Patent ID: 8326442

Claim:
A method for constrained navigation in a three dimensional (3D) virtual arena, comprising: creating a guide for navigating a camera about the 3D virtual arena by defining a set of parameters to define a series of virtual ellipses solely within which the camera is contained around a surface area associated with the 3D virtual arena based on dimensions of the surface area, the set of parameters comprising a start Y value; determining a default position for the camera by calculating a start X value and a start Z value for the series of ellipses; and positioning the camera at the default position using the start X value, the start Y value and the start Z value, wherein the set of parameters further comprise: a surface length value corresponding to a length of the surface area which is a focus of a view of the camera; a surface width value corresponding to a width of the surface area which is the focus of the view of the camera; a major axis value comprising: (a multiplier*the surface length value), the major axis value corresponding to a major axis of a largest of the set of ellipses around the surface area; a minor axis value comprising: (the multiplier*the surface width value), the minor axis value corresponding to a minor axis of a largest of the set of ellipses around the surface area; a degree of rotation value corresponding to rotation around an ellipse for the default position; the start Y value, the start Y value corresponding to a height for the default position; a maximum height value corresponding to a maximum height of the camera; a minimum height value corresponding to a minimum height of the camera; an elevation increment value corresponding to a change in height of the camera from the default position; a rotation increment value corresponding to a change in degrees that the camera moves around the set of ellipses for each discrete movement; an elevation step value comprising: (maximum height value/the elevation increment value) the elevation step value corresponding to a quantity of discrete ellipses that exist between the surface area and the maximum height of the camera; an elevation major increment value comprising: (the major axis value/the elevation step value), the elevation major increment value corresponding to a change in axis for each elevation increment value; and an elevation minor increment value comprising: (the minor axis value/the elevation step value), the elevation minor increment value also corresponding to a change in axis for each elevation increment value.