JP3512973B2 - A method for realizing a shared object in three-dimensional shared virtual space communication - Google Patents

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a three-dimensional virtual space in which a plurality of user terminals are connected to a center device via a communication line and a plurality of users share a three-dimensional virtual space with three-dimensional computer graphics. Regarding communication services,
In particular, it relates to a method of realizing a shared object in three-dimensional shared virtual space communication.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As a conventional method for realizing a shared object, there is mainly a server-client type application development method. In this method, a server that manages information about objects that require synchronization of object operations on the client is prepared, and this server centrally manages and distributes information about shared objects. .

[0003]

In the conventional server-client type application development, it is necessary to separately prepare a server necessary for realizing the shared object, which increases the complexity of the entire system and the server. Will increase the load on the

In many conventional multi-person communication services, shared objects are limited to objects (avatars) in the virtual space that symbolize each user, and motion events related to objects in the space are sent to each terminal. It does not include a mechanism that allows application developers to easily define and implement the effects of spreading on objects and synchronization of object operations on each terminal.

The objects of the present invention are as follows: 1) In developing an application for a virtual space communication service using a simple language (script) provided by the system, it is easy to use the library related to the shared object provided by the system. 2) It is possible to realize a shared object, and 2) It is possible to determine the shared object management server that manages the shared object only by changing the attributes in the shared object definition. 3) Used for general clients It is possible to use a terminal that runs the same software as the shared object management terminal as a shared object management terminal. 4) By dynamically changing the attributes in the shared object definition, the shared object management server can be dynamically 3D shared virtual space communication that can be changed flexibly and flexibly It is to provide a shared object realization method in.

[0006]

According to a method for realizing a shared object in three-dimensional shared virtual space communication of the present invention, a plurality of user terminals are connected to a center device via a communication line,
In the three-dimensional virtual space communication services a plurality of users to share the three-dimensional virtual space by 3-dimensional computer graphics, pairs logical scope World of 3-dimensional virtual space
And the behaviors on all the terminals logged in are the same.
The procedure for defining a master attribute in a shared object that is a project and managing the shared object, and the master attribute is T
The information about the shared object that is RU is
It is characterized in that it has a procedure of broadcasting to a terminal logged in to the field .

In another method of realizing a shared object in three-dimensional shared virtual space communication according to the present invention, a plurality of user terminals are connected to a center device via a communication line, and a plurality of users use three-dimensional computer graphics. In a 3D virtual space communication service that shares a 3D virtual space,
For the world , which is the logical range of three-dimensional virtual space,
Objects with the same behavior on all terminals
And procedures to manage the shared object to a shared object that is the door to define a master attribute, Abba to symbolize the user
When a client collides with a shared object , the shared object
And the procedure for changing the door of the master attribute to TRUE, the master species
Related to shared objects whose sex is TRUE
To the terminal logged in to the world.
And a procedure for performing .

[0008]

[0009]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION In the embodiment of the present invention, as an example of a multi-person participation type communication service, each user terminal shares a virtual city model, and the user uses an input device of the user terminal. The user's own coordinates in the same city are moved, and each user terminal generates and displays the cityscape viewed from the corresponding coordinate position on its display device by three-dimensional computer graphics,
Further, it transmits its own coordinate position and direction to another user and the server terminal, and the user terminal of each user uses the received position and direction of the other user to determine whether the other user is moving in the same city. The present invention relates to a virtual space communication service in which an object (avatar) in a virtual space that symbolizes a user is also generated and displayed in a virtual city and communication between a plurality of users and services is realized in the virtual space. In addition, in the present embodiment, as a communication service definition in a simple language (script), the process of an operation in which an arbitrary user pushes and moves an object is performed by all users existing in the world, which is a space providing the service. This is an example of realizing in synchronization on the user terminal used by.

