NetEase filed 3 patents this quarter across 2 categories: UI/UX (2) and Cloud Gaming (1).
The UI/UX patents detail a dual-zone joystick control system for simultaneous touch inputs in mobile games and a virtual weapon display library that lets players curate and showcase their collections in 3D spaces with metadata tags and social viewing capabilities. The Cloud Gaming patent covers infrastructure technology that runs multiple game sessions simultaneously on a single server through Android resource isolation.
NetEase's work on user interfaces includes 2 patents that rethink how players interact with game content and controls on mobile devices. The dual-zone joystick system divides a single on-screen control into two functional regions, letting players provide simultaneous touch inputs for more nuanced movement without cluttering the screen with additional buttons. One region accepts direct manipulation while the other handles indirect positional control, creating layered input options from a single UI element. The weapon display library transforms how shooting games present inventory, turning basic item lists into interactive 3D showrooms where each weapon carries auto-generated metadata about its history, including previous owners and their skill levels, battles fought, and insurance retrievals. The system calculates multi-dimensional scores and displays visual emblems that communicate an item's significance through storytelling rather than raw statistics alone.
A single cloud gaming patent tackles the resource overhead problem that comes from running multiple game sessions on shared server Hardware. Instead of relying on virtualization technologies like QEMU or Docker that duplicate system processes and waste CPU and GPU cycles, the approach uses Android 10's native multi-display and multi-user features to isolate game sessions within one operating system instance. This eliminates the need for heavy virtualization layers while still maintaining separation between concurrent players on the same physical server.