Game program, game system, game device, and game processing method

Abstract

To provide a game program, a game system, a game device, and a game processing method that can execute a game in which materials are reflected in the appearance and actions occurring in the game of objects based on voxel data. [Solution] For each voxel corresponding to the voxel update range, at least one of the material IDs is changed to a different material ID, and the display mesh is updated to correspond to the updated voxel data. Also, based on a collision determination between a determination mesh, whose material is determined based on at least multiple material IDs included in the voxel data, and a determination shape corresponding to the object to be determined, an in-game action is generated according to the material of the determination mesh at the collision position, and a virtual space including the display mesh is drawn based on the vertex coordinates of the display mesh and a texture corresponding to the material of the display mesh.

Description

[Technical Field]

[0001] The present invention relates to a game program, a game system, a game device, and a game processing method for generating objects in a virtual space using voxel data. [Background technology]

[0002] Conventionally, objects are managed using voxel data, and meshes of the objects are generated in a virtual space based on the voxel data (see, for example, Non-Patent Document 1). [Prior art documents] [Non-patent literature]

[0003] [Non-Patent Document 1] “Marching cubes: A high resolution 3D surface construction algorithm”, Computer Graphics, Volume 21, Number 4, WE Lorensen, HE Cline, 1987. Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0004] In games, it is desirable to reflect materials in the appearance of objects and the actions that occur in the game.

[0005] Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a game program, a game system, a game device, and a game processing method that can execute a game in which materials are reflected in the appearance and actions that occur in the game of objects based on voxel data. [Means for solving the problem]

[0006] In order to achieve the above object, the present invention may employ the following configurations (1) to (10), for example.

[0007] (1) One configuration example of a game program of the present invention causes a computer of an information processing device to generate, based on voxel data defined in a virtual space, wherein for each of a plurality of voxels, at least a density indicating the degree to which a space defined by the voxel is virtually occupied by content and a material ID indicating the type of content, the material ID being set up to a first plurality of material IDs, the computer generates a display mesh corresponding to the voxel data and drawn based on a virtual camera, the vertex coordinates of the display mesh being determined based at least on the density included in the voxel data and the material of the display mesh being determined based at least on the plurality of material IDs included in the voxel data, generate a voxel update range in the virtual space based on game processing, and, in response to the generation of the voxel update range, Among these, for each of the voxels corresponding to the voxel update range in the virtual space, at least one of the material IDs is changed to a different material ID, and the display mesh is updated to correspond to the updated voxel data, and based on collision determination between a determination mesh used for collision determination in the virtual space, the vertex coordinates of the determination mesh being determined based on at least the density included in the voxel data and the material of the determination mesh being determined based on at least a plurality of material IDs included in the voxel data, and a determination shape corresponding to a determination target based on game processing, an in-game action corresponding to the material of the determination mesh at the collision position is generated, and based on the vertex coordinates of the display mesh and a texture corresponding to the material of the display mesh, the virtual space including the display mesh is drawn.

[0008] According to the above configuration (1), the material of the voxels can be updated during the game, and the game can progress with the updates reflected in the appearance and behavior.

[0009] (2) In the above configuration (1), when a first event occurs in the game, the computer may generate a first voxel update range from among a plurality of types of voxel update ranges, and change the first material ID to a second material ID for each voxel that has a first material ID among the voxels that correspond to the first voxel update range.

[0010] According to the above configuration (2), in response to the occurrence of a first event, the appearance based on the first material ID is changed to the appearance based on the second material ID, and the action based on the first material ID is changed to the action based on the second material ID, thereby allowing the game to progress.

[0011] (3) In the above configuration (2), the computer may generate a first voxel update range at a collision position based on a collision determination between a first object having a third material ID and a determination mesh.

[0012] According to the above configuration (3), the material of the voxel can be updated by colliding with the first object having the third material ID, and the update can be reflected in the appearance and action.

[0013] (4) In the configuration (3) above, the first object may be associated with specific voxel data independent of the voxel data, a position in the virtual space of the specific voxel space defined by the specific voxel data, and a specific display mesh and a specific judgment mesh based on the specific voxel data. The computer may be caused to reduce density in the specific voxel data of the first object based on collision determination between the first object and the judgment mesh.

[0014] According to the above configuration (4), the size of the first object that has collided can be reduced.

[0015] (5) In the above configuration (4), the computer may be caused to control a player character in a virtual space based on an operation input, and a first object may be moved in a predetermined direction based on a first action of the player character in response to the operation input.

[0016] According to the above configuration (5), by performing an operation that causes the player character to take an action that moves the first object in a predetermined direction, a first event that causes the first object to collide can be generated.

[0017] (6) In the above configuration (2), the computer may be made to control a player character in a virtual space based on an operation input, and based on a collision between the player character and a determination mesh, if the material of the determination mesh at the collision position has a first material ID, the set stamina of the player character may be reduced.

[0018] According to the above configuration (6), the material that would cause damage to the player character can be changed to a material that would not cause damage.

[0019] (7) In any one of the above configurations (1) to (6), the voxel data may further include an intra-voxel ratio, which indicates the ratio of the material indicated by the material ID within the voxel, set for each voxel.

[0020] According to the above configuration (7), the material can be determined by reflecting the ratio of a plurality of materials set for one voxel.

[0021] (8) In the configuration (7) above, when a second event occurs in the game, the computer may generate a second voxel update range from among multiple types of voxel update ranges, and change the material ID of each voxel that does not have the fourth material ID among the voxels corresponding to the second voxel update range to the material ID that has the smallest ratio based on the intra-voxel ratio, to the fourth material ID.

[0022] According to the above configuration (8), when the material of a voxel to which a plurality of materials are set is to be changed in response to the occurrence of the second event, the change can be made in an appropriate manner.

[0023] (9) In any one of the above configurations (1) to (8), the computer may further control a player character based on an operation input, cause the player character to perform a second action based on a predetermined operation input, and when the second action is performed, generate, from among multiple types of voxel update ranges, a third voxel update range and a fourth voxel update range larger than the third voxel update range, in a predetermined direction from the player character, reduce the density of at least some of the voxels corresponding to the third voxel update range, and change the material IDs of all voxels corresponding to the fourth voxel update range to a fifth material ID, or change any of the material IDs to the fifth material ID and set an intra-voxel ratio to a ratio such that everything in the voxel is made of the material indicated by the fifth material ID.

[0024] According to the above configuration (9), in response to the player character performing the second action, the update range based on the orientation of the player character can be changed to the material corresponding to the fifth material ID.

[0025] (10) In the above configuration (9), when the second action is performed, the computer may be caused to generate a fifth voxel update range larger than the fourth voxel update range, and change the material ID of the voxel corresponding to the fifth voxel update range that does not have the fifth material ID, the material ID with the smallest ratio based on the intra-voxel ratio, to the fifth material ID.

[0026] According to the above feature (10), a part of the material in the area surrounding the area changed to the material corresponding to the fifth material ID can be changed to the material corresponding to the fifth material ID.

[0027] The present invention may also be embodied in the form of a game system, a game device, and a game processing method. [Effects of the Invention]

[0028] According to the present invention, the material of a voxel can be updated during the game, and the update can be reflected in the appearance and behavior of the voxel as the game progresses. [Brief explanation of the drawings]

[0029] [Figure 1] A diagram showing an example of the left and right controllers attached to the main unit. [Figure 2] A diagram showing an example of the state when the left controller and right controller are detached from the main unit. [Figure 3] Six-sided views showing an example of the main unit [Figure 4] Six-sided diagram showing an example of the left controller [Figure 5] Six-sided diagram showing an example of the right controller [Figure 6] A block diagram showing an example of the internal configuration of a main unit. [Figure 7] A block diagram showing an example of the internal configuration of the main unit, left controller, and right controller. [Figure 8]FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an example of a terrain object that is a voxel object. [Figure 9] 9A and 9B are diagrams showing an example of the state before and after a part of the terrain object shown in FIG. 8 is deleted. [Figure 10] 9A and 9B are diagrams showing an example of the state before and after a part of the terrain object shown in FIG. 8 is deleted. [Figure 11] A diagram showing an example of voxel data [Figure 12] A diagram showing an example of material data [Figure 13] A diagram showing an example of the game space when an update event occurs. [Figure 14] A diagram showing an example of the update range [Figure 15] A diagram showing an example of how to set vertices [Figure 16] A diagram showing one example of how vertex materials are determined [Figure 17] A diagram showing an example of vertex simplification [Figure 18] An example of material conditions [Figure 19] FIG. 10 is a diagram showing an example of a mesh generated based on each vertex. [Figure 20] An example of how a mesh quadrilateral is divided into two triangles. [Figure 21] A diagram showing an example of how to determine the material of polygons that make up the display mesh [Figure 22] An example of materials set at each vertex of two adjacent polygons [Figure 23] An example of applying a texture to a polygon [Figure 24] A diagram showing an example of a method for determining the material of polygons that make up the judgment mesh [Figure 25] FIG. 10 is a diagram showing an example of a game image showing a player character moving on a terrain object. [Figure 26] FIG. 10 is a diagram showing an example of a game image showing a player character 201 throwing an ice object 261 into an area 251 of a terrain object. [Figure 27] FIG. 27 shows an example of a game image after an ice object 261 has come into contact with an area 251 of the terrain object shown in FIG. 26, resulting in a change to the terrain object. [Figure 28] FIG. 27 shows an example of a game image after an ice object 261 has come into contact with an area 251 of the terrain object shown in FIG. 26, resulting in a change to the terrain object. [Figure 29] FIG. 10 is a diagram showing an example of a game image showing a player character 201 destroying a land object 255. [Figure 30] FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of a cross section of a terrain object 255 destroyed by the player character 201. [Figure 31] FIG. 10 is a diagram showing an example of an update range generated when a player character 201 performs a punch action. [Figure 32] FIG. 10 is a diagram showing an example of various data used in information processing in a game system. [Figure 33] A flowchart showing an example of the flow of game processing executed by the game system. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0030] [1. Game system configuration] A game system according to an example of this embodiment will be described below. An example of the game system 1 according to this embodiment includes a main unit (information processing device; in this embodiment, it functions as a game device main unit) 2, a left controller 3, and a right controller 4. The left controller 3 and the right controller 4 are each detachable from the main unit 2. In other words, the game system 1 can be used as an integrated device by attaching the left controller 3 and the right controller 4 to the main unit 2. The game system 1 can also be used by separating the main unit 2 from the left controller 3 and the right controller 4 (see FIG. 2). Below, the hardware configuration of the game system 1 according to this embodiment will be described, followed by a description of the control of the game system 1 according to this embodiment.

[0031] FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an example of a state in which a left controller 3 and a right controller 4 are attached to a main unit 2. As shown in FIG. 1, the left controller 3 and the right controller 4 are each attached to and integrated with the main unit 2. The main unit 2 is a device that executes various processes (e.g., game processes) in the game system 1. The main unit 2 is equipped with a display 12. The left controller 3 and the right controller 4 are devices that have operation units that allow the user to perform inputs.

[0032] Fig. 2 is a diagram showing an example of the state in which the left controller 3 and the right controller 4 are detached from the main unit 2. As shown in Figs. 1 and 2, the left controller 3 and the right controller 4 are detachable from the main unit 2. Note that, below, the left controller 3 and the right controller 4 may be collectively referred to as "controllers."

[0033] Fig. 3 is a six-sided view showing an example of the main unit 2. As shown in Fig. 3, the main unit 2 includes a substantially plate-shaped housing 11. In this embodiment, the main surface of the housing 11 (in other words, the front surface, i.e., the surface on which the display 12 is provided) is generally rectangular.

[0034] The shape and size of the housing 11 are arbitrary. As an example, the housing 11 may be of a portable size. Furthermore, the main unit 2 alone or an integrated device in which the left controller 3 and right controller 4 are attached to the main unit 2 may be a portable device. Furthermore, the main unit 2 or the integrated device may be a handheld device. Furthermore, the main unit 2 or the integrated device may be a portable device.

[0035] 3, the main unit 2 includes a display 12 provided on the main surface of the housing 11. The display 12 displays images generated by the main unit 2. In this embodiment, the display 12 is a liquid crystal display (LCD). However, the display 12 may be any type of display device.

[0036] The main device 2 also includes a touch panel 13 on the screen of the display 12. In this embodiment, the touch panel 13 is of a type that allows multi-touch input (for example, a capacitance type). However, the touch panel 13 may be of any type, and may be of a type that allows single-touch input (for example, a resistive type).

[0037] The main unit 2 is provided with a speaker (i.e., speaker 88 shown in FIG. 6) inside the housing 11. As shown in FIG. 3, speaker holes 11a and 11b are formed on the main surface of the housing 11. The output sound of the speaker 88 is output from these speaker holes 11a and 11b, respectively.

[0038] The main unit 2 also has a left terminal 17, which is a terminal for the main unit 2 to communicate with the left controller 3 via a wired connection, and a right terminal 21, which is a terminal for the main unit 2 to communicate with the right controller 4 via a wired connection.

[0039] As shown in FIG. 3, the main unit 2 includes a slot 23. The slot 23 is provided on the upper side of the housing 11. The slot 23 has a shape that allows a predetermined type of storage medium to be inserted therein. The predetermined type of storage medium is, for example, a storage medium (e.g., a dedicated memory card) dedicated to the game system 1 and the same type of information processing device. The predetermined type of storage medium is used, for example, to store data used by the main unit 2 (e.g., application save data, etc.) and / or programs executed by the main unit 2 (e.g., application programs, etc.). The main unit 2 also includes a power button 28.

[0040] The main unit 2 has a lower terminal 27. The lower terminal 27 is a terminal through which the main unit 2 communicates with the cradle. In this embodiment, the lower terminal 27 is a USB connector (more specifically, a female connector). When the all-in-one device or the main unit 2 alone is placed on the cradle, the game system 1 can display images generated and output by the main unit 2 on a stationary monitor. In this embodiment, the cradle also has the function of charging the all-in-one device or the main unit 2 alone that is placed on it. The cradle also has the function of a hub device (specifically, a USB hub).

[0041] FIG. 4 is a six-sided view showing an example of the left controller 3. As shown in FIG. 4, the left controller 3 includes a housing 31. In this embodiment, the housing 31 has a vertically long shape, that is, a shape that is long in the up-down direction (i.e., the y-axis direction shown in FIGS. 1 and 4). The left controller 3 can also be held in a vertically long orientation when detached from the main unit 2. The housing 31 has a shape and size that allows it to be held in one hand, particularly the left hand, when held in a vertically long orientation. The left controller 3 can also be held in a horizontally long orientation. When the left controller 3 is held in a horizontally long orientation, it may be held with both hands.

[0042] The left controller 3 includes an analog stick 32. As shown in FIG. 4, the analog stick 32 is provided on the main surface of the housing 31. The analog stick 32 can be used as a direction input unit that can input directions. By tilting the analog stick 32, the user can input a direction corresponding to the tilt direction (and input a magnitude corresponding to the tilt angle). Note that instead of an analog stick, the left controller 3 may be equipped with a cross key or a slide stick that can perform slide inputs as a direction input unit. In this embodiment, input can be made by pressing the analog stick 32.

[0043] The left controller 3 is equipped with various operation buttons. The left controller 3 is equipped with four operation buttons 33 to 36 (specifically, a right button 33, a down button 34, an up button 35, and a left button 36) on the main surface of the housing 31. The left controller 3 also is equipped with a record button 37 and a - (minus) button 47. The left controller 3 is equipped with a first L button 38 and a ZL button 39 on the upper left of the side of the housing 31. The left controller 3 is also equipped with a second L button 43 and a second R button 44 on the side of the housing 31 that is attached to the main unit 2. These operation buttons are used to issue instructions according to various programs (for example, OS programs and application programs) executed on the main unit 2.

[0044] The left controller 3 also includes a terminal 42 for wired communication between the left controller 3 and the main unit 2.

