JPH0691054A - Electronic game equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To precisely and quickly transmit various informations for moving area of a moving body such as a car to a player. CONSTITUTION:A coordinate converting processing device 111 reads the information for the form of a course map stored in a polygon data memory 112, and conducts coordinate conversion, on the basis of the position of a player car from a polygon parameter memory 110 and its direction, regularly with the upper part of the player car as a visual point. The information of the coordinate-converted course map is transmitted to a polygon paint device 113, whereby the course map is displayed over the main image of a game. Namely, the miniature of the course is displayed together with the symbol of the player car. Since the coordinate conversion is performed regularly with a fixed upper part of the player car as the visual point, the player car is fixed, while the course map is relatively moved along the symbol of the player car. The display of the course map is changed not only by the change of the position of the player car but also by the change of the angle.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an electronic amusement machine, and more particularly to an electronic amusement machine for displaying a course map of a whole moving area of a moving body or a part of the periphery of the moving body together with the moving body on a display screen. is there.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In many of the electronic game machines that are currently widespread, a so-called course map is displayed on a part of the moving picture screen of the game player. That is, a typical example is a driving game, in which a driving course is displayed at a certain position around a normal moving image screen that is a visual field display from the driver's viewpoint (or behind it), and the player's operation is performed. The present position of the player car on the course is indicated to the player by displaying a light spot on the course (hereinafter referred to as a player car) on the course.

FIG. 4 is a view showing an example of a display screen of an electronic game machine which adopts a conventional course map display. In the example shown in the figure, the course map is displayed at the right end of the screen, and the figure (A) is the display screen just before the start. Therefore, in the course map, the player car also stops at the start position of the course. Then, when the game is started and the player car starts running, (B) in the figure,
As shown in (C), the player car on the course map also moves on the course accordingly.

[0004]

As described above, in the conventional electronic game machine, while the course map is fixedly displayed and the player car display is moved, the current position of the player car on the course is mainly played. The purpose was to show the person. By the way, in the case of the display form as described above, the player car frequently changes its position and direction on the course map.

Therefore, the player has to search for the player car on the course map, and even if the player car can know the current position of the player car on the course, what kind of situation the player car actually has It was difficult to recognize if it was in. That is, the direction and position of the player car were not specified, and the player could not accurately grasp the information of the curve approaching next or the position information of another car (hereinafter referred to as the other car). The above is not limited to the driving game, but is a problem common to all the game machines displaying the course map as described above.

The present invention has been made under the circumstances as described above, and an object of the present invention is to provide an electronic game machine capable of accurately and quickly transmitting various information of a moving area of a moving body to a player. Especially.

[0007]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to an electronic game machine, and the object of the present invention is to move the entire moving area of a moving body relating to play or a part of the periphery of the moving body. In an electronic amusement machine displaying a course map together with a symbol of a body on a display image of a game player on a display means, the symbol is fixed on the display means while the position and direction of the moving body as the game progresses. This is achieved by relatively moving / rotating the course map in accordance with the change of.

[0008]

According to the present invention, while the moving body is fixed on the display screen, the course map display is moved / rotated according to the position and the direction of the moving body, so that the position and the state of the moving body at that time. And the situation around the moving body is accurately judged.

[0009]

Embodiments of the present invention will now be described in detail with reference to the drawings. Taking the driving game as an example, in the present invention, contrary to the prior art, the player car symbol is displayed at a predetermined position on the screen with its position and orientation fixed, while the position coordinate of the player car is centered. Display course map as coordinates. Therefore, as the player advances the game and the player car runs, the course map moves along the player car symbol. In addition, the course map is relatively rotated not only by the running of the player car but also by the direction of the player car.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an embodiment of an electronic game machine according to the present invention. The outline of the operation of the device will be described below. Here, the backup RAM 105 stores detailed settings of the program and other information, and the central processing unit 101 executes the game program stored in the program / data ROM 103 while referring to the contents thereof. At this time, various data are written in or read from the data RAM 104. Auxiliary processing unit (co-processor) 1
Reference numeral 02 is particularly for assisting calculation in the central processing unit 101, and performs calculation such as coordinate conversion at high speed.

