Pre-computed Line of Sight Catalog for Game Spawn Safety
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional video game spawning systems are computationally expensive and error-prone, often leading to unsatisfactory gameplay due to outdated line of sight calculations and inadequate estimation of spawn location safety, as they rely on direct line of sight computations that fail to account for minimal enemy movements.
Innovation Solution
A system and method that generate a pre-computed line of site (LOS) catalog of minimum distances to travel between map nodes to achieve line of sight, allowing for efficient identification of relatively safe spawn locations during gameplay by determining the proximity of unsafe nodes and selecting the safest spawn points based on these distances.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If direct line of sight computations are performed at runtime to determine spawn location safety, then spawn location safety assessment is provided, but computational expense increases significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent pre-computes line of sight information between all map nodes before gameplay begins, storing the results in a lookup table. This preliminary action eliminates the need for expensive runtime computations, allowing the system to quickly assess spawn location safety by simply querying pre-calculated data rather than performing new line of sight traces during gameplay.
2Loss of information
If line of site computations are performed each server frame to maintain current information, then information currency is improved, but game process speed decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs line of sight computations in advance before gameplay starts, storing results in a pre-computed lookup table. This eliminates the need to recompute line of sight data each server frame, maintaining information currency through the pre-calculated data while preserving game process speed during runtime operations.
3Device complexity
If direct line of sight tests are used to determine spawn location safety, then computational simplicity is maintained, but accuracy of safety estimation deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent divides the game map into discrete nodes and pre-computes line of sight relationships between all node pairs, storing minimum distances and visibility status in a structured lookup table. This segmentation allows the system to go beyond simple binary line of sight tests by incorporating distance metrics and intermediate position data, thereby improving safety estimation accuracy while maintaining computational efficiency through the pre-computed structure.
Solution Approach 2:
By pre-computing detailed line of sight information including minimum distances and intermediate positions between all map nodes before gameplay, the system accumulates comprehensive safety assessment data. This preliminary action enables accurate safety estimation during gameplay by querying pre-calculated minimum distances and evaluating intermediate positions, rather than relying on simple runtime line of sight tests.
Data Source
AI summary
Disclosed is a system and method of generating, for a given game map, an LOS catalog before gameplay and identifying a spawn location during gameplay based on the LOS catalog. For every unique pair of map nodes in a game map, the LOS catalog may indicate the minimum distance that must be traveled from a first map node of the pair to achieve LOS to a second map node of the pair, an identifier for the first map node, and an identifier for the second map node. When a gameplay session is initiated, the LOS catalog may be retrieved and used to identify relatively safe spawn points based on distances that must be traveled from enemy positions to achieve LOS to potential spawn points.