[0045] FIG. 5 is a six-sided view showing an example of the right controller 4. As shown in FIG. 5, the right controller 4 includes a housing 51. In this embodiment, the housing 51 has a vertically long shape, that is, a shape that is long in the up-down direction. The right controller 4 can also be held in a vertically long orientation when detached from the main unit 2. The housing 51 has a shape and size that allows it to be held in one hand, particularly the right hand, when held in a vertically long orientation. The right controller 4 can also be held in a horizontally long orientation. When the right controller 4 is held in a horizontally long orientation, it may be held with both hands.

[0046] Like the left controller 3, the right controller 4 is equipped with an analog stick 52 as a directional input unit. In this embodiment, the analog stick 52 has the same configuration as the analog stick 32 of the left controller 3. The right controller 4 may also be equipped with a cross key or a slide stick that allows slide input, instead of an analog stick. Like the left controller 3, the right controller 4 is equipped with four operation buttons 53 to 56 (specifically, an A button 53, a B button 54, an X button 55, and a Y button 56) on the main surface of the housing 51. The right controller 4 is also equipped with a + (plus) button 57 and a home button 58. The right controller 4 is also equipped with a first R button 60 and a ZR button 61 on the upper right side of the housing 51. Like the left controller 3, the right controller 4 is also equipped with a second L button 65 and a second R button 66.

[0047] The right controller 4 also includes a terminal 64 for wired communication between the right controller 4 and the main unit 2.

[0048] Fig. 6 is a block diagram showing an example of the internal configuration of main unit 2. In addition to the configuration shown in Fig. 3, main unit 2 includes components 81-91, 97, and 98 shown in Fig. 6. Some of these components 81-91, 97, and 98 may be mounted on an electronic circuit board as electronic components and housed in housing 11.

[0049] The main unit 2 includes a processor 81. The processor 81 is an information processing unit that executes various types of information processing executed in the main unit 2, and may be composed of, for example, only a CPU (Central Processing Unit), or may be composed of an SoC (System-on-a-chip) that includes multiple functions such as a CPU function and a GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) function. The processor 81 executes various types of information processing by executing an information processing program (for example, a game program) stored in a storage unit (specifically, an internal storage medium such as flash memory 84, or an external storage medium inserted into slot 23, etc.).

[0050] The main device 2 includes a flash memory 84 and a DRAM (Dynamic Random Access Memory) 85 as examples of internal storage media built into the main device 2. The flash memory 84 and the DRAM 85 are connected to the processor 81. The flash memory 84 is a memory used primarily to store various types of data (which may be programs) saved in the main device 2. The DRAM 85 is a memory used to temporarily store various types of data used in information processing.

[0051] The main device 2 includes a slot interface (hereinafter abbreviated as "I / F") 91. The slot I / F 91 is connected to the processor 81. The slot I / F 91 is connected to the slot 23, and reads and writes data from and to a predetermined type of storage medium (e.g., a dedicated memory card) inserted into the slot 23 in accordance with instructions from the processor 81.

[0052] The processor 81 reads and writes data from and to the flash memory 84, DRAM 85, and the above-mentioned storage media as appropriate, to execute the above-mentioned information processing.

[0053] The main unit 2 includes a network communication unit 82. The network communication unit 82 is connected to the processor 81. The network communication unit 82 communicates with external devices via a network (specifically, wireless communication). In this embodiment, the network communication unit 82 connects to a wireless LAN and communicates with external devices using a method conforming to the Wi-Fi standard as a first communication mode. The network communication unit 82 also performs wireless communication with other main units 2 of the same type using a predetermined communication method (e.g., communication using a proprietary protocol or infrared communication) as a second communication mode. Note that wireless communication using the second communication mode enables wireless communication with other main units 2 located within a closed local network area, and realizes a function that enables so-called "local communication," in which data is transmitted and received by direct communication between multiple main units 2.

[0054] The main unit 2 is equipped with a controller communication unit 83. The controller communication unit 83 is connected to the processor 81. The controller communication unit 83 performs wireless communication with the left controller 3 and / or right controller 4. Any communication method may be used between the main unit 2 and the left controller 3 and right controller 4, but in this embodiment, the controller communication unit 83 performs communication with the left controller 3 and right controller 4 in accordance with the Bluetooth (registered trademark) standard.

[0055] The processor 81 is connected to the left terminal 17, right terminal 21, and lower terminal 27. When performing wired communication with the left controller 3, the processor 81 transmits data to the left controller 3 via the left terminal 17 and receives operation data from the left controller 3 via the left terminal 17. When performing wired communication with the right controller 4, the processor 81 transmits data to the right controller 4 via the right terminal 21 and receives operation data from the right controller 4 via the right terminal 21. When performing wired communication with the right controller 4, the processor 81 transmits data to the cradle via the lower terminal 27. As described above, in this embodiment, the main unit 2 can perform both wired and wireless communication with the left controller 3 and the right controller 4. When an integrated device in which the left controller 3 and the right controller 4 are attached to the main unit 2 or the main unit 2 alone is attached to the cradle, the main unit 2 can output data (e.g., image data and audio data) to a stationary monitor or the like via the cradle.

[0056] Here, the main unit 2 can communicate simultaneously (in other words, in parallel) with multiple left controllers 3. The main unit 2 can also communicate simultaneously (in other words, in parallel) with multiple right controllers 4. Therefore, multiple users can simultaneously input to the main unit 2 using their own sets of left controllers 3 and right controllers 4. For example, a first user can input to the main unit 2 using a first set of left controllers 3 and right controllers 4, while a second user can simultaneously input to the main unit 2 using a second set of left controllers 3 and right controllers 4.

[0057] The display 12 is also connected to the processor 81. The processor 81 displays on the display 12 an image generated (for example, by executing the above-described information processing) and / or an image acquired from the outside.

[0058] The main unit 2 includes a codec circuit 87 and speakers (specifically, a left speaker and a right speaker) 88. The codec circuit 87 is connected to the speakers 88 and the audio input / output terminal 25, and is also connected to the processor 81. The codec circuit 87 is a circuit that controls the input and output of audio data to and from the speakers 88 and the audio input / output terminal 25.

[0059] The main device 2 includes a power control unit 97 and a battery 98. The power control unit 97 is connected to the battery 98 and the processor 81. Although not shown, the power control unit 97 is also connected to each part of the main device 2 (specifically, each part that receives power from the battery 98, the left terminal 17, and the right terminal 21). The power control unit 97 controls the power supply from the battery 98 to each of the above parts based on instructions from the processor 81.

[0060] Furthermore, battery 98 is connected to lower terminal 27. When an external charging device (for example, a cradle) is connected to lower terminal 27 and power is supplied to main device 2 via lower terminal 27, battery 98 is charged with the supplied power.

[0061] Figure 7 is a block diagram showing an example of the internal configuration of the main unit 2, the left controller 3, and the right controller 4. Note that details of the internal configuration of the main unit 2 are omitted in Figure 7 because they are shown in Figure 6.

[0062] The left controller 3 is equipped with a communication control unit 101 that communicates with the main unit 2. As shown in FIG. 7 , the communication control unit 101 is connected to each component, including the terminal 42. In this embodiment, the communication control unit 101 can communicate with the main unit 2 both via wired communication via the terminal 42 and via wireless communication without using the terminal 42. The communication control unit 101 controls the method of communication between the left controller 3 and the main unit 2. That is, when the left controller 3 is attached to the main unit 2, the communication control unit 101 communicates with the main unit 2 via the terminal 42. When the left controller 3 is detached from the main unit 2, the communication control unit 101 communicates wirelessly with the main unit 2 (specifically, with the controller communication unit 83). Wireless communication between the controller communication unit 83 and the communication control unit 101 is performed in accordance with, for example, the Bluetooth (registered trademark) standard.

[0063] The left controller 3 also includes a memory 102, such as a flash memory. The communication control unit 101 is configured, for example, by a microcomputer (also called a microprocessor), and executes firmware stored in the memory 102 to perform various processes.

[0064] The left controller 3 includes buttons 103 (specifically, buttons 33 to 39, 43, 44, and 47). The left controller 3 also includes an analog stick (referred to as "stick" in FIG. 7) 32. Each button 103 and analog stick 32 repeatedly outputs information related to operations performed on the button 103 and analog stick 32 to the communication control unit 101 at appropriate timing.

[0065] The communication control unit 101 acquires information related to the input (specifically, information related to the operation or the detection results from the sensor) from each input unit (specifically, each button 103 and analog stick 32). The communication control unit 101 transmits operation data including the acquired information (or information obtained by performing a predetermined process on the acquired information) to the main unit 2. The operation data is repeatedly transmitted once every predetermined time. The interval at which the information related to the input is transmitted to the main unit 2 may or may not be the same for each input unit.

[0066] By transmitting the above operation data to the main unit 2, the main unit 2 can obtain the input made to the left controller 3. In other words, the main unit 2 can determine the operation of each button 103 and analog stick 32 based on the operation data.

[0067] The left controller 3 is equipped with a power supply unit 108. In this embodiment, the power supply unit 108 has a battery and a power control circuit. Although not shown, the power control circuit is connected to the battery and to each part of the left controller 3 (specifically, each part that receives power from the battery).

[0068] As shown in FIG. 7, the right controller 4 is equipped with a communication control unit 111 that communicates with the main unit 2. The right controller 4 also has a memory 112 that is connected to the communication control unit 111. The communication control unit 111 is connected to each component, including the terminal 64. The communication control unit 111 and memory 112 have the same functions as the communication control unit 101 and memory 102 of the left controller 3. Therefore, the communication control unit 111 can communicate with the main unit 2 both via wired communication via the terminal 64 and via wireless communication that does not use the terminal 64 (specifically, communication in accordance with the Bluetooth (registered trademark) standard), and controls the method of communication between the right controller 4 and the main unit 2.

[0069] The right controller 4 has input units similar to those of the left controller 3. Specifically, it has buttons 113 and an analog stick 52. These input units have the same functions as those of the left controller 3 and operate in the same manner.

[0070] The right controller 4 is equipped with a power supply unit 118. The power supply unit 118 has the same functions as the power supply unit 108 of the left controller 3 and operates in the same manner.

[0071] [2. Overview of processing in the game system] Next, an overview of the processing executed in the game system 1 will be described with reference to Figs. 8 to 24. In this embodiment, the game system 1 generates a game image in which terrain objects and characters (for example, a player character operated by a player) are arranged in a game space, which is a three-dimensional virtual space, and displays the game image on a display device. Note that in this embodiment, the display device on which the game image is displayed may be the above-mentioned display 12 or a stationary monitor.

[0072] [2-1. Voxel] In this embodiment, the shapes of some objects in the game space are defined by voxel data. Here, a voxel is a rectangular parallelepiped (more specifically, cubic) region arranged in a grid pattern in the game space, and voxel data is data that indicates information about each voxel. Hereinafter, an object whose shape is defined by voxel data will be referred to as a "voxel object." In this embodiment, the game system 1 stores voxel data for a plurality of voxels set in the game space as data for generating voxel objects in the game space.

[0073] Fig. 8 is a diagram showing an example of a terrain object that is a voxel object. As shown in Fig. 8, in this embodiment, the shape of a terrain object that represents terrain such as the ground is defined by voxel data (i.e., it is a voxel object). Each cube shown in Fig. 8 represents a terrain object. Note that in Fig. 8, the edges of the terrain object are shown with thick lines, but these thick lines are added to make the drawing easier to read, and in reality, the edges of the terrain object do not need to be displayed thick.

[0074] The terrain object shown in FIG. 8 is generated according to a rule that, for example, "if a parameter included in the voxel data set for a voxel is greater than a predetermined value, a cube is placed at the position of the voxel, and if the parameter is equal to or less than the predetermined value, nothing is placed at the position of the voxel." The terrain object shown in FIG. 8 is shown for the purpose of clearly illustrating the relationship between voxels and voxel objects. In this embodiment, a voxel object is actually generated (based on voxel data) according to a rule that results in a complex shape, such as the terrain object shown in FIG. 13 (described later). Note that the rule for determining the shape of the voxel object based on the voxel data is arbitrary. In other embodiments, the game system 1 may generate a voxel object as shown in FIG. 8 or a voxel object as shown in FIG. 13 based on object data.

[0075] The shape of a voxel object can be changed by changing the voxel data of each voxel. FIGS. 9 and 10 are diagrams showing an example of the state before and after a portion of the terrain object shown in FIG. 8 is deleted. That is, when the hatched portion of the terrain object shown in FIG. 9 is destroyed, the terrain object changes to a shape as shown in FIG. 10. At this time, the game system 1 can easily erase the terrain object by rewriting the voxel data (described later) for the voxels in the hatched portion so that they indicate that the terrain object does not exist. Note that when adding a terrain object, the game system 1 can easily change the shape of the terrain object by changing the voxel data of each voxel, just as when erasing a terrain object.

[0076] In this way, the game system 1 can freely change the shape of a voxel object by rewriting the voxel data. For example, when a terrain object is destroyed in a game for some reason (for example, when a player character hits the terrain object), resulting in a change in the shape of the terrain object, the game system 1 can freely change the shape of the terrain object by changing the voxel data used to generate the terrain object, rather than directly changing the data indicating the outer shape of the terrain object (i.e., a mesh, which will be described later).

[0077] In this embodiment, voxels are defined throughout the entire game space (i.e., the voxel space in which voxels are set corresponds to the entire game space). However, the voxel space does not have to be set throughout the entire game space, and may be set in a partial area of ​​the game space. When the voxel space is set in a partial area of ​​the game space, the shape of a voxel object is defined by voxel data related to the voxels in the voxel space, and the position of the voxel object in the game space is defined by the position of the voxel space in the game space. Furthermore, the game space may be set with a main voxel space set over the entire game space and a sub-voxel space set in a partial area of ​​the game space. In this case, the game system 1 stores voxel data for each voxel space.

[0078] 11 is a diagram showing an example of voxel data. The voxel data includes density data, a first material ID, a second material ID, material mixing ratio data, and state data for each voxel defined in the game space. In the voxel data of this embodiment, these data are set for each voxel.

[0079] The density data indicates density, which is an index used to define the shape of a voxel object based on the voxel (specifically, the shape defined by a mesh, which will be described later). As will be described in detail later, the position and shape of the surface of the voxel object (i.e., the mesh, which will be described later) are determined based on the density.

[0080] In this embodiment, density can take an integer value ranging from a lower limit (e.g., 0) to an upper limit (e.g., 255). In this embodiment, the game system 1 determines the surface shape of a voxel object based on density such that a high density value set for a voxel tends to increase the volume ratio of the area inside the voxel object within that voxel, and a low density value tends to decrease that ratio. In this way, density is an index that affects the volume ratio of the area inside the voxel object within that voxel. Density can also be considered an index that indicates the degree to which the space of that voxel is occupied by virtual contents (i.e., the virtual contents of the voxel object). For example, a density of 0 means that the voxel is empty; a density of 255 means that the entire voxel is occupied by the contents of the voxel object; and a density value between 0 and 255 means that the contents of the voxel object occupy the voxel at a ratio according to the value. Then, the shape of the mesh, i.e., the surface shape of the voxel object, can be determined based on the density. The mesh can be described as the surface of the portion of the voxel where content exists, or as the boundary between the portion of the voxel where content exists and the portion of the voxel where content does not exist. Note that the volume occupied by the region within the voxel object generated based on the density does not need to be a volume that strictly matches the proportion indicated by the density. For example, the volume of the voxel object generated by a method such as that shown in Figure 8 and a method such as that shown in Figure 13 may differ even if they are based on the same density.

[0081] In other embodiments, the density may indicate either the entire area of ​​the voxel being occupied by the volume of the area in the voxel object, or the area in the voxel not including the volume of the area in the voxel object. For example, the density data may be data that can only take on the values ​​0 or 1.

