Dynamic and scalable topology for virtual world environments

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9550125-B2
Application number	US-25138908-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 14, 2008
Priority date	Oct 14, 2008
Publication date	Jan 24, 2017
Grant date	Jan 24, 2017

Abstract

The present invention pertains to a method and apparatus for providing a dynamic and scalable topology for virtual world environments. In one embodiment, the method may include determining, in response to a request of a user computer system to transfer from a first place to a second place in a virtual environment, an instance of a second place that satisfies the request. The method may also include directing the user computer system to a game server that provides the determined instance of the second place.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method, comprising:
in response to a request of a user computer system to transfer from a first place to a second place in a virtual world environment, identifying, by a processor, a plurality of instances of the second place, wherein the virtual world environment comprises a plurality of connected places, and wherein the virtual world environment further comprises the plurality of instances of the second place and zero or more instances of each connected place from the plurality of connected places;
determining, by the processor, one or more other users associated with a user of the user computer system, wherein the one or more other users are associated with the user of the user computer system by at least a common place occupancy association with the user, wherein the common place occupancy association indicates that the one or more other users have occupied the first place in the virtual world environment at a same time as the user;
determining, by the processor, one of the plurality of instances of the second place in the virtual world environment that satisfies the request of the user computer system based at least in part on an association with one of the one or more other users, wherein the one of the one or more other users has been routed to the determined instance, and wherein the one of the one or more other users is associated with the user of the user computer system by at least the common place occupancy association;
routing, by the processor, the user computer system to a game server that provides the determined instance of the second place in the virtual world environment; and
updating, by the processor, runtime conditions of the virtual world environment associated with the user to indicate that the user computer system has been routed to the game server that provides the determined instance of the second place in the virtual world environment.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:
analyzing one or more selection criteria associated with the request;
determining a specific instance of the second place where the user computer system will be directed to based on analysis results of the selection criteria; and
directing the user computer system to a particular server game server that provides the specific instance of the second place.

3. The method of claim 2 , further comprising:
monitoring runtime conditions associated with each instance of each place in the virtual world environment; and
analyzing the monitored runtime conditions as a selection criteria along with the one or more selection criteria.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein monitoring runtime conditions further comprises:
directing a game server to create a new instance of a place from the plurality of connected places when the monitored runtime conditions indicate that a number of user computer systems at an instance of the place exceeds a limit; and
directing the game server to destroy an existing instance of the place when the monitored runtime conditions indicate that a number of user computer systems at the existing instance of the place is below a threshold, wherein user computer systems at the existing instance of the place to be destroyed are directed to a different instance of the place.

5. The method of claim 2 , wherein the selection criteria includes one or more selection criteria selected from the group consisting of destination place occupancy, destination place restrictions, server allocation, and server load for one or more servers that provide the destination place, and common place occupants.

6. The method of claim 2 , further comprising:
receiving data from a user computer system that specifies friends of a user of the user computer system;
storing friendship data in a user profile associated with the user computer system; and
analyzing the friendship data as a selection criteria along with the one or more selection criteria.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the request to transfer is received in response to the user computer system accessing a transfer portal.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the transfer portal is visually simulated in the virtual environment as a physically simulated boundary in the first place, a door, a cave, a transportation mechanism, or a teleporter.

9. The method of claim 7 , wherein the transfer portal is a user-created transfer portal in the virtual environment.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the virtual environment is an online multiplayer gaming environment.

11. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium that provides instructions, which when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising:
in response to a request of a user computer system to transfer from a first place to a second place in a virtual world environment, identifying, by the processor, a plurality of instances of the second place, wherein the virtual world environment comprises a plurality of connected places, and wherein the virtual world environment further comprises the plurality of instances of the second place and zero or more instances of each connected place from the plurality of connected places;
determining, by the processor, one or more other users associated with a user of the user computer system, wherein the one or more other users are associated with the user of the user computer system by at least a common place occupancy association with the user, wherein the common place occupancy association indicates that the one or more other users have occupied the first place in the virtual world environment at a same time as the user;
determining, by the processor, one of the plurality of instances of the second place in the virtual world environment that satisfies the request of the user computer system based at least in part on an association with one of the one or more other users, wherein the one of the one or more other users has been routed to the determined instance, and wherein the one of the one or more other users is associated with the user of the user computer system by at least the common place occupancy association;
routing, by the processor, the user computer system to a game server that provides the determined instance of the second place in the virtual world environment; and
updating, by the processor, runtime conditions of the virtual world environment associated with the user to indicate that the user computer system has been routed to the game server that provides the determined instance of the second place in the virtual world environment.

12. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 11 , the operations further comprising:
analyzing one or more selection criteria associated with the request;
determining a specific instance of the second place where the user computer system will be directed to based on analysis results of the selection criteria; and
directing the user computer system to a particular game server that provides the specific instance of the second place.

13. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 12 , the operations further comprising:
monitoring runtime conditions associated with each instance of each place in the virtual world environment; and
analyzing the monitored runtime conditions as a selection criteria along with the one or more selection criteria.

14. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 13 , wherein monitoring runtime conditions further comprises:
directing a game server to create a new instance of a place from the plurality of connected places when the monitored runtime conditions indicate that a number of user computer systems

Assignees

• Baszucki David B
• Cassel Erik S
• Shedletsky John
• Dusek Matt
• Roblox Corp

Inventors

• Baszucki David B
• Cassel Erik S
• Shedletsky John
• Dusek Matt

Classifications

• A63F2300/531

  Server assignment · CPC title

• A63F13/56 Primary

  Computing the motion of game characters with respect to other game characters, game objects or elements of the game scene, e.g. for simulating the behaviour of a group of virtual soldiers or for path finding · CPC title

• A63F2300/6623

  for animating a group of characters · CPC title

• A63F2300/6607

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

• A63F2300/6018

  where the game content is authored by the player, e.g. level editor or by game device at runtime, e.g. level is created from music data on CD · CPC title