JPS60174169A - Animation control system - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] This bulletin contains application data before electronic filing, so abstract data is not recorded.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Technical Field of Anchormei] This invention relates to an animation control direction for moving and displaying animation blocks on a screen such as a CRT.

[Prior art examples of inventions and their problems]

Conventionally, in a video game device, an animation of an invader can be displayed and moved on the f[llii plane. In most of these types of video game devices, the game specifications are generally predetermined9, and the user enjoys playing the game, but recently, devices that can create arbitrary game specifications and animation patterns have been put into practical use. ing. However, if you create your own game specifications, you will need display specifications that allow animation blocks to approach each other, such as an invader approaching a spaceship. However, in conventional video game devices, two animation blocks do not have a function to automatically bring the blocks closer together, so K checks the display position of the 10th animation block and the display position of the 2nd animation block. In which direction should the animation block move forward to reach the second animation block -
- It was extremely troublesome because it required calculations to determine whether the object would approach, then find the coordinates of movement in that direction, and display the Ml animation block at those coordinates. Furthermore, if this procedure is implemented in a computer program, the program becomes large, and especially if the close-up display is used multiple times in one game specification, the program becomes even larger.

[Purpose of the invention]

This invention was made in view of the above circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to realize an animation control method in which animation blocks automatically approach each other by simply specifying at least two animation blocks without creating a long program. With the goal.

[Key points of the invention]

This invention includes means for instructing at least two animation blocks being displayed on a screen, and means for controlling the display so that the specified animation blocks approach each other on the screen. The blocks automatically approach each other on the screen.

[Embodiments of the invention]

DESCRIPTION OF THE OVERALL CONFIGURATION> Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. Figure 1 shows the display screen of a CRT, etc., and the animation block A1 is at the coordinates (Xl, yt).
Coordinates (xzyz)K Animation 7' Lock A2 is displayed, and an arrow indicates the direction in which animation block A1 approaches animation block A2.

FIG. 2 is an overall configuration diagram of the animation control device of this embodiment. 10 in the figure is an input control circuit, and the keyboard 12
, decodes data input from the joystick 14 and supplies various input data to each part of the system. 16 is a refresh memory for displaying a background image; for example, 32
X, stores a pattern code of 24 characters. Each pattern code consists of 8 bits, and this refresh memory 16, which consists of codes 1 to 255, is supplied with address a and data b from the human control circuit 10. Any pattern code (1 to 255 as described above) can be written from the keyboard 12 to any address (-%0, 0) to (32, 24). And normally the address control circuit 18
It is refreshed by the refresh address C from . The address control circuit 18 has a function of writing clear data cd into the refresh memory 16 in response to the input of the clear signal cl from the input control device 10, thereby controlling the clearing of the screen. Refreta 2 above
0 and the address designation number of the color table 22. The pattern generator 20 and the color table 22 have a 1:1 address correspondence, and the pattern generator 2
The character pattern corresponding to the pattern code written in the zero-fresh memory 1'6 is stored in an 8.times.8 dot configuration as shown in FIG. 3(A). The color table 22 also displays the color of the character pattern in Figure 3 (
As shown in B), it is specified in units of 1 line (8 dots), and among the 8 bits of li/ in the character pattern.
The color code of the color of the 1" portion (the pattern portion to be displayed) and the color code of the color of the 0" portion (the background portion of the pattern) are stored. Therefore, when a pattern code from the refresh memory 16 is read out, a character pattern corresponding to the pattern code is read out from the pattern generator 20 as a signal e, and a color code is read out from the color triple 22 as a signal f in parallel. These pattern generator 20 and color table 22 are supplied with address g and data h1 from input control circuit 10.
1 is blocked, and any pattern and color code can be written from the keyboard 12. The color generation circuit 24 converts the color code f outputted from the color table 22 into a color code l when e is '1'' using a pattern e consisting of a bit string of $1191,0'' outputted from the pattern generator 20. , 10″
In this case, the color code O is selected, converted into 4-bit color data j representing RGB (red, green, and blue) and Y (luminance), and output. The circuits 16 to 24 described above constitute a background image display section.