[0082] The first material ID and the second material ID are information indicating the material (in other words, the substance) of the voxel. In this embodiment, a material such as sand, rock, or soil is set to the voxel. Note that the game system 1 provides a plurality of types of materials that can be set to the voxel (see the material data shown in FIG. 12). In this embodiment, up to two materials from the plurality of types of materials provided can be set to one voxel. The first material ID is an ID indicating the first material set to the voxel, and the second material ID is an ID indicating the second material set to the voxel. As will be described in detail later, the material of a voxel object (i.e., the material set to the polygons of the voxel object) is determined based on the material set to the voxel.

[0083] As described above, in this embodiment, the voxel data includes an ID indicating the material, but in other embodiments, the voxel data may have a data structure that includes data that directly indicates the content of the material (i.e., the name, properties, and drawing setting information described below).

[0084] The material mixing ratio data is an example of data indicating the ratio of each material in a voxel. In this embodiment, since up to two material IDs can be set for one voxel, the material mixing ratio data indicating the ratio of one of the materials indicated by the first material ID and the second material ID can also indicate the ratio of the other material. In this embodiment, the material mixing ratio is a value between 0 and 1 indicating the ratio of the second material to the entire first and second materials. For example, if the material mixing ratio set for a certain voxel is 0.4, this indicates that the first material and the second material are composed in a ratio of 0.6:0.4 in that voxel. As will be described in detail later, the appearance and properties of a voxel object are determined based on the materials. The material mixing ratio is used to determine the appearance and properties of a voxel object. In other embodiments, the material mixing ratio may be a value indicating the ratio of the first material. Furthermore, the ratio of materials in a voxel may be represented by individual values ​​indicating the ratio of each material. In particular, in other embodiments, when three or more types of materials can be set instead of two, the ratio of the materials within the voxel is expressed as a plurality of values ​​indicating the proportion of each material.

[0085] In this embodiment, two types of materials do not necessarily have to be set for a voxel, and one type of material may be set. For example, if one type of material is set for a certain voxel, the first material ID indicates that material, and the material mixing ratio is set to 0.

[0086] The state data indicates the state set for the voxel. The specific content and number of types of state data are arbitrary. In this embodiment, the state data includes data indicating the amount of damage set for the voxel. Note that in other embodiments, the state data may include, for example, data indicating whether or not the voxel is wet (and to what extent).

[0087] As described above, in this embodiment, the voxel data includes a material ID, and the game system 1 stores material data that defines the content of the material indicated by the material ID. Fig. 12 is a diagram showing an example of material data. As shown in Fig. 12, in the material data in this embodiment, the material ID is associated with the name, properties, and rendering setting information set for each material.

[0088] The name included in the material data is the name set for the material (for example, earth, sand, grass, etc.). Note that the name of the material of a voxel object may be displayed during the game. To achieve this display, the material data includes information on the name of the material.

[0089] The properties included in the material data are properties that are set for the material. The material properties are properties that the voxel object to which the material is set has in the game. The specific content and number of types of material properties are arbitrary. For example, at least one of the following information may be set as the material properties: Hardness Weight Slipperiness - Damage settings when the player character comes into contact ·temperature Whether other objects can be glued to the voxel object The amount of health recovered by the player character when the player character destroys or acquires a voxel object The amount of in-game currency the player character will acquire when they destroy or acquire a voxel object. In other embodiments, information other than the above may be set as information indicating the properties of the material.

[0090] In this embodiment, the material data includes an ID indicating the property as information specifying the property of the material (see FIG. 12). Although not shown, the game system 1 stores property information for each prepared property in which the content of the property (for example, values ​​indicating the weight and slipperiness described above) is associated with the property ID. The game system 1 can specify the specific content of the property set for the material by referring to the property information.

[0091] The rendering settings included in the material data are information indicating settings related to rendering, such as textures used to render the voxel object to which the material is set. In this embodiment, the material data includes, as information on the rendering settings, the IDs of the textures used to render the voxel object to which the material is set (see FIG. 12). Although not shown, the game system 1 stores texture information that associates a texture ID with the texture indicated by the texture ID for each texture provided. By referring to the texture information, the game system 1 can identify the specific content of the texture set for the material. Note that in other embodiments, in addition to texture information, any information related to shading settings may be set as information on the rendering settings. For example, information related to reflectance, normals, etc. may be set.

[0092] Furthermore, the material data may include data other than the data shown in Fig. 12. For example, the material data may include data related to sound settings. For example, the data related to sound settings may be data that defines footsteps to be output when a player character walks on a voxel object based on the voxel.

[0093] The material data may be data in any format that can identify the properties and / or rendering settings of a material. For example, in another embodiment, the material data may have a data structure that includes data that directly indicates the properties and / or rendering settings of a material, instead of a data structure that includes a material ID or a texture ID.

[0094] [2-2. Updating Voxel Data] During the game, the voxel data is updated, thereby deforming the voxel object. In this embodiment, when a game event for updating the voxel object (hereinafter referred to as an "update event") occurs, the game system 1 updates the voxel data. The specific content of the update event is arbitrary. The update event may be, for example, an action by a character appearing in the game that deforms the voxel object (e.g., a player character punching a voxel object), or the occurrence of an event that deforms the voxel object (e.g., an object thrown by a character coming into contact with a voxel object, or a bomb exploding).

[0095] Fig. 13 is a diagram showing an example of a game space when an update event has occurred. The situation shown in Fig. 13 is a situation in which a player character 201 has performed a punch action on a terrain object 202, which is a voxel object. Details will be described later, but in the example shown in Fig. 13, the voxel data is updated so that the terrain object 202 around the position where the punch action by the player character 201 has landed is erased. This expresses the situation in which the terrain object 202 is destroyed by the punch action by the player character 201.

[0096] In this embodiment, when an update event occurs, the game system 1 sets an update range in the game space (in the example shown in FIG. 13 , an update range 203) in which the voxel object is updated. The position, shape, and size of the update range are arbitrary. For example, the position of the update range may be determined based on the position where an object related to the update event that has occurred (e.g., the player character that delivered the punch) comes into contact with the voxel object. In the example shown in FIG. 13 , the position of the update range 203 may be determined based on the position where a punch from the player character 201 has landed. For example, the center position of the update range 203 may be the position of the hit or a position a predetermined distance forward from the position of the hit. The shape and size of the update range may be determined in advance to be a shape according to the type of update event. For example, when an update event occurs due to a punch by the player character 201, the shape and size of the update range may be determined as a sphere of a predetermined size as shown in FIG. 13 . The size of the update range may also be determined according to a value indicating the degree of influence of the update event that has occurred (e.g., the strength of the punch or the size of the explosion).

[0097] The game system 1 changes the density of voxels corresponding to the set update range. Note that voxels corresponding to the update range are, for example, voxels within the update range or voxels that overlap with the update range. As a result of changing the density, the mesh of the voxel object is changed by processing described below, thereby changing the shape of the voxel object (the visible shape and the shape used for collision detection). Note that in other embodiments, in addition to changing the density of voxels included in the update range, the game system 1 may change the materials (i.e., the first material, the second material, and the material mixing ratio) of the voxels, or may change the state of the voxels.

[0098] In this embodiment, the game system 1 determines whether a voxel is included in the update range using an SDF (Signed Distance Field). The game system 1 sets an SDF indicating the update range set in the game space and performs the above determination based on the value of the SDF. The SDF represents the distance from a specified shape to an arbitrary position using a signed value. FIG. 14 is a diagram illustrating an example of the update range. In the example shown in FIG. 14, a spherical update range is set in the game space. For example, in the example shown in FIG. 14, the SDF is set so that, among positions in the game space, positions inside the shape represented by the SDF have negative SDF values ​​and positions outside the shape represented by the SDF have positive SDF values. In this example, whether a voxel is included in the update range can be determined based on whether the SDF value is positive or negative. Furthermore, by using the signed distance value, not only simple inside / outside determination but also processes such as correction and interpolation can be performed.

[0099] In the above, an example was described in which a change was made to a voxel object such that the voxel objects within the update range were transformed as if they had been deleted, but the change made to a voxel object using the update range is not limited to this. For example, a change may be made to a voxel object such that a new voxel object is added within the update range (i.e., the volume occupied by the area within the voxel object increases by the amount of the update range). Also, a change may be made to a voxel object such that only the material of the voxels within the update range changes, without changing the density of the voxels. Also, a change in voxel density and a change in material may be made in combination.

[0100] [2-3. Calculating the vertices] When the voxel density is updated as described above, the game system 1 sets vertices based on the updated voxel data. These vertices can become vertices of the mesh of the voxel object. As will be described in detail later, in this embodiment, the vertices are simplified, and the simplified vertices become vertices of the mesh of the voxel object.

[0101] FIG. 15 is a diagram showing an example of a method for setting vertices. In the following descriptions of FIGS. 15 to 24, voxels, vertices, meshes, etc. are depicted in two dimensions for the purpose of making the drawings easier to see and the explanation easier to understand. However, in reality, vertices and meshes are set in three-dimensional space based on voxels in the three-dimensional space. In this embodiment, the game system 1 uses a method for setting vertices at coordinates based on the positions and densities of multiple surrounding voxels in an area where voxels having a density set to indicate their presence (i.e., a density equal to or greater than a reference value, described later) are adjacent to voxels having a density set to indicate their absence (i.e., a density less than a reference value, described later). Details of this method are described below.

[0102] As described above, in this embodiment, the density set for a voxel is set in the range of 0 to 255. A voxel with a density of 0 represents a completely empty state, and a voxel with a density of 255 represents a completely filled state. Densities between 0 and 255 are treated as interpolation and used to determine vertices. In this embodiment, voxels with a density equal to or greater than a reference value are virtually considered to be inside the object, and voxels with a density less than the reference value are virtually considered to be outside the object. It is also possible to virtually consider voxels with a density equal to or greater than a reference value as voxels indicating presence, and voxels with a density less than the reference value as voxels indicating absence. It is not necessary to define only voxels with a density of 0 as outside the object (i.e., the reference value = 1); the reference value may be, for example, 128. In the example shown in FIG. 15, the density of voxel 211 and the other outer voxels is set to 0, the density of voxel 212 is set to 100, which is less than the reference value, and the densities of voxels 213 and 214 are set to 150 and 210, which are greater than or equal to the reference value. In this embodiment, the game system 1 generates vertices between voxels whose densities are greater than or equal to the reference value and voxels whose densities are less than the reference value. Specifically, for each region (region surrounded by dotted lines in the drawing) spanning eight adjacent voxels (four in the drawing), a determination is made as to whether or not to generate a vertex. In other words, a vertex is generated in a region spanning both voxels whose densities are greater than or equal to the reference value and voxels whose densities are less than the reference value. The coordinates of the vertex are determined by comparing the densities of adjacent voxels along each of the X, Y, and Z axes and interpolating based on the difference in density. Note that by setting normal information that defines the position and orientation of the line connecting the vertices, the coordinates of the vertices can be further calculated based on the normal information. Normal information may be stored in advance for at least some voxels, or if not stored, normal information may be calculated based on the densities of adjacent voxels. In Fig. 15, the density of voxel 212 is less than the reference value, so voxel 212 is treated as outside the object in determining whether or not a vertex exists, but the density value of voxel 212 itself is used to calculate the coordinates of the vertices to be generated.If the reference value were set to a value lower than the density of the voxel 212, the result would be that the number of vertices would increase further to the upper right and upper left of the voxel 212 in FIG.

[0103] By setting vertices as described above, when generating a mesh connecting the set vertices (or the vertices after performing the simplification process described below on the set vertices), it is possible to generate a shape having a volume that reflects the density of each voxel to some extent. However, depending on the relationship with adjacent voxels, it is possible that a voxel with a density of 0 may include a part of an area inside the object, or that a voxel with a density of 255 may include a part of an area outside the object. Furthermore, in this embodiment, voxels with a density less than the reference value are processed as outside the object, so that the number of vertices is reduced compared to when voxels are processed as inside the object, and therefore the volume is also reduced accordingly. In this way, it is not necessary to calculate a polygon mesh so that the volume strictly corresponds to the density value.

[0104] [2-4. Determining the vertex material] The game system 1 determines a material for each vertex set as described above. The material of a vertex is determined based on the materials of the voxels surrounding the vertex. The voxels surrounding the vertex are, for example, the voxels used to determine whether or not to generate the vertex (i.e., the voxels that overlap with the "voxel-spanning area" described above). Note that in other embodiments, the voxels used to determine the material of a vertex and the voxels used to determine whether or not to generate the vertex do not need to be the same, and may be different.

[0105] FIG. 16 is a diagram showing an example of a method for determining the material of a vertex. In the example shown in FIG. 16, a vertex 219 is set for four voxels 215 to 218, and these four voxels 215 to 218 are the "voxels surrounding the vertex" described above. In an actual three-dimensional space, the number of voxels surrounding a vertex is eight. In the example shown in FIG. 16, the density of voxel 215 is set to 255, the first material is set to "sand," and the material mixture ratio is set to 0 (i.e., first material:second material = 1:0, or the second material may not be set). The density of voxel 216 is set to 0 (the first and second materials may not be set). For voxel 217, the density is set to 204, the first material is "sand," the second material is "grass," and the material mixing ratio is set to 0.3 (i.e., first material:second material = 0.7:0.3). For voxel 218, the density is set to 153, the first material is "earth," the second material is "grass," and the material mixing ratio is set to 0.4 (i.e., first material:second material = 0.6:0.4). Furthermore, the coordinates indicating the position of vertex 219 are set to (X,Y) = (0.8,0.6). Note that in this coordinate system, the left-right direction in FIG. 16 is the X coordinate, the up-down direction is the Y coordinate, and the center position of voxel 217, the bottom-left one of voxels 215 to 218 (the positions of the white circles in FIG. 13), is set to (0,0).

[0106] When determining the material of a vertex, the game system 1 calculates an evaluation value for each material in surrounding voxels based on the density of the material and a weight value based on the distance from the voxel to the vertex. First, a weight value is calculated for each voxel, and the closer the distance from the center position of the voxel to the vertex, the larger the weight value is calculated. In this embodiment, when the center position of the voxel is (x1, y1) and the coordinates of the vertex are (x2, y2), the weight value for a certain voxel is calculated according to the following formula (1): (weight value) = |(1-x1)-x2|·|(1-y1)-y2|…(1) In the example shown in FIG. 16, the weight values ​​of the voxels 215 to 218 calculated according to the above formula (1) are as follows: (Weight value of voxel 215) = |(1-0)-0.8|·|(1-1)-0.6| = 0.12 (Weight value of voxel 216) = |(1-1)-0.8|·|(1-1)-0.6| = 0.48 (Weight value of voxel 217) = |(1 - 0) - 0.8| · |(1 - 0) - 0.6| = 0.08 (Weight value of voxel 218) = |(1-1)-0.8|·|(1-0)-0.6| = 0.32

[0107] The game system 1 also calculates the density of the material for each voxel. Here, the density of a material is a value obtained by multiplying the proportion of the material in the materials set for that voxel by the density of that voxel. In this embodiment, the density of the voxel is calculated by normalizing the values ​​from 0 to 255 to values ​​from 0 to 1. In the example shown in FIG. 16, the only material set for voxel 215 is sand, so the proportion of the sand material is 1 and the density of that voxel is 1, so the density of the sand material is 1. For voxel 216, the density is 0 and no material is set, so the density of the material is not calculated. Alternatively, if some material is set, the density of that material is 0. For voxel 217, the ratios of the sand and grass materials are 0.7 and 0.3, respectively, and the density of the voxel is 204 / 255 = 0.8, so the density of the sand material is 0.7 · 0.8 = 0.56, and the density of the grass material is 0.3 · 0.8 = 0.24. For voxel 218, the ratios of the dirt and grass materials are 0.6 and 0.4, respectively, and the density of the voxel is 153 / 255 = 0.6, so the density of the dirt material is 0.6 · 0.6 = 0.36, and the density of the dirt material is 0.4 · 0.6 = 0.24.

