US 12,138,542 B2
Virtual environment development method and system
Guy Moss, Turnbridge Wells (GB); Timothy Bradley, London (GB); and Maria Chiara Monti, London (GB)
Assigned to Sony Interactive Entertainment Inc., Tokyo (JP)
Filed by Sony Interactive Entertainment Inc., Tokyo (JP)
Filed on Jul. 19, 2022, as Appl. No. 17/867,896.
Claims priority of application No. 2110542 (GB), filed on Jul. 22, 2021.
Prior Publication US 2023/0023980 A1, Jan. 26, 2023
Int. Cl. A63F 13/56 (2014.01); A63F 13/69 (2014.01); G06N 3/08 (2023.01)
CPC A63F 13/56 (2014.09) [A63F 13/69 (2014.09); G06N 3/08 (2013.01)] 15 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A method of controlling at least a first non-player object within a virtual environment of an application, comprising the steps of:
selecting a template non-player object behavioural AI model, the AI model being previously trained separately to the application using reinforcement learning to characterise behaviour of a respective non-player object type, from among a plurality of template AI models;
associating one or more non-player objects of the application with the selected template AI model; and
for the or each associated non-player object,
inputting application state information to an input interface of the template AI model for receiving state information relevant to the associated non-player object's type;
receiving from an output interface of the template AI model non-player object state information;
updating the state of the respective non-player object for the virtual environment of the application responsive to the received non-player object state information.