When rewriting the pattern code in the refresh memory 16, use the 32x24 pattern character/lid display mode, and fix the correspondence between the pattern code in the refresh memory 16 and the character pattern in the pattern generator 20.
25 when changing the dots of the character pattern.
Functions as a 6x192 dot graphic display mode.

Next, the animation display section will be explained. 26 in Figure 2
is an animation definition table (hereinafter referred to as animation definition table D) that can define 32 animation blocks with block numbers #1 to #32. One animation block is 16 dots x 16.
It is the size of a dot. Note that some of the 32 images may be used for system purposes such as cursor display. Each definition table stores the animation block's display coordinates (the top left dot of the block is the standard) x, y, the pattern number (N11) of the animation pattern, and the color code of the animation block's display color. . These 32 animation blocks have predetermined display priorities when they overlap on the display screen, with block number #1 having the highest priority and subsequent priority orders in numerical order. Note that 26A does not respond to this priority control or access to the animation definition table 26.
The addon pattern of the animation pattern generator 28 is stored, and the animation pattern of the specified butter/member is output as a dot string signal kp. The above animation definition table 26 and animation pattern generator 28
address 1. from the input control device 10. m, data n,
The display coordinates, pattern number, and color code of any animation block with block numbers #1 to #32 can be written from the keyboard 12, and the animation pattern with any pattern number can be written. can be written. As specified in the animation definition table 26, the color code of the animation block is output as a signal kc.

An animation control device 30 controls animation display by controlling the animation definition table 26 based on various data p supplied from the human control device 10. The animation definition table 26 is controlled by signals of address g, sending data rw, and input data rr. Still, the signal S obtained by this animation control device 30 is input manually to the input control device 10. This signal S will be described in detail later, but it is data indicating the moving direction of the animation block, which plays an important role in the present invention.

A priority determination circuit 32 determines which animation blocks should be displayed during one horizontal scanning period of the display screen. That is, up to 32 animation blocks can be defined, but in this embodiment, the number of animation blocks that can be displayed on one raster line is limited to four. Therefore, the vertical coordinates (y) of the animation blocks #1 to #32 are determined every horizontal scanning period of the display timing, and the animation blocks with the highest display priority among the animation blocks located on the vertical coordinates of the raster are determined. Up to four block numbers are stored in sequence.

, Therefore, the dot pattern data Icp output from the animation pattern generator 28 is the dot pattern data Icp corresponding to the pattern numbers - of the four animation blocks determined by the priority determination circuit 32 for each horizontal scanning period. Each line (16 pits) is output in parallel, and a buffer 34 consisting of a shift register
is stored once. Thereafter, the signal is shifted out one bit at a time and supplied to the color generation circuit 36 as a signal U. The color generating circuit 36 selects the color code kc supplied from the animation definition table 26 only when @1'' according to the pattern U consisting of a bit string of '1'' and 'θ'' supplied from the buffer 34. Then, it is replaced with the 4-bit color data V corresponding to RGBYK mentioned above and output.

Therefore, the selection circuit 38 is a circuit that selects the color data j from the color generation circuit 24 and the color data V from the color generation circuit 36, and the pattern U supplied from the color generation circuit 34 is @1''. Notoki uses color data V,'
0", select color data j and output to D/A (digital/analog) conversion circuit $40. Then, D/A
The A conversion circuit 4° converts the input digital data into an analog video signal. By inputting this video signal to the antenna terminal of a television receiver, a display can be obtained on the television screen.

It goes without saying that the background image display part in the upper part of FIG. 2 and the animation display part in the lower part are completely synchronized.

