Camera navigation in a gaming environment

#1. Field of the Invention

#This invention relates generally to gaming environments and more particularly to a system and method for camera navigation.

#2. Description of the Background Art

#FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an electronic entertainment system, according to one embodiment of the invention;

#FIG. 2 illustrates a camera navigation system, according to one embodiment of the invention;

#FIG. 3 illustrates a coordinate system used to define a camera rotation matrix, according to one embodiment of the invention;

#A system and method of camera navigation that balance physical player constraints and game geometry constraints to produce a non-disorienting player view is described herein. Various embodiments of the invention are disclosed, such as prioritized entry points to a main rendering camera, selection of a camera navigation configuration, control of a camera rotation speed, obstacle detection and avoidance, emergency line-of-sight restoration, and smoothing of a camera navigation path.

#FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an electronic entertainment system 100, according to one embodiment of the invention. System 100 includes, but is not limited to, a main memory 110, a central processing unit (CPU) 112, a vector processing unit (VPU) 113, a graphics processing unit (GPU) 114, an input/output processor (IOP) 116, an IOP memory 118, a controller interface 120, a memory card 122, a Universal Serial Bus (USB) interface 124, and an IEEE 1394 interface 126. System 100 also includes an operating system read-only memory (OS ROM) 128, a sound processing unit (SPU) 132, an optical disc control unit 134, and a hard disc drive (HDD) 136, which are connected via a bus 146 to IOP 116.

#CPU 112, VPU 113, GPU 114, and IOP 116 communicate via a system bus 144. CPU 112 communicates with main memory 110 via a dedicated bus 142. VPU 113 and GPU 114 may also communicate via a dedicated bus 140.