| Valve Corporation Patent applications |
| Patent application number | Title | Published |
|---|
| 20120095816 | METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR GRANTING ACCESS TO SYSTEM AND CONTENT - A method and system for granting access to system and content is provided. A key is provided that allows access by a client computer to content that includes a plurality of resources. A server is accessed and the key is provided to the server. Based on the key, access is granted to the content. A program on the client computer requests a resource of the plurality of resources. If the resource is located locally, the resource is provided to the program. Otherwise, the resource is downloaded from the content server and stored locally. A data structure is modified to indicate that the resource is stored locally and the resource is provided to the program. | 04-19-2012 |
| 20120028707 | GAME ANIMATIONS WITH MULTI-DIMENSIONAL VIDEO GAME DATA - Embodiments are directed to recording and editing of video game world data obtained from execution of a video game sequence. An animation editor records the game world data within a plurality of data logs after execution of an animation component of the video game and prior to providing the data to a material system and/or graphics device for rendering. The user may edit the recorded data to make changes in the recorded game sequence by replacing at least a portion of the recorded data during a selected time segment. The user may identify a fade-in portion and/or fade-out portion of the time segment over which the subject animation data and the recorded data are to be blended to create a seamless transition. In one embodiment, the added data and the recorded data may be combined using a cross-fading approach. | 02-02-2012 |
| 20120028706 | COMPOSITING MULTIPLE SCENE SHOTS INTO A VIDEO GAME CLIP - Embodiments are directed to compositing multi-dimensional video game world data obtained from execution of a video game world sequence. An animation editor records the video game world data within a plurality of data logs after execution of an animation component of the video game world and prior to providing the data to a material system and/or graphics device for rendering. The user may edit the recorded data to make modifications in the recorded game sequence, by compositing sequences with content such as other sequences, multiple composited recordings, and/or a modified camera perspective during the editing process. The composited modifications may then be fed back for re-recording the animation component. | 02-02-2012 |
| 20120021828 | GRAPHICAL USER INTERFACE FOR MODIFICATION OF ANIMATION DATA USING PRESET ANIMATION SAMPLES - Embodiments are directed to recording and editing of multi-dimensional video game world data obtained from execution of a video game sequence. An animation editor records the video game world data within a plurality of data logs after execution of an animation component of the video game and prior to providing the data to a material system and/or graphics device for rendering. The user may edit the recorded data to make changes in the recorded game sequence, by employing an animation preset. The user selects an animation preset and combines the preset with a target animation over a time interval. A filter or mask may be used to selectively alter portions of a character or a frame. The animation preset may be selectively stretched or compressed based on the time interval of the target animation and the length of the animation preset. | 01-26-2012 |
| 20120021827 | MULTI-DIMENSIONAL VIDEO GAME WORLD DATA RECORDER - Embodiments are directed to recording and editing of multi-dimensional video game world data obtained from execution of a video game sequence. An animation editor records the game world data within a plurality of data logs after execution of an animation component of the video game and prior to providing the data to a material system and/or graphics device for rendering. The user may edit the recorded data to make changes in the recorded game sequence, by replacing sequences with other sequences, compositing one recording with another recording, layering recording sequences, and/or modifying a camera perspective during the process. The modifications may then be fed back to the animation component and/or material system. | 01-26-2012 |
| 20110105231 | VIDEO GAME CONTROLLER HAVING USER SWAPPABLE CONTROL COMPONENTS - A game controller is provided. One or more main control input interfaces on the game controller consist of generalized sockets. A variety of modular input interfaces can be plugged into these sockets. Hardware specific to the input type of the modular input is contained within the modular input itself, and plugged in via an interface. This allows for dual analog sticks, a combination of analog and trackball, or further any combination of touchpad, directional pad, or additional components. | 05-05-2011 |