The operation unit 20 such as an accelerator and a handle has a data processing unit 1 using the input / interface 106 as an entrance.
00, and the information from there is input to the central processing unit 101 together with the setting information of the DIP switch 107. The sound device 108 generates predetermined music and sound effects based on an instruction from the central processing unit 101,
The sound generated there is amplified by the power amplifier 109 and output via the speaker 40 connected to the data processing unit 100.

The central processing unit 101 stores in the polygon parameter memory 110 the information (polygon data) of the position of the player car and the coordinate conversion formulas related thereto during the execution process of the game program. The coordinate conversion processing device 111 reads the contents stored in the polygon parameter memory 110 to perform coordinate conversion processing of polygon data, and further projects the coordinate-converted polygon data in three-dimensional coordinates onto a screen. Such coordinate conversion processing is performed. The polygon paint device 113 writes the polygon data in the frame memory 114, and when all the polygon data has been written, reads them and outputs them to the TV monitor 30.

Now, the three-dimensional spatial information processing premised on the present invention will be described. Three-dimensional information is secured as video information to be displayed on the TV monitor 30. That is, the position and shape of the object relating to the projected image are all specified by the coordinates in the three-dimensional coordinate space.

Further, a viewpoint (virtual viewpoint) is set at an arbitrary position in the three-dimensional space, and an image projected on the TV monitor 30 is a scene in which the space is viewed from the viewpoint. The viewpoint can be set at any position in space. Then, by moving the viewpoint continuously every moment, the TV monitor 30
The image projected on the screen also changes gradually. At that time, a person who looks into the TV monitor 30 feels as if he or she is moving in the three-dimensional space. In that sense, such a technique is referred to as so-called virtual reality. In this respect, it is fundamentally different from the conventional method in which a two-dimensional picture is simply continuously projected. Further, information on the light source can be included in the three-dimensional space. When the position of the light source is specified, the shadow of the object information in space is specified.

By the way, there are several methods for representing an object in a three-dimensional space. The two representative ones are polygon processing and patch processing. Polygon processing is a method of constructing a solid body from a plurality of polygons. That is, this is a method in which an object is regarded as an aggregate of a plurality of polygonal plates, and information is stored for each polygon. On the other hand, the patch processing is a method of constructing a solid body with a plurality of curved surfaces. According to this method, it is possible to easily construct a solid body having a smooth curved surface, but there is a drawback in that the calculation time is longer than that in polygon processing.

As outlined above, the equipment of the present embodiment employs polygon processing. Therefore, to explain in detail the part related to the display, the polygon data memory 1
Information of a fixed object in the three-dimensional space is stored in the 12 as information on a polygonal surface unit basis, while the polygon parameter memory 110 stores the position of the player car from the central processing unit 101 and the viewpoint. The position and the coordinate conversion formula related thereto are stored every moment. Coordinate conversion processing device 1
Reference numeral 11 denotes fixed object information stored in the polygon data memory 112 and the polygon parameter memory 110.
The position of the player car, the position of the viewpoint, and the coordinate conversion formulas related thereto stored in are read, and the information of the fixed object such as the background is coordinate-converted based on the relative viewpoint to the player car at that time. Further, coordinate conversion processing is performed such that the polygon data on the three-dimensional coordinates that have undergone coordinate conversion are projected on the screen. By sending the information obtained as a result to the polygon paint device 113, a three-dimensional image is eventually displayed on the TV monitor 30.

Here, displaying the course map and rotating it is also performed by the processing in the coordinate conversion processing device 111. That is, the coordinate conversion processing device 111 uses the polygon
The information of the shape of the course map stored in the data memory 112 is read out, and the coordinate conversion is always performed with the upper side of the player car as the viewpoint based on the position and the direction of the player car from the polygon parameter memory 110. By sending the coordinate-converted information of the course map to the polygon paint device 113, the course map is displayed by superimposing it on the image of the main player of the game. That is, a miniature of the course is displayed together with the player car and other car symbols (for example, a triangular symbol is used as the symbol). At this time, since the coordinate conversion is always performed with a certain upper part of the player car as the viewpoint, the player car is displayed fixed, while the course map moves relatively to the player car symbol. . The display of the course map changes not only by the change of the position of the player car but also by the change of the angle.