<Summary of the overall configuration> As explained above, when drawing a background image, the keyboard 12, refresh memory 16, pattern generator 20, . When data is written to the color table 22 and animation is drawn, the background image and the animation block are displayed in a composite manner on the television screen by inputting the data from the keyboard 12 to the animation definition table 26 and animation pattern generator 28. And the priority order is animation block $1 >$2...
・>#:32>Background image character pattern>Background order. Furthermore, in order to move the animation block, the display coordinates x1y in the animation definition table may be rewritten as appropriate. Note that automatic approach control of animation blocks is performed by the animation control device 30, and details thereof will be described later.

<Detailed Description of Animation Control Mechanism> Next, movement control of animation blocks will be described with reference to FIGS. 4 to 8. FIG. 4 shows the configuration of the animation control circuit 30, where 50 is an animation approach control circuit (hereinafter referred to as animation approach control circuit) that detects the direction in which two specified animation blocks should approach, and 60 is an animation approach control circuit (hereinafter referred to as animation approach control circuit). The direction detected by the animation approach control circuit 50 or the keyboard 12, joystick 14
This is an animation movement control circuit (hereinafter referred to as animation movement control circuit) that moves an animation block in a direction specified by, etc.

Further, 70 is a joystick input control circuit that controls direction data input from the joystick 14. Although a large number of signal lines are shown in FIG. 4, their roles will be explained when explaining each of the circuits ``5'o'', 60, and 70 using FIGS. 5 to 8. It will become clear.

In addition, in the following explanation, in order to understand the present invention, the flow of signals is described as a raw cocoon, and the timing signals, chip select signals, read/write signals, gate control signals, etc. necessary for actual operation are described. are all omitted.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing details of the animation approach control circuit 50. By inputting two animation blocks from the keyboard 12 and the number of dots to be moved at one time in the X and Y directions, the block numbers A1 and A2 of the two animation blocks and the number of moving dots are manually input from the human power control device 10. Sx.

sy is stored in 77502.504 and 5o6.5o8.Then, the block numbers A1 and A2 are
is input to the address conversion circuit 510 and converted into the addresses AI' and A2' of the animation definition table 26, and the corresponding block number is accessed. Then, display coordinates x1, yl and x2, y2 are read from the anime definition table 26 of the accessed first and M2 block numbers and stored in buffers 512.514 and 516.518.

Reference numeral 520 denotes an X-direction direction setting circuit, the details of which will be described later, determine the X-coordinate X of two animation blocks A1 and A2 (hereinafter simply referred to as animation A1 and animation A2).
1, X2 and the number of dots that the first animation A1 advances at one time, this circuit calculates the traveling direction I) x on the X axis and the current coordinate difference H.

When Dx is "1", it moves in the positive direction of the X axis, when it is "-1", it moves in the negative direction, and when it is "0", it does not move. The above Dx is stored in the buffer 522 and H is stored in the buffer 524. 526 is a direction determining circuit in the y direction, and a buffer 528,
530. 532 is a comparison circuit, which compares the coordinate difference H from the buffer 524 and the coordinate difference V from the buffer 530, and if it is V%H, Dx of the buffer 522 is set to rOJ, and if H)V, the buffer 528 Dy of r
Make it O.J. And when H=V, nothing is done. next,
The direction data Dx and Dy of the buffers 522 and 528 are supplied to the direction detection circuit 534 and also to the aniso movement control circuit 60. The direction detection circuit 534 searches the direction table 536 shown in FIG. 6(A) based on the input Dx and Dy, and reads out the direction data S corresponding to the combination of the values of Dx and Dy. This direction data S
is any one of 1 to 8, and the directional relationship is shown in FIG. 6(B). Also, this direction data S is the human control circuit 10.
It can also be used for other controls.

FIG. 7 is a detailed diagram of the orientation circuit 520.

