JPH1196402A - Virtual space constructing method and system therefor and storage medium for storing virtual space construction program - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To attain the movement of an object across a virtual space in a simple constitution by independently preparing plural virtual spaces, and moving the object existing in an arbitrary virtual space to another virtual space. SOLUTION: At the time of moving across a virtual space, an object obtaining means 141 of a client 100 obtains a specific object and information for managing the object from a server 200 of an origin of movement virtual space. An object managing means 142 manages the object obtained from the server 200 of the origin of movement virtual space. A connection switching means 143 switches connection from the server of the origin of movement virtual space to the server of the destination of movement virtual space. An object transferring means 144 transfers the object managed by the object managing means 142 to a server 300 of a destination of movement virtual space. Thus, plural virtual spaces are independently prepared, and an object existing in an arbitrary virtual space is moved to another arbitrary virtual space.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a virtual space construction method and system, and a storage medium storing a virtual space construction program. The present invention relates to a virtual space construction method and system in a multi-user virtual space system that operates a shared object by connecting, and a storage medium storing a virtual space construction program.

More specifically, the present invention relates to a virtual space construction method and a system capable of moving an object across a virtual space in a multi-user virtual space system, and a storage medium storing a virtual space construction program.

[0003]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a multi-user virtual space (hereinafter simply referred to as a virtual space) system that can be shared by a plurality of users is configured as follows. FIG. 4 shows a configuration of a conventional virtual space. The system shown in FIG. 1 includes a virtual space 1 including a plurality of objects 12, a user interface unit 22 including object information 21, a drawing unit 221, and an input unit 222, a client 2 including a network management unit 23, The server 3 includes a network management unit 31, a network management unit 32, and an object management unit 33.

[0004] The virtual space system is a virtual space in which a plurality of users can operate the object 11 arranged in the virtual space 1 mutually and see the result of the operation. It is composed of object information 21 which is a set of data of all objects, a server 3 for managing changes in the object information 21, and a plurality of clients 2. The object information 21 is composed of static data 211 including a program for operating the ID number and shape data of each object, and dynamic data 212 such as the position of each object and the state of the program.

[0005] A plurality of clients 2 hold the same object information, respectively, and receive dynamic data change information of the object information from the server 3 uniquely corresponding to the object information 21 via the network management unit 23. 21 is updated and drawn by the drawing unit 221 of the user interface unit 22. As a result, all clients can refer to the object information 21 in the same state.

The change of the object information 21 occurs when the user operates the object in the object information via the input unit 222 on the client 2, and the operation is notified to the server 3 as a message. The server 3 determines the validity of the operation and creates change information of the object information. The server 3 has an object management unit 33 that determines an operation request of the client 2 for each object. When the operation request from the client A and the operation request from the client B are simultaneously made to the object O for the plurality of clients A and B, the object management unit 33 determines the timing, the presence or absence of the operation authority of the client, and the like. Judge which client's operation request should be satisfied.

In an environment where there are a plurality of such virtual spaces and the same client can sequentially connect to the respective virtual space servers, a user operates an object in one virtual space and transfers the object to another virtual space. There are the following methods to realize the movement of. 1) Object number notification method: In this method, the same object information is held in all virtual spaces, and when an object is moved by an input from a user, the ID of the object moved from the source server to the destination server.
In addition to notifying the number, the source server deletes the object, and the destination server adds the object so that the object can be moved.

[0008] 2) Direct communication method between servers: Between virtual spaces, servers establish communication with each other by input from a user, and all static and dynamic data of a moving object are transferred from a source server to a destination. In addition to the transmission of the object, the source server deletes the object, and the destination server adds the object, thereby enabling the movement.

[0009]

However, the above conventional method has the following problems. In the object number notification method of the above 1), since all virtual space servers have the data of all the objects to be handled in advance and manage them by the ID common to all the virtual spaces, Both the space and the object destination virtual space need to have the same object information. Therefore, since objects cannot be moved to virtual spaces having different object information, individual virtual spaces cannot be created independently.

