Virtual space changing apparatus, virtual space changing method, and storage medium

A virtual space changing method, comprising:

• storing person-in-charge information for each of a plurality of candidate persons in charge, the person-in-charge information including:
• (i) one or more pieces of feature information pertaining to the person in charge, and
• (ii) operator availability information indicating whether the person in charge is currently dealing with a customer,
• generating and maintaining an authoritative state of a virtual space, update the authoritative state based on operation information indicating operations by a user received from a user terminal, and transmit state information for rendering a virtual space image to the user terminal to cause the user terminal to display the virtual space image;
• receiving, from the user terminal via a communication interface, position information including at least one of:
• (A) coordinates indicating a current position of the user in a world coordinate system of the virtual space, and
• (B) a record of the position;
• (iii) receive, from the user terminal via the communication interface, line-of-sight target information including at least one of:
• (C) a current line-of-sight target existing in a view direction of the user in the virtual space, and
• (D) a record of the line-of-sight target,
• wherein the line-of-sight target information is identified at the user terminal based on at least one of:
• (a) a view direction in the world coordinate system of the virtual space, including a direction corresponding to a view orientation determined by input operations accepted by the user terminal, and
• (b) an object included in a center region of the virtual space image displayed on a display apparatus of the user terminal;
• and
• wherein the identification of the current line-of-sight target includes performing a raycast/line trace along the view direction to obtain an object hit by the raycast/line trace;
• selecting, based on the received position information and the received line-of-sight target information, a plurality of persons in charge from among the plurality of candidate persons in charge indicated by the person-in-charge information stored in a person-in-charge database;
• assigning, for each of the selected plurality of persons in charge, a score indicating a degree of contribution to a selection result based at least on the position information and the line-of-sight target information, and select a person in charge to deal with the user based on the scores and the operator availability information,
• wherein the selected person in charge is a person in charge indicated by the operator availability information to be not currently dealing with a customer;
• and
• outputting, to at least one of an operator terminal corresponding to the selected person in charge and the user terminal, reason information indicating a reason that the person in charge has been selected, the reason information including feature information, among the one or more pieces of feature information, that contributed to the selection.

A non-transitory storage medium storing a program causing a computer to carry out:

• storing person-in-charge information for each of a plurality of candidate persons in charge, the person-in-charge information including:
• (i) one or more pieces of feature information pertaining to the person in charge, and
• (ii) operator availability information indicating whether the person in charge is currently dealing with a customer,
• generating and maintaining an authoritative state of a virtual space, update the authoritative state based on operation information indicating operations by a user received from a user terminal, and transmit state information for rendering a virtual space image to the user terminal to cause the user terminal to display the virtual space image;
• receiving, from the user terminal via a communication interface, position information including at least one of:
• (A) coordinates indicating a current position of the user in a world coordinate system of the virtual space, and
• (B) a record of the position;
• (iii) receive, from the user terminal via the communication interface, line-of-sight target information including at least one of:
• (C) a current line-of-sight target existing in a view direction of the user in the virtual space, and
• (D) a record of the line-of-sight target,
• wherein the line-of-sight target information is identified at the user terminal based on at least one of:
• (a) a view direction in the world coordinate system of the virtual space, including a direction corresponding to a view orientation determined by input operations accepted by the user terminal, and
• (b) an object included in a center region of the virtual space image displayed on a display apparatus of the user terminal;
• and
• wherein the identification of the current line-of-sight target includes performing a raycast/line trace along the view direction to obtain an object hit by the raycast/line trace;
• selecting, based on the received position information and the received line-of-sight target information, a plurality of persons in charge from among the plurality of candidate persons in charge indicated by the person-in-charge information stored in a person-in-charge database;
• assigning, for each of the selected plurality of persons in charge, a score indicating a degree of contribution to a selection result based at least on the position information and the line-of-sight target information, and select a person in charge to deal with the user based on the scores and the operator availability information,
• wherein the selected person in charge is a person in charge indicated by the operator availability information to be not currently dealing with a customer;
• and
• outputting, to at least one of an operator terminal corresponding to the selected person in charge and the user terminal, reason information indicating a reason that the person in charge has been selected, the reason information including feature information, among the one or more pieces of feature information, that contributed to the selection.