Coordinate data x1 input from buffers 512 and 516
, x2 are input to the arithmetic/comparison circuit 550, and lXl−X
21 is performed and written to the buffer 552 as a coordinate difference H in the X direction. Also, xl and x2 are compared, and when X1 = 554. 55
6 is an arithmetic circuit; the above x1 and the number of moving dots Sx supplied from the buffer 506 are input manually, and when x2)xl is "1" from the above arithmetic/comparison circuit 550, addition is performed; When "-1" of xx is given, subtraction is performed. The calculation result G is the X coordinate of the Aniso 1 after the movement, and is manually input to the calculation circuit 558. This arithmetic circuit 558 is supplied with x2, performs an arithmetic operation of lX2-Gl, and supplies the result F to a comparator circuit 560. The comparison circuit 560 is manually input with the coordinate difference H from the buffer 552, and when F≧H, it means that Aniso 1 overlaps or overtakes Aniso 2, so Dx of buffer [554 and H of buffer 552 are Outputs a signal to set it to "0". That is, the traveling direction Dx is set to rOJ to stop the movement, and the current coordinate difference on the X-axis is set to "0" for later comparison with the coordinate difference in the X direction.

Then, the final value of the buffer 554 is output as the traveling direction Dx, and the value of the buffer 552 is output as the coordinate difference H on the X axis to the buffers 522 and 524.

Note that the X direction direction setting circuit 522 also has the same structure and operation as this direction setting circuit 520.

FIG. 8 is a detailed diagram of the aniso movement control circuit 6o. In the figure, block numbers A1, x, and X of Aniso 1 supplied from the keyboard 12 via the input control branch circuit
The number of moving dots in the direction Sx.

Sy, direction data S (sometimes given from the joystick 14), minimum value of X as the display range in which the animation block can move, Lx, maximum xo value RX, F
The minimum value L)' and Y(D maximum value RF are each buffer 760
2.604.606.608.610.612.614
．． Set to 616.

Then, the block number of Aniso A1 set in the buffer 602 is converted into an address AI' of the Aniso definition table 26 by an address conversion circuit 618, and the Aniso definition table 26 is accessed. Thus, the display coordinates x1 and yl of the anime image A1 are written from the anime image definition table 26 to the buffers 620 and 622. Further, a flag AF indicating that the specified animation AI has been defined and is being displayed is sent from the control unit 26A of the animation definition table 26 and set in the buffer 624.

That is, the control unit 26A of the animation definition table 26 has 32 flags corresponding to animation blocks, and each time a display command is given, the corresponding flag is set.
It is reset every time an erase command is given, and by reading this flag you can tell whether the animation block is being displayed. Furthermore, the traveling direction data Dx, Dy supplied from the aniso approach control circuit 50
are set in buffers 626 and 628. However,
630 is a circuit that searches a direction table 632 based on the device data S constituted by the buffer 608 to determine the traveling direction Da on the X axis and the traveling direction Dy on the y axis, and the direction table 632 is as described above. It has the same configuration as the directional daple 536 shown in FIG. 6(A). Further, the direction data S may be given from the keyboard 12 or the joystick 14, but when the traveling direction data Dx and Dy are given from the aniso approach control circuit 50, this direction decomposition circuit 630 uses the direction table 632. Outputs Da and Dy as they are without searching. Of course, the direction data S may also be received from the aniso approach control circuit 50 and directionally resolved.

The traveling direction data Dx outputted from the direction decomposition circuit 630 is manually input to an arithmetic circuit 632. The arithmetic circuit 632 receives the coordinate data x1 from the buffer 620.
The number of moving dots Sx from 4 to 4 performs respective calculations and outputs the results to the buffer 634. The result of this calculation becomes the new X coordinate X when moving the Aniso A1. On the other hand, the arithmetic circuit 636 similarly receives the traveling direction data Dy1 from the direction decomposition circuit 630 and the coordinate data y from the buffer 622.
1 and the number of moved dots Sy from the buffer 606, calculate y 1+ (Sy*Dy), and use the result as the y coordinate Y after the movement of Aniso A1 as bar: y7753
Output to 8. The coordinate data X obtained in this way,
Display range determining circuits 640 and 642 determine whether Y is within the designated display range. The display range determination circuits 640 and 642 detect the minimum value Lx and maximum value R in the X direction from the buffers 610.612 and 614.616, respectively.
When the minimum value LY and maximum value RY in the x and y directions are supplied and it is determined that they are within the display range, the coordinate data If it is determined that it is out of the display range, it outputs a signal to set the display flag AF of the buffer 624 to θ'' via the OR gate 644 to remember that the display of Aniso 1 has disappeared, and also sends it to the Aniso definition table 26 to set the display flag AF of the buffer 624 to θ''. Then, the display coordinates xs'l of the anime definition table 26 are changed from xl and yl to X.

If you update to Y, the display position of Aniso 1 will be automatically changed to the coordinates (X
, move to Y). Also, if you want to delete Aniso 1, the coordinates (
x, y) is not sent, and the control unit 2 of the aniso definition table 26
When the flag of Aniso 1 in 6A is reset, the vertical coordinate y of Aniso 1 is automatically rewritten to an address outside the optical display screen. Therefore, Aniso 1 inevitably disappears from the screen.

Note that when the displayed Aniso 1 approaches the displayed Aniso 2, it is unlikely that Aniso 1 will move out of the display range and disappear, but if the Aniso image movement control circuit 60 operates independently, This display range determination function is necessary because the animation block can be moved regardless of the proximity to the animation block.

Next, all functions of the joystick human control circuit 70 will be explained. When the joystick 14 is operated, direction data S is manually input via the input control circuit 10 in accordance with the direction of the operation. This direction data S is 1 to 1 shown in FIG. 6(B).
It is one of 8. On the other hand, direction-limiting data SC is given from the keyboard 10. This is to allow input in only the desired direction out of the eight directions in which the joystick 14 can be operated, and to disable input in the other directions.

Then, the joystick human control circuit 70 compares the manually operated S and SC, and if they match, outputs the direction data S to the aniso movement control circuit 60. For example, SC
is 1.3.5, joystick 14
The direction data S is output as 1.3.5 only when the direction is operated in the direction of 1.3.5.

<Summary of animation control mechanism> As explained above, two animation blocks A
By specifying I and A2 and giving the number of unit movement dots in the X and Y directions of Aniso A1, the Aniso approach control circuit 50 determines the movement direction S for Aniso A1 to approach Aniso A2.
is obtained, and the animation block A to be moved is
1, and give the moving direction S, the number of unit movement dots, and the display range, the anisozo movement control circuit 60 can obtain new coordinates (X%Y) to which the anisozoo 1 should be moved. By combining the operations of the aniso approach control circuit 50 and the aniso movement control circuit 60, the two direction limited data SC
If S is given, the joystick human power limiting circuit 70 can select only the necessary direction data from among the direction data input from the joystick 14 to obtain the direction data S.

Explanation of operation of this embodiment> First, the Aniso 1 shown in FIG. 1 is set to block number #1,
Display address (50, 60), number of moving dots on the x-axis 5x = 4, number of moving dots on the y-axis 5y = 3, Aniso 1 is block number #2, display address (120, 1
00). Also, change the display range to Lx=0, Rx=256
, Ly=0, and Ry-192 (that is, full screen display). And of the above data prv #1, #2, Lx%Ly
%Rx.

Ry is input from the keyboard 10 to designate and start the aniso approach control circuit 50 and the anisozo movement control circuit 60 (chip select signals etc. are not shown).

Then, the display address (50, 60) of Aniso 1 from the Aniso definition table 26 of block numbers #1 and #2,
The display address (12o, 1oo) of the animation 2 and the animation display flag AF=1 are input to the animation control circuit 30.

