U.S. Patent No. 8,869,044: Relocating a user’s online presence across virtual rooms, servers, and worlds based on locations of friends and characters
Issued October 21, 2014 to Disney Enterprises Inc.
Filed/Priority to October 27, 2011
Overview:
U.S. Patent No. 8,869,044 (the ‘044 patent) relates to teleporting to another player in an online multiplayer game. The ‘044 patent details allowing an online presence to jump from one virtual environment to another, by targeting the location of a second user’s online presence and checking if there is capacity for that presence in the new virtual space. The ‘044 patent may be familiar as implemented in the now dormant game, Club Penguin, and was likely what allowed users to teleport to their friends. Minecraft has a similar feature within a single world, but this Disney patent can jump users between worlds.
Abstract:
Techniques are disclosed that allow a user to efficiently move their online presence from a current location in a virtual world to a target location near a friend or character. The target location may be in another instance of the virtual world or in another virtual world. Further, the movement of the user—referred to as a jump—may be in response to a request from the user to jump their online presence to the target location of a friend or character. In the other direction, a user can send a “jump to me” request to their friends.
Illustrative Claim:
- A computer-implemented method, comprising: determining, by operation of one or more processors, an online presence of a first user in a first virtual environment; identifying an online presence of at least a second user in a second virtual environment; determining whether a precondition for jumping the first user is satisfied, the precondition specifying at least one of a capacity limit or one or more requirements for entry into a virtual room, virtual world instance, or virtual world in which the online presence of the second user is located; and if the precondition is satisfied, reserving a position for the first user in the second virtual environment and presenting an indication to the first user that a jump is available, wherein the jump is invoked to move the online presence of the first user from a current location within the first virtual environment to a target location in the second virtual environment, and wherein the online presence of the second user is at the target location in the second virtual environment, and wherein: the first virtual environment comprises a first room in a virtual world and the second virtual environment comprises a second room in the virtual world, the first virtual environment comprises a first instance of a virtual world, the second virtual environment comprises a second instance of the virtual world, and the first instance of the virtual world and the second instance of the virtual world share a common authentication system such that the second instance of the virtual world validates authentication credentials associated with the first user as part of the lump without requiring the first user to present authentication credentials to the second instance of the virtual world, or the first virtual environment comprises a first virtual world, the second virtual environment comprises a second virtual world, and the first virtual world and the second virtual world share a common authentication system such that the second virtual world validates authentication credentials associated with the first user as part of the lump, without requiring the first user to present authentication credentials to the second virtual world.