[0108] The game system 1 then calculates the evaluation value for each material based on the weight value and the material density. In this embodiment, the evaluation value for a material is the sum of the material densities calculated for each voxel, weighted according to the weight value for each voxel, for each surrounding voxel. In the example shown in FIG. 16 , the evaluation value for the sand material is 1·0.12+0.56·0.08=0.1648 because the material density for voxel 215 is 1 and the weight value is 0.12, and the material density for voxel 217 is 0.56 and the weight value is 0.08. The evaluation value for the grass material is 0.24·0.08+0.24·0.32=0.096 because the material density for voxel 217 is 0.24 and the weight value is 0.08, and the material density for voxel 218 is 0.24 and the weight value is 0.32. Furthermore, the evaluation value of the soil material for voxel 218 is 0.36·0.32=0.1152, since the material density is 0.36 and the weighting value is 0.32.

[0109] The game system 1 determines the material of the vertex based on the evaluation value of each material. Specifically, a predetermined number of materials are determined as the materials of the vertex in descending order of evaluation value. In this embodiment, the two materials with the highest evaluation values ​​are determined as the materials of the vertex. In the example shown in FIG. 16, the evaluation values ​​of the sand, grass, and soil materials are 0.1648, 0.096, and 0.1152, respectively. Therefore, the sand material and the soil material are determined as the materials of the vertex. The game system 1 also calculates the ratio of the two determined materials based on the evaluation values. In this embodiment, the ratio of the two materials may be expressed as a second material ratio, which is the proportion of the second material to the whole, similar to the material mixture ratio. In the example shown in FIG. 16, for example, if the first material is soil and the second material is sand, the second material ratio is expressed as 0.1648 / (0.1648+0.1152)≒0.59. In other embodiments, the value representing the ratio of the two materials may be a value representing the proportion of the first material, or a value representing the proportion of each material may be used.

[0110] In this embodiment, the game system 1 generates and stores vertex data indicating the position of a vertex, the material IDs of the first and second materials set at the vertex, and the ratio of the materials. However, any method may be used to manage the materials set at the vertices. In other embodiments, the vertex data may have a data structure that includes data that directly indicates the contents of the first and second materials.

[0111] As described above, in this embodiment, for each vertex, the game system 1 calculates a priority parameter (e.g., an evaluation value) for each material ID included in the voxel data of multiple surrounding voxels based on the voxel data. Then, based on the priority parameters, up to a predetermined number (here, two) of material IDs with high priorities are selected and determined as the material ID for the vertex. Note that the specific parameter used as the priority parameter is not limited to the evaluation value. For example, in other embodiments, an evaluation value calculated using the density of the material without using the weight value may be used as the priority parameter.

[0112] In this embodiment, the evaluation value, which is an example of a priority parameter, is calculated based on the density of multiple voxels surrounding the vertex so that the material set in a voxel with a higher density has a higher priority (i.e., the evaluation value of the material is larger, making it more likely to be selected). This allows the material of the vertex to be determined by reflecting the magnitude of the density set in the voxels.

[0113] In this embodiment, an evaluation value, which is an example of a priority parameter, is calculated based on the distance from the reference position (specifically, the center position) of multiple voxels surrounding the vertex to the vertex so that the priority of a material set to a voxel close to the vertex is higher. This allows the material of the vertex to be determined by reflecting the distance between the voxel and the vertex.

[0114] In addition, in this embodiment, the evaluation value, which is an example of a priority parameter, can be said to be calculated based on the material mixture ratios of multiple voxels surrounding the vertex, so that a material with a higher material mixture ratio has a higher priority. This makes it possible to determine the material of the vertex by reflecting the ratio of each material when multiple materials are set for one voxel.

[0115] [2-5. Simplifying vertices] In this embodiment, the game system 1 simplifies each of the vertices calculated as described above. That is, the game system 1 reduces the number of vertices by replacing some of the vertices calculated as described above with a single vertex. Note that, as will be described in detail later, the coordinates (i.e., position) and material of the replaced vertex are set based on the multiple vertices before replacement. This simplification can reduce the number of vertices and polygons that make up the mesh of a voxel object, thereby reducing the amount of memory used for processing and the processing load.

[0116] In this embodiment, the game system 1 performs simplification by representing each vertex using SVO (Sparse Voxel Octree). FIG. 17 is a diagram showing an example of vertex simplification. In FIG. 17, one square indicated by a solid line in FIG. 17(a) represents one vertex segment. Here, a vertex segment is a square region with the center position of a voxel as its vertex (in an actual three-dimensional space, a vertex segment is a cube or rectangular parallelepiped), and is a region with the dotted lines in FIG. 15 and FIG. 16 as its edges. In FIG. 17, a vertex segment with the letter "v" inside it indicates a vertex segment in which a vertex is set.

[0117] In this embodiment, the game system 1 determines whether simplification is possible for vertices in a predetermined number of adjacent vertex division regions (four in FIG. 17, eight in actual three-dimensional space). If it is determined that simplification is possible, simplification is performed for the vertices in the predetermined number of vertex division regions.

[0118] (a) in Figure 17 shows the state before simplification is performed. In the example shown in Figure 17, it is assumed that the vertex division areas within the range surrounded by the dotted line are determined to be simplifiable. At this time, the game system 1 performs simplification so that the vertices in the predetermined number of vertex division areas determined to be simplifiable are replaced with a single vertex (see (b) in Figure 17). As a result, the vertices in the predetermined number of vertex division areas are simplified to a single vertex.

[0119] In this embodiment, the game system 1 performs simplification in multiple stages. The number of stages is arbitrary, but FIG. 17 illustrates and explains up to the second stage. FIG. 17(b) shows a state after the first stage of simplification has been performed, and FIG. 17(c) shows a state after the second stage of simplification has been performed. In the second stage of simplification, a determination is made as to whether simplification is possible for the vertices resulting from the first stage of simplification. In the example shown in FIG. 17, it is determined that simplification is possible for the vertex segment area within the range surrounded by the dotted line in FIG. 17(b). As a result, the vertices of the vertex segment area are simplified, resulting in the state shown in FIG. 17(c). Note that the conditions for determining whether the first stage of simplification is possible and the conditions for determining whether the second stage of simplification is possible may be the same or different.

[0120] The specific method for determining whether simplification is possible is arbitrary. In this embodiment, the conditions used for the determination are a condition related to the shape of the voxel object and a condition related to the material. In this embodiment, if both the condition related to the shape of the voxel object and the condition related to the material are satisfied, it is determined that simplification is possible, and if at least one of the condition related to the shape of the voxel object and the condition related to the material is not satisfied, it is determined that simplification is not possible.

[0121] The shape condition may be, for example, that the shape of each vertex before simplification does not change significantly from the shape of each vertex after simplification. For example, whether the shape of each vertex does not change significantly before and after simplification can be determined by calculating an index indicating the error between the mesh before simplification and the mesh after simplification and determining whether the index is equal to or less than a predetermined tolerance. For example, if the shape of each vertex before simplification is hollow, but the shape of each vertex after simplification becomes solid (i.e., the hollow information is lost due to simplification), it is determined that the shape condition is not satisfied. Whether or not the above case occurs can be determined based on, for example, the density of each voxel corresponding to the vertex segment area being determined. For example, if the shape of each vertex before simplification can be expressed only by two or more vertices, but cannot be expressed by a single vertex, it is determined that the shape condition is not satisfied. The shape condition of a voxel object may be the same as that of a conventional method using SVO.

[0122] In this embodiment, the material condition is a condition regarding the number of material types set for each vertex within the predetermined number of vertex segment regions to be simplified. FIG. 18 illustrates an example of the material condition. (a) in FIG. 18 illustrates a case where the materials of vertices 221 to 224 are (grass), (grass), (grass and earth), and (grass and earth), respectively. (b) in FIG. 18 illustrates a case where the materials of vertices 221 to 224 are (grass and sand), (grass), (grass and earth), and (grass and earth), respectively. In this embodiment, the material condition is that the total number of material types set for each vertex to be simplified is equal to or less than a predetermined number. For example, the material condition is that the total number of material types set for each vertex to be simplified is equal to or less than the number of materials that can be set for one vertex. In this embodiment, the predetermined number is 2. For example, in the case of (a) in FIG. 18, the total number of material types set for vertices 221 to 224 to be simplified is two, grass and earth, so the material condition is satisfied. At this time, each of the vertices 221 to 224 is determined to be simplifiable, provided that the above-mentioned conditions regarding the shape of the object are satisfied. On the other hand, in the case of (b) shown in Figure 18, the total number of material types set for each of the vertices 221 to 224 to be simplified is three: grass, earth, and sand, so the conditions regarding the materials are not satisfied. At this time, each of the vertices 221 to 224 is determined to be unsimplifiable, regardless of whether the above-mentioned conditions regarding the shape of the object are satisfied.

[0123] Note that in the game system 1, multiple types of materials may be prepared that have the same set properties but different appearances, even if they are strictly classified as different types. Some of these multiple types of materials may be considered to be the same type when determining whether or not a material satisfies a condition related to the material. For example, with regard to soil materials, multiple types of soil materials may be prepared that have the same properties but similar appearances (e.g., texture color or pattern). In such a case, the game system 1 may consider these multiple types of soil materials to be the same type when determining whether or not a material satisfies a condition related to the material.

[0124] In this embodiment, up to two types of material can be set for a vertex, just as with voxels. In contrast, in this embodiment, if the total number of material types set for each vertex to be simplified is three or more, simplification is not performed. In other words, if the total number of material types exceeds the number of materials that can be set for one vertex, simplification is not performed. Therefore, even if the number of vertices is reduced by simplification, the information about the materials set for the vertices is not lost as a result of the simplification, and the material information can be maintained.

[0125] In this embodiment, the material of a vertex after simplification is determined based on the material of each vertex before simplification. Specifically, the game system 1 sets one or two types of material set at the vertex before simplification as the first material and the second material at the vertex after simplification. This allows the material information to be maintained. The ratio of the material after simplification is determined based on the ratio of the material at each vertex before simplification. In this embodiment, the ratio of the material after simplification is calculated in the same manner as the method for calculating the ratio of the material at each vertex using the evaluation value described above. That is, the game system 1 calculates a weight value based on the distance between the vertex after simplification and the vertex before simplification, and calculates an evaluation value for each material based on the weight value and the density of the material at the vertex before simplification (note that the evaluation value of the material described above in [2-4. Determining the Material at a Vertex] can be used as the material density here). Then, the ratio of the material is calculated based on the calculated evaluation value of each material.

[0126] [2-6. Mesh Generation] In this embodiment, a mesh of a voxel object is generated based on the vertices simplified as described above. FIG. 19 is a diagram showing an example of a mesh generated based on the vertices. Note that the squares shown in FIG. 19 represent the vertex division regions described above, or vertex division regions formed by combining multiple vertex division regions into one vertex division region through simplification. As shown in FIG. 19, the game system 1 generates a mesh composed of polygons whose sides are straight lines connecting adjacent vertices of the vertex division regions. Each polygon that makes up the mesh is a triangle or a quadrangle.

[0127] In this embodiment, the game system 1 generates two types of meshes: a display mesh and a determination mesh. The display mesh is a mesh used for displaying voxel objects. The determination mesh is a mesh used for collision determination of voxel objects. As will be described in detail later, by using the above two types of meshes, the game system 1 can perform processing using meshes that are suitable for displaying voxel objects and for collision determination.

[0128] In this embodiment, the game system 1 generates the display mesh and the determination mesh based on the above-mentioned SVO data (i.e., based on the simplified vertices). This allows the vertex data used to generate the two types of meshes to be shared, thereby improving processing efficiency. Note that in other embodiments, the game system 1 may not simplify the vertices, and may generate the display mesh and / or the determination mesh based on the unsimplified vertices.

[0129] In this embodiment, the game system 1 generates a determination mesh with a simpler shape than the display mesh. Specifically, the game system 1 sets the number of vertices of the determination mesh to be fewer than the number of vertices of the display mesh. In this embodiment, the SVO data is data that stores data on vertices before simplification and data on simplified vertices in an octree structure, but also includes data used to determine whether simplification is possible. This data includes, for example, data on vertices (referred to as provisional vertices) calculated as candidates for vertices after simplification, and data on the aforementioned indicators indicating the errors between the pre-simplification vertices and the provisional vertices. For example, the game system 1 may use, among the provisional vertices, vertices whose indicators are equal to or smaller than a predetermined threshold (this threshold is assumed to be greater than the aforementioned allowable value) to generate the determination mesh. This allows the number of vertices of the determination mesh to be fewer than the number of vertices of the display mesh. By setting the number of vertices of the determination mesh to be fewer than the number of vertices of the display mesh, the processing load due to collision determination can be reduced. In addition, since the number of vertices in the display mesh is not excessively reduced, the appearance of the voxel object can be expressed in detail.

[0130] In other embodiments, the display mesh and the judgment mesh may be generated based on the same data or different data. The display mesh and the judgment mesh may have the same shape (although even in this case, the materials set for the two may be different). The number of vertices in the judgment mesh may be the same as the number of vertices in the display mesh or may be greater than the number of vertices in the display mesh.

[0131] [2-6-1.Determining the material of the display mesh] Next, an example of a method for determining the material and appearance of a display mesh will be described. In this embodiment, the game system 1 determines a material for each polygon that constitutes the display mesh. As will be described in detail later, in this embodiment, the polygons corresponding to the polygons are drawn using up to two types of textures corresponding to up to two types of materials. Therefore, the game system 1 ensures that no more than two types of material are ultimately set for each polygon that constitutes the mesh. In other embodiments, three or more types of material may be set. For example, in an embodiment in which there are three or more types of voxel materials and three or more types of vertex materials, the same number of materials may be set for the polygons.

[0132] In this embodiment, a quadrangle may be formed as a polygon that constitutes a display mesh (see FIG. 19). When determining the material of the display mesh, the game system 1 first divides the quadrangle that constitutes the display mesh into two triangles under certain conditions. The process of dividing a quadrangle into two triangles will be described below with reference to FIG. 20.

[0133] Fig. 20 is a diagram showing an example in which a quadrangle constituting a mesh is divided into two triangles. Fig. 20(a) shows the quadrangle formed by vertices 231 to 234, which are part of the vertices of the mesh, before division, and Fig. 20(b) shows the two triangles into which the quadrangle is divided. In the example shown in Fig. 20, the materials set for each of vertices 231 to 234 are grass, dirt, sand and grass, and grass, respectively.

[0134] In this embodiment, the game system 1 determines whether a division condition is satisfied when a total of three or more types of materials are set at the vertices of a quadrangle. In this embodiment, the division condition is that by dividing the quadrangle into two triangles, a total of two or fewer types of materials can be set at the vertices of the triangles. If the division condition is satisfied, the game system 1 divides the quadrangle into two triangles such that a total of two or fewer types of materials are set at the vertices. In the example shown in FIG. 20, the materials set at the vertices 231 to 234 forming the quadrangle are three types: grass, earth, and sand. Furthermore, if the quadrangle is divided into a triangle formed by vertices 231, 232, and 234 and a triangle formed by vertices 231, 233, and 234, the materials set at the vertices of the former triangle are two types: sand and grass, and the materials set at the vertices of the latter triangle are two types: grass and earth (see (b) in FIG. 20). Therefore, the division condition is satisfied for the quadrangle, and the game system 1 divides the quadrangle into two triangles.

[0135] Since there are two ways to divide a quadrangle into two triangles, if the division condition is satisfied for a triangle divided by at least one of the two methods, the game system 1 performs the division by the method that satisfies the division condition. On the other hand, if the division condition is not satisfied for a triangle divided by either of the two methods, the game system 1 performs the division by one of the two methods.

[0136] By dividing the polygon as described above, the game system 1 can generate two triangles in which two or fewer types of material are set at each vertex of the quadrangle, minimizing loss of information about three or more types of material that are set at each vertex. As described above, each polygon that makes up a mesh is rendered using up to two types of texture. Therefore, by dividing the polygon as described above, the game system 1 can render the polygon using two types of texture, minimizing loss of information about the material that is set at each vertex.

