>Have you ever been playing a game where you feel like the controller inputs simply didn’t work? You could have sworn you hit the right button to get the job done, but somehow that wasn’t the case? Well, a new Nintendo patent might make that kind of situation a thing of the past.
>Nintendo filed a new patent just last month that aims to predict player inputs on a controller before they even happen. This tech would watch everything the player’s doing during gameplay to predict what will most likely be the next input based on prior actions. The patent shows off how this tech works through a simple flowchart.
now Nintendo is gonna sue every developer that uses rollback netcode, while barely implementing a good version of it
sludgezone
Heads, the controller can more accurately tell your inputs, tails, enemies are infinitely more difficult as they predict your moves lol
JustAnotherZeldaFan
Is this even patentable (sorry, not sure if this is the word, not a native speaker)?
It looks like this is some kind of general problem that would admit multiple algorithms to be developed to address it. And, ideally, some marketplace of ideas would be possible
In that sense, it would make sense for one specific algorithm to be patentable, but OP’s image seem to suggest that they are trying to have property over something much more high level (any decision make process that would use those inputs for that end).
Am I understanding it totally wrong? Or is this how patents work in the US?
>According to the patent application, which features little more than a system flowchart detailing the logic of the mechanism, Nintendo describes a system that tracks the player’s finger as it contacts buttons on a controller. When the player’s finger moves to press other buttons in sequence, the system can then automatically perform future inputs based on the order of the buttons the player contacted or pressed. In other words, the system as described can record the movement patterns of players’ fingers on the controller, then perform actions based on predicting their next input. This could smooth out operations for certain things, like menu selections, or even in-game actions like attack sequences. Predictive systems have been at work in games for years, and similar attempts to use game logic to “guess” a player’s input underpin systems like rollback netcode in fighting games.
RobbieGCN
So what happens if it predicts the wrong input? This sort of technology seems like it could go horribly wrong.
Ryan3985
Sooooo…a movie then
leviathab13186
Sounds like something for frame gen
tenken01
Love the thumbnail
MoxcProxc
Fuck em
Andrecidueye
Coyote time 2: Electric Boogaloo
Shady_Hero
so now games will play themselves too? first fake resolution, then fake frames, now fake inputs? whats next? fake consoles?
Zerilune
Maybe I just don’t understand how this works but isn’t the entire point that you are able to make mistakes? I can see this being good for unaware players that end up thinking they are better than they really are, but it also seems quite dumb if you know it exists.
R_G_Marigold
Could be useful for better latency in online games like Splatoon. Games already kinda do this, but it would be cool if the tech could learn player specific movement to create more accurate server side predictions.
jagenigma
Funny they use raven when Ravens clairvoyance was proven wrong like 75% of the time.
EducationalPeak4872
Dam even the controller is gonna have rollback lol
RosePhox
that doesn’t sound like the kind of patenting that will be good for the industry
Sarick
From the diagram alone, and having not read the entire patent document, it doesn’t appear to be predictive input. It appears like a potential implementation for a menuing solution, possibly as an alternative to games with mouse input.
Like it definitely seems specific to menuing given it explicitly mentions quitting the display of screen with plurality of items. Because it is either that or they just reinvented QTEs.
packetlag
Isn’t that how mmorpg and pretty much any online 3D game works? It’s a way to bridge higher than desired ping rates between different players.
therealskaconut
What will actually happen is it will realize I suck at video games, it will see me do it right once and say “impossible”. I’ll never beat a video game again.
CurrentPlastic7538
didn’t read but from the title it seems that Nintendo decided to invent autoaim
ChemicalExperiment
This has already been a thing in games for years.
kamikazikarl
Didn’t Sony file a patent for this concept a month or so ago?
MarkyDeSade
Every single time this doesn’t work correctly it will be so infuriating that it will cancel out any benefit, just like autocorrect.
scotchfree_gaming
Good luck, predictive Nintendo tech. Half my play style in smash is being unpredictable, unorthodox, mixups, and generally not doing what is expected at any given moment 😏
Guvante
An SNES controller has 512 possible input states. If you could compute all possible inputs in 16ms you could save a frame of latency.
Fit-Rip-4550
And third-party controllers just became infinitely more valuable.
ShadowDurza
Could be a good way to make bosses in action games like platformers be harder while giving them a nonlinear way to be defeated.
Captain_EFFF
Honestly not surprised as they did implement a similar thing on a software level in ToTK, more so to predict when a player would jump into one of the casms so the game could preload in advance
sd_saved_me555
I didn’t know you could patent “gonna mash the A button”….
