US 10,946,292 B1 · Non-player game navigation

Abstract

A system in which players participate as characters in a virtual game world via game clients executing on client devices. An observer mode is provided that enables users to navigate in the game world without requiring a game client so that a user can navigate the game world while not actively playing the game. When a user accesses the game in observer mode, a view of the game world is rendered from the viewpoint of an observer's character; the observer's character may not correspond to a character in the game and the observer's character may not be visible to the players in the game. The rendered view of the game world is streamed to a viewing application on a personal device. Navigation inputs allow the observer's character to move freely within the game world.

Claims20

Dependent claims

A system, comprising;

one or more computing devices that implement a game system configured to:
execute a game in which one or more players participate as characters in a virtual game world via game clients executing on client devices;
during execution of the game:
render a viewpoint of the virtual game world from a perspective of an observer's character within the virtual game world, wherein the observer's character is not visible to at least a subset of the one or more players in the game;
stream the viewpoint of the virtual game world over a network to a viewing application on a device for display to the observer, wherein the viewing application is not a game client;
receive navigation control inputs from the viewing application;
and
change the location of the observer's character within the virtual game world in response to the navigation control inputs.

5 more elements

A non-transitory computer-accessible storage medium storing program instructions computer-executable to implement a game system configured to:

execute a game in which one or more players participate via game clients executing on client devices;
render a viewpoint of the game from a perspective of an observer's character within the game, wherein the observer's character is not visible to at least a subset of the one or more players in the game;
stream the viewpoint of the game to a viewing application on a device for display to the observer, wherein the viewing application is not a game client;
and
change the location of the observer's character within the game in response to navigation control inputs to the viewing application.

2 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Non-player game navigation

Life of this patent

Non-player game navigation

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims20