Game apparatus and computer-readable storage medium having a game program stored thereon

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9269175-B2
Application number	US-50492409-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 17, 2009
Priority date	May 12, 2009
Publication date	Feb 23, 2016
Grant date	Feb 23, 2016

Abstract

In a game apparatus, a trajectory WP on which a waist W of a player character moves and an elliptic trajectory ArP on which an ankle Par of the player character moves are set. When the player character moves in a game space, the waist moves on the trajectory WP and the ankle moves on the elliptic trajectory ArP in accordance with a movement amount of the player character. In this case, while the ankle makes one round on the elliptic trajectory ArP, the waist makes two shuttle movements on the trajectory WP. Thus, motion images in accordance with the movements of legs and feet are not required to be previously prepared and a variety of motions of the legs and feet of the player character can be realized.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An apparatus, having an associated input device and a display device and including one or more information processing units, operable to generate and display movements of, a virtual object in a virtual space, comprising:
at least one computer processor configured to provide functionality and operate as:
virtual object position controller that sets, using said one or more information processing units, a position of the virtual object in the virtual space and changes the set position of the virtual object based at least in part upon an input signal provided by the input device;
a first body part position controller that sets and updates position data of a first body part of the virtual object, using said one or more information processing units, as a relative position in the virtual space with respect to the position of the virtual object; and
a display controller that displays on a screen of the display device an animated image of the virtual object including the first body part,
wherein the set position data of the first body part is repeatedly updated by calculating an updated position of the first body part in virtual space, using said one or more information processing units, in a manner which causes the first body part to move a predetermined amount along a first trajectory in accordance with a movement amount of the virtual object in the virtual space, and wherein the first trajectory is a circle or an ellipse whose minor axis has a length greater than or equal to zero which is set in accordance with the position of the virtual object.

2. The apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein
the first body part position controller sets the position of the first body part on said circle or ellipse.

3. The apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein
the first body part position controller sets a central angle of the ellipse or circle in accordance with the movement amount of the virtual object and sets a point on the ellipse or circle as the position of the first body part, the point determined based on the central angle.

4. The apparatus according to claim 3 , wherein the first body part position controller includes center position setter that sets a position of a center of the ellipse or circle based on the position of the virtual object.

5. The apparatus according to claim 1 , further comprising second body part position controller that sets a position of a second body part of the virtual object as a relative position with respect to the position of the virtual object, which is set by the virtual object position controller, wherein
the second body part position controller sets the position of the second body part by moving the second body part in an amount in accordance with the movement amount of the virtual object, the second body part being moved on a second trajectory set in accordance with the position of the virtual object,
the first body part position controller sets the position of the first body part as a relative position with respect to the position of the second body part, and
the display controller displays on the screen an image including the first body part and the second body part.

6. The apparatus according to claim 5 , wherein
the second trajectory is of an ellipse whose minor axis has a length of greater than or equal to zero or of a circle, and
the second body part position controller sets a central angle of the ellipse or circle in accordance with the movement amount of the virtual object and sets a point on the ellipse or circle as the position of the second body part, the point determined based on the central angle.

7. The apparatus according to claim 1 , further comprising second body part position controller that sets a position of a second body part of the virtual object as a relative position with respect to the position of the virtual object, which is set by the virtual object position controller, wherein
the second body part position controller sets the position of the second body part by moving the second body part in an amount in accordance with the movement amount of the virtual object, the second body part being moved on a second trajectory set in accordance with the position of the virtual object,
the display controller displays on the screen an image including the first body part and the second body part, and
when the virtual object is moving in the virtual space, the first body part rotates around or shuttles along the first trajectory and the second body part rotates around or shuttles along the second trajectory, and a period in which the first body part rotates around or shuttles along the first trajectory is double a period in which the second body part rotates around or shuttles along the second trajectory.

8. The apparatus according to claim 7 , further comprising third body part position controller a position of a third body part of the virtual object as a relative position with respect to the position of the virtual object, which is set by the virtual object position controller, wherein
the third body part position controller sets the position of the third body part by moving the third body part in an amount in accordance with the movement amount of the virtual object, the third body part being moved on a third trajectory set in accordance with the position of the virtual object and the position of the third body part being set as a relative position with respect to the position of the second body part,
the display controller displays on the screen an image including the first body part, the second body part, and the third body part, and
when the virtual object is moving in the virtual space, the third body part moves on the third trajectory in a periodic fashion having a same period of movement along the third trajectory as that of the first body part along the first trajectory, and there is a predetermined difference between a movement phase of the first body part and a movement phase of the third body part.

9. The apparatus according to claim 8 , wherein the virtual object is a virtual person object, the first body part and the third body part are ankles, and the second body part is a waist.

10. The apparatus according to claim 9 , further comprising a knee state setter that sets a knee state based on the position of the ankle, which is set by the first body part position controller, and on the position of the waist, which is set by the second body part position controller.

11. The apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein
the virtual object moves on a predetermined virtual terrain object present in the virtual space, and the first body part position controller includes:
first body part position determiner that determines whether the first body part is present inside the virtual terrain object; and
first body part position corrector that corrects the position of the first body part to be on a surface of the virtual terrain object, when the first body part position determiner determines that the first body part is present inside the virtual terrain object.

12. The apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein
the virtual object moves on a predetermined virtual terrain object present in the virtual space, and
when the movement amount of the virtual object per unit time is smaller than a predetermined threshold value, the first body part position controller further sets the position of the first body part such that the position of the first body part is caused to approach the virtual terrain object.

13. The apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the virtual object position controller sets the position of the virtual object in the virtual space based on a predetermined operati

Assignees

• Miyamoto Takeshi
• Shimamura Takayuki
• Nintendo Co Ltd

Inventors

• Miyamoto Takeshi
• Shimamura Takayuki

Classifications

• G06T13/40 Primary

  of characters, e.g. humans, animals or virtual beings · CPC title

• A63F2300/6607

  for animating game characters, e.g. skeleton kinematics · CPC title