[0137] In this embodiment, the game system 1 sets polygons corresponding to the polygons after the above division. That is, the vertices of the polygons after the above division become the vertices of the polygons of the display mesh.

[0138] In this embodiment, when a total of three or more types of materials are set for each vertex of a polygon constituting a display mesh, the game system 1 determines the material of the polygon by selecting two types of materials. FIG. 21 is a diagram illustrating an example of a method for determining the material of a polygon constituting a display mesh. In the example shown in FIG. 21, for vertex 241 of a triangular polygon constituting the display mesh, the first material is set to "grass," the second material is set to "earth," and the material ratio of the first material to the second material is set to 0.8:0.2. For vertex 242 of the polygon, the first material is set to "grass," the second material is set to "sand," and the material ratio of the first material to the second material is set to 0.5:0.5. For vertex 243 of the polygon, the first material is set to "sand," the second material is set to "earth," and the material ratio of the first material to the second material is set to 0.7:0.3.

[0139] When a total of three or more types of materials are set for each vertex of a polygon, the game system 1 calculates a judgment value for each material. The judgment value is calculated as the sum of the ratios of the materials set for each vertex. The game system 1 then selects the two materials with the largest judgment value as the material for the polygon. In the example shown in FIG. 21, the judgment value for the grass material is 0.8+0.5=1.3, the judgment value for the sand material is 0.5+0.7=1.2, and the judgment value for the earth material is 0.2+0.3=0.5. Therefore, the grass and sand materials are selected as the materials for the polygon shown in FIG. 21 (see (a) in FIG. 21).

[0140] Note that the specific method for selecting the material of a polygon of a display mesh is arbitrary. In other embodiments, the material of a polygon of a display mesh may be selected by any method based on information set at the vertices of the polygon. For example, the material of a polygon of a display mesh may be selected for each vertex by identifying the material with the largest proportion at that vertex, and the material identified most frequently for each vertex may be selected as the material of that polygon.

[0141] In this embodiment, the material of the polygon selected as described above is indicated by the material set at each vertex of the polygon. That is, when a material for a polygon is selected, the game system 1 changes the material set at each vertex of the polygon (i.e., the material ID included in the vertex data) to the selected material. In the example shown in FIG. 21, before the selection of the polygon material, grass and earth and sand and earth materials were set for vertices 241 and 243, respectively (see FIG. 21(a)). When grass and sand materials are selected as the polygon material as described above, the materials set at vertices 241 and 243 are changed to grass and sand (see FIG. 21(b)). Note that the material set at vertex 242 before selection is the same as the material of the selected polygon, so the material is not changed. As described above, when two types of materials are selected as the polygon material, the information on the third and subsequent materials set at each vertex of the polygon is erased.

[0142] Furthermore, the game system 1 changes the ratio of materials set for a vertex in accordance with a change in the material set for that vertex. For example, for vertex 241, the first material is grass and the second material is earth, and the first material is grass and the second material is sand. Here, the proportion of sand material is 0, so the material ratio is set to first material:second material = 1:0. In this way, the above change formally changes the material of each vertex in order to represent the material of the polygon by the material of each vertex of the polygon.

[0143] According to the above, the material set for each vertex of one polygon is only the material corresponding to the texture used for rendering, which will be described later, making it easier to execute rendering processing using texture.

[0144] Note that the above change may result in all materials being changed for a certain vertex (i.e., none of the materials before and after the change match). Such a case may occur, for example, when the material set for the vertex before the change is earth and the materials selected for the polygon are grass and sand. In such a case, the material ratio for the vertex may be set based on the material ratio for the other vertices of the polygon. For example, in the above example, if the first material set for one of the other vertices of the triangular polygon is grass and has a material ratio of grass:sand = 1:0, and the material set for the other vertex is sand and has a material ratio of sand:grass = 1:0, the material ratio for the vertex may be set to grass:sand = 0.5:0.5. The game system 1 may also determine the material ratio for the vertex taking into account the distance between the vertex and the other vertices (e.g., based on a weight value that increases as the distance decreases).

[0145] As described above, in this embodiment, for each polygon, the game system 1 selects up to a predetermined number (here, two) of material IDs from among the material IDs set to the vertices included in the polygon (i.e., material IDs set to the vertices of the polygon corresponding to the polygon), and determines them as the material ID for the polygon. This allows the game system 1 to perform rendering processing while reducing the number of textures used, while reflecting the materials set to the vertices in the appearance of the polygon.

[0146] In this embodiment, if the number of materials for all vertices constituting a polygon is equal to or less than the predetermined number, the game system 1 determines the material as the polygon's material, and if the number of materials exceeds the predetermined number, it selects a predetermined number of materials with high priority based on the priority parameters of each vertex (specifically, based on the judgment value calculated based on the evaluation value) and determines them as the polygon's material. This allows the polygon to be made up of a predetermined number of materials or less, taking priority into consideration, even if the total number of materials set for each vertex exceeds the predetermined number.

[0147] As described above, in this embodiment, the first and second materials set for each vertex of a polygon are changed to two types of materials set for that polygon. When such a change is made, there is a possibility that a discrepancy will occur between the first and second materials set for a vertex shared by two adjacent polygons.

[0148] FIG. 22 is a diagram showing an example of materials set at the vertices of two adjacent polygons. FIG. 22 shows a state (shown in (b) in FIG. 20) in which two polygons are formed by the vertices 231 to 234 shown in FIG. 20. In the example shown in FIG. 22, the materials of the first polygon formed by the vertices 231, 233, and 234 are determined to be grass and sand, and therefore the first and second materials of these vertices should be set to grass and sand, respectively. On the other hand, the materials of the second polygon formed by the vertices 231, 232, and 234 are determined to be grass and earth, and therefore the first and second materials of these vertices should be set to grass and earth, respectively. Therefore, in the example shown in FIG. 22, a discrepancy occurs in the materials to be set for the vertices 231 and 234 shared by the two polygons.

[0149] Therefore, in this embodiment, if a discrepancy occurs in the materials to be set for a vertex shared by two polygons, the game system 1 adds another vertex at the same position as the vertex. FIG. 22(b) shows an example of a state in which a vertex 231' is added for the vertex 231 and a vertex 234' is added for the vertex 234. In the example of FIG. 22, the game system 1 sets the first and second materials for the vertices 231 and 234 to grass and sand in accordance with the material of the first polygon. Also, the game system 1 sets the first and second materials for the vertices 231' and 234' to grass and earth in accordance with the material of the second polygon. In this way, by formally setting two vertices as vertices shared by two polygons (i.e., generating two vertex data sets having the same position but different materials), it is possible to prevent discrepancies in the materials set for the vertices.

[0150] The game system 1 generates a display mesh made up of polygons whose vertices and materials have been determined as described above. The game system 1 also draws the voxel object by drawing the polygons based on the material information (i.e., the first material and the second material) set for each vertex.

[0151] Fig. 23 is a diagram showing an example of applying a texture to a polygon. Fig. 23 shows a triangular polygon formed by the vertices 241 to 243 shown in Fig. 21. The material set for each of the vertices 241 to 243 is the one shown in Fig. 21(b).

[0152] The vertices of a polygon are drawn by mapping that blends the texture of the first material and the texture of the second material set for that vertex at the ratio of the materials set for that vertex (i.e., that ratio is used as the blend ratio). The textures of the first and second materials used for drawing are the textures indicated by the drawing setting information associated with each material ID associated with the vertex data in the material data (see FIG. 12) described above. In the example shown in FIG. 23, the material ratio for the vertex 241 is grass:sand = 1:0, so drawing is performed using only the grass texture. The first material for the vertex 243 is sand, so the material ratio for the sand:grass is 1:0, so drawing is performed using only the sand texture. The first material for the vertex 242 is grass, the second material for the vertex 242 is sand, so the material ratio for the grass:sand is 0.5:0.5, so drawing is performed by blending the grass texture and the sand texture at a blend ratio of 0.5:0.5.

[0153] Furthermore, for positions other than the vertices of a polygon, the game system 1 determines the blend ratio by interpolating the blend ratio at each vertex. Then, rendering is performed by mapping, blending the textures of the two materials set at each vertex based on the interpolated blend ratio. Note that any specific interpolation method may be used. One example is linear interpolation of the blend ratio between vertices. In FIG. 23, positions where a high proportion of grass material texture is applied are indicated in white, and positions where a high proportion of sand material texture is applied are indicated in black. In the example shown in FIG. 23, a grass texture is applied to vertex 241, and the blend ratio of the sand texture increases toward vertex 243. At vertex 242, the grass-to-sand blend ratio is 1:1, and at vertex 243, only the sand texture is applied. In this way, by blending and rendering the two textures set at the polygon (i.e., set at each vertex of the polygon) at a blend ratio according to the material ratio, the boundary between different materials in the display mesh can appear natural. This allows the display mesh to have a plurality of types of materials set thereto to appear natural.

[0154] [2-6-2.Determining the material of the judgment mesh] Next, an example of a method for determining the material of a determination mesh will be described. Details will be given later, but in this embodiment, a collision determination for a voxel object is performed using the determination mesh, and processing may be performed according to the material of the voxel object for which a collision has been determined. Therefore, in this embodiment, the material is also determined for the determination mesh.

[0155] In this embodiment, the game system 1 sets one type of material for each polygon that constitutes the determination mesh. Specifically, the game system 1 determines the material to be set for a polygon of the determination mesh based on information about the material set at the vertices of the polygon (i.e., information about the first and second materials and the ratio of the materials).

[0156] Fig. 24 is a diagram showing an example of a method for determining the material of polygons that make up a determination mesh. Fig. 24 shows an example of determining the material for a triangular polygon formed by each of the vertices 241 to 243 shown in Fig. 21. The material set for each of the vertices 241 to 243 is the one shown in Fig. 21(a).

[0157] When determining the material of a polygon, the game system 1 calculates a judgment value for each material set at each vertex of the polygon. In this embodiment, the method for calculating the judgment value is the same as the method for calculating the judgment value used to select the material set at the polygon of the display mesh. Note that the specific method for calculating the judgment value is arbitrary. In other embodiments, the judgment value may be calculated by any method based on the information set at the vertices of the polygon of the judgment mesh.

[0158] In the example shown in Fig. 24, the judgment values ​​for each material are the same as in the case shown in Fig. 21, with the grass material judgment value being 1.3, the sand material judgment value being 1.2, and the earth material judgment value being 0.5. Therefore, the grass material is selected as the material for the polygon shown in Fig. 24.

[0159] As described above, in this embodiment, for each polygon, the game system 1 selects up to a predetermined number (here, one) of material IDs from among the material IDs set at the vertices of the polygon (i.e., material IDs set at the vertices of the polygon corresponding to the polygon) and determines the material ID for the polygon. This allows the game system 1 to keep the number of materials set in the determination mesh below a predetermined number. This prevents the processing according to the type of material, which is performed according to the results of collision determination using the determination mesh, from becoming complicated. Note that the method for determining the material of the polygon of the determination mesh is arbitrary and is not limited to the above. In other embodiments, the material of the polygon of the determination mesh may be determined by any method based on the information set at the vertices of the polygon.

[0160] Furthermore, in this embodiment, up to two types of material are set for the polygons of the display mesh, while one type of material is set for the polygons of the determination mesh. This allows the polygons of the display mesh to have a natural appearance using two types of texture, and prevents the processing of the determination mesh performed based on the results of collision determination using the determination mesh from becoming complicated. Note that, in other embodiments, any type of material can be set for the polygons of the display mesh and the determination mesh. The number of materials that can be set for the polygons of the display mesh and the determination mesh may both be multiple, may be the same, or may be different.

[0161] In this embodiment, up to two types of materials can be set for one voxel, and up to two types of materials can be set for one polygon in a display mesh. This makes it possible to reduce the amount of voxel data while reflecting material information set in the voxel data on the materials of the display mesh. Furthermore, in this embodiment, up to two types of materials can also be set for vertices set based on the voxel data (see FIG. 16). This allows two types of materials to be set for vertices generated during the process of obtaining a display mesh from voxel data, so that the material information set in the voxel data is not lost during the process, and the material information set in the voxel data can be reflected on the display mesh.

[0162] In another embodiment, the game system 1 may set different materials for vertices used to generate a display mesh and for vertices used to generate a determination mesh, with respect to vertices set based on voxel data. For example, the game system 1 may set up to two types of materials for vertices used to generate a display mesh, as described above, and set one type of material for vertices used to generate a determination mesh. Similarly, two types of materials may be set for polygons of the display mesh, and one type of material may be set for polygons of the determination mesh based on one type of material set for each vertex of the polygon. When one type of material is set for vertices used to generate a determination mesh, the material with the largest judgment value calculated for each material may be set as the material for that vertex. As in the present embodiment, this allows up to two types of materials to be set for each polygon in the display mesh, and only one type of material to be set for each polygon in the determination mesh. Therefore, the information about the material set in the voxel data can be reflected in the display mesh, and the processing performed according to the results of collision judgment using the judgment mesh can be prevented from becoming complicated.

[0163] As described above, in this embodiment, a display mesh and a judgment mesh may be set for one voxel object. However, depending on the game situation, it is not necessary to simultaneously set both a display mesh and a judgment mesh for one voxel object (for example, it is not necessary to set both in processing for one frame). For example, a judgment mesh may be generated in a range within the game space where collision determination is performed, but not in a range where collision determination is not performed. As an example, the game system 1 may generate judgment meshes for voxel objects within a predetermined range centered on the player character, and may generate only display meshes for voxel objects outside the predetermined range without generating judgment meshes.

[0164] Furthermore, for display meshes, the game system 1 may store data relating to the generated meshes in memory, and in frames after the meshes are generated, use the data without re-executing the mesh generation process except for the updated range. This reduces the processing load for generating display meshes. For determination meshes, data relating to the generated meshes may not be stored in memory, and meshes may be generated sequentially as needed (for example, whenever collision determination is required). This saves memory space used for mesh generation.

[0165] The above describes a method for generating meshes (i.e., display meshes and determination meshes) based on the changed voxel data when voxel data is changed from its initial state. The above method can also be used when generating meshes based on voxel data in the initial state, for example, at the start of a game. However, meshes based on voxel data in the initial state do not need to be generated based on voxel data in the initial state at the start of the game, and may be prepared in advance before the start of the game.

[0166] [2-7. Processing to change materials] Next, an example of processing for changing the material of a voxel object will be described with reference to Figures 25 to 31. In the following, we will explain an example in which terrain objects such as the ground and walls are assumed to be voxel objects, and an action occurs in the game as a result of a player character taking an action and a collision determination being made.

[0167] The "in-game effect" is any change that occurs in the game, such as a change that occurs due to "processing that reflects the results of collision between objects." The "in-game effect" may be based on a collision determination between a determination mesh and a determination shape corresponding to a determination target based on game processing (for example, a determination area set for an object such as a player character), and the effect may occur on an object corresponding to the determination mesh, or on an object corresponding to the determination target. The content of the "in-game effect" may be associated with a material set for a polygon that is determined to have collided in the collision determination that causes the effect to occur (i.e., the content of the effect may be determined by the material).

[0168] FIG. 25 is a diagram showing an example of a game image showing a player character moving on a terrain object. In the example shown in FIG. 25, the material of the polygons in a part of region 251 of the determination mesh of the terrain object, which is the ground, is set to "lava." Furthermore, the material of the polygons in a region 252 other than region 251 of the determination mesh of the terrain object is set to "rock." Furthermore, the voxels corresponding to region 251, except for region 251a surrounding region 251, are set to have a first material ID of "lava" and a material mixing ratio of 0 (i.e., the voxels are set to have only one material, "lava"). Furthermore, the voxels corresponding to region 251a are set to have a first material ID of "lava" and a second material ID of "rock," and a material mixing ratio of 0.4 (i.e., the voxels are set to have a material ratio of 0.6:0.4 consisting of "lava" and "rock").