In the server communication method of the above 2), a server in the source virtual space of the object and a server in the destination virtual space communicate directly with each other, so it is necessary to secure communication means for exchanging data of the object. The configuration becomes complicated. When an object is moved, the client attempting to move the object notifies the source server to instruct the object to move, separately switches the connection to the destination server, and moves according to the instruction. Confirm that has been completed. Here, the client needs to query both the source server and the destination server whether the object has been successfully moved, but since the communication with the source server has been cut off, the client In order to confirm, an additional communication means is required.

Further, when the client which has issued the instruction to move the object cannot access the destination server for some reason, the moved object becomes an object whose owner is unknown. In order to avoid this situation, a process for monitoring and confirming that the client switches back the connection from the server side is required.

As described above, in order to adopt a configuration in which an object is moved across a virtual space, the independence of a plurality of virtual spaces is sacrificed, or a complicated configuration for moving an object is added to a server. You need to do either. The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and has a virtual space construction method and system, in which each virtual space is independently created, and an object can be moved across the virtual space with a simple configuration. It is an object to provide a storage medium storing a construction program.

[0013]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a method for constructing a virtual space in a multi-user virtual space system having a shared object that connects a plurality of clients and a plurality of servers on a network and can operate and refer to each other. A plurality of virtual spaces are created independently, and an object existing in an arbitrary virtual space is moved to another arbitrary virtual space.

FIG. 1 is a diagram for explaining the principle of the present invention. According to the present invention, when a client moves across a virtual space, a specific object and information for managing the object are passed from the server in the source virtual space to the client (step 1). And information for managing the object (step 2). When moving in the virtual space, the connection is switched to a server in the destination virtual space (step 3), and the object and the object acquired from the source server are moved. Is passed to the server in the destination virtual space (step 4).

Further, according to the present invention, when the client moves in the virtual space, the object is deleted from the source virtual space and all clients in the source space are notified of the deletion. Further, according to the present invention, after the client moves to the destination virtual space, the client disconnects the connection with the server in the source virtual space, connects to the server in the destination virtual space, and connects to the destination virtual space. The addresses of all the clients are acquired, and information on the objects managed by the clients that have moved the virtual space is notified to all the clients and the server of the destination virtual space.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the principle of the present invention. The present invention relates to a virtual space in a multi-user virtual space system comprising a plurality of clients and a plurality of servers in a virtual space on a network, wherein the clients and the server are connected, and have a shared object that can be operated and referred to each other. The construction system includes a virtual space creation unit that independently creates a plurality of virtual spaces, and an object movement unit that moves an object existing in an arbitrary virtual space to an arbitrary other virtual space.

When the client 100 moves across the virtual space, the client 100 moves to the server 200 in the source virtual space.
Object acquisition means 141 for acquiring a specific object and information for managing the object from
Object management means 1 for managing objects acquired from the server 200 in the source virtual space and the objects
42, a connection switching unit 143 for switching a connection from a server in the source virtual space to a server in the destination virtual space, and an object transfer unit for transferring an object managed by the object management unit 142 to the server 300 in the destination virtual space. 144.

The client 100 includes an object deleting unit that deletes the object from the source virtual space after transferring the object to the server 300 in the destination virtual space by the object transfer unit 144, and all the clients in the source space. And a deletion notifying means for notifying the user of the deletion.

The above-mentioned client connection switching means 143
Is an address acquisition unit that acquires addresses of all clients connected to the destination virtual space, and all the clients and the server 300 of the destination virtual space.
Object information notifying means for notifying information of an object managed by the client that has moved in the virtual space.

The present invention provides a multi-user virtual space system comprising a plurality of clients and a plurality of servers in a virtual space on a network, wherein the clients and the server are connected and have a shared object which can be operated and referred to each other. A storage medium storing a virtual space construction program, wherein a virtual space creation process for independently creating a plurality of virtual spaces and an object movement for moving an object existing in an arbitrary virtual space to any other virtual space Process.

[0021] The object movement process described above is an object for acquiring a specific object and information for managing the object from a server in the source virtual space when the client moves across the virtual space. An acquisition process, an object management process for managing objects and objects acquired from a server in the source virtual space, an object transfer process for transferring objects managed in the object management process to a server in the destination virtual space, And a connection switching process for switching the connection from the server in the virtual space to the server in the destination virtual space.

Further, after the object is transferred to the server in the destination virtual space by the object transfer process, an object deletion process for deleting the object from the source virtual space, and a deletion for notifying all clients in the source space of the deletion. Notification process.

Further, the connection switching process includes an address acquisition process for acquiring addresses of all clients connected to the destination virtual space, and an address acquisition process for all clients and servers in the destination virtual space. And an object information notification process for notifying information of an object managed by the client that has moved the object.

The object moving process includes a process of transferring a specific object and information about the object to the client when the client moves in the virtual space in the server in the source virtual space. Further, in the above-described object movement process, in a server in a movement destination virtual space, when a client moves in a virtual space, an object possessed by the client and information about the object are acquired from the client, and the movement destination virtual space is obtained. Including the process of adding to

As described above, according to the present invention, the client is provided with the object management means for managing the same objects as the server, and the client is provided with the function of instructing the management object to be moved. The object manager (a mechanism for determining the client's operation request for each object) manages all the objects. By passing the management of the specific object to the object manager provided in the client, the client can manage the specific object. Can manage.

Therefore, when the client wants to move an object O from one virtual space A to another virtual space B and switch the connection, the object O is managed in advance from the object manager of the server to the object manager in the client. Pass to management. Thereafter, since the operation request from the client for the object O is determined by the client, the client can exclusively operate the object O, and even after the object O is separated from the virtual space A. , Will be able to maintain management. Here, the client sends a message for deleting the object O from the virtual space A to all the clients as in the conventional server,
The object O is deleted from the virtual space A.

After the client disconnects the connection with the virtual space A and starts the connection to the virtual space B, the object manager of the client issues all the connections from the virtual space server B to the virtual space B. The object O can be added to the virtual space B by acquiring the address of the client and sending a message of information on the managed object to all clients and servers.

As described above, when the client returns the connection from one virtual space A to another virtual space B, the movement of the object O is completed. Thus, the object can be moved across a plurality of virtual spaces, and the virtual space can be generated independently.
Further, a server having a complicated configuration is not required.

[0029]

FIG. 3 shows the configuration of a virtual space system according to the present invention. The configuration shown in FIG.
0 and two servers 200 and 300. Client 100 includes object information 110, drawing unit 1
21, user interface unit 1 comprising input unit 122
20, a network management unit 130, and an object management unit 140.

The server 200 indicates the source server, and includes the object information 210 and the network management unit 22.
0 and an object management unit 230. The server 300 is a destination server and has the same configuration as the server 200. The figure shows an example in which an object is moved across a virtual space. A client 100 instructing the movement is delegated from the server 200 which moves the management of the data 111 of the moving object. The object is moved by holding it in the object management unit 140 and reconnecting to the destination server 300.

The object management units 230 and 330 of the servers 200 and 300 manage all the objects.
, The client 100 manages a specific object. Here, when the client 100 moves the object 111 from the virtual space A of the source server 200 to the virtual space B of the destination server 300, and wants to switch the connection, the management of the object 111 is performed in advance in the source server 200. From the object management unit 220 of the client 100 to the management of the object management unit 140 in the client 100.

Thereafter, an operation request for the object 111 from the client 100 is sent to the client 1
00, the client 100
Can operate the object 111 exclusively,
Further, the management can be continued even after disconnection from the source virtual space A. Here, the client 100 sends a message for deleting the object 111 from the source virtual space A to all the clients in the source virtual space A in the same manner as in the conventional server operation, and sends the message from the source virtual space A to the object 111. Remove.

