Activision has been a major player in the video game world for decades now, and the company isn't showing any signs of slowing down, constantly exploring new ideas and filing patent after patent. Several months ago it was discovered that the Tony Hawk publisher had filed a patent that looks at new ways to model faces in 3D, and now it appears the gaming giant is looking at expanding the scope of virtual worlds altogether.
Open worlds have been a popular aspect of many franchises such as Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Redemption for decades now, but as large and expansive as these worlds can get, there is a very definite border surrounding them that players cannot cross. Even the enormous worlds of Minecraft technically have a limit, but things may be set to change.
Activision's new patent is aimed at "automatically increasing a capacity of a virtual space" and could lead to video game worlds so big they would be virtually limitless. As with most patents, the language is dense, but a few key things stick out that are worth a closer examination.
First, it seems the virtual environment will start at a set size and then expand as the player approaches the edge. This is similar to the way Minecraft generates its worlds, however the sandbox game slows down like an old iPhone as the world generates, and Activision's patent might have a solution to that problem. The solution as laid out in the patent is ripe with technical jargon, but basically seems to boil down to having servers dedicated to the sole task of handling the computing power it takes to generate new virtual space in real time.
The second interesting aspect of the patent revolves around how Activision intends to have multiple players in the same, limitless virtual environment. Many, many games such as Street Fighter 5 experience issues with online multiplayer functionality, and Activision may have a solution here, too. When the limit of players in the virtual space is reached, the patent suggests simply copying the unique virtual world and dumping it on another set of servers. From that point, any new players joining the world will arrive in the copy.
Of course, as is the case with most patents, the technology in Activision's world expanding patent may never actually see the light of day. Regardless, as each new generation of home consoles becomes more and more powerful, the world will inevitably see larger and larger virtual environments.
Source: USPTO