Patent ID: 9630104
Date: 2017-04-25
CPC Classifications: A63F,G06Q,H04L

Claim:
1. A method for transmitting virtual world content to at least one client computer from one or more servers maintaining a virtual world, the at least one client computer maintaining a cache of virtual world content, the method comprising the steps of: defining a position and direction of an avatar associated with a particular client computer within said virtual world at a particular time, said avatar having one or more virtual senses including virtual sight; defining a content transmission radius about said position encompassing a first set of virtual world content, said content transmission radius being greater than a maximum visual perception radius of said avatar; projecting from said position and in said direction that said avatar is facing, a three-dimensional geometrical shape extending a distance equal to said content transmission radius, determining that a first content is inside the geometrical shape but outside of the maximum visual perception radius, and a second content is both outside of the geometrical shape and outside of the maximum visual perception radius; determining whether the first and second contents are associated with a next most likely element of a story line of the virtual world; queuing the second content before the first content if the second content is determined to be associated with the next most likely element of the story line but the first content is not; otherwise, queuing the first content before the second content.