After the client 100 disconnects the connection with the source virtual space A and starts the connection with the destination space B, the object management unit 140 of the client 100
Obtains the addresses of all the clients connected to the virtual space B from the destination virtual space server 300, and transfers the information of the object 111 managed by the client 100 to all the clients and servers 300 of the destination virtual space B. By sending a message to
11 is added to the destination virtual space B.

As described above, when the client 100 switches the connection from the virtual space A to the virtual space B, the movement of the object 111 is completed.

[0035]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. In the following embodiment, a virtual space of a virtual store is established on a network using a virtual space server. Each “virtual store” is created on a separate server, one store at a time.
Can be operated independently. By distributing the bookmark file in which these addresses are combined to the end user, the end user can shop around different stores one by one. In a store, an end user purchases an article using a payment system using a technique such as electronic cash. Here, the item that can be purchased is digital data provided in object data or other files that can be used in the virtual space.

In the virtual space A (virtual clothing store), the user who has purchased the avatar clothing object transfers the management of the clothing object to his / her client (referred to as a client 100 in FIG. 3), and together with the avatar, the virtual space. You can move around. The clothing object purchased by the user moves to the management of the client 100,
An operation request from another client regarding this object is sent to the client 100 instead of the server (the source server 200 in FIG. 3).

Here, a case where the user moves from the virtual space A to the virtual space B will be described. When the client 100 disconnects from the virtual space A, the clothing object is deleted from the virtual space A. This information is stored in the virtual space server 200
To all other clients connected to the virtual space A. When the client 100 starts connecting to the virtual space B, the list of objects managed in the client 100 is stored in the virtual space B via the virtual space server (the destination server 300 in FIG. 3).
All clients connected to are notified, and the addition of the object is completed.

Here, the client who has moved from the virtual space A to the virtual space B simultaneously with the client 100 can confirm that the clothing object possessed by the client 100 has moved from the virtual space A to the virtual space B.
Further, the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments,
In the client terminal, the object management unit 1
40, the user interface unit 120, and the network management unit 130 are configured as programs, stored in a storage medium such as a floppy disk or a CD-ROM, and installed and used when implementing a virtual space system. It can be used for general purposes.

The present invention is not limited to the above embodiment, but can be variously modified and applied within the scope of the claims.

[0040]

As described above, according to the present invention, when an object is moved across a virtual space, a client instructing the movement moves to a server (movement) that manages data of the moving object. Source server)
When the object is moved, the object is held inside the client, and the object is moved by reconnecting to the destination server, so that the object can be easily moved across a plurality of virtual spaces. In addition, there is no need to independently generate a virtual space. Thus, when an object is moved to another virtual space, there is no need to prepare a complicated mechanism for the server in the virtual space.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram for explaining the principle of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a principle configuration diagram of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a configuration diagram of a virtual space system of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a configuration diagram of a conventional virtual space system.

[Explanation of symbols]

 REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 100 client 111 data of moving object 112 data of normal object 120 user interface unit 121 drawing unit 122 input unit 130 network management unit 140 object management unit 141 object acquisition unit 142 object management unit 143 connection switching unit 144 object transfer unit 200 migration Original virtual space server, source server 211 Normal object data 212 Object data to be moved 220 Network management unit 230 Object management unit 300 Destination virtual space server, destination server 311 Normal object data 312 Data of moved object 320 Network management unit 330 Object management unit

Claims (14)