[0169] In the example shown in FIG. 25, the game system 1 performs a collision determination between the terrain object and the player character 201 using a determination mesh. That is, the game system 1 performs a collision determination as to whether or not the determination mesh of the terrain object comes into contact with a determination area set for the player character (for example, an area of ​​a predetermined shape set based on the position of the player character). Then, when a collision between a polygon made of lava and the player character 201 is determined, a process of reducing the vitality of the player character 201 is performed as a process of generating an action in the game. In addition, in the above case, a process of causing the player character 201 to perform a predetermined reaction is performed.

[0170] In this embodiment, the property information included in the material data is set to a property of lava material that reduces the stamina of the player character that comes into contact with it (for example, the property that the temperature is equal to or higher than a predetermined value). The game system 1 generates an in-game action (in the above example, a reduction in the stamina of the player character) based on the property information corresponding to the material set for the polygon in the determination mesh for which a collision has been determined by collision determination.

[0171] Furthermore, if a collision between the player character 201 and a polygon made of rock is determined, a process for reducing the player character's vitality is not executed. Furthermore, based on the collision, the player character 201 is controlled so as not to enter the interior of the polygon. Therefore, the player character can stand on or walk on the polygon. In this manner, in this embodiment, by setting a material for each polygon, the game system 1 can execute different processes depending on which part of the voxel object another object has come into contact with. Furthermore, the content of the process executed can be set according to the type of material. Note that in this embodiment, the player character can change the terrain object (for example, by deforming it or changing its material). For example, as described below, the player character can change lava to another material or erase the lava portion of the terrain object. Therefore, by changing the terrain object, the player character can avoid the reduction in vitality of the player character caused by contact with lava.

[0172] Furthermore, the content of the processing executed when a collision between a voxel object and another object is determined is arbitrary. For example, if the other object is a moving object such as a player character or an enemy character, the processing may be processing to output the sound of footsteps of the object or to display an effect (e.g., an effect representing dust or water splashes) at the location of contact. In this case, the game system 1 can vary the sound of footsteps or the effect depending on the type of material set for the polygon of the contacting portion of the voxel object.

[0173] FIG. 26 is a diagram showing an example of a game image depicting a state in which the player character 201 throws an ice object 261 into an area 251 of a land object. The game system 1 places the ice object 261 in the game space. In this embodiment, the user can make the player character 201 perform an action of grabbing, lifting, and throwing the ice object 261 placed in the game space (referred to as a "throwing action") by performing a predetermined operation input. As a result, the ice object 261 moves within the game space based on the direction in which the player character 201 performs the throwing action.

[0174] The ice object 261 may or may not be a voxel object. If the ice object 261 is a voxel object, a unique voxel space is defined for the ice object 261, independent of the voxel space of voxels corresponding to terrain objects, etc. In the unique voxel space, unique voxel data corresponding to the ice object 261 is defined, and a unique display mesh and a unique determination mesh based on the unique voxel data are set. The unique voxel space can be moved / rotated within the game space together with the defined ice object 261, and the position, direction (posture), etc. of the unique voxel space within the game space are controlled. Note that the voxels defined in the unique voxel space may be a different size from the voxels that make up the terrain object, or the size of the voxels may be relatively small. In the following explanation, an example is used in which the ice object 261 is configured as a voxel object.

[0175] The material of the polygon in the ice object 261 is set to a first material ID of "ice" and a material mixture ratio of 0 (i.e., the voxel is set to one material, "ice"). The property information included in the material data described above is set to the ice material to have a property of lowering the temperature of the object it comes into contact with (for example, a property that the temperature is below a predetermined value (for example, a temperature below freezing)). Then, using the method for determining the materials of the display mesh and determination mesh described above, the materials of the unique display mesh and unique determination mesh of the ice object 261 are determined based on the material of the voxel.

[0176] In this embodiment, when it is determined as a result of collision determination that an ice object 261 thrown by a throwing action has come into contact with a voxel object, the game system 1 modifies the voxel object as an in-game action. Figures 27 and 28 are diagrams showing examples of game images after a modification has been made to the terrain object as a result of the ice object 261 coming into contact with the region 251 of the terrain object shown in Figure 26.

[0177] In the example shown in Fig. 27, the area 251 of the terrain object is changed so that the area around the position where the ice object 261 first comes into contact with the area 251 of the terrain object is cooled by the ice object 261 and the material changes. Furthermore, the ice object 261 is deformed so that the area around the contact position of the ice object 261 melts due to contact with the area 251 of the terrain object. Specifically, the game system 1 generates an update range to include the contact position, and changes the material of the voxels of the terrain object in the update range, thereby changing a part of the area 251 of the terrain object. Furthermore, the game system 1 deforms a part of the ice object 261 to have the above-mentioned shape by reducing the density of the voxels of the ice object 261 in the update range.

[0178] For example, the update range is set to a shape corresponding to the shape of ice object 261 when it comes into contact with the terrain object, and the voxels of the terrain object within the update range are set so that the "lava" material in those voxels becomes the "obsidian" material. Specifically, for voxels within the update range corresponding to region 251 excluding region 251a in the terrain object, the first material ID "lava" is changed to "obsidian," and the material mixing ratio continues to be set to 0 (i.e., the material set in the voxels is the single type, "obsidian"). Furthermore, for voxels within the update range corresponding to region 251a in the terrain object, the first material ID "lava" is changed to "obsidian," the second material ID continues to be set to "rock," and the material mixing ratio continues to be set to 0.4 (i.e., the material set in the voxels is composed of "obsidian" and "rock" in a ratio of 0.6:0.4). Then, based on the material of the changed voxels, the materials of the display mesh and the judgment mesh of the terrain object are determined. In Fig. 27, the portion of region 251 that has been changed to one type of material, "obsidian," is set to region 262, and the portion of region 251a that has been changed to a material consisting of "obsidian" and "rock" is set to region 263. This makes it possible to make the appearance of regions 262 and 263, which were originally made of "lava" material in the terrain object, that have been changed to "obsidian" material different from the appearance of region 251 made of "lava" material. This makes it easier to give the user the impression that the ice object 261 has cooled and transformed the "lava" material of region 251 of the terrain object, and makes it possible to express a situation in which a lava object is cooled by an ice object and turns into obsidian.

[0179] Furthermore, for the voxels of the ice object 261 within the update range, the density of those voxels is reduced, thereby shrinking and deforming the ice object 261 near the contact position. Then, based on the changed voxels, a unique display mesh and a unique determination mesh for the ice object 261 are determined. This causes the ice object 261 to change into a reduced shape based on the contact position, which makes it easier for the user to get the impression that the ice object 261 has been melted by the "lava" material in the terrain object's region 251.

[0180] In the example shown in FIG. 28 , the ice object 261 moves on the terrain object from the position illustrated in FIG. 27 while further coming into contact with the region 251 of the terrain object. As the ice object 261 moves, the region 251 of the terrain object is changed as if the area around the position of contact has been cooled by the ice object 261, changing its material. Furthermore, the ice object 261 is deformed so that the area around the contact position of the ice object 261 further comes into contact with the region 251 of the terrain object, thereby taking on a shape that appears to have further melted. Specifically, in a manner similar to the method of changing the material described above, the game system 1 generates a new update range to include the further contacted position, and further changes the material of the voxels of the terrain object in the new update range, thereby further changing a portion of the region 251 of the terrain object. In a manner similar to the method of reducing density described above, the game system 1 further reduces the density of the voxels of the ice object 261 in the new update range, thereby further deforming a portion of the ice object 261 to the above-described shape. This allows further enlargement of areas 262 and 263 in the terrain object that have been changed from the "lava" material to the "obsidian" material, making it easier to give the user the impression that the ice object 261 is further cooling and transforming the "lava" material in area 251 of the terrain object, thereby expanding the transformed area. Also, because the ice object 261 changes to a shape that is further reduced based on the new contact position, it is easier to give the user the impression that the ice object 261 has been further melted by the "lava" material in area 251 of the terrain object.

[0181] In this way, in the example game shown in Figures 26 to 28, for each voxel in the voxel data that corresponds to an update range in the virtual space, at least one of the material IDs is changed to a different material ID, changing the "lava" material to an "obsidian" material. While updating the voxel material during the game, the update can be reflected in the appearance and behavior, allowing the game to progress. Specifically, when an event occurs in the game in which an ice object collides with a terrain object having a "lava" material, an update range is generated at a collision position based on collision determination, and the "lava" material ID of voxels in the terrain object that correspond to the update range that have a "lava" material ID is changed to an "obsidian" material ID. Here, terrain objects having a "lava" material reduce the player character's strength when the player character comes into contact with them, so the above-mentioned material change changes a material that would cause damage to the player character to a material that does not cause damage.

[0182] Furthermore, the ice object is associated with unique voxel data, a position in the unique voxel space in the game space, a unique display mesh, and a unique determination mesh, and its size is reduced by lowering the density of the unique voxel data based on a collision determination between the unique determination mesh and the determination mesh of the terrain object. Therefore, for each voxel in the voxel data that corresponds to an update range in the virtual space, the voxel density can be updated during the game, and the update can be reflected in the appearance and action of the game as it progresses.

[0183] The content of the material change described above may be determined based on the material of the terrain object in contact, the material of the ice object in contact, or a combination of the material of the terrain object in contact and the material of the ice object in contact, thereby making it possible to bring about various changes to the voxel objects that make up the terrain object or ice object.

[0184] Furthermore, the game system 1 may determine whether to make the above-mentioned changes based on the material of the contacting terrain object, based on the material of the contacting ice object, or based on a combination of the material of the contacting terrain object and the material of the ice object. For example, when the ice object 261 comes into contact with a portion of the terrain object in region 252 made of rock, the game system 1 may make a change to reduce the density of the voxels that make up the ice object 261, but may not make the material change shown in Figures 27 and 28 to the portion of the terrain object in region 252 made of rock.

[0185] Furthermore, in the examples shown in FIGS. 27 and 28, the change made to the voxel object in response to another object (e.g., ice object 261) coming into contact with the voxel object is a change to the material of the voxel object, but the change made to the voxel object is not limited to this. The change may be a modification in which the other object that has come into contact with the voxel object is added as an additional part, or may be a change to change the density of voxels in the voxel object. For example, when ice object 261 comes into contact with region 251 of "lava" material in a terrain object, a change may be made to decrease the density of voxels of the "lava" material. This makes it possible to express a situation in which the "lava" material portion of the terrain object is cooled and reduced by the coming into contact with the ice object.

[0186] FIG. 29 is a diagram showing an example of a game image illustrating the player character 201 destroying a land object 255. FIG. 30 is a diagram showing an example of a cross-section of the land object 255 destroyed by the player character 201. As shown in FIGS. 29 and 30 , in this embodiment, the user can cause the player character 201 to perform a punch action by inputting a predetermined operation. The game system 1 destroys and erases a portion of the land object 255 as an in-game effect caused by the punch action. Specifically, the land object 255 is deformed so that the portion is erased. Note that, when a punch action is performed, after the punch action, fragment objects corresponding to the erased land object may be placed around the position where the punch action was performed. Also, there may be cases where fragment objects corresponding to the destruction of the land object 255 are not generated. Note that, in FIGS. 28 and 29 , generated fragment objects are omitted for the purpose of making the drawings easier to understand and the explanation easier to understand.

[0187] When the user performs an operation input to make the player character 201 perform the punch action, the game system 1 makes the player character 201 perform an action of throwing a punch forward and performs a collision determination. Then, when a collision between the player character 201 performing the punch action and the landform object 255 is determined, an update range is generated based on the position and orientation of the player character 201.

[0188] Fig. 31 is a diagram showing an example of an update range generated when the player character 201 performs a punch action. The left diagram in Fig. 31 shows the front of the land object 255 (the surface to be destroyed) as seen from the player character 201 destroying the land object 255. The right diagram in Fig. 31 shows a vertical cross-sectional view of the land object 255 shown in the left diagram as seen from the right side.

[0189] As illustrated in FIG. 31 , in this embodiment, first to third update ranges are generated as an example. For example, the first update range indicates the destruction range of the land object 255 that is destroyed by a punch action of the player character 201. The first update range is generated based on the position, strength, and ability of the player character 201 at which the land object 255 is destroyed, the strength (e.g., material) of the land object 255, and the like. For example, the first update range is generated in a predetermined direction (e.g., forward) based on the player character 201. In the example of FIG. 31 , a bell-shaped first update range with a hemispherical innermost portion is formed around the collision position determined when the player character 201 performs a punch action. Note that the shape of the first update range may be other shapes, such as a sphere, an oval sphere, a cube, a cylinder, a wedge, a shape generated by 3D software, or a shape with a portion missing from any of these shapes. Furthermore, the position of the first update range may be set around the position in the game space where the punch action by the player character 201 occurs (for example, the position where the punching fist of the player character 201 reaches), or may be set around the position a predetermined distance ahead of that position as seen from the player character 201.

[0190] The game system 1 reduces the density of voxels corresponding to the first update range. As a result, the terrain object 255 is deformed so that the portion corresponding to the first update range is erased. For example, in this embodiment, the erasure of each voxel is controlled by rewriting the density of each voxel based on the SDF of each voxel in the terrain object 255. Specifically, at least a portion of the portion of the terrain object 255 corresponding to the first update range is erased by lowering the density of voxels whose SDF is a negative distance. As a first example, the density of voxels whose SDF is a negative distance is rewritten to a lower limit value, thereby erasing the terrain object 255 included within the first update range, and the density of voxels whose SDF is a positive distance is maintained at its current value, thereby preventing the terrain object 255 outside the first update range from being erased. As a second example, the density of voxels whose SDF is a negative distance is rewritten to a lower value as the absolute value of the distance increases, and the density of voxels whose absolute value is greater than a predetermined value is rewritten to a lower limit value, thereby erasing a portion of the terrain object 255 included within the first update range, and the density of voxels whose SDF is a positive distance is maintained at its current value, thereby preventing erasure of the terrain object 255 outside the first update range.As a third example, the density of voxels whose SDF is a negative distance is rewritten to a lower limit value, thereby erasing a portion of the terrain object 255 included within the first update range, and the density of voxels whose SDF is a positive distance is rewritten to a lower value as the absolute value of the distance decreases, thereby causing erasure of a portion of the terrain object 255 outside the first update range.

[0191] In addition, instead of unconditionally deforming the voxel object corresponding to the first update range, the game system 1 may increase the amount of damage set in the voxel corresponding to the first update range in accordance with the punch action, and decrease the density in the voxel in accordance with the amount of damage exceeding a predetermined value.

[0192] In this embodiment, a special punch action is provided in which the material of a portion of a terrain object destroyed by the punch action is changed to a specific material. Here, the specific material has a relatively high value that can be obtained during the game, such as by the amount of in-game currency that the player character acquires when the player character destroys or acquires a voxel object. For example, the specific material can be precious metals such as gold, silver, copper, and platinum, or precious stones such as diamonds, rubies, sapphires, and emeralds.

[0193] The game system 1 changes the material of the voxels corresponding to the second update range to the specific material. Specifically, all material IDs of the voxels corresponding to the second update range are changed to the ID of the specific material, or one material ID is changed to the ID of the specific material and a material mixing ratio is set such that everything in the voxels becomes the specific material (for example, if the first material ID is changed to the ID of the specific material, the material mixing ratio is set to 0). As a result, the part of the terrain object 255 corresponding to the second update range is changed to the specific material (part 271 in FIGS. 29 and 30).

[0194] For example, as shown in FIG. 31, the second update range is generated in a range larger than the first update range. Specifically, the second update range is generated in the shape of a layer that surrounds the first update range with a predetermined thickness. For example, if the first update range is a bell-shaped range, the second update range is generated in a relatively larger bell-shaped range in which the SDF is a predetermined positive distance. This makes it possible to realize a special action in which the material near the surface of the terrain object destroyed by the punch action (specifically, the surface newly exposed to the outside due to the destruction) is changed to a specific material.

