Time-Series Footprint Path Planning for Natural Character Following
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Existing game systems cause follow-up characters to track extra motions of the player character, leading to unnatural movement and increased time to catch up, as they merely follow the player's movement route, including obstacles.
Innovation Solution
A computer-readable storage medium stores an information processing program that controls a second object to follow a first object by tracking its footprints in a virtual space, determining passable paths, and adjusting movement to avoid obstacles, allowing natural and efficient catch-up.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If the second object tracks the movement route of the first object including extra motions, then the second object can avoid obstacles by following the first object's path, but the second object takes more time to catch up and the movement appears unnatural
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts only the essential footprint coordinate information from the first object's movement route, storing a plurality of footprint coordinate sets that represent key positions rather than every movement detail. This allows the second object to follow the general path while skipping unnecessary extra motions, reducing catch-up time while maintaining obstacle avoidance capability.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent performs preliminary processing to determine passable paths between footprint coordinate sets before the second object needs to traverse them. By pre-calculating and storing passable path information in the footprint coordinate sets, the system enables the second object to efficiently navigate without real-time calculation delays, speeding up the catch-up process.
2Manufacturing precision
If the second object tracks every movement of the first object, then the movement route is accurately followed, but the motion appears unnatural and processing load increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the continuous movement route into discrete footprint coordinate sets at key positions. Instead of tracking every continuous movement point, the system divides the path into meaningful segments represented by footprint coordinates, reducing data volume and processing complexity while maintaining sufficient route accuracy for natural-looking follow-up movement.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies partial action by storing and processing only a selected subset of movement coordinates (footprint coordinate sets) rather than all movement data. This partial representation captures the essential path information needed for natural movement while significantly reducing the processing load compared to complete movement tracking.
3Object-affected harmful factors
If the second object follows the player character's movement route, then the follow-up character can avoid obstacles, but the follow-up character tracks extra motions making the movement appear unnatural
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces footprint coordinate sets as an intermediary representation between the first object's actual movement and the second object's follow-up movement. These footprint coordinates serve as mediating reference points that capture essential path information while filtering out unnecessary extra motions, enabling the second object to achieve natural-looking movement that still avoids obstacles effectively.
Data Source
AI summary
A first object is moved to a first object coordinate set on the basis of an operation input, and along with the movement, a footprint coordinate set which is a coordinate set based on the first object coordinate set is stored in a time-series order. For a first footprint coordinate set among the stored plurality of footprint coordinate sets, whether or not a path to a second footprint coordinate set which is later in time series than the first footprint coordinate is passable is determined, and if the path is passable, the path is stored in association with the first footprint coordinate set. While a second object is being moved so as to track the stored plurality of footprint coordinate sets, if there is a passable path from a predetermined footprint coordinate set to a predetermined second footprint coordinate set, the second object is moved through the path.