[Claims] 1. A method for constructing a virtual space in a multi-user virtual space system having a shared object that can be operated and referenced by connecting a plurality of clients and a plurality of servers on a network, wherein a plurality of virtual spaces are independently created. And moving an object existing in an arbitrary virtual space to an arbitrary other virtual space. 2. When the client moves across a virtual space, a specific object and information for managing the object are passed from the server in the source virtual space to the client, and the client Manages the object acquired from the source server and information for managing the object, and when moving in the virtual space, switches connection to a server in the destination virtual space; The virtual space construction method according to claim 1, wherein the object and information for managing the object are passed. 3. The virtual space according to claim 2, wherein when the client moves in the virtual space, the object is deleted from the source virtual space and all clients in the source space are notified of the deletion. How to build. 4. After the client has moved to the destination virtual space, the client disconnects from the server in the source virtual space, connects to the server in the destination virtual space, and connects to the destination virtual space. 3. The address of all the clients that have moved, and the information of the object managed by the client that has moved the virtual space is notified to all the clients and the server of the destination virtual space. Virtual space construction method. 5. A virtual system in a multi-user virtual space system comprising a plurality of clients and a plurality of servers in a virtual space on a network, wherein the clients and the servers are connected and have a shared object that can be operated and referred to each other. A space construction system, comprising: virtual space creation means for independently creating a plurality of virtual spaces; and object movement means for moving an object present in any virtual space to any other virtual space. Virtual space construction system. 6. When the client moves across a virtual space, the client obtains a specific object and information for managing the object from a server in the source virtual space; An object management unit that manages the object and the object acquired from a server in the source virtual space, a connection switching unit that switches a connection from a server in the source virtual space to a server in the destination virtual space, and the object management unit. 6. The virtual space construction system according to claim 5, further comprising: an object transfer unit that transfers the managed object to a server in a destination virtual space. 7. The client deletes the object from the source virtual space after transferring the object to the server in the destination virtual space by the object transfer unit; and all of the source space 7. The virtual space construction system according to claim 6, further comprising: a deletion notifying unit that notifies the client of the deletion. 8. The connection switching unit of the client, comprising: an address acquisition unit that acquires addresses of all clients connected to the destination virtual space; and an address acquisition unit that acquires addresses of all clients and a server of the destination virtual space. 7. The virtual space construction system according to claim 6, further comprising: object information notifying means for notifying information of an object managed by the client that has moved in the virtual space. 9. A multi-user virtual space system comprising a plurality of clients and a plurality of servers in a virtual space on a network, wherein the client and the server are connected, and have a shared object that can be operated and referred to each other. A storage medium storing a virtual space construction program, wherein a virtual space creation process for independently creating a plurality of virtual spaces, an object movement process for moving an object present in any virtual space to any other virtual space, A storage medium storing a virtual space construction program characterized by having: 10. The object movement process, wherein the client acquires a specific object and information for managing the object from a server in a source virtual space when the client moves across a virtual space. An acquisition process; an object management process for managing the object and the object acquired from the server in the source virtual space; and an object transfer for transferring the object managed in the object management process to a server in the destination virtual space. The storage medium storing the virtual space construction program according to claim 9, further comprising: a process; and a connection switching process for switching a connection from a server in the source virtual space to a server in the destination virtual space. 11. An object deletion process for deleting the object from the source virtual space after transferring the object to the server in the destination virtual space by the object transfer process, and deleting the object for all clients in the source space. 11. The storage medium storing the virtual space construction program according to claim 10, further comprising: a deletion notification process for notifying that the virtual space has been created. 12. The connection switching process, comprising: an address acquisition process for acquiring addresses of all clients connected to the destination virtual space; and an address acquisition process for all the clients and servers of the destination virtual space. 12. The storage medium storing the virtual space construction program according to claim 11, further comprising: an object information notification process for notifying information of an object managed by the client that has moved the virtual space. 13. The object moving process includes a process of transferring a specific object and information about the object to the client when the client moves in the virtual space in the server in the source virtual space. A storage medium storing the virtual space construction program according to claim 10. 14. The object movement process, wherein, in the server in the movement destination virtual space, when the client moves in the virtual space, an object possessed by the client and information about the object are acquired from the client, The storage medium storing the virtual space construction program according to claim 10, further comprising a process of adding the virtual space construction program to a destination virtual space.