<p>We conducted a study in the virtual environment to explore the influence of three types of lighting (dynamic rim lighting vs. static rim lighting vs. no rim lighting) on users’ visual attention, and the lighting’s potential effects on the users’ preference/choice-making. We recruited 40 participants to complete a virtual grocery shopping task in the experiments, and after the experiment, the participants were given a survey to self-report their experience. We found that (1) the users do not prefer to collect virtual objects with dynamic rim lighting than virtual objects with static rim lighting; (2) the users do not prefer to collect virtual objects with rim lighting than virtual objects without lighting; (3) if the virtual object has a warm-colored texture, it’s more likely to be chosen when it has dynamic rim lighting compared with static rim lighting or no rim lighting; and (4) properties of the dominant color on the texture of a virtual object, such as the B value is a good predictor in predicting if the user tends to choose the object with rim lighting or without rim lighting, while R, B and Lightness values are plausible in predicting if the user tends to choose the virtual objects with dynamic rim lighting or static rim lighting. </p>

<p dir="ltr">This paper introduces a comprehensive Software Toolkit designed to facilitate the design, implementation, and assessment of experimental research within the field of social psychology. The toolkit includes a python tool integrated with Unreal Engine to run simulations using virtual reality. This tool allows Students and Psychologists to conduct experiments for learning purposes by helping them to create real-life like simulations in different environments. Following a series of experiments, we have determined that the tool performs effectively. With the potential for further updates and enhancements, we believe that the tool holds promise for utilization in social psychology experiments.</p>

<div>Although some literature suggests that video games improve attention skills within the game-play, this study addressed translating this effect on attention in the real world. Research has shown video games can help people focus. Yet, there is lack of evidence displaying whether video games improve or diminish attention skills. The video game “The Inattentive Mind”, a game created for this study, used a method of overstimulation in the form of user interfaces, sound, and environmental interaction to try and help participants to empathize or improve their attention skills outside of the game. Using an experimental design of pre-test, video game intervention, and post-test, results were expected to show improved attention skills. These results did not show conclusive evidence of significant changes in attention skills. However, the results did show an increase in ADHD understanding.<br></div>

<p>Previous research has shown that student-teacher interaction is very important in motivating students to learn a second language. However, it is unclear whether facial expression, which is one of the most important portions of interaction, affects in-game language learning motivation or not. The purpose of this study is to find out the evidence demonstrating the facial expressions of the other party, in this case, virtual characters in game, will or will not influence the learning motivation <a>of Japanese L2 students</a>. The researchers of this study developed four versions of a 3D animated Japanese role-playing game. Each version of the game represents one facial expression that is neutral, happy, sad or angry. The entire research consists of two experiments: a validation study and a motivation study. After validating all the facial expressions of five main characters in the game, <a>eighty-four college students from 200/300 level Japanese courses </a>joined in the motivation study voluntarily. They played a version of the game assigned randomly to them and then did a post-questionnaire. Conclusions were drawn based on the survey results. The findings of this research suggested that virtual characters’ facial expressions in game had no significant effect on participants’ <b>learning motivation</b>. However, significance was found in <b>years of learning Japanese</b> and <b>gender</b>. Meanwhile, it was found <b>facial expression</b> and <b>years of learning Japanese</b> had an interactive effect on the variable <b>immersion into game.</b> </p>

<p dir="ltr">This dissertation investigates game design elements and their impact on player experience, intrinsic motivation, and learning outcomes. The research encompasses three projects, each delving into essential aspects of educational game design and their impact on student learning. The first project addresses a design gap by creating an educational game, exam- ining its effect on motivation and learning outcomes. The second project investigates player agency’s role in games and its influence on experience and outcomes. Two prototypes are designed that differ in the level of player agency afforded to the students. The study analyzes how this experimental manipulation affects player experience, intrinsic motivation, and learning outcomes. The third project analyzes the relationship between the learning inventory and the puzzle environment. More specifically, I will evaluate why students faced challenges when answering questions that focused on predicting the output and it’s connection with the learning environment. The overall focus of my dissertation is player experience, intrinsic motivation (to learn), and learning outcomes, which are examined through qualitative and quantitative research methods.</p>

With the interactivity and immersion of players into video games, rising development costs, and heightened expectations from AAA developers video games need to make sure they hit their target market more than ever. This is something that is less extreme in the educational game development space; but ultimately true with limited grant funding, limited development time within a student developer’s schedule, and how rapidly a recently leased student content creator will need to learn the space and needs of the client. When a student is brought on late into a development cycle, it can become troublesome when they are required to meet new developing features on a changing project. This paper looks over how one team approached this issue, with a focus on meeting the needs of a group of American high school teachers. Within this paper, the focus is how they tackled the issue, and how the teachers reacted to the end prototype, with some insight into the older prototypes of the project. Throughout it they had reinforced the ideas that communication, data validity, and set contract goals are important identifiers for project success. Teachers looking at video games care more about the data being valid and clearly communicated more than if a game is fun or laden with features and mini-games.

