Patent Application
20090247298
The present invention relates to a game device, a game system, and a method of generating a sound effect of the game system, and more particularly to an improvement of a generation method of a sound effect generated based on a behavior of each character when a game is played with the images of a plurality of characters displayed on a screen.
In a conventional game device such as a video game player, to apply a sound effect depending on a character operated by each player when a game is played among a plurality of players, an identifier is assigned to each character and a loudspeaker outputs a sound effect modulated according to the identifier of each character when generating the sound effect based on a behavior of each character.
When generating a sound effect for each character, it is preferable to generate a sound effect serving as a reference sound which is an original sound that has been originally assumed for each character. Since a conventional game device is equipped with only one loudspeaker, a game device not having a communication device can generate the reference sound for an operated object, which is a character operated by a player concerned among the plurality of players, or a sound effect changed to have a different waveform according to the identifier. The game device, however, cannot generate, for the character operated by the player, a sound effect having a different waveform from a waveform of the sound effect of a character operated by another player from the loudspeaker of the game device operated by the player. Moreover, even if having the communication device, the game device has not employed a system in which a sound effect depends on an operated character.
Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide a game device and a signal processing method capable of generating a sound effect based on a behavior of an operated object and of a non-operated object as distinguished from each other.
In order to achieve the above object, the present invention includes: a memory which stores information resources for an electronic game; an input device which accepts an input for determining an operated object operated by a user and a behavior of the operated object in response to the user's operation; an information receiving circuit which receives information on an operated object operated by a user other than the user as information on a non-operated object via communication; sound effect generating means which generates sound effects based on the behavior of the operated object and of the non-operated object; a loudspeaker which outputs the sound effects; a display control circuit which performs a control of displaying the operated object and the non-operated object on a screen of the display device; and an image processing circuit which generates image information for the electronic game on the basis of the information resources stored in the memory and displays the generated image information on the display device, wherein the sound effect generating means generates a sound effect changed to have a different waveform from a waveform of the sound effect based on the behavior of the operated object as the sound effect based on the behavior of the non-operated object.
According to the present invention, the sound effects based on the behavior of the operated object and of the non-operated object are generated as distinguished from each other, and therefore a player can distinguish the behavior of the operated object operated by the player from the behavior of the non-operated object operated by another player by means of a difference in the sound effect.
Furthermore, to generate the sound effect having a waveform different from the waveform of the sound effect based on the behavior of the non-operated object as the sound effect based on the behavior of the operate object, it is only necessary to change the pitch or frequency of the waveform of the sound effect.
In a game system, which can be used by a plurality of users, having a plurality of game devices communicating information among them, the sound effect generating means of each game device can generate the sound effect based on the behavior of the non-operated object from the waveform different from the waveform of the sound effect based on the behavior of the operated object.
Furthermore, according to the present invention, in a game system which has a plurality of game devices, transmits or receives information among the game devices, allows a plurality of users to play a game, and causes function setting means to set the functions of the game devices, there is provided a method of generating a sound effect of the game system, wherein the function setting means performs a process of setting one of the plurality of game devices to be a master device and setting other game devices to be slave devices, wherein the sound effect generating means of the game device set to be the master device performs a process of generating a sound effect unmodulated with respect to a reference sound as a sound effect of the operated object operated by a user who operates the game device and a process of generating a sound effect modulated with respect to the reference sound as a sound effect of the non-operated object transmitted from the game device set to be the slave device, and wherein the sound effect generating means of the game device set to be the slave device performs a process of generating a sound effect unmodulated with respect to the reference sound as the sound effect of the operated object operated by the user who operates the game device and a process of generating a sound effect modulated with respect to the reference sound as the sound effect of the non-operated object transmitted from the game device set to be the master device or one of other game devices set to be the slave devices.
According to the present invention, it is possible to provide a game device and game system which allows a user to distinguish between a behavior of an operated object operated by the user and a behavior of a non-operated object operated by another user by means of a sound effect.
Preferred embodiments of the present invention will now be described hereinafter with reference to accompanying drawings. Referring to
The control unit 7 includes: a CPU 71 as an image processing circuit which executes a game program stored in the external storage medium 8, controls the entire system, and generates image information based on information resources; a RAM 73 which stores a program and data necessary for the CPU 71 to perform processing; a ROM 72 which stores a program and data necessary to start up the game device 100; a communication interface 77 as an information receiving circuit which transmits or receives information to or from other game devices and receives, for example, information on an operated object operated by another user as information on a non-operated object (non-operated character) via communication; a sound controller 76 as sound effect generating means which generates sound effects based on a behavior of the operated object and of the non-operated object; a graphic controller for the main monitor 74 as a display control circuit which performs a control for displaying the operated object and the non-operated object on the screen of the main monitor 2; and a graphic controller for the monitor on the operating unit 75 which performs a control for displaying an image on the screen of the monitor on the operating unit 3.