Mnawab
Sounds like we’re getting rollback net code but in everything
34 Comments
>Have you ever been playing a game where you feel like the controller inputs simply didn’t work? You could have sworn you hit the right button to get the job done, but somehow that wasn’t the case? Well, a new Nintendo patent might make that kind of situation a thing of the past.
>Nintendo filed a new patent just last month that aims to predict player inputs on a controller before they even happen. This tech would watch everything the player’s doing during gameplay to predict what will most likely be the next input based on prior actions. The patent shows off how this tech works through a simple flowchart.
https://preview.redd.it/qinlzagv10he1.jpeg?width=646&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=25e71f8d4410d0b79cd7855406f4fc3aad0e616c
So the enemy npc will predict all your moves, great
Isn’t this a form of rollback? Something that’s already widely available?
Fromsoftware:
https://preview.redd.it/1bfzwdu6zzge1.jpeg?width=660&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a9a95453428c5ed50eb40b49ae6ad79b2bb90a92
now Nintendo is gonna sue every developer that uses rollback netcode, while barely implementing a good version of it
Heads, the controller can more accurately tell your inputs, tails, enemies are infinitely more difficult as they predict your moves lol
Is this even patentable (sorry, not sure if this is the word, not a native speaker)?
It looks like this is some kind of general problem that would admit multiple algorithms to be developed to address it. And, ideally, some marketplace of ideas would be possible
In that sense, it would make sense for one specific algorithm to be patentable, but OP’s image seem to suggest that they are trying to have property over something much more high level (any decision make process that would use those inputs for that end).
Am I understanding it totally wrong? Or is this how patents work in the US?
A more detailed explanation of the patent by [Game Rant](https://gamerant.com/switch-2-joy-cons-patent-player-move-prediction/)
>According to the patent application, which features little more than a system flowchart detailing the logic of the mechanism, Nintendo describes a system that tracks the player’s finger as it contacts buttons on a controller. When the player’s finger moves to press other buttons in sequence, the system can then automatically perform future inputs based on the order of the buttons the player contacted or pressed. In other words, the system as described can record the movement patterns of players’ fingers on the controller, then perform actions based on predicting their next input. This could smooth out operations for certain things, like menu selections, or even in-game actions like attack sequences. Predictive systems have been at work in games for years, and similar attempts to use game logic to “guess” a player’s input underpin systems like rollback netcode in fighting games.
So what happens if it predicts the wrong input? This sort of technology seems like it could go horribly wrong.
Sooooo…a movie then
Sounds like something for frame gen
Love the thumbnail
Fuck em
Coyote time 2: Electric Boogaloo
so now games will play themselves too? first fake resolution, then fake frames, now fake inputs? whats next? fake consoles?
Maybe I just don’t understand how this works but isn’t the entire point that you are able to make mistakes? I can see this being good for unaware players that end up thinking they are better than they really are, but it also seems quite dumb if you know it exists.
Could be useful for better latency in online games like Splatoon. Games already kinda do this, but it would be cool if the tech could learn player specific movement to create more accurate server side predictions.
Funny they use raven when Ravens clairvoyance was proven wrong like 75% of the time.
Dam even the controller is gonna have rollback lol
that doesn’t sound like the kind of patenting that will be good for the industry
From the diagram alone, and having not read the entire patent document, it doesn’t appear to be predictive input. It appears like a potential implementation for a menuing solution, possibly as an alternative to games with mouse input.
Like it definitely seems specific to menuing given it explicitly mentions quitting the display of screen with plurality of items. Because it is either that or they just reinvented QTEs.
Isn’t that how mmorpg and pretty much any online 3D game works? It’s a way to bridge higher than desired ping rates between different players.
What will actually happen is it will realize I suck at video games, it will see me do it right once and say “impossible”. I’ll never beat a video game again.
didn’t read but from the title it seems that Nintendo decided to invent autoaim
This has already been a thing in games for years.
Didn’t Sony file a patent for this concept a month or so ago?
Every single time this doesn’t work correctly it will be so infuriating that it will cancel out any benefit, just like autocorrect.
Good luck, predictive Nintendo tech. Half my play style in smash is being unpredictable, unorthodox, mixups, and generally not doing what is expected at any given moment 😏
An SNES controller has 512 possible input states. If you could compute all possible inputs in 16ms you could save a frame of latency.
And third-party controllers just became infinitely more valuable.
Could be a good way to make bosses in action games like platformers be harder while giving them a nonlinear way to be defeated.
Honestly not surprised as they did implement a similar thing on a software level in ToTK, more so to predict when a player would jump into one of the casms so the game could preload in advance
I didn’t know you could patent “gonna mash the A button”….
Sounds like we’re getting rollback net code but in everything