, y, z) and direction (vx, vy, vz) of the position appearing when portaling to the universe are registered.

The above operations 1) to 8) are performed by internal processing (software) of the computer. In addition, any of the shortcut keys 1 to 16 may be used as long as the keys are rarely pressed by mistake on the keyboard and do not overlap with keys used for other purposes.

[0042]

As described above, according to the present invention,
Since the purposeful movement in the virtual space can be performed easily and in a short time, there is an effect that the time required to achieve the purpose is reduced.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a display example of a pointer that appears on a screen when a shortcut key 1 is pressed.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a flow of processing when shortcut keys 1 and 2 are pressed.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a procedure of a process when a shortcut key 8 is pressed.

[Explanation of symbols]

 21-28 steps

Claims (9)

[Claims] 1. A three-dimensional virtual machine that supports human-to-human conversation by using a three-dimensional computer graphics display expressed on a computer and operating a character image as an alternation of an operator on the three-dimensional computer graphics display. In the space display method, a first operation in which an operator's character image enters from a different world entrance on a three-dimensional computer graphic-displayed screen, a second operation in which the operator's character image moves in a three-dimensional virtual space Operation, a third operation of rotating around the position in the three-dimensional virtual space where the character image of the operator currently exists, a fourth operation in which the character image of the operator sequentially looks at events in the specific area, Fifth in which the character image of the operator moves before the character image of another operator
Operation, the sixth operation in which the operator's character image moves straight until it hits an obstacle, and the seventh operation in which the operator's character image moves to the end of the three-dimensional virtual space regardless of the presence or absence of the obstacle A specific key is assigned to each operation of the eighth operation in which the character image of the operator goes out of the world, and when one of the keys is pressed, the operation corresponding to the key is determined by internal processing of the computer. A three-dimensional virtual space display method characterized by being realized. 2. When an operator presses a specific key, a portal point table in which coordinate values of locations to portal to a sub-universe in the universe are registered is sequentially scanned, and a pointer is displayed at a corresponding position on the screen. Then, when the operator further presses a specific key, the pointer is moved one after another on the screen, and when the operator presses another specific key, portal to the sub-universe selected by the operator is performed. The three-dimensional virtual space display method according to claim 1, wherein the operation of (1) is realized. 3. When the operator presses a specific key, the character image of the operator is moved to each location in the order registered in the round point table in which coordinate values of several locations in the universe are registered. The three-dimensional virtual space display method according to claim 1, wherein the second operation is realized by performing the second operation. 4. The three-dimensional virtual space display according to claim 1, wherein when the operator presses a specific key, the third operation is realized by sequentially changing the line-of-sight direction of the character image of the operator. Method. 5. When an operator presses a specific key, a round event table in which coordinate values of each location and a stay time are registered is sequentially scanned, and a character image of the operator is sequentially registered in the registered locations. By moving and staying at the place for the registered stay time,
The three-dimensional virtual space display method according to claim 1, wherein the operation of (1) is realized. 6. When an operator presses a specific key, the user sequentially scans an abada table in which coordinate values of a place where a character image of another operator exists are registered, and moves to an appropriate position on the screen. The fifth operation is realized by displaying a pointer, selecting a pointer by pressing a specific key by the operator, and moving the character image of the operator immediately before the selected pointer. The three-dimensional virtual space display method described in the above. 7. A specific key includes front, rear, left, and right movement keys. When an operator presses a specific movement key, coordinate values of an object location in a virtual space are registered. Refers to the object placement table to determine whether or not it is in contact with the registered object in the direction of travel from the current position, and operates up to the position immediately before the object closest to the current position among the objects determined to be in contact The three-dimensional virtual space display method according to claim 1, wherein the sixth operation is realized by moving the character image of the other person. 8. A specific key includes front, rear, left, and right movement keys, and when an operator presses a specific key, a wall table in which coordinate values of a wall location of the three-dimensional virtual space are registered is displayed. The three-dimensional virtual space display method according to claim 1, wherein a seventh operation is realized by calculating a contact point with the wall with reference to the character image of the operator and moving the character image immediately before the point. 9. When a specific key is pressed, a universe table in which a current universe, a parent universe leading to the current universe, a point of portal to the current universe in the parent universe, and a traveling direction to the portal point are registered. 3. The three-dimensional virtual space display according to claim 1, wherein the eighth operation is realized by moving the character image of the operator immediately before the portal point of the current sub-universe in the parent universe in the inclusive relation. Method.