Version agnostic centralized state management in video games
AssigneeElectronic Arts Inc.
InventorRobert Joseph Wilkinson
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A state system providing version agnostic centralized state management can use node graphs corresponding to virtual entities to maintain a world state among any version of a video game. As states to virtual entities change, corresponding nodes of the node graph are updated in response to the state change to account for and store the state change. As a data structure referencing, associating, and/or corresponding to virtual entities themselves, the node graph can facilitate centralized state management for a video game in a version agnostic manner. Additionally, the state system is also configured to validate node dependencies of a node graph when a corresponding change in state of a corresponding virtual entity occurs during gameplay, to avoid and/or prevent game state errors.
Claims20
A system comprising:
- one or more processors;
- and
- one or more memory devices communicatively coupled to the one or more processors, the one or more memory devices storing computer-executable instructions corresponding to a video game that, among a gameplay session of the video game during runtime execution, causes at least one of the one or more processors to maintain a world state to a plurality of virtual entities by:
- accessing a node graph comprising a plurality of nodes, wherein the node graph is a data structure corresponding to a state data hierarchy of the video game, wherein each node comprises data corresponding to at least:
- (i) an association to a virtual entity,
- (ii) state data of the associated virtual entity, and
- (iii) one or more node dependencies, wherein each node dependency indicates a dependent node of the node;
- providing state data to the plurality of virtual entities based at least in part on the node graph;
- updating state data of at least a first node in response to a state of the virtual entity associated with the first node changing during the gameplay session;
- and
- validating at least one of the one or more node dependencies of the first node using a node path of node dependencies, wherein the validation includes updating state data of at least one dependent node of the first node.
A computer implemented method to maintain a world state to a plurality of virtual entities among a gameplay session comprising:
- accessing a node graph comprising a plurality of nodes, wherein the node graph is a data structure corresponding to a state data hierarchy of a video game, wherein each node comprises data corresponding to at least:
- (i) an association to a virtual entity,
- (ii) state data of the associated virtual entity, and
- (iii) one or more node dependencies, wherein each node dependency indicates a dependent node of the node;
- providing state data to the plurality of virtual entities based at least in part on the node graph;
- updating state data of at least a first node in response to a state of the virtual entity associated with the first node changing during the gameplay session;
- and
- validating at least one of the one or more node dependencies of the first node using a node path of node dependencies, wherein the validation includes updating state data of at least one dependent node of the first node.
A non-transitory computer readable medium storing instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to maintain a world state to a plurality of virtual entities among a gameplay session comprising:
- accessing a node graph comprising a plurality of nodes, wherein the node graph is a data structure corresponding to a state data hierarchy of a video game, wherein each node comprises data corresponding to at least:
- (i) an association to a virtual entity,
- (ii) state data of the associated virtual entity, and
- (iii) one or more node dependencies, wherein each node dependency indicates a dependent node of the node;
- providing state data to the plurality of virtual entities based at least in part on the node graph;
- updating state data of at least a first node in response to a state of the virtual entity associated with the first node changing during the gameplay session;
- and
- validating at least one of the one or more node dependencies of the first node using a node path of node dependencies, wherein the validation includes updating state data of at least one dependent node of the first node.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.