| US 7,537,523 B2 | ||
| Dynamic player groups for interest management in multi-character virtual environments | ||
| Bo Zhang, Beijing (China); Baining Guo, Beijing (China); and Heung-Yeung Shum, Bellevue, Wash. (US) | ||
| Assigned to Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, Wash. (US) | ||
| Filed on Jun. 30, 2004, as Appl. No. 10/882,926. | ||
| Prior Publication US 2006/0003823 A1, Jan. 05, 2006 | ||
| Int. Cl. A63F 9/24 (2006.01); G06F 15/16 (2006.01) | ||
| U.S. Cl. 463—42 [709/204; 463/1] | 27 Claims |
| 1. A method comprising:
an environment server selecting a sub-set of entities from a set of entities in a virtual environment as being of interest
to a group of characters comprising at least two characters in the virtual environment, the sub-set of entities being separate
from the characters of the group of characters and each character of the group having a position in the virtual environment
described by an x coordinate and a y coordinate, wherein the environment server selecting an entity as being of interest to
the group of characters comprises:
the environment server determining an x coordinate and a y coordinate for a position of a group center for the group, the
x coordinate for the group center being determined by averaging the x coordinates of the positions of all of the characters
of the group and the y coordinate for the group center being determined by averaging the y coordinates of the positions of
all of the characters of the group, the position of the group center being different from the positions of all of the characters
of the group;
the environment server determining a distance between the position of the entity in the virtual environment and the group
center; and
the environment server selecting the entity as being of interest to the group of characters if the determined distance is
less than a threshold distance; and
the environment server transmitting a set of messages to clients corresponding to the characters of the group to convey information
about the sub-set of entities.
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