Barrier-Aware Heatmap Generation for Real-Time Game Performance
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Solution Overview
Problem
Video games face challenges in providing real-time, detailed performance data to players, especially in online multiplayer games, due to bandwidth and memory intensity requirements, and the need to accurately represent barriers like walls and objects in complex game maps.
Innovation Solution
A system and method for generating heatmaps that apply a blur operation to game maps, using a mask to differentiate accessible and inaccessible areas, and a data structure with weighted elements to smooth performance metrics, allowing for real-time updates and reduced data storage and bandwidth usage.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If detailed real-time performance data is provided to players, then player performance evaluation capability is improved, but bandwidth and memory requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The game map is divided into discrete grid cells, with each cell storing aggregated performance metrics. This segmentation allows the system to manage large amounts of spatial data efficiently by organizing it into manageable units, reducing overall memory requirements while maintaining detailed performance information across the entire map
Solution Approach 2:
The patent creates a simplified digital representation (heatmap) of player performance that copies essential performance data into a compressed visual format. This copied representation maintains the key performance information needed for evaluation while requiring significantly less bandwidth and memory than storing raw detailed event data
2Measurement precision
If heatmaps include all map areas, then complete performance coverage is achieved, but inaccessible barrier areas create inaccurate performance representations
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies different properties to different regions of the heatmap by incorporating barrier information. Accessible areas display full performance metrics while inaccessible barrier areas are treated differently (masked or excluded), ensuring that performance representations accurately reflect player accessibility and preventing misleading data aggregation across barriers
Data Source
AI summary
Systems and methods for generating a performance heatmap that accounts for barriers, playable areas and non-playable areas are disclosed. The system applies a blur operation to a performance heatmap associated with a game map to generate a blurred heatmap, the heatmap having a plurality of pixels, where at least a portion of the pixels is associated with one or more values corresponding to one or more performance metrics. A mask representative of a top down image of the game map is generated, where the mask defines first areas that are accessible to players and second areas that are not accessible to players. A data structure is defined having n×m elements, wherein each of the n×m elements has a weight associated therewith based on an association of the data structure and mask. The blurring operation is executed on the heatmap using the data structure.