Patent Document ID: 10008031
Application ID: 15476924
Patent Status: 1

Claim One:
1. A method for improved heat rendering in an interactive computer simulation system comprising a virtual simulated element in a computer generated environment, the method comprising: at the interactive computer simulation station, receiving inputs from one or more tangible instruments thereof for controlling the virtual simulated element in the computer generated environment; considering the received inputs, defining a view point, for a display of the interactive computer simulation station, in the computer generated environment; from the view point in the computer generated environment, loading a non-static 3D mesh defining one or more temperature-influenced virtual points and comprising a base-texture and a heat-map texture; and rendering the non-static 3D mesh, from the view point, for the display in the interactive computer simulation station by: applying base imagery data of the base-texture over visible surfaces of the non-static 3D mesh from base-texture coordinates that selectively map the base imagery data on the non-static 3D mesh; from the heat-map texture, and for each of the one or more temperature-influenced virtual points, loading a heat-propagation pattern from heat-map coordinates, shared with the base-texture coordinates, that selectively map the heat-propagation pattern on the non-static 3D mesh; and computing a heat-related intensity variation on at least some of the visible surfaces of the 3D mesh from the heat-propagation pattern of each of the one or more temperature-influenced virtual points.