Nintendo makes a breakthrough in graphics producing technology

[Teuthida]

I...I don't quite get it...

"While such pre-rendered texture maps have been used with substantial advantageous results in the past, they have some shortcomings in interactive video game play. For example, texture-mapping a pre-rendered image onto a 3D surface during interactive video game play can successfully create impressive visual complexity but may let down the user who wants his or her video game character or other moving object to interact with that complexity. The tremendous advantageous 3D video games have over 2D video games is the ability of moving objects to interact in three dimensions with other elements in the scene. Pre-rendered textures, in contrast, are essentially 2D images that are warped or wrapped onto 3D surfaces but still remain two-dimensional. One analogy that is apt for at least some applications is to think of a texture as being like a complex photograph pasted onto a billboard. From a distance, the photograph can look extremely realistic. However, if you walk up and touch the billboard you will immediately find out that the image is only two dimensional and cannot be interacted with in three dimensions.

We have discovered a unique way to solve this problem in the context of real-time interactive video game play. Just as Alice was able to travel into a 3D world behind her mirror in the story "Alice Through the Looking Glass", we have developed a video game play technique that allows rich pre-rendered images to create 3D worlds with depth.

In one embodiment, we use a known technique called cube mapping to pre-render images defining a 3D scene. Cube mapping is a form of environment mapping that has been used in the past to provide realistic reflection mapping independent of viewpoint. For example, one common usage of environment mapping is to add realistic reflections to a 3D-rendered scene. Imagine a mirror hanging on the wall. The mirror reflects the scene in the room. As the viewer moves about the room, his or her viewpoint changes so that different objects in the room become visible in the mirror. Cube mapping has been used in the past or provide these and other reflection effects.

We use cube mapping for a somewhat different purpose--to pre-render a three-dimensional scene or universe such as for example a landscape, the interior of a great cathedral, a castle, or any other desired realistic or fantastic scene. We then add depth to the pre-rendered scene by creating and supplying a depth buffer for each cube-mapped image. The depth buffer defines depths of different objects depicted in the cube map. Using the depth buffer in combination with the cube map allows moving objects to interact with the cube-mapped image in complex, three-dimensional ways. For example, depending upon the effect desired, moving objects can obstruct or be obstructed by some but not other elements depicted in the cube map and/or collide with such elements. The resulting depth information supplied to a panoramically-composited cube map provides a complex interactive visual scene with a degree of 3D realism and interactivity not previously available in conventional strictly 2D texture mapped games."

From patent filed in November. Dunno if this has any correlation to the patent IGN posted yesterday about fixation points. All I know is with all these mysterious patents Nintendo is either surely up to something technologically grand...or we'll end up with something that's even crappier than connectivity.

Picture from fixation point patent:



There are a lot more images that I'm too tired to post. What's interesting about them is the console used to demostrate these things is the cube.

EDIT: Ok, some guys may have figured it out. And if true...very very cool.

It seems like if this will be used with some king of hardware that will be able to determine the position of the person playing the game. If you move regarding the position of the screen the image will move also. This is not described in the pattent but it is implied that this techology could be used along other space position tecnology to give the impression that you are looking at a real 3D holographic image through a 2D screen.

I heard of some talk of using an eyetoy like device to detect eye movements and allow some sort of VR like experience. So, imagine being at a monitor with an eyetoy on top, as you move your head to one side, the camera detect it and the console immediately begins to render the image differently accordingly, as if you're looking into a world through a window.

The technology would need to be more precise, it should be able to determine how far, you are to the screen also. I think Nintendo have been investing in giroscope technology that would allow to determine the movement of some object in the 3D space. This could be used to determine the position of the subject in front of a screen and change the image accordingly to give the impression that the TV screen is just a window to another world.