No, it’s not a patent for a new Tingle clothing line coming at your department store. The patent is for a new programmed process that helps virtual clothes fit better on Nintendo characters, and it was invented by two dedicated supervisors of Nintendo’s Zelda Team.
Believe it or not, this patent has been around longer than it seems. It was filed back on February 11, 2021, and it flew under the radar by many fans until it was recently discovered on the internet. At first, some thought the game clothing patent could have been a clothing and armor upgrade for the sequel to Breath of the Wild, but it is now confirmed by several news outlets that is not the case.
The patent is actually an “Information-processing Device, Storage Medium, Information-processing System, And Information-processing Method,” according to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office website. In other words, it’s a coding process that helps prevent a character’s clothes from clipping into themselves and other things in the game. The invention is credited to Takuhiro Dohta and Ryuji Kobayashi, both of whom are recurring supervisors in creating several Zelda titles and other Nintendo games.
That may sound more boring than a snazzy armor upgrading system, but the invention would certainly make a game look good and be more practical. It essentially works by ‘deforming’ the character’s frame to create more room for the clothes to layer and move around without ‘clipping,’ or poking into other frames. Thus, this new technique allows Nintendo developers to add more layers of clothing and “outfit changes” to a polygonal character without the need to create an entirely new model for each new outfit they wear. The patent further explains that the deforming process also applies to hats, boots, weapons, and other accessories the character may wear as they progress the story of the game. Remember how the Master Sword awkwardly clipped into Link and other things in The Wind Waker? This new technology would help prevent that from happening in-game, including cutscenes. A similar technology exists for games on the Playstation 5.
Will the new patent apply in the Breath of the Wild sequel? The odds are very likely. It’s not confirmed, but it may even be the reason why our hero in the latest trailer sneak-peak already looks amazing in his new outfit. But the patent will probably affect far more Nintendo games in the future besides Zelda, as the description seems to imply more general use for the Big N. If Mario, Samus, and the rest of gang start looking a little sharper in the next few years, you can probably thank Dohta-san and Kobayashi-san for their dashing new glow-ups.