| 20110009193 | PLAYER BIOFEEDBACK FOR DYNAMICALLY CONTROLLING A VIDEO GAME STATE - Various embodiments are directed towards employing one or more physical sensors arranged on or in proximity to a video game player to obtain biofeedback measures that are then useable to dynamically modify a state of play of a video game. The sensors may be connected or even un-connected to the game player, replace, or otherwise augment traditional physical game controllers. The sensors gather various biofeedback measures and provide such measures to a biofeedback application programming interface (API). Before and/or during video game play, the video game queries the biofeedback API to request inferences about the game player's state of arousal. The response to the query is then used to modify the state of the video game play. Where the video game is a multi-player video game, biofeedback measures from other game players may also be obtained and used to further modify the state of the video game play. | 01-13-2011 |
| 20100162405 | PROTECTING AGAINST POLYMORPHIC CHEAT CODES IN A VIDEO GAME - Embodiments are directed towards protecting against polymorphic cheat codes in a video game environment. A detour analyzer analyzes game code in client memory for possible hooks to parasite code. For each detected hook to parasite code, hook and/or parasite information is determined to generate a hook/parasite signatures, which are sent to a remote network device. Based on the hook/parasite signatures a weighted combination of scores are generated that is useable to determine a probability value that the parasite code is cheat code. If the determined probability value indicates cheat code, the user of the client device may be banned from future game play. Additionally, the hook/parasite signature information may be used to update the data store to detect polymorphic changes in the cheat code. | 06-24-2010 |
| 20100041457 | OVERLAYING INTERACTIVE VIDEO GAME PLAY WITH REAL-TIME CHAT SESSIONS WITH GAME SWITCHING - Embodiments are directed towards providing an interactive game experience whereby a game player may combine game play with a user interface overlaid onto the game that is useable to interact and communicate with other players inside and/or outside of the current game. Through the use of the user interface, a player may select different game sets to play, and rapidly switch between games with different players, while maintaining a real-time interactive chat session, or similar communication session, including, without limit, voice communication sessions. A game client component may launch a game, and then hooks into the game to intercept various input and video functions. | 02-18-2010 |
| 20090328227 | ANTI-PIRACY MEASURES FOR A VIDEO GAME USING HIDDEN SECRETS - Embodiments are directed towards employing hidden secrets on a client device to detect and deter piracy of a computer application. The computer application is partitioned into components, where a subset of the components is initially provided to the client device. In one embodiment, the computer application is unable to execute properly within the removed or other set of components. The removed components not provided to the client device may then be modified based on hidden secrets information and a verification component and provided over a network to the client device. If the verification component is unable to locate an armed secret, or detects that an armed secret is modified, the computer application may be inhibited from installation and/or execution. In one embodiment, a secret might be unarmed, such that its presence, absence, and/or modification might be ignored. | 12-31-2009 |
| 20080309659 | METHOD FOR ACCELERATED DETERMINATION OF OCCLUSION BETWEEN POLYGONS - The invention describes a method and system for use in occlusion culling of polygons in an interactive environment, such as a game. The invention employs a boundary box to simplify the testing of occludee polygons. Occluders and occludees are also transformed into non-interpenetrating, non-overlapping polygons. Winged-edges are employed to minimize a per occludee computational cost due to precision problems that may arise at non-overlapping edges. The invention then proceeds through an active edge list to identify edge discontinuities (e.g., where an edge is added or removed from the active edge list). Depth analysis is employed to determine whether an occluder occludes an occludee at the edge discontinuity. Moreover, the invention only performs depth analysis for those locations of a screen display where an occludee is determined to reside, thereby minimizing unnecessary computations. | 12-18-2008 |
| 20080234043 | DYNAMICALLY PROVIDING GUEST PASSES FOR A VIDEO GAME - A system and method for determining and providing one or more guest passes for temporary access to one or more video games to a first player that was previously granted membership to a platform that offers access to playing these video games. One or more different determinations are made on information related to the first player and/or available video games to generate one or more guest passes for a video game that is at least somewhat relevant to the first player. In at least one embodiment, one or more of the different determinations can be intrinsically and/or extrinsically weighted to further refine the generation of a guest pass for a video games that is at least somewhat relevant to the first player, and thereby more likely to be offered by the first player to a second player. Also, the platform enables the determining and generating of the one or more guest passes to the one or more video games for the first player. | 09-25-2008 |
