A system, method, and a physical figure for presenting user progress in a virtual space are disclosed. The presented user progress may indicate user advancements in the virtual space and/or user development in the real-world. Based on information indicating such user progress, character representation may be determined to reflect the user progress for presentation on the physical figure. In some implementations, specific location(s) on the physical figure may be determined for presenting specific aspect(s) of user progress in the virtual space. The physical figure may receive the determined character representation information and present the character represent on one or more screens thereon.

In a computer-implemented method of generating a virtual 3D environment, a hierarchy of slots is provided. The slots are organized in tiers from one or more top tier slots to one or more bottom tier slots. Each slot defines a portion of a 3D environment and includes a plurality of layouts. Each layout of a non-bottom tier slot defines a position of at least one slot from a lower tier within the portion of the 3D environment. One or more of the top tier slots are positioned within the 3D environment. The 3D environment is generated by randomly selecting one of the plurality of layouts of the top tier slot and the lower tier slots, and populating each of the selected layouts with one or more objects. The 3D environment is rendered for display.

Systems and methods for reducing asset size and loading time of digital assets are disclosed herein. Asset sizes and load times may be reduced by storing images in a decompression-friendly format and/or by performing hybrid decompression of compressed images using both a central processing unit (CPU) and a graphics processing unit (GPU). Such hybrid decompression may be performed on an image compressed using discrete cosine transform (DCT)-based compression. The CPU may be configured to decompress a compressed image using an entropy decoding method. DCT coefficients may then be passed to the GPU for further DCT processing. The GPU may be configured to recompress the decompressed image and write the recompressed image directly to a texture memory of the GPU (i.e., without providing the recompressed image to the CPU).

A computer-implemented card game played between two computer devices in communication via a server, wherein the server randomly deals to each computer device a plurality of cards one at a time from a deck of cards comprising a 53-card deck, one of which has a designated value and can represent any suit during play to form multiple pairs of competing hands each having a predetermined number of cards wherein at least one of each player's hands is a semi-revealed hand some of whose cards are revealed and some hidden to an opponent. During dealing, the server places each successive card in one of the hands such that once placed the associated computer device cannot move the card to another hand and once a card is placed in a hand, the server cannot place a successive card in the same hand until all of the hands are equally populated.

A system, method, and a physical figure for presenting user progress in a virtual space are disclosed. The presented user progress may indicate user advancements in the virtual space and/or user development in the real-world. Based on information indicating such user progress, character representation may be determined to reflect the user progress for presentation on the physical figure. In some implementations, specific location(s) on the physical figure may be determined for presenting specific aspect(s) of user progress in the virtual space. The physical figure may receive the determined character representation information and present the character represent on one or more screens thereon.

A software emulator for emulating a handheld video game platform such as GAME BOY, GAME BOY COLOR and/or GAME BOY ADVANCE on a low-capability target platform (e.g., a seat-back display for airline or train use, a personal digital assistant, a cell phone) uses a number of features and optimizations to provide high quality graphics and sound that nearly duplicates the game playing experience on the native platform. Some exemplary features include use of bit BLITing, graphics character reformatting, modeling of a native platform liquid crystal display controller using a sequential state machine, and selective skipping of frame display updates if the game play falls behind what would occur on the native platform.

A system which employs a method of creating transferable map schemas, storing the map schemas to storage devices, receiving target device settings, re-sampling the map schemas to fit the target devices using the target device settings, delivering the re-sampled map schemas to the target devices is described. Thereby providing the innovation that map schemas may be accessed by more than one type of device, the method by which maps are scaled from a created map dimension with given details to either a larger map having the ability to be utilized on a more capable playing device or to a map or a smaller map having the ability to be utilized on a less capable device without losing the important game-specific required data is also described.

A computing device may determine one or more characteristics of a gaming application executing at one or more processors of the computing device. The computing device may determine that the gaming application executing at the one or more processors is in a loading state based at least in part on the one or more characteristics. The computing device may, in response to determining that the gaming application is in the loading state, adjust at least one of: a clock speed of the one or more processors or a prioritization of the gaming application.

An approach to facilitate providing an event space associated with a primary virtual space is provided. An event space is provided to users of a primary virtual space, wherein the event space comprises one or more event objectives. Users of the primary virtual space having primary user accounts have associated event space accounts indicating event user parameters, event game parameters, and event inventory information for the first user. The user may be provided with event virtual items for purchase wherein the event virtual items are used in the event space during the event period. In response to a determination of the progress of the user associated with one or more event objectives an event award is determined for distribution to the user, wherein the event award may be used within the primary virtual space.

Client position in a multi-client game is determined using dead reckoning. Clients send information to a server over a network. The server distributes this information to other clients. A client uses this information and dead reckoning to determine a character's position. The server may calculate the client's position using dead reckoning and send updates to clients when errors between actual and calculated positions exceed a threshold. Clients may calculate their position according to dead reckoning, and when an error between actual and calculated position exceeds a threshold, send updated information to other clients. This Abstract is provided for the sole purpose of complying with the Abstract requirement rules that allow a reader to quickly ascertain the subject matter of the disclosure contained herein. This Abstract is submitted with the explicit understanding that it will not be used to interpret or to limit the scope or the meaning of the claims.