Electronic Arts looks to be developing a new form of render technology that would employ spatial partitioning to offset and minimize the hardware burden on gaming devices. Over the course of 2022, the popular game publisher and developer has submitted a large number of key patent listings, with some of them having the potential to significantly improve EA’s games across the board, though it goes without saying that it takes time for a patented solution to be fully developed.
Electronic Arts, in particular, is committed to being on the cutting edge of the video game business, and its R&D teams have developed a number of intriguing features that the firm has ended up patenting as a result. From hacker defenses to input lag alleviation techniques, 2022 has been a particularly intriguing year for EA’s patent filings, and the current listing is no exception.
Following the patenting of EA’s input delay compensation feature just a few months ago, the business appears to be looking at methods to improve real-time graphics rendering by compartmentalizing the hardware’s visualization burden. Its most recent patent application uses spatial partitioning to separate the game world into several zones, each of which is therefore easier to load and draw in real-time because the hardware in question no longer needs to cope with the full game world all at once. According to the description, this would be achieved by the use of dynamic reverse tree creation, which would inform the PC or console of what needed to be loaded at any given time.
EA’s development teams could theoretically construct enormous sandbox games like the gorgeous Need for Speed Unbound utilising spatial partitioning without overburdening PCs and consoles. This might result in larger and more complicated game worlds or, depending on the creators’ preferences, significant aesthetic upgrades. Of course, the precise scope of these optimizations will have to wait until an actual implementation.
It’s not difficult to picture spatial partitioning being employed in games like Dead Space Remake to boost players’ immersion throughout the experience. Players may see even fewer loading windows and distractions from the gameplay, however it’s worth noting that the planned remake of Dead Space already offers seamless loading.
EA has also just patented a novel fraud detection system, which proposes a new method of combating cheaters and other bad aspects in games. Over the course of 2022, the corporation has remained as forward-thinking as ever, however it’s worth noting that a patent listing doesn’t always imply that something will absolutely materialize from the filing. It remains to be seen how EA will use these capabilities, and it may take years for the company’s developers to start integrating them on a regular basis.