Achieving a state of balance is essential when developing a video game (Schell, 2019, “Game Mechanics Must Be in Balance,” para. 1). Despite this, game balancing is frequently overlooked in game development curricula (Schreiber, 2016, 00:30). This research describes the development and pilot study of a framework that junior game designers can utilize to gain valuable skills in the area of game balance. The framework produced by this research provides users with the ability to tune weapon parameters and see the effects these changes have on a first-person shooter deathmatch game in real time. Participants in the study utilized the framework to achieve three pacing and balance goals. Data regarding the weapon parameters selected by participants and information about the participants’ usage of the framework is described in detail. This study serves as the groundwork for future research focused on finding a method for teaching junior game designers about game balance.

<p>This thesis project addresses the need for an interactive, real-time water animation tech-<br> nique that can showcase visually convincing effects such as splashes and breaking waves while<br> being computationally inexpensive. Our method couples SPH and wave equations in a one-<br> way manner to simulate the behavior of water in real-time, leveraging OpenGL’s Compute<br> Shaders for interactive performance and a novel Uniform Grid implementation. Through a<br> review of related literature on real-time simulation methods of fluids, and water animation,<br> this thesis presents a feasible algorithm, animations to showcase interesting water effects,<br> and a comparison of computational costs between SPH, wave equations, and the coupled<br> approach. The program renders a water body with a planar surface and discrete particles.<br> This project aims to provide a solution that can meet the needs of various water animation<br> use-cases, such as games, and movies, by offering a computationally efficient technique that<br> can animate water to behave plausibly and showcase essential effects in real-time.</p>

<p>Terrain generation is a convoluted and a popular topic in the VFX industry. Whether you are part of the film/TV or gaming industry, a terrain, is a highly nuanced feature that is usually present. Regardless of walking on a desert like terrain in the film, Blade Runner 2049 or fighting on different planets like in Avatar, 3D terrains is a major part of any digital media. The purpose of this thesis is about developing a workflow for large-scale terrains using complex data sets and utilizing this workflow to maintain a balance between the procedural content and the artistic input made especially for smaller companies which cannot afford an enhanced pipeline to deal with major technical complications. The workflow consists of two major elements, development of the tool used to optimize the workflow and the recording and maintaining of the efficiency in comparison to the older workflow. </p> <p> </p> <p> My research findings indicate that despite the increase in overall computational abilities, one of the many issues that are still present is generating a highly advanced terrain with the added benefits of the artists and users’ creative variations. Reducing the overall time to simulate and compute a highly realistic and detailed terrain is the main goal, thus this thesis will present a method to overcome the speed deficiency while keeping the details of the terrain present.</p>

<p>    </p> <p>Lam, Luchcha. M.S., Purdue University, May 2023. Believe in the Sound You See: The Effects of Body Type and Voice Pitch on the Perceived Audio-Visual Correspondence and Believability of Virtual Characters. Major Professor: Nicoletta Adamo. </p> <p>We examined the effects of body type and voice pitch of virtual characters’ on perceived audio-visual correspondence and believability. For our within-group study, we developed nine experimental conditions using a 3 (body type: ectomorph vs. mesomorph vs. endo- morph body types) × 3 (voice pitch: low vs. medium vs. high fundamental frequency [F0]). We found significant main effects from voice pitch and significant interaction effects between a character’s body type and voice pitch on both the level of perceived audio-visual correspondence and believability of female and male characters. For female characters, we also observed an additional significant main effect from body type and a significant interac- tion effect between the participant’s biological sex and the character’s voice pitch on both perceived audio-visual correspondence and believability. Moreover, the results show that perceived believability is highly correlated to perceived audio-visual correspondence. Our findings have important practical implications in applications where the character is meant to be an emotional or informational guide that requires some level of believability, as the findings suggest that it is possible to enhance the believability of the characters by generating appropriate voices through pitch manipulation of existing voices. </p>