In Mario Kart World’s Free Roam mode, the player may approach a boost panel from any directions (img 1). Based on the camera’s line of sight, player character’s size, and panel’s scale and size, the boost direction is calculated and indicator arrows drawn accordingly (imgs 2-3).
![Excerpt from patent US 20260014472:
In the exemplary embodiment, the game system 1 calculates the corrected position P2 based on the camera position P1 of the virtual camera. For example, the corrected position P2=(P2x, P2y, P2z) is calculated according to formula below.
(P2x, P2y, P2z)=(P1x, P1y, P1z)−V1*(L+D)*S . . .
[0072] In formula above, (P1x, P1y, P1z) are the coordinates of the camera position P1. L is a predetermined fixed value based on the size of the acceleration object 103, and is half the length of the acceleration object 103 in the front-rear direction (in the exemplary embodiment, the direction parallel to the vector V3 to be described below), for example. D is a predetermined fixed value, and is set to a value (e.g., 2 m) about the same size as the player character 101, for example. S indicates the scale of the acceleration object 103.](https://ninpatentswatch.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/bafkreiddyhd6b36c3bqk3xxh6x2xhbzctioogsi6scuiymzsmnxxbgsomq.webp)
Source: Patent publication US20260014472
[Originally posted on 2026-02-23 Pacific Time]