The functional block diagram of the operations of the graphic controller for the main monitor 74, the graphic controller for the monitor on the operating unit 75, and the CPU 71 is as shown in
In the case where a game is played among a plurality of users (players) using a plurality of game devices 100, the game can be played among the users by connecting the plurality of game devices 100 to each other via a communication network 120 as shown in
The following describes a process that the game device performs in a situation where three players as users have a game against each other, with reference to a flowchart shown in
First, before starting the game played by the plurality of players, function setting means (for example, the CPU 71 of the game device 100 to be a master device) performs a process of causing one of the plurality of game devices 100 to be the master device and causing other remaining game devices 100 to be slave devices in order to set the functions of the plurality of game devices 100. In this case, an identifier is assigned to each game device 100 according to whether the game device is the master device or the slave device. On such an occasion as this, the players can enjoy the game played using many characters, even if there are only a few players, by adding a character operated by a computer to all characters operated by the plurality of players. In this example, a character 4 is treated as one operated by the computer. Therefore, a player who operates the character 4 does not exist. Thus, in this case, ID#3 as a game device identifier is not assigned to the game device to be operated by the fourth player (player 4) under ordinary circumstances.
When assigning the identifier, information is transmitted or received between the game devices 100 through a process of the specific CPU 71 and it is determined whether each game device 100 is the master device (step S1): if the game device 100 used by the player 1 is the master device, a communication ID number #0 (boss) is set as an identifier of the game device 100 (step S2). On the other hand, unless the game devices 100 used by the players 2 and 3 are each determined to be the master device, a communication ID number #1 (follower) is set as an identifier of the game device 100 used by the player 2 and a communication ID number #2 is set as an identifier of the game device 100 used by the player 3 (step S3).
After completion of the identifier setting, the control progresses to a game routine (step S4) and then determines whether the game ends (step S5): unless the game ends, it is determined whether to dissolve the communication group for transmitting or receiving information among the game devices 100 (step S6). If there is no need to dissolve the communication group, the control returns to the process of step S4 to continue the game. If there is a need to dissolve the communication group, the control returns to the process of step S1 to repeat the processes of steps S1 to S5. Then, when the game ends, the process in this routine is terminated. Note that the communication ID number of each game device 100 is maintained until the communication group is dissolved.
On the other hand, a “play select screen” appears when each game device 100 is started in the game routine, and the user selects one of “Play on your own” (non-communication play), “Play with all players” (communication play), and “Option” (detailed settings) from the “play select screen,” whereby the game is progressed through the process of the CPU 71.
In the case where it is necessary to generate a sound effect along with a behavior of each character during the progression of the game, a request for generating a sound effect is entered into each CPU 71 (step S11) as shown in
As a method of modulating the sound effect, there are method A of varying the modulated value according to the identifier assigned to each player and method B of fixing the modulated value independently of the identifier value assigned to each player, for example.
If the method A is employed, the sound effect generated along with a behavior of a character other than the non-operated character varies according to the identifier assigned to the player, and therefore the player can know how and which ID character acts only by hearing the sound effect. In this case, the number of patterns of the modulation process increases and therefore the software processing speed slows down.
On the other hand, if the method B is employed, it is possible to cope with such a case that, for example, the number of identifiers is 10000 or the like, which is too many to modulate the values completely. Since, however, there are only two types of sound effects: one is for an operated character corresponding to each player and the other is for a non-operated character operated by another player or the computer, it is impossible to determine how and which ID character acts only by means of sound discrimination.
If the method A is employed and it is assumed that the character 1 operated by the player 1 attacks the character 2 operated by the player 2 and thereby the character 2 is damaged, the loudspeaker 6 of the player 1 who operates the character 1 outputs an aggressive sound effect, which is not modulated (unmodulated) with respect to a reference sound for the attack of the character 1. On the other hand, for the damage to the character 2 operated by the player 2, the sound effect is modulated according to the identifier corresponding to the character 2, and the loudspeaker 6 of the player 1 outputs a damage sound modulated by +1 point with respect to the reference sound.
Then, the loudspeaker 6 in the game device 100 of the player 2 outputs an aggressive sound effect, which is modulated by +2 points with respect to the reference sound when the character 1 operated by the player 1 attacks the character 2 operated by the player 2. On the other hand, the loudspeaker 6 of the player 2 outputs a damage sound, which is not modulated with respect to the reference sound, for the damage to the character 2 operated by the player 2.
Furthermore, the loudspeaker 6 in the game device 100 of the player 3 outputs an aggressive sound effect modulated by −1 point with respect to the reference sound for the attack of the player 1 when the character 1 operated by the player 1 attacks the character 2 operated by the player 2. On the other hand, for the damage to the character 2 operated by the player 2, the loudspeaker 6 of the player 3 outputs a damage sound modulated by +2 points with respect to the reference sound. The following Table 1 shows a relationship between each game device 100 and each character in a communication using three game devices regarding sound generation during the communication among four characters when the method A is employed, where the game device 100 used by the player 1 (person A) who operates the character 1 is the master device (ID#0), the game device 100 used by the player 2 (person B) who operates the character 2 is a slave device 1 (ID#1), the game device 100 used by the player 3 (person C) who operates the character 3 is a slave device 2 (ID#2), and the computer operates the character 4.
Moreover, with the reference sound assumed to be “Do” sound regarding the sound effect of each character, Table 2, Table 3, and Table 4 show an example of the master device, an example of the slave device 1, and an example of the slave device 2, respectively, as the states of sound effects generated in the game devices 100.
Subsequently, if the method B is employed and it is assumed that the character 1 operated by the player 1 attacks the character 2 operated by the player 2 and the character 2 operated by the player 2 is damaged, the loudspeaker 6 of the game device 100 of the player 1 outputs an aggressive sound effect, which is not modulated with respect to the reference sound, for the attack by the character 1 operated by the player 1. On the other hand, for the damage by the attack of the character 1 operated by the player 1 to the character 2 operated by the player 2, the loudspeaker 6 of the player 1 outputs a damage sound modulated with respect to the reference sound.
Then, the loudspeaker 6 in the game device 100 of the player 2 outputs an aggressive sound effect, which is modulated with respect to the reference sound in response to the attack by the character 1 operated by the player 1. On the other hand, the loudspeaker 6 of the player 2 outputs a damage sound, which is not modulated with respect to the reference sound, for the damage to the character 2 operated by the player 2.
Furthermore, the loudspeaker 6 in the game device 100 of the player 3 outputs an aggressive sound effect modulated with respect to the reference sound for the damage to the character 2 when the character 1 operated by the player 1 attacks the character 2 operated by the player 2. On the other hand, for the damage to the character 2 operated by the player 2 when the character 1 operated by the player 1 attacks the character 2 operated by the player 2, the loudspeaker 6 of the player 3 outputs a damage sound modulated with respect to the reference sound. The following Table 5 shows a relationship between each game device 100 and each character in a communication using three game devices regarding sound generation during the communication among four characters, where the game device 100 used by the player 1 (person A) who operates the character 1 is the master device (ID#0), the game device 100 used by the player 2 (person B) who operates the character 2 is a slave device 1 (ID#1), the game device 100 used by the player 3 (person C) who operates the character 3 is a slave device 2 (ID#2), and the computer operates the character 4.
Moreover, with the reference sound assumed to be “Do” sound regarding the sound effect of each character, Table 6, Table 7, and Table 8 show an example of the master device, an example of the slave device 1, and an example of the slave device 2, respectively, as the states of sound effects generated in the game devices 100.
As a conventional example, Table 9 shows relationships between players (persons A, B, and C) and characters 1 to 4, with only one screen and one loudspeaker provided, when three persons play the game using four characters of the characters 1, 2, and 3 operated by the players and the character 4 operated by the computer.
Moreover, with the reference sound assumed to be “Do” sound regarding the sound effects of the characters 1 to 4 in the conventional example, Table 10 shows the states of sound effects generated for the characters 1 to 4.
While the sound effect is modulated as the sound effect based on the behavior of the operated character when generating the sound effect changed to have a different waveform from that of the sound effect based on the behavior of the non-operated character in this embodiment, alternatively it is possible to generate a sound effect changed in pitch to have a different pitch or a sound effect changed in frequency to have a different frequency, instead of modulating the sound effect.
According to this embodiment, it is possible to generate a sound effect, which is to be an original sound intended by a manufacturer, as a sound effect based on the behavior of the operated character (operated object) during the game play, and to generate a sound effect different from the original sound as a sound effect based on a behavior of the non-operated character (non-operated object).
Furthermore, according to this embodiment, the sound effects are generated with distinction between the sound effect based on the behavior of the operated character (operated object) and the sound effect based on the behavior of the non-operated character (non-operated object) during the game play, and therefore a player can know the behavior of the operated character (operated object) operated by the player in distinction from a behavior of the non-operated character (non-operated object) operated by another player.
Additionally, the non-operated objects for one user can be divided into objects operated by other users and those operated by a computer. If only one player plays the game, the non-operated objects are operated by the computer and the operated object operated by the player is controlled with the sound effect having a waveform of the original reference sound while the operated objects operated by the computer are controlled with the sound effect changed in the waveform from the original reference sound. Furthermore, while the game is played among the plurality of players via a wireless LAN in the above embodiment, the present invention is not limited thereto, but may be variously embodied to include two or more input-output devices on a substrate of the same game device.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2005-261651 | Sep 2005 | JP | national |
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind | 371c Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/JP2006/317958 | 9/11/2006 | WO | 00 | 4/16/2009 |