Therefore, in the aniso approach control circuit 50, x 1
= 50, x 2 = 120.5 x = 4, so Dx = 1, H = 4 in the direction setting circuit 520. ! =-5-D, x-,-
, 5-1-, 2 Hri''→Dy= in the shoulder direction output circuit 526
1, V=5 is obtained. For how to do this, refer to FIG. 7.F)txt-X21=7
0 is obtained and set in the buffer 552, and xl
(The signal x2 is output and set in the buffer 554. The arithmetic circuit 556 performs the calculation x l + S x = 54, and the arithmetic circuit 558 calculates 1x2-Gl = 66O.
Perform calculations. Therefore, the comparator circuit 560 has F=66 and H
;70 is input and F(H), so no signal to set Dx and H to "0" is output. Therefore, Dx=1, H;70. The y-direction direction determining circuit 526 also operates in the same way. YosuDy
=1, ■=40 are obtained.

Therefore, in FIG. 5, the comparator circuit 532 obtains an output of H>■, and the Dy of the buffer 528 is set to "0".

Subsequently, the direction detection circuit 534 inputs Dx=1 and Dy=0 to search the direction table 536, and outputs the corresponding S=3 as the read direction data S.

Next, in the aniso movement control circuit 60, from the human control circuit 10 and the aniso definition table 26, A 1 =#
1.5x=4.5y=3, (S is not done manually), t, x=
o, Rx=256, L@=O, Ry'=192, X 1
= 50, y1 = 60, and AF = 1 are set, and the aniso approach control circuit 50 sets Dx = 1 and D y = 0. Therefore, in the arithmetic circuit 632, x 1+
(Sx*Dx) = 54 operations are performed to store the buffer 634.
Y1+ (SY*Dy
)=60 and set it in the buffer 638. Note that in this example, since Dx and Dy are directly given as line direction data, the direction decomposition circuit 630 does not perform direction decomposition processing. Next, the display range determination circuit 640 outputs the output, and the display range determination circuit 642 determines whether Ly≦Y≦Ry or not, and outputs Y as the coordinate data up to t since Q(60 (192). , the display coordinates of Aniso 1 after the movement are (54, 60), and the display coordinate area x of block number #1 of the Aniso definition table 26
, y and automatically move and display.

If the above operation is repeated, Aniso 1 will gradually approach Aniso 2.

<Aspects of the Invention> a. Either of the two animation blocks may move to approach the other, or both may move.

1) Three or more animation blocks may move. For example, one animation block (spaceship)
You can make a large number of animation blocks (invaders) approach you.

All of the data for each building in C1 was entered using the keyboard 12, but it may also be done manually using a program.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As detailed above, according to the present invention, the animation blocks can be displayed in a moving manner, and by simply specifying at least two animation blocks, the display is automatically controlled so that the animation blocks move closer to each other. This makes it possible to create game specifications extremely easily. Furthermore, when creating game specifications in a program, it is possible to prevent the program from becoming too large.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

The drawings are for explaining one embodiment of the present invention.
The figure is a diagram of the display screen, Figure 2 is an overall configuration diagram of the system, Figures 3 (A) and (B) are diagrams for explaining how to color character turns, and Figure 4 is an animation control device 3.
0, FIG. 5 is the animation approach control circuit 50.
6(A) CB) are diagrams for explaining the moving direction of the animation block, FIG. 7 is a detailed diagram of the direction setting circuit 520, and FIG. 8 is a detailed diagram of the animation movement control circuit 60.
FIG. 10... Human control device 12... Keyboard 14
... Joystick 16 ... Refresh memory 20 ... Pattern generator 22 ... Color table 26 ... Animation definition table 2
6A...Control unit 28...Animation pattern regenerator 30...Animation control device 5
0...Animation approach control circuit, 60...Animation movement control circuit, 70...Joystick human control circuit Patent applicant Casio Computer Co., Ltd.

Claims (1)

[Claims] In an animation control method for moving and displaying animation blocks on a screen, a means for specifying at least two animation blocks currently being displayed on the screen; An animation control method characterized by comprising: means for controlling display in a manner that