Depth of field is a naturally occurring effect in lenses describing the distance between theclosest and furthest object that appears in focus. The effect is commonly used in film andphotography to direct a viewers focus, give a scene more complexity, or to improve aes-thetics. In computer graphics, the same effect is possible, but since there are no naturaloccurrences of lenses in the virtual world, other ways are needed to achieve it. There aremany different approaches to simulate depth of field, but not all are suited for real-time usein computer games. In this thesis, multiple methods are explored and compared to achievedepth of field in real-time with a focus on computer games. The aspect of bokeh is alsocrucial when considering depth of field, so during the thesis, a method to simulate a bokeheffect similar to reality is explored. Three different methods based on the same approachwas implemented to research this subject, and their time and memory complexity weremeasured. A questionnaire was performed to measure the quality of the different meth-ods. The result is three similar methods, but with noticeable differences in both quality andperformance. The results give the reader an overview of different methods and directionsfor implementing it on their own, based on which requirements suits them.

This diploma thesis deals with the regulation of time in adult computer game players, especially how players are able to regulate their own time spent playing computer games, what strategies they use for this, or how they are regulated by people around them, and whether self-regulation has been affected by family education and regulation of gaming by parents. It was also examined whether self-regulation or parental regulation affects the development of Internet Gaming Disorder (IGD), or whether personality traits have a part to do with it. The research group consisted of 40 respondents of young adult players who started playing computer games as early as childhood or adolescence. The data collection took the form of an online questionnaire in the Google environment, therefore it was sent to players electrationally. The questionnaire survey consisted of four separate parts which followed each other continuously. In the first part, anamnestic data of players was collected in the form of an Anamnestic questionnaire, the second part followed the IGDT rate with the IGDT-10 questionnaire, in other parts personality traits were examined by the BFI-2-S questionnaire and the educational style in the family using the EMBU-A questionnaire. Based on the research, it was found that 5 % of respondents reported...

Behavioral animation has become popular for creating virtual characters that are autonomous agents and thus self-animating. This is useful for lessening the workload of human animators, populating virtual environments with interactive agents, etc. Unfortunately, current behavioral animation techniques suffer from three key problems: (1) deliberative behavioral models (i.e., cognitive models) are slow to execute; (2) