It should be apparent that the menu system can have more or fewer interfaces or screens that can be arranged and presented to the player in any order, as needed, based on the game design.
The Character Select interface includes a player select mechanism for selecting one of a several players e. In some embodiments, the selection mechanisms , and , can be scroll bars that allow the user to scroll through player names, Playable Characters and Options, respectively. The character selection mechanism can provide a picture of each available Playable Character to facilitate the player's selection process.
The Level Select interface includes a selection mechanism e. A picture of the venue is displayed to the player to facilitate the selection process.
When a venue is selected, information associated with the selected level is displayed to the player. An advance mechanism can be used by the player to loop through the available levels e.
The Song Select interface includes a selection mechanisms and e. Information regarding the songs are presented to the player via display windows This information includes the name of the artist, the song title, and the High Score for the song, together with the name of the player who achieved the High Score and the date the High Score was achieved.
Note that the interfaces described with respect to FIGS. The video game station includes a graphics system , a control system , a sound system , an optical disk controller and a communications controller These systems are interconnected by one or more buses for communicating data and control signals.
The graphics system includes a geometry transfer engine GTE , a graphics processing unit GPU , a frame buffer and an image decoder The GPU is used to render graphics in the frame buffer for presentation on a display device, including sprite graphics and images, texture mapping, flat and Gouraud shading and the like.
The GTE is used to execute high-speed matrix multiply operations, which are used in drawing flat-shaded, textured-mapped and light-sourced polygons. The image decoder is used to decode compressed image data e. The control system includes a central processing unit CPU , a peripherals controller , main memory e. RAM and non-volatile memory e. The non-volatile memory stores an operating system that controls memory transactions and other administrative functions in the video game station The peripherals controller is responsible for handling interrupts from the various systems and direct memory access DMA requests to main memory When power is introduced to the video game station , the CPU runs the operating system stored in ROM , enabling the CPU to control the graphics system , sound system , optical disk controller and communications controller When the operating system is running, the CPU performs initialization of the overall vide game station and verifies its operation.
Upon completion of initialization, the CPU commands the optical disk controller to read instructions from an optical disk containing a video game e. The instructions are read from the optical disk by the optical disk controller and stored in main memory to be executed by the CPU In some embodiments, these video game instructions implement a singing analysis module FIG. During the course of playing the video game, several files are created in main memory , including a Game State file , a Player Profile file and a song data file The Game State file includes the current Game States e.
The Player Profile file includes information related to the profile of a player, such as the Playable Character and its outfit s , the difficulty level, the venue, and the progress level of the player. In some embodiments, the song data file includes the audio track of the song selected to be performed, with an embedded data track e. In alternative embodiments, the song data file includes the audio track file and the data track is stored in a separate file.
In some embodiments, the entire song is stored in main memory , and in other embodiments, a portion of the song is stored in main memory , and the optical disk is accessed from time to time to read new data.
In some embodiments, a network interface card NIC e. In such embodiments, songs can be streamed to the video game station from a remotely located streaming server using known streaming media protocols e. The sound system includes a speech processing unit SPU , a sound buffer and a speaker The SPU uses the sound buffer to store music and sound effects data e. The optical disk controller includes an optical disk device for reading programs, data and the like that have been recorded on an optical disk e.
A decoder decodes the programs and data that have been recorded on the optical disk. A buffer can be used to temporarily store data to speed-up the read-out from the optical disk. A subordinate CPU can be used to manage the reading of information from the optical disk to reduce the number of hits on the CPU The communications system includes a controller for controlling communications with the CPU via the bus The controller is coupled to a control device e.
Such commands can be used to navigate a menu system for a video game, such as the Showtime Mode menu system shown in FIG. The controller is also coupled to a removable storage device e.
In an alternative embodiment, the microphone is replaced with a headset to be worn by a player. The singing analysis module can be implemented in hardware or software or a combination of both. If separate files are used to store audio tracks e. The data records are received by a data extractor , which extracts pitch data and timestamps stored in the data records. The pitch data and timestamps are stored in a buffer until retrieved by a compare module coupled to the buffer The data records can be prepared a priori by stripping out the lead vocal track of a recorded song using known track ripping techniques, then analyzing each note to determine the correct pitch e.
Some suitable pitch extraction techniques include waveform processing data reduction, zero crossing, etc. A timestamp in a data record represents a point in the song when the particular note associated with the pitch data is sung and can be initialized to zero when the song begins.
It should be apparent that the data records are not limited to pitch information but may include other information, such as lyric related information and note bending information. When the player sings or speaks into the microphone , the microphone's input signal is sampled e. The digital data stream is processed by a digital signal processing DSP module , which extracts pitch frequency data from the digital data stream using known pitch extraction techniques See Furui. In some embodiments, a time-based auto-correlation filter is used to determine the input signal's periodicity.
The periodicity is then refined to include a fractional periodicity component. This period is converted into frequency data, which is then converted a semitone value or index using known conversion techniques.
The semitone value may be similar to a MIDI note number, but may have both integer and fractional components e. While the pitch data is preferably represented as semitones, it should be apparent that the pitch data can be converted into any desired units e. The compare module compares the timestamps of one or more data records with the sample time associated with the pitch sample.
The compare module selects a data record from a plurality of data records stored in the buffer that has a timestamp that most closely matches the sample time, then compares the pitch value stored in that data record i. In some embodiments, the comparison includes determining the absolute value of the difference between the correct pitch value and the sample pitch data.
The result of this comparison is a pitch error i. The performance evaluation module generates performance evaluation data based on the pitch error and a Player Profile.
In some embodiments, the Player Profile includes information regarding the level of difficulty selected by the player. This information includes a target range , which can be compared against the pitch error to determine a performance rating. In some embodiments, the data records can be multiplexed or otherwise embedded in the audio track. In such embodiments, a decoder module dashed line is used to separate the data records from the audio track, so that the audio track and data records can be processed as previously described.
The compare module provides an advantage over conventional techniques by comparing the sample time of a pitch sample with the timestamps of one or more data records. If there is a tie between two data records, a predetermined tie breaking policy can be used select a data record e. As can be observed from FIG. For example, the singing analysis module does not require precise synchronization between data records and input samples to perform pitch analysis. This allows the microphone input sampling to be independent of the timing of the data records.
Therefore, the microphone can be continuously sampled even when the song is not being played, thus allowing the player to observe the pitch arrow move when singing in the microphone even in the absence of a reference performance.
In some embodiments, the compare module provides rhythm error data to the performance evaluation module in addition to pitch error data. For example, the player may sing a note too early or too late, which may result in negative scoring even if the pitch was correct. To compute a rhythm error, the player is provided with an adjustable time window in which to sing the current note. The size of the window can be adjusted automatically by the game or manually by the player based on the game state or the difficulty level of the song.
In some embodiments, if the player's attack of a note begins outside the time window, then a rhythm error has occurred. The rhythm error can be represented as a binary flag, which if set TRUE indicates that the player sang either too early or to late. The flag is received by the performance evaluation module , which computes performance evaluation data reflecting the state of the flag, which in turn is used to drive one or more performance feedback mechanisms on the in-game interface In one embodiment, an octave analyzer is located in the compare module and is configured to determine if the player has sung the note in an octave that is different than the underlying lead vocal track.
In some embodiments, the octave analyzer checks the computed pitch error e. If the pitch error does not exceed the target threshold, then the octave analyzer assumes that the player is singing in the same octave as the reference performance and passes the computed pitch error to the performance evaluation module If the pitch error does exceed the target threshold and the player's pitch is lower than the correct pitch, then an octave e.
If the pitch error still exceeds the target threshold and the player's adjusted pitch is still lower than the correct pitch, another octave is added to the player's pitch and the pitch error is again recomputed to determine if it exceeds the target threshold.
This procedure can be repeated for one or more octaves until the pitch error is less than the target threshold or the player's adjusted pitch exceeds the correct pitch. Similarly, if the player's pitch is higher than the reference pitch, then one or more octaves can be subtracted from the player's pitch until the player's pitch is below the target threshold or the player's adjusted pitch is below the reference pitch.
Upon determination that the player has sung the correct pitch to within a predefined target range, but in a different octave than that of the underlying lead vocal track, the player will be positively scored. Thus, the octave analyzer enables players to sing songs outside the players' comfortable singing ranges without being negatively scored by the game.
The process is performed for each player each time pitch and rhythm errors are generated by the compare module In some embodiments, the performance evaluation process begins when the performance evaluation module receives pitch and rhythm errors step Next, the pitch and rhythm errors are compared with target ranges provided by the Player Profile step The results of the comparison are used to determine the performance rating of the player step This can be accomplished by using the scoring scheme previously described with respect to FIG.
The performance rating can be determined for each note or for a plurality of notes i. The performance rating can also be based on a running average over several notes or phrases. Once the performance rating has been determined, the Game State is updated and saved in the Game State file step The performance feedback mechanisms e.
The foregoing description, for purpose of explanation, has been described with reference to specific embodiments. However, the illustrative discussions above are not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to the precise forms disclosed. Many modifications and variations are possible in view of the above teachings.
The embodiments were chosen and described in order to best explain the principles of the invention and its practical applications, to thereby enable others skilled in the art to best utilize the invention and various embodiments with various modifications as are suited to the particular use contemplated.
An in-game interface for a music video game, comprising: a first portion configured for displaying graphical representations of music notes of a musical composition;. The interface of claim 1 , wherein the first feedback display mechanism indicates if the player has performed a pitch of the musical composition correctly.
The interface of claim 1 , wherein the first feedback display mechanism indicates if the player has performed a rhythm of the musical composition correctly. The interface of claim 1 , where in the graphical representations of the music notes are note tubes having widths indicative of how long the note should be held by the player.
The interface of claim 4 , wherein at least one note tube is embellished to indicate an enhanced scoring opportunity. The interface of claim 1 , wherein the first portion further comprises: an animated representation of a music staff for displaying the graphical representations of notes. Through audio, is when the music changes from this continuous soft nursery rhyme style song then switches to grim styled music building up tension, your dog "barks" as a warning sensing danger or their might be a trademark sound for the enemy depending on who your going to be in combat with.
Physical sensation, is the most thrilling experience for instance if the area quakes or when in combat and you get shot, hit or lose life the controller will vibrate making it feel real.
So a games designer has clearly thought about these things to make the gameplay as real as possible. A games website states "We like to feel that we're accomplishing something, so our every action should have consequences in the world and should be remembered by state change of objects in the world.
Post a Comment. Monday, 1 June Feedback. Feedback Interface Section Feedback are information that a gamer will receive while playing, the information are vital for the gamer because it allows the gamer to understand and know what his mission are ,where he is and what next to do. T here are two examples of feedback interface ; Simple and advanced interface.
For example, the Playable Character and Unlockable Characters could have the highest level of detail, Stage Characters could have medium levels of detail, and Non-playable Characters could have low detail.
It should be apparent, however, that more or fewer character types can occupy the virtual environment with varying degrees of detail, as needed, based on the game design. The Playable Character can wear one or more outfits selected by the player, which reflect the major music genres that are represented in the game, as well as to offer varied ethnicity and style e. In some embodiments, the Playable Character includes real-time lip sync animation or the illusion of real-time lip sync animation.
Real-time lip sync can be accomplished by animating the face of the Playable Character based on the player's live vocals. For example, the player's pronunciations of a word, vowel, or syllable could be used to trigger predetermined animations of the face of the Playable Character An illusion of real-time lip sync can be accomplished by creating the lip sync animation during production using a lead vocal track.
Alternately, during the game, if there is input from the player's microphone, the existing lip sync animation will animate the face of the Playable Character If there is no input from the microphone, the animation will stop.
Throughout various modes of the game discussed below , players will be able to unlock specific Playable Characters These Playable Characters will become unlocked after the current level of progress is completed satisfactorily based on requirements that vary with the particular mode of the game. Once unlocked, the player will have the ability to use that Playable Character in any mode of the game.
Unlockable Playable Characters can include, without limitation, '60s hippie, '70s disco queen, '80s punk rocker, etc. The Stage Characters make up the on-stage supporting cast of the Playable Character These characters appear on stage with the character wearing outfits appropriate for the music genre.
In some embodiments, the Stage Characters are built into groups to represent the various music genres in the game.
Some examples of Stage Characters include DJs, dancers, accompanying musicians, bartender, etc. The Non-playable Characters make up the crowd, staff, participants, etc. Due to their lesser significance in the game, the Non-playable characters can be generated from two-dimensional characters combined with specific 3D cut scenes of crowd close-ups, or short cycling animations, to reduce processing overhead.
The Playable Character can perform in multiple venues in the game, each different from the others. The range of complexity in the various venues provide a logical progression of player's performance goals through the game. For example, in some embodiments, as the player's performance rating improves, the player moves to larger and more complex venues to simulate the career path of a rising artist. The game can be played in various modes.
Each of these modes will be described below in turn. It should be apparent, however, that the game could have more or fewer gameplay modes, or a different set of gameplay modes, as needed, depending upon the game design. The Showtime mode includes several screens that encompass various features of the game. In some embodiments, songs are categorized based on their difficulty to perform.
Some example categories include Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced. A player can select one or more songs from a category by scrolling or otherwise searching through the song categories. The song titles are displayed to the user, together with related information, including score information e.
In some embodiments, in the game modes where scoring is enabled, a player may compete to achieve a High Score for a song. If the player exits the game and later returns, the game remembers the most recent Playable Character selection. In some embodiments, an unlocking scheme is used to reward a player for performing well. The player is provided with awards and a set of unlocked items throughout the game. An example award that can be unlocked for a player is a new outfit for their Playable Character At the beginning of a player's progression through the game, the Playable Character can be wearing one of multiple available outfits.
For example, as the player moves from a bar venue to a stadium venue, the outfit selection may become more elaborate. In Showtime mode, the currently selected Playable Character wearing a most recently awarded outfit is presented to the player as a reminder of the player's progress in the game. In alternative embodiments, each song or song category could have associated with it a locked item e. The Arcade mode emulates an arcade game by allowing single and multi-player progressions.
In a multi-player progression, each player selects their own Playable Character , outfit, singing key, skill level and song. The players take turn performing their selected songs. At the end of every round a recap scoring screen is displayed, which includes each player's ranking for that round, together with their overall score through the current round.
In some embodiments, the player ranking system is similar to golf where the goal is to have the lowest score as possible. There can also be bonus pointes for achieving a Platinum Record or Gold Record awards. The player with the lowest score for the round including points for Platinum and Gold Records is the winner.
In the case of tied scores, some examples of tie breaking criteria include: the player or team with the most Platinum records, the player or team with the most Gold records, the player or team with the lowest finish for the last round, the player or team with the lowest finish for the second to last round, and so forth.
In an alternative embodiment, the player ranking system is similar to a NASCAR circuit type scoring scheme, where first place player or team receives x points, second place player or team receives y points, etc. It should be apparent, however, that other player ranking systems can be used with the present embodiment, depending upon the game design.
For example, performance ratings can be determined by the players themselves. Upon completion of a song by a player, the other players will use their respective control devices to assign a rating to the player. The ratings can be averaged to produce an average rating which can be turned into a score for the player or the player's team. The Karaoke mode provides the player with a more traditional Karaoke style experience. For example, the background graphics and performance feedback interface are replaced with just a lyric bar and lyric position indicator e.
The Training mode is used to teach new players how to play the game and provide tips on singing. In some embodiments, this mode is composed of three different sections: How to Play, Sing Practice, and Lessons. Preferably, the easiest and most rudimentary information is near the beginning of each section and the most advanced material is at the end of each section.
During Training mode, the in-game interface is presented to the player to facilitate the training process. The instructions for each section is displayed as text and can be accompanied by voice-overs. The exercises can be scored and the player provided with a summary screen after completion of each activity. Practice mode is a variant on Training mode and can be an option before starting a song in other modes e.
At the Song Select interface , the player is presented with the option to enter Practice mode to practice the selected song. In some embodiments, the venue for Practice mode is empty version no crowd of the Rehearsal Room venue.
In some embodiments, the progression through the game will include multiple unique venues. The player will move through various stages in a linear fashion. The music choices will ramp in terms of difficulty from Beginner to Advanced. An example of a game level progression is show in Table IV below. As shown in Table IV, the player faces a progression in difficulty of song and size and complexity of the virtual environment In some embodiments, songs are matched to venues at each skill level.
For example, if a player chooses song P on level 4, the player goes to the Small Club venue. However, if the player selects song M on level 4, the player goes to the State Fair. Preferably, each skill level will have multiple venues. Following completion of a skill level, the results of a player's performance is displayed based on the rating categories shown in Table III. Since different players will have different singing ranges, the underlying musical performances are preferably processed into multiple key tracks.
For example, the underlying music can be processed into three key tracks: Normal, High and Low. The processing can be done at the time the song is recorded, using mastering equipment to automatically produce three different versions of the music. This will enable players to sing in the key that is most comfortable for them, and after a bit of experimentation, the player will know what they prefer to use.
This will enable men to sing women's songs, and vice-versa. For example, a player can select a key prior to starting the song via the Song Selection interface FIG. Upon key selection, a clip of the song can be played. While the song is playing, the player can change the key using a Key Adjustment bar or other graphical control device.
Once the player has selected the desired key, the song will be played in that key, thus allowing the player to perform in their most comfortable key even though the original performance may have been in a different key. To enhance the player's sound, a suite of voice effects are made available to the player via a sound effects menu or other selection mechanism. Some examples of effects for the voice include, without limitation, reverb, delay, compressor, chorus, etc.
Additionally, the player can independently adjust various volume levels using a graphical control device. The graphical device can resemble the slider typically found on a sound board in a recording studio. These volume adjustment options enable a player to achieve a desired mix, thus making their singing experience more enjoyable.
Upon entering the Showtime mode, the player is presented with an initial Showtime Screen including several options step If the player selects an option step , then the player is presented with an options screen step If the player does not select an option, then the player is queried by a text message to determine if the player is a new player step If the player is not a new user or upon completion of step , then the player is presented with a Main Menu interface, which includes several options step If the player selects an option step , then the player is presented with a Global Selection interface step for selecting various global options, such as volume adjustment options FIG.
Any global options that are selected by the player are automatically saved to a player profile step and the player is again presented with the Main Menu interface step If the player does not select an option from the Main Menu interface step , then the player is queried with to determine if the player would like to make an outfit change for the Playable Character step If the player would like to make an outfit change, then the player is presented with a Character Select interface step If the player does not want to make an outfit change, then the player is presented with a Song Select interface step Upon selection of a song, the player is queried to determine if they would like to practice the song in Practice mode before performing the song before a virtual audience step If the player would like to practice the song, then the player is transitioned into Practice mode step Upon completion of the song, the game determines if the player achieved a high score step If the player achieved a High Score e.
If the player did not receive a high score, then the game determines if the player's score was sufficiently high to unlock any previously locked items step If the score was sufficiently high, then the player is presented with an Unlocked Item screen step , which lists one or more items that have been unlocked based on the player's score.
Any unlocked items selected by the player are automatically saved to a Player Profile step and the player is presented with a Final Recap screen If the player's score was not sufficiently high to unlock an item, then the player is presented with a Recap screen that recaps the player's scores step The player is also queried to determine if the player would like to select another song step If the player would like to select another song, then the player is presented with the Song Select interface step If the player does not want to select another song, the player is queried to determine if the player would like to select another unlocked item step If the player wants to select another unlocked item, then the player is again presented with the Unlocked Item screen step If the player does not want to select another unlocked item, then the player is presented with the Final Recap screen step It should be apparent that the menu system can have more or fewer interfaces or screens that can be arranged and presented to the player in any order, as needed, based on the game design.
The Character Select interface includes a player select mechanism for selecting one of a several players e. In some embodiments, the selection mechanisms , and , can be scroll bars that allow the user to scroll through player names, Playable Characters and Options, respectively. The character selection mechanism can provide a picture of each available Playable Character to facilitate the player's selection process. The Level Select interface includes a selection mechanism e.
A picture of the venue is displayed to the player to facilitate the selection process. When a venue is selected, information associated with the selected level is displayed to the player.
0コメント