[0195] Furthermore, the game system 1 changes some of the materials of the voxels corresponding to the third update range to the specific material. Specifically, among the voxels corresponding to the third update range, the material ID of the material with the smallest ratio among the material IDs of the voxels that do not have the specific material is changed to the ID of the specific material. For example, for a voxel in which the first material ID is set to "rock" and the second material ID is set to "earth" and the material mixing ratio is set to 0.4 (i.e., the materials set in the voxel are composed of "rock" and "earth" in a ratio of 0.6:0.4), the second material ID with the smallest ratio, "earth," is changed to the ID of the specific material. Therefore, the material of the voxel is changed to a material composed of "rock" and the "specific material" in a ratio of 0.6:0.4. As a result, the material of the terrain object 255 in the portion corresponding to the third update range is changed to a material including the specific material (portion 272 in FIGS. 29 and 30).

[0196] For example, as illustrated in FIG. 31, the third update range is generated in a range larger than the first update range and the second update range. Specifically, the third update range is generated in the shape of a layer that surrounds the second update range with a predetermined thickness. For example, if the first update range and the second update range are bell-shaped ranges, the third update range is generated in a bell-shaped range in which the SDF is a predetermined positive distance larger than the positive distance set for the second update range. This makes it possible to realize a special action in which part of the material in a layer deeper than the layer of specific material generated on the surface of the terrain object destroyed by the punch action is also changed to the specific material.

[0197] In the above-described game example, the density of at least some of the voxels corresponding to the first update range is reduced, the material of the voxels corresponding to the second update range is changed to a specific material, and some of the material of the voxels corresponding to the third update range is changed to the specific material. As a result, by a punch action by the player character 201, the surrounding area of ​​the destroyed terrain object can be changed to the specific material, and some of the surrounding material can be changed to the specific material, allowing the user to obtain a benefit from the specific material.

[0198] In this embodiment, three or more material IDs may be set for one voxel (i.e., three or more types of materials may be set for one voxel). Furthermore, in this embodiment, the material of a voxel may be changed based on another event occurring during the game. In this case, at least one update range may be generated, and the material of the voxels corresponding to the update range may be changed. As a first example, an update range (e.g., the first update range) may be generated when a predetermined event occurs in the game, and among the voxels corresponding to the update range, the material with the smallest proportion of voxels that do not have a specific material may be changed to the specific material. As a second example, an update range may be generated when a predetermined event occurs in the game, and all materials of voxels corresponding to the update range may be changed to the specific material. As a third example, an update range may be generated when a predetermined event occurs in the game, and among the voxels corresponding to the update range, the material with the largest proportion of voxels that do not have a specific material may be changed to the specific material. As a result, when a voxel to which two or more materials are set is overwritten with another material, it is possible to change the voxel to include the other material in an appropriate manner. The predetermined event may be caused by the punch action performed by the player character 201, or may be caused by another action performed by the player character 201. Furthermore, the predetermined event may be caused by an action performed by another character, may be caused based on a user operation input that does not involve movement control of the player character 201, or may be caused by a phenomenon in the game that is not directly related to the movement of the character.

[0199] Furthermore, when a fragment object corresponding to a deleted portion of the terrain object 255 is generated, at least a portion of the material of the fragment object may be changed to a specific material. In this case, the fragment object may be generated so as to have a shape corresponding to the deleted portion of the terrain object 255, or may have a predetermined shape. The fragment object may or may not be a voxel object.

[0200] [3. Specific examples of processing in game systems] Next, a specific example of information processing in the game system 1 will be described with reference to FIGS.

[0201] FIG. 32 is a diagram showing an example of various data used for information processing in the game system 1. Each piece of data shown in FIG. 32 is stored in a memory accessible by the main unit 2 (for example, the flash memory 84, the DRAM 85, and / or a memory card inserted in the slot 23, etc.). As shown in FIG. 32, the game system 1 stores a game program. The game program is for executing the game processing in this embodiment (for example, the game processing shown in FIG. 33). The game program includes the above-mentioned material data (see FIG. 12). The memory also stores the above-mentioned voxel data (see FIG. 11), update range data, mesh data, object data, etc. (see FIG. 32).

[0202] The update range data is data that indicates the update range described above. In this embodiment, the update range is represented by the SDF described above.

[0203] The mesh data includes various data related to the mesh of the voxel object. As shown in FIG. 32 , in this embodiment, the mesh data includes SVO data, display mesh data, and judgment mesh data. The SVO data is data that holds each vertex calculated from the voxel data in the above-mentioned SVO structure. In this embodiment, the SVO data includes data indicating the position of each vertex, as well as data indicating the material set for each vertex (e.g., data indicating the material ID). The display mesh data includes various data related to the display mesh. Specifically, the display mesh data includes data indicating each vertex of the display mesh and data indicating the material set for each vertex (e.g., data indicating the material ID). The judgment mesh data includes various data related to the judgment mesh. Specifically, the judgment mesh data includes data indicating each vertex of the judgment mesh and data indicating the material set for each vertex (e.g., data indicating the material ID).

[0204] The object data includes various data related to objects other than voxel objects (e.g., player characters, virtual objects, etc.). The object data is stored for each object that appears in the game space. The object data includes, for example, data indicating the position, speed, status, etc. of the object.

[0205] 33 is a flowchart showing an example of the flow of game processing executed by the game system 1. Execution of the game processing is initiated, for example, when the game is started in response to a command from a player during execution of the game program. Note that a processing loop consisting of a series of processes from steps S1 to S14 is executed once per frame.

[0206] In the present embodiment, the processor 81 of the main unit 2 executes the game program stored in the game system 1 to perform the processing of each step shown in FIG. 33. However, in other embodiments, some of the processing of each step may be performed by a processor (e.g., a dedicated circuit) other than the processor 81. Furthermore, if the game system 1 is capable of communicating with another information processing device (e.g., a server), some of the processing of each step shown in FIG. 33 may be performed in the other information processing device. Furthermore, the processing of each step shown in FIG. 33 is merely an example, and the processing order of each step may be reversed, or another process may be performed in addition to (or instead of) the processing of each step, as long as similar results are obtained.

[0207] 33 using a memory (for example, DRAM 85). That is, the processor 81 stores information (in other words, data) obtained by each processing step in the memory, and when using the information in a subsequent processing step, reads the information from the memory and uses it.

[0208] 33, processor 81 acquires the operation data indicating the operation input by the player (step S1), and proceeds to the next step. For example, processor 81 acquires operation data output from each controller via controller communication unit 83 and / or each terminal 17 and 21, or operation data output from main unit 2 (e.g., touch panel 13).

[0209] Next, processor 81 designates, as a processing target, any object (including a voxel object defined in the unique voxel space) for which processing has not been completed among the objects in the game space that require processing. For the designated object, processor 81 executes a process for calculating the velocity and a process for reflecting the results of collisions between objects in the previous frame (step S2), and then proceeds to the next step. The velocity of the object is used to calculate the position of the object in the current frame in the process of step S12, which will be described later. For example, if the designated object is a player character, the velocity of the player character is calculated based on the operation data acquired in step S1. Furthermore, if the designated object is an object not controlled by the user (e.g., an ice object), the velocity of the object is calculated based on rules predetermined in the game program. For example, the velocity of the ice object is set to 0 if it is placed on a terrain object and not moving; if it is held by the player character, the velocity is set to the same as the velocity of the player character; and if it is thrown by a throwing action by the player character, the velocity is set to a velocity that moves in a direction based on the direction of the player character with a magnitude determined by the above rules. Specifically, the speed of an object is calculated based on virtual physics calculations that include interactions between objects, such as repulsion due to collisions between objects, interactions such as friction due to contact, falling due to virtual gravity, and deceleration due to virtual air resistance.

[0210] Furthermore, the process of reflecting the result of the collision between objects in the previous frame includes a process of influencing the objects due to the collision when it is determined that the objects have collided in the collision determination (step S11 described later) in the previous frame. The above process is, for example, the following process. -Processing to reduce the player character's stamina if it is determined that the player character has come into contact with a lava terrain object in the previous frame Processing to generate debris objects when it is determined that the player character has come into contact with a terrain object due to a punch action, etc. in the previous frame If the state of the object is changed in the process of step S2 above, processor 81 updates the object data stored in memory for that object so that it indicates the changed content.

[0211] Next, processor 81 determines whether or not an update event for updating the voxel object has occurred due to the object specified in step S2 (step S3). For example, the determination in step S3 is made based on the result of collision determination in the previous frame (step S11, described later). As one example, if it is determined that the player character has come into contact with a terrain object by a punch action or the like in the previous frame, it is determined that an update event has occurred in which a part of the terrain object is erased and the material is changed (see FIGS. 29 to 31). As another example, if it is determined that an ice object has come into contact with a lava terrain object in the previous frame, it is determined that an update event has occurred in which the material of the terrain object is changed and the ice object is reduced (see FIGS. 26 to 28). If an update event has occurred, processor 81 proceeds to step S4. On the other hand, if an update event has not occurred, processor 81 proceeds to step S6.

[0212] In step S4, processor 81 sets an update range in the game space for updating the voxel object, and proceeds to the next step. For example, the specific contents of the update range (e.g., position, shape, and size) are associated with each type of update event in the game program. The update range set in step S4 is set to have contents associated with the type of update event determined to occur in step S3. In step S4, processor 81 stores data indicating the set update range in memory as update range data.

[0213] Next, the processor 81 makes changes to the voxels corresponding to the update range set in step S4 in accordance with the update event (step S5), and proceeds to step S6. For example, when the processor 81 deforms a voxel object in the update range so as to erase or reduce it, or when the processor 81 deforms a voxel object in the update range so as to add it, the processor 81 updates the voxel data stored in memory so as to change the density of the voxels corresponding to the update range (see [2-2. Updating Voxel Data] above). When the processor 81 changes the material of a voxel object in the update range, the processor 81 updates the voxel data stored in memory so as to update at least one of the first material ID, the second material ID, and the material mixing ratio of the voxels corresponding to the update range (see [2-7. Processing for Changing Material] above).

[0214] In step S6, processor 81 determines whether or not the processing of steps S2 to S5 has been completed for all objects requiring processing (including voxel objects defined by the unique voxel space). If the processing of all objects has been completed, processor 81 proceeds to step S7. On the other hand, if the processing of any object has not been completed, processor 81 returns to step S2 and repeats the processing.

[0215] In step S7, processor 81 updates the vertices of the voxel object in the game space and proceeds to the next step. For example, if the voxel data is updated in the processing of step S5 above, processor 81 calculates new vertices based on the updated voxel data. The positions of the new vertices are calculated according to the method described above in [2-3. Calculation of Vertex]. The materials of the new vertices are calculated according to the method described above in [2-4. Determination of Vertex Materials].

[0216] Next, processor 81 simplifies the vertices (step S8) and proceeds to the next step. For example, processor 81 simplifies each vertex after updating by the processing of step S7 above, according to the method described above in [2-5. Vertex Simplification]. Then, processor 81 updates the SVO data stored in memory to indicate each vertex obtained by the processing of steps S7 and S8 above. Note that the processing of steps S7 and S8 above does not need to recalculate the vertices for all of the voxel data, and may be performed only for the part whose voxel content has been changed in the processing of step S5 above.

[0217] Next, the processor 81 updates the display mesh of the voxel object based on the SVO data stored in memory (step S9) and proceeds to the next step. The positions of each vertex of the display mesh and the materials of each polygon of the display mesh (e.g., the materials set for each vertex of a polygon) are calculated according to the methods described in [2-6. Mesh Generation] and [2-6-1. Determining the Material of the Display Mesh] above. In step S9, the processor 81 updates the display mesh data stored in memory to indicate the updated positions and materials of each vertex of the display mesh. The processor 81 may start processing from step S10 (described later) onward without waiting for the completion of step S9, and execute these processing in parallel. In this case, step S9 must be completed before the start of step S13 (described later).

[0218] Next, processor 81 updates the determination mesh of the voxel object based on the SVO data stored in memory (step S10), and proceeds to the next step. The positions of each vertex of the determination mesh and the material of each polygon of the determination mesh (e.g., the material set for each vertex of a polygon) are calculated according to the methods described above in [2-6. Mesh Generation] and [2-6-2. Determining the Material of the Determination Mesh]. In step S10, processor 81 updates the determination mesh data stored in memory to indicate the positions and materials of each vertex of the determination mesh after the update.

[0219] In the example shown in FIG. 33, the determination mesh generation process in step S10 is executed for each frame, but the determination mesh generation process does not have to be executed for each frame. For example, if the collision determination process in step S11, which will be described later, is executed only in frames that satisfy a predetermined condition, processor 81 may execute the determination mesh generation process in the frame in which the collision determination is performed. Processor 81 may also execute the determination mesh generation process for voxels within an area of ​​the game space in which the collision determination in step S11 is performed. For example, in a situation in which no objects other than voxel objects that are the subject of collision determination exist around the player character in the game space (that is, a situation in which it is sufficient to perform collision determination only between the player character and its surrounding voxel objects), processor 81 may execute the determination mesh generation process for voxels within a predetermined range based on the player character.

[0220] Next, processor 81 performs collision determination for each object in the game space based on the determination mesh data and object data stored in memory (step S11), and proceeds to the next step. For example, processor 81 performs collision determination using a determination mesh for a voxel object, and using a determination area of ​​a predetermined shape set for the object for an object that is not a voxel object. Note that in this embodiment, the collision determination in step S11 is performed taking into account the speed calculated in step S2 above. In other words, processor 81 performs collision determination using the position of each object when it moves at the above speed.

[0221] In this embodiment, the collision determination in step S11 determines, for example, whether or not there will be a next contact. - Contact between the player character performing actions such as movement or punching and terrain objects Contact between a character lifting an ice object and the ice object -Collision between ice objects thrown by the player character's throwing action and terrain objects If it is determined in the collision determination in step S11 that the objects have come into contact with each other, then in the processing of step S2 in the next frame, a process is executed to reflect the result of the collision between the objects, or in the processing of step S3 in the next frame, it is determined that an update event has occurred.

[0222] Next, processor 81 controls the actions of each object in the game space (step S12) and proceeds to the next step. For example, with respect to the player character, processor 81 controls the player character to move and perform various actions based on the operation data acquired in step S1. When a predetermined action is performed, processor 81 generates an area for collision determination in the game space according to the action. Furthermore, when an ice object is released by a throwing action performed by the player character, processor 81 controls the ice object to move in the direction of the release. Note that in one processing of step S12, processor 81 controls each object to perform the action for one frame for an action performed over multiple frames (e.g., an action by the player character). As a result, by repeatedly executing the processing of step S12 over multiple frames, each object performs a series of actions related to movement and various actions. Furthermore, the position of the object is basically determined to be the position after moving at the speed calculated in step S2. However, if the collision determination in step S11 determines that the object will come into contact with another object and the movement of the object is prevented by the other object that has come into contact with the object, it may be determined that the position of the object will not change. Then, in step S12, processor 81 updates the object data stored in memory to reflect the object after the control in step S12.

[0223] Next, processor 81 generates a game image (step S13) and proceeds to the next step. For example, processor 81 generates a game image by drawing each polygon of the display mesh of the voxel object and the polygons of each object other than the voxel object based on the virtual camera. Each polygon of the display mesh is drawn using drawing settings such as texture corresponding to the material set for the polygon, according to the method described above in [2-6-1. Determining the Material of the Display Mesh]. The game image generated in step S13 above is output to the display device and displayed once per frame.

[0224] Next, processor 81 determines whether or not to end the game (step S14). For example, processor 81 makes an affirmative determination in step S14 above when a predetermined operation input for ending the game is performed by the user or when a condition for ending the game is satisfied. Then, if processor 81 determines to end the game, it ends the processing according to the flowchart. On the other hand, if processor 81 does not end the game, it returns to step S1 above and repeats the processing. Thereafter, the series of processing steps S1 to S14 above are repeatedly executed until it is determined in step S14 above that the game is to end.

