Depth-compressed representation for 3D virtual scene

A computing device, comprising:

• a logic machine;
• and
• a storage machine holding instructions executable by the logic machine to:
• recognize a three-dimensional virtual scene including one or more locally-maintained virtual objects;
• receive, from a remote device, positioning information for one or more remotely-maintained virtual objects to be included in the three-dimensional virtual scene;
• for a virtual view of the three-dimensional virtual scene having a virtual perspective, classify different portions of the virtual view as belonging to one of a plurality of different occlusion classes, each of the plurality of different occlusion classes specifying an occlusion relationship between locally-maintained virtual objects and remotely-maintained virtual objects in the virtual view;
• and
• output a depth-compressed representation of the virtual view to the remote device, the depth-compressed representation indicating the occlusion class for each of the different portions of the virtual view.

A method for rendering a display view of a three-dimensional virtual scene, the method comprising:

• at a computing device, recognizing a three-dimensional virtual scene including one or more locally-maintained virtual objects;
• sending positioning information for the one or more locally-maintained virtual objects to a remote device, the remote device maintaining one or more remotely-maintained virtual objects to be included in the three-dimensional virtual scene;
• receiving a depth-compressed representation of the three-dimensional virtual scene from the remote device, the depth-compressed representation indicating, for different portions of a virtual view of the three-dimensional virtual scene having a virtual perspective, which of a plurality of different occlusion classes the different portions belong to, each of the plurality of different occlusion classes specifying an occlusion relationship between locally-maintained virtual objects and remotely-maintained virtual objects in the virtual view;
• and
• based on the depth-compressed representation, displaying at the computing device from the virtual perspective, the three-dimensional virtual scene with both the locally-maintained and remotely-maintained virtual objects.