Game Apparatus Fog Blending for Depth Perception
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional methods for displaying three-dimensional games with monochrome worlds fail to provide a clear sense of distance and visibility for player objects, making it difficult for players to grasp their position within the virtual game space.
Innovation Solution
A game apparatus and storage medium that implement a color blending process, where colors are added to images based on distance from a reference position or pixel, allowing for gradual blending and improved visibility of the player object's location through the use of fog-like effects, enhancing the perception of depth and distance in virtual game spaces.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of manufacture
If a monochrome screen image is simply displayed with only a player object colored, then the representation becomes monotonous, but the player object position becomes easily identifiable
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies color changes by introducing fog processing that adds color information to the monochrome background. The fog color is blended with the monochrome screen image at different rates depending on the distance from the player object, creating a gradient effect where nearby areas retain more original monochrome characteristics while distant areas gain color information, thereby enriching the visual representation without losing player position identifiability
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements local quality by applying different fog blending rates to different regions of the screen based on their distance from the player object. Areas closer to the player object use lower blending rates to maintain visibility and recognition, while areas farther away use higher blending rates to provide color information and enhance the sense of distance, creating a spatially varying visual quality
2Device complexity
If a monochrome screen image is displayed, then color information is reduced, but the processing complexity is low
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes parameters by introducing a fog blending rate parameter that varies with distance from the player object. This parameter controls the proportion of fog color mixed with the original monochrome image pixels, allowing dynamic adjustment of color information content based on spatial position. The blending rate is calculated as a function of distance, creating a smooth transition from monochrome to colored regions
3Loss of information
If fog processing is applied to add color information, then the sense of distance is improved, but the processing time increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies partial action by selectively processing only certain regions of the screen with fog blending based on their distance from the player object. Rather than applying uniform fog processing to the entire screen, the method focuses computational resources on areas where color information and distance perception are most beneficial, while leaving nearby areas with lower processing overhead to maintain frame rate
4Productivity
If color blending is performed at intervals of unit time, then the processing load is reduced, but the image quality may deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements periodic action by performing color blending operations at fixed time intervals rather than continuously for every frame. This timing-based sampling approach reduces the total number of processing operations while still providing updated visual information at a rate sufficient to maintain perceived image quality and player position accuracy, effectively balancing processing load with visual fidelity
Data Source
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AI summary
A color image viewed from a virtual camera is generated. Next, a fog image is generated by adding a fog color to respective objects in accordance with distances from a position, which is represented by a Z value, of a player object to positions of the respective objects which are represented by Z values. Further, mask processing is performed so as to add to the fog image a predetermined fog color in accordance with distances from a predetermined reference pixel to pixels in a lateral and a longitudinal directions in the fog image. And an image into which the fog image and the color image have been synthesized is displayed as a game image.