[0225] In this manner, in this embodiment, the appearance of a voxel-based object can be changed based on the voxel material updated during the game, and actions based on that material can be generated in the game. Therefore, a game can be executed in which the material is reflected in the appearance of objects based on voxel data and in the actions that occur in the game.

[0226] In the above explanation, an example was used in which a voxel object is defined by generating a three-dimensional mesh based on voxel data set in voxels in three-dimensional space, but a voxel object may also be defined based on voxel data set in two-dimensional voxels.

[0227] Furthermore, the game system 1 may be any device, such as a portable game device or any portable electronic device (PDA (Personal Digital Assistant), mobile phone, smartphone, personal computer, camera, tablet, etc.). In this case, the input device for performing user operations to move the player character, etc. does not have to be the left controller 3, the right controller 4, or the touch panel 13, etc., but may be another controller, a mouse, a touchpad, a touch panel, a trackball, a keyboard, a cross key, a slide pad, etc.

[0228] Furthermore, although the above description uses an example in which information processing is performed by the game system 1, at least some of the above processing steps may be performed by another device. For example, if the game system 1 is configured to be able to communicate with yet another device (e.g., another server, another information processing device, another game device, another mobile terminal, etc.), the above processing steps may be executed by cooperation with the other device. In this way, by performing at least some of the above processing steps in another device, processing similar to the above-described processing becomes possible. Furthermore, the above-described information processing may be executed by one processor or cooperation between multiple processors included in an information processing system composed of at least one information processing device. Furthermore, in the above embodiment, information processing can be performed by the processor 81 of the game system 1 executing a predetermined program, but some or all of the above processing may be performed by a dedicated circuit provided in the game system 1.

[0229] According to the above-described modified example, the present invention can also be realized in a so-called cloud computing system configuration, or in a distributed wide area network or local network system configuration. For example, in a distributed local network system configuration, the above processing can be performed cooperatively between a stationary information processing device (stationary game device) and a portable information processing device (portable game device). Note that in these system configurations, there is no particular limitation on which device performs the above processing, and it goes without saying that the present invention can be realized regardless of the processing division.

[0230] Furthermore, the processing order, setting values, conditions used for judgment, etc. used in the information processing described above are merely examples, and it goes without saying that this embodiment can be realized even with other orders, values, and conditions.

[0231] The program may be supplied to the game system 1 not only through an external storage medium such as an external memory, but also through a wired or wireless communication line. The program may be pre-recorded in a nonvolatile storage device within the device. The information storage medium for storing the program may be a nonvolatile memory, a CD-ROM, a DVD, or similar optical disk-shaped storage media, a flexible disk, a hard disk, a magneto-optical disk, or a magnetic tape. The information storage medium for storing the program may also be a volatile memory for storing the program. Such a storage medium may be a recording medium readable by a computer or the like. For example, the various functions described above can be provided by having a computer or the like read and execute the program from such a recording medium.

[0232] Although the present invention has been described in detail above, the above description is merely illustrative of the present invention in all respects and is not intended to limit its scope. It goes without saying that various improvements and modifications can be made without departing from the scope of the present invention. Furthermore, those skilled in the art will understand that, from the description of specific embodiments of the present invention, they will be able to implement equivalents based on the description of the present invention and common technical knowledge. Furthermore, unless otherwise specified, it should be understood that the terms used in this specification are used in the same sense as commonly used in the art. Therefore, unless otherwise defined, all technical and technical terms used in this specification have the same meaning as commonly understood by those skilled in the art to which this invention belongs. In the event of any conflict, the present specification (including definitions) will prevail. [Industrial Applicability]

[0233] As described above, the present invention can be used as a game program, game system, game device, game processing method, etc. that can execute a game in which materials are reflected in the appearance and actions that occur in the game of objects based on voxel data. [Explanation of symbols]

[0234] 1. Information processing system 2...Main unit 3...Left controller 4...Right controller 11. Housing 12...Display 13...Touch panel 32, 52...Analog stick 42, 64...Terminals 81...Processor 82...Network Communication Department 83...Controller communication section 85...DRAM

Claims

1. The computer of the information processing device Based on voxel data defined in a virtual space, in which for each of a plurality of voxels at least a density indicating the degree to which the space defined by the voxel is virtually occupied by contents and a material ID indicating the type of the contents, the material ID being settable up to a first number, which is a plurality of voxels, a display mesh is generated that corresponds to the voxel data and is drawn based on a virtual camera, the vertex coordinates of the display mesh being determined based at least on the density included in the voxel data, and the material of the display mesh being determined based at least on the plurality of material IDs included in the voxel data; generating a voxel update range in the virtual space based on game processing; In response to the generation of the voxel update range, at least one of the material IDs is changed to a different material ID for each voxel in the voxel data that corresponds to the voxel update range in the virtual space; updating the display mesh in accordance with the updated voxel data; a determination mesh used for collision determination within the virtual space, the vertex coordinates of the determination mesh being determined based at least on the density included in the voxel data, and the material of the determination mesh being determined based at least on a plurality of the material IDs included in the voxel data, and based on a collision determination between the determination mesh and a determination shape corresponding to a determination target based on game processing, an in-game action corresponding to the material of the determination mesh at the collision position is generated; A game program that renders the virtual space including the display mesh based on the vertex coordinates of the display mesh and a texture corresponding to the material of the display mesh.

2. The computer, When the first event occurs in the game, generating a first voxel update range from among the plurality of types of voxel update ranges; 2. The game program according to claim 1, wherein for each voxel having a first material ID among the voxels corresponding to the first voxel update range, the first material ID is changed to a second material ID.

3. 3. The game program according to claim 2, wherein the computer generates the first voxel update range at a collision position based on a collision determination between a first object having a third material ID and the determination mesh.

4. the first object is associated with unique voxel data independent of the voxel data, a position in the virtual space of a unique voxel space defined by the unique voxel data, and a unique display mesh and a unique determination mesh based on the unique voxel data; 4. The game program according to claim 3, wherein the computer is caused to reduce the density in the unique voxel data of the first object based on a collision determination between the first object and the determination mesh.

5. The computer, controlling a player character in the virtual space based on an operation input; 5. The game program according to claim 4, wherein the first object is moved in a predetermined direction based on a first action of the player character in response to an operational input.

6. The computer, controlling a player character in the virtual space based on an operation input; 3. A game program according to claim 2, wherein, based on a collision between the player character and the determination mesh, if the material of the determination mesh at the collision position has the first material ID, the set physical strength of the player character is reduced.

7. 2. The game program according to claim 1, wherein the voxel data further includes an intra-voxel ratio, which indicates a ratio within the voxel of the material indicated by the material ID, set for each voxel.

8. The computer, When the second event occurs in the game, generating a second voxel update range from among the plurality of types of voxel update ranges; 8. The game program according to claim 7, wherein, among the material IDs of each voxel corresponding to the second voxel update range that does not have a fourth material ID, the material ID having the smallest ratio based on the intra-voxel ratio is changed to the fourth material ID.

9. The computer further comprises: Controlling a player character based on operational input; causing the player character to perform a second action based on a predetermined operation input; when the second action is performed, a third voxel update range and a fourth voxel update range larger than the third voxel update range are generated from the plurality of types of voxel update ranges in a predetermined direction from the player character; Decreasing the density of at least a portion of voxels corresponding to the third voxel update range; 8. The game program according to claim 7, wherein the material IDs of voxels corresponding to the fourth voxel update range are all changed to a fifth material ID, or any of the material IDs is changed to the fifth material ID and the intra-voxel ratio is set to a ratio in which everything within the voxel is made of the material indicated by the fifth material ID.

10. The computer, When the second action is taken, generating a fifth voxel update range that is greater than the fourth voxel update range; 10. The game program according to claim 9, wherein the material ID having the smallest ratio based on the intra-voxel ratio among the material IDs of voxels corresponding to the fifth voxel update range that do not have the fifth material ID is changed to the fifth material ID.

11. Based on voxel data defined in a virtual space, in which for each of a plurality of voxels at least a density indicating the degree to which the space defined by the voxel is virtually occupied by content and a material ID indicating the type of content, the material ID being settable up to a first number, which is a plurality of voxels, a display mesh is generated that corresponds to the voxel data and is drawn based on a virtual camera, the vertex coordinates of the display mesh being determined based at least on the density included in the voxel data, and the material of the display mesh being determined based at least on the plurality of material IDs included in the voxel data; generating a voxel update range within the virtual space based on game processing; In response to the generation of the voxel update range, for each voxel in the voxel data that corresponds to the voxel update range in the virtual space, changing at least one of the material IDs to a different material ID; updating the display mesh in accordance with the updated voxel data; a determination mesh used for collision determination within the virtual space, the vertex coordinates of the determination mesh being determined based at least on the density included in the voxel data, and the material of the determination mesh being determined based at least on a plurality of the material IDs included in the voxel data, and based on a collision determination between the determination mesh and a determination shape corresponding to a determination target based on game processing, an in-game action corresponding to the material of the determination mesh at the collision position is generated; A game system that renders the virtual space including the display mesh based on the vertex coordinates of the display mesh and a texture corresponding to the material of the display mesh.

12. The game system includes: When the first event occurs in the game, generating a first voxel update range from among the plurality of types of voxel update ranges; The game system according to claim 11 , wherein for each voxel that has a first material ID among the voxels that correspond to the first voxel update range, the first material ID is changed to a second material ID.

13. The game system according to claim 12 , wherein the game system generates the first voxel update range at a collision position based on a collision determination between a first object having a third material ID and the determination mesh.

14. the first object is associated with unique voxel data independent of the voxel data, a position in the virtual space of a unique voxel space defined by the unique voxel data, and a unique display mesh and a unique determination mesh based on the unique voxel data; The game system according to claim 13 , wherein the game system reduces the density in the unique voxel data of the first object based on a collision determination between the first object and the determination mesh.

15. The game system includes: controlling a player character in the virtual space based on an operation input; 15. The game system according to claim 14, wherein the first object is moved in a predetermined direction based on a first action of the player character in response to an operational input.

16. The game system includes: controlling a player character in the virtual space based on an operation input; 13. A game system according to claim 12, wherein, based on a collision between the player character and the determination mesh, if the material of the determination mesh at the collision position has the first material ID, the set physical strength of the player character is reduced.

17. The game system according to claim 11 , wherein the voxel data further includes an intra-voxel ratio, which indicates a ratio within the voxel of the material indicated by the material ID, set for each voxel.

18. The game system includes: When the second event occurs in the game, generating a second voxel update range from among the plurality of types of voxel update ranges; 18. The game system according to claim 17, wherein, among the material IDs of each voxel corresponding to the second voxel update range that does not have a fourth material ID, the material ID having the smallest ratio based on the intra-voxel ratio is changed to the fourth material ID.

19. The game system further comprises: Controlling a player character based on an operational input; causing the player character to perform a second action based on a predetermined operation input; When the second action is performed, a third voxel update range and a fourth voxel update range larger than the third voxel update range are generated from the plurality of types of voxel update ranges in a predetermined direction from the player character; Decreasing the density of at least a portion of voxels corresponding to the third voxel update range; 18. The game system according to claim 17, wherein the material IDs of voxels corresponding to the fourth voxel update range are all changed to a fifth material ID, or any of the material IDs is changed to the fifth material ID and the intra-voxel ratio is set to a ratio at which everything within the voxel is made of the material indicated by the fifth material ID.

20. The game system includes: When the second action is taken, generating a fifth voxel update range that is greater than the fourth voxel update range; 20. The game system according to claim 19, wherein the material ID having the smallest ratio based on the intra-voxel ratio among the material IDs of voxels corresponding to the fifth voxel update range that do not have the fifth material ID is changed to the fifth material ID.

21. A gaming device including a processor, The processor: Based on voxel data defined in a virtual space, in which for each of a plurality of voxels at least a density indicating the degree to which the space defined by the voxel is virtually occupied by content and a material ID indicating the type of content, the material ID being settable up to a first number, which is a plurality of voxels, a display mesh is generated that corresponds to the voxel data and is drawn based on a virtual camera, the vertex coordinates of the display mesh being determined based at least on the density included in the voxel data, and the material of the display mesh being determined based at least on the plurality of material IDs included in the voxel data; generating a voxel update range within the virtual space based on game processing; In response to the generation of the voxel update range, for each voxel in the voxel data that corresponds to the voxel update range in the virtual space, changing at least one of the material IDs to a different material ID; updating the display mesh in accordance with the updated voxel data; a determination mesh used for collision determination within the virtual space, the vertex coordinates of the determination mesh being determined based at least on the density included in the voxel data, and the material of the determination mesh being determined based at least on a plurality of the material IDs included in the voxel data, and based on a collision determination between the determination mesh and a determination shape corresponding to a determination target based on game processing, an in-game action corresponding to the material of the determination mesh at the collision position is generated; A game device that renders the virtual space including the display mesh based on the vertex coordinates of the display mesh and a texture corresponding to the material of the display mesh.

22. The processor: When the first event occurs in the game, generating a first voxel update range from among the plurality of types of voxel update ranges; The game device according to claim 21 , wherein for each voxel having a first material ID among the voxels corresponding to the first voxel update range, the first material ID is changed to a second material ID.

23. 22. The game device according to claim 21, wherein the voxel data further includes an intra-voxel ratio, which indicates the ratio of the material indicated by the material ID within the voxel, set for each voxel.

24. The processor: When the second event occurs in the game, generating a second voxel update range from among the plurality of types of voxel update ranges; 24. The game device according to claim 23, wherein, among the material IDs of each voxel corresponding to the second voxel update range that does not have a fourth material ID, the material ID having the smallest ratio based on the intra-voxel ratio is changed to the fourth material ID.

25. Information processing systems, Based on voxel data defined in a virtual space, in which for each of a plurality of voxels at least a density indicating the degree to which the space defined by the voxel is virtually occupied by contents and a material ID indicating the type of the contents, the material ID being settable up to a first number, which is a plurality of voxels, a display mesh is generated that corresponds to the voxel data and is drawn based on a virtual camera, the vertex coordinates of the display mesh being determined based at least on the density included in the voxel data, and the material of the display mesh being determined based at least on the plurality of material IDs included in the voxel data; generating a voxel update range in the virtual space based on game processing; In response to the generation of the voxel update range, at least one of the material IDs is changed to a different material ID for each voxel in the voxel data that corresponds to the voxel update range in the virtual space; updating the display mesh in accordance with the updated voxel data; a determination mesh used for collision determination within the virtual space, the vertex coordinates of the determination mesh being determined based at least on the density included in the voxel data, and the material of the determination mesh being determined based at least on a plurality of the material IDs included in the voxel data, and based on a collision determination between the determination mesh and a determination shape corresponding to a determination target based on game processing, an in-game action corresponding to the material of the determination mesh at the collision position is generated; A game processing method in which the virtual space including the display mesh is rendered based on the vertex coordinates of the display mesh and a texture corresponding to the material of the display mesh.

26. The information processing system, When the first event occurs in the game, generating a first voxel update range from among the plurality of types of voxel update ranges; 26. The game processing method according to claim 25, further comprising changing the first material ID to a second material ID for each voxel having a first material ID among the voxels corresponding to the first voxel update range.

27. 26. The game processing method according to claim 25, wherein an intra-voxel ratio indicating a ratio within the voxel of the material indicated by the material ID is further set in the voxel data for each voxel.

28. The information processing system, When the second event occurs in the game, generating a second voxel update range from among the plurality of types of voxel update ranges; 28. A game processing method according to claim 27, wherein, among the material IDs of each voxel corresponding to the second voxel update range that does not have a fourth material ID, the material ID having the smallest ratio based on the intra-voxel ratio is changed to the fourth material ID.

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