FIG. 2 is a flow chart showing the display procedure of the player car, the other car, and the course map in the embodiment of the electronic play apparatus of the present invention. In the figure, first, the coordinate conversion processing device 111 is information on the position and orientation of the player car (P_CAR DAT).
(A) is taken out from the polygon parameter memory 110 (step S1), and immediately before (P_CAR DATA).
And the current (P_CARDDATA) match (step S2). Here, if they do not match, in step S3, (MAP_DATA), which is information about the position and rotation angle of the course map, is changed by coordinate conversion, and the process proceeds to step S4. On the other hand, if they match, the process directly proceeds to step S4.

In step S4, information about the position and orientation of the other car (O_CAR DAT)
Take out A). And the previous one (O_CA
It is determined whether (R DATA) and the current (O_CAR DATA) match (step S5). If they do not match, the information is about the display of the other car on the course map in step S6 (MAP).
_O_CAR DATA) is changed by coordinate conversion, and the process proceeds to step S7. On the other hand, if they match,
The process directly proceeds to step S7. In step S7, the various data described above are sent to the polygon paint device 113 to display them on the TV monitor 30.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a specific example of the display screen. (A) → (B) → (C) are shown in chronological order.

In the above-mentioned embodiment, the three-dimensional space is constructed by the polygon processing and the movement / rotation of the course map is realized by introducing the viewpoint. However, the three-dimensional space is constructed by another method. Good. For example, it is relatively easy to use "fractal", which automatically constructs a three-dimensional structure using mathematical formulas, or "ray tracing", which faithfully reproduces the actual vision by imitating the trajectory of light up to its straight lines. The invention can be realized.

In the above-described embodiment, the driving game has been described as an example, but the present invention is not limited to this, and may be any type of electronic game machine that employs so-called course map display. realizable. Furthermore, the course map does not necessarily have to be a closed curve like the circuit course, and it is generally called a map even if it is an open aspect such as space driving or a labyrinth in fantasy adventure games. If applicable, it can be applied. Further, as long as the course map is displayed in some way during the game, it does not matter whether it is for home use or for business use.

[0023]

As described above, according to the electronic play apparatus of the present invention, since the moving body such as the player car is fixed, the player does not have to search for the moving body, and the operation of the player is not required. Since the course map of the moving area is moved with respect to the fixed moving body, it is necessary to immediately recognize the position and direction of the moving body with respect to the course map, and it is necessary to organize such information in mind. Since it does not exist, it is possible to concentrate on course information such as curves and various information such as other cars, and it becomes possible to accurately grasp such information.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration block diagram of an embodiment of an electronic game device of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing a display procedure of a player car, an other car, and a course map in one embodiment of the electronic play device of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a specific example of a display screen in one embodiment of the electronic game device of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of a display screen of an electronic game machine that adopts a conventional course map display.

[Explanation of symbols]

 20 Operation Unit 30 TV Monitor 40 Speaker 100 Data Processing Unit 101 Central Processing Unit 102 Auxiliary Processing Unit 103 Program / Data ROM 104 Data RAM 105 Backup RAM 106 Input / Interface 107 Dip Switch 108 Sound Device 109 Power Amplifier 110 Polygon Parameter Memory 111 Coordinate conversion processing device 112 Polygon data memory 113 Polygon paint device 114 Frame memory

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. An electronic game in which the whole moving area of a moving body relating to a game or a part of the periphery of the moving body is displayed on a display means as a course map together with a symbol of the moving body on a display image of the main player of the game. In the device, while fixing the symbol on the display means, the course map is relatively moved / rotated in accordance with a change in a position and an orientation of the moving body as the game progresses. Electronic play equipment. 2. A position and an orientation of the moving body from a storage means for storing information of the course map formed as a polygon in a three-dimensional space and a central processing means for performing processing relating to the progress of the play. The coordinate conversion is performed on the information of the course map stored in the storage means with the position and orientation of the moving body as a fixed reference based on the information of 1., and the upper side of the moving body is always projected two-dimensionally as a viewpoint. Coordinate conversion processing means for performing coordinate conversion,
The movement / rotation can be performed by displaying information from the coordinate conversion processing means on the display means.
Electronic play equipment described in.