Next, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

As a first embodiment of the present invention, an object existing in a world in a virtual space showing one service of this service is displayed in all user terminals of the service user, and the operation of the object is performed. A method for realizing the synchronization by providing a server terminal that manages the operation of the object by the service provider will be described.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a three-dimensional virtual space communication service system as a first embodiment of the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 1, the present three-dimensional virtual space communication service system includes an information distribution server 1, a shared object management server terminal 2, a client terminal 3, and
It is composed of a client terminal 4 and a network connecting these devices. Although only two client terminals are shown here, there are actually more client terminals. The information distribution server 1 has a role of managing the information from the client terminals necessary for this virtual space communication service and broadcasting the necessary information to the appropriate client terminals. Shared object management server terminal 2
When a shared object exists in the world to which the service is provided, has a role of centrally managing collision detection and position / direction information regarding the shared object, and transmitting them to the information distribution server 1. . In addition,
FIG. 1 shows only a client terminal controlled by a user who has logged in to a world of the communication service system, and there are a plurality of configurations included in this figure for a plurality of worlds. Become.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing software configurations of the information distribution server 1 and the client terminal 3. The information distribution server 1 belongs to a certain world, and a communication control unit 11 for transmitting the information to be distributed on the network, a world management unit 13 for managing information such as which client belongs to which world, and a world. The transfer data management unit 12 manages information for the client to configure only necessary information and deliver it to the client. The client terminal 3 includes a service definition necessary for a service belonging to a world, a world definition management unit 32 that manages a world definition file 31 including object definitions, and an object for detecting a collision between objects included in the world. A collision detection unit 33, a script processing unit 34 that interprets and executes a script, an object management unit 35 that manages objects included in the world, and a three-dimensional C for displaying to the user.
The virtual space generation unit 36 that generates G and the communication control unit 37 that manages communication. In the first embodiment, in the service definition related to the service described by the script, the definition related to the shared object is
Different from the definition on other general clients. That is,
The master attribute for the shared object on the shared object management server terminal 2 needs to be TRUE. On the contrary, during the definition of the shared object on the client terminal 3, the master attribute needs to be FALSE. Examples of the shared object definition on the shared object server terminal 2 and the shared object definition on the client terminal 3 will be shown below.

[0015]

[Table 1]

[0016]

[Table 2] FIG. 3 is a flow chart of service processing necessary for the communication service according to the present invention and data initial reading showing object definitions and the like. Further, FIG. 4 is a flowchart of a processing task of the shared object that is regularly activated. As shown in FIG. 3, the script processing unit 34 retrieves the object definition from the world definition file 31 (S1), and if there is an object definition that inherits the shared object (S2), checks the attribute and determines that the master attribute is If it is TRUE (S3), registration as a shared object is performed in the object management unit 35 (S4). Further, as shown in FIG. 4, the object management unit 35 manages the position / direction information about the registered shared object and stores the data in the shared object data buffer in order to broadcast the position / direction information to other clients. The information is stored (S5) and transmitted to the information distribution server terminal 1 via the communication control unit 37 (S6).
The shared object data buffer holds the following information. ● Shared object ID ● Object position information ● Object direction information These series of processes are described in FIG. 4 as operations (tasks) of the shared object that are periodically activated.

In the information distribution server 1, the world management section 1
3 refers to the received data and broadcasts the necessary data to the client terminals logged in to the world.

Next, as a second embodiment of the present invention, the realization of the object shown in the first embodiment is realized by dynamically changing the attribute in the object definition to create a special server terminal. An implementation method that does not require is shown.

In the second embodiment of the present invention, the following processing is realized as an example. When an object (avatar) symbolizing a user collides with another object, the colliding client terminal manages the object as a shared object and moves the object. When the object stops after moving a certain moving distance, the shared object management of the object ends. As a result, it is not necessary to install a special shared object management server by dynamically changing the terminal that manages the shared object triggered by the event of collision with the object.

FIG. 5 is a flow chart showing a process called upon collision with a shared object. When the object collision detection unit 33 detects a collision between the avatar and another object, the script processing unit 34 calls the collision task defined in the object definition from the world definition file 31. In the case of the present embodiment, the processing shown in FIG. 5 is described in the collision task for the shared object. This processing includes a script (S7) for setting the master attribute of the object to TRUE,
A script (S8) for registering the shared object in the object management unit 35 will be described. As a result, the dynamic shared object management as described above is realized.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an example of a server / client configuration in the case of the present embodiment. In this example, the client terminal 5 detects a collision with a shared object and dynamically changes the shared object definition in the client terminal 5.

As a result, the information about the shared object is uploaded from the client terminal 5 to the information distribution server 1, and the information distribution server 1 constructs the necessary information and shares it with the other client terminals 3 and 4. Download the required data for the object.

As a third embodiment of the present invention, the realization of the object shown in the first embodiment is performed by using an operation script indicating the operation of the object in each terminal in response to some event for the object. We will show how to achieve this by reporting.

In the third embodiment, a series of scripts showing the operation of the object is defined without using the shared object data distribution mechanism. Using a certain trigger on the client such as a collision with an object as shown in the second embodiment, a script indicating this operation is executed by a client who has logged in to the world during the collision task. Write an instruction script to broadcast to. As a result, when a collision occurs, the operation script is broadcast, the script processing unit 34 on each client interprets and executes it, and the three-dimensional CG drawing on the screen is performed via the virtual space generation unit 36. I do. An example of object operation script is shown below. This example describes a process of moving an object for a certain period of time when it collides with the object. ● Obtain the collision direction vector ● Multiply the direction vector by the velocity default value to calculate the velocity vector ● Set the above velocity vector to the velocity vector peculiar to the collision object ● Set the world friction coefficient to 0.9. It is a figure which shows an example of a server client structure in embodiment of FIG. In this example, in the client terminal 5, the collision of the shared object is detected, and the operation script necessary for the operation of the shared object is uploaded to the information distribution server 1 upon the detection thereof, and the information distribution server 1 executes the other operation. The client terminals 3 and 4 are downloaded. The received script is interpreted and executed on each of the client terminals 3 and 4 that have received the operation script, and the shared object performs the same operation on all the client terminals 3 and 4.

[0025]

As described above, according to the present invention,
In a communication service in which many users share a three-dimensional virtual space, a simple language (script) and a template (frame) library for object definition provided by the system are used to facilitate services in the virtual space. It is possible to describe, and it is possible to easily synchronize the operation of the object included in the service on the client by changing the master attribute in the object definition, and change the master attribute. By dynamically performing the above, there is an effect that each client can dynamically perform shared object management without preparing a special shared object management server.

As a result of the above, the present invention has the effect of reducing the complexity of the entire system and the load on the server by eliminating the need to constantly install a shared object management server terminal.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a three-dimensional virtual space communication service system (when a shared object management server is prepared)

[Fig. 2] Software configuration of information distribution server client terminal

[Fig. 3] Initial reading flow of 3D virtual space service data

[Fig. 4] Processing task related to shared object

FIG. 5: Process example called by collision with shared object

FIG. 6 is a configuration diagram of a three-dimensional virtual space communication service system (when dynamically determining a shared object management client)

FIG. 7 is a block diagram of a three-dimensional virtual space communication service system (when a shared object operation is realized by sending and receiving a script)

[Explanation of symbols]

1 Information distribution server 2 Shared object management server terminal 3-5 client terminals 11 Communication control unit 12 Transfer data management unit 13 World Management Department 31 World definition file 32 World Definition Management Department 33 Object collision detector 34 Script Processing Unit 35 Object Management Department 36 Virtual Space Generation Unit 37 Communication control unit

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of front page (56) References Yasuaki Honda, Latest trend of VRML and CyberPassage 4, bit, Nihon, Kyoritsu Shuppan Co., Ltd., October 1, 1996, Vol. 28, No. 10, p49-58 (58) Fields investigated (Int.Cl. ⁷ , DB name) G06T 15/00-17/50 G06F 13/00

Claims (2)

(57) [Claims] 1. A three-dimensional virtual space communication service in which a plurality of user terminals are connected to a center device via a communication line and a plurality of users share a three-dimensional virtual space by three-dimensional computer graphics Logical range of virtual space Procedure for managing a shared object by defining a master attribute in the shared object, which is an object whose operation is the same on all terminals logged in to the world, and sharing with the master attribute being TRUE And a procedure of broadcasting information about an object to a terminal logged in to the world, the method for realizing a shared object in three-dimensional shared virtual space communication. 2. A three-dimensional virtual space communication service in which a plurality of user terminals are connected to a center device via a communication line and a plurality of users share a three-dimensional virtual space by three-dimensional computer graphics. The procedure for managing the shared object by defining the master attribute in the shared object, which is the object whose operation is the same on all terminals logged in to the world, which is the logical range of the virtual space, and symbolizes the user. When the avatar collides with the shared object, the procedure for changing the master attribute of the shared object to TRUE and the information related to the shared object with the master attribute TRUE is broadcast to the terminal logged in to the world. A method for realizing a shared object in three-dimensional shared virtual space communication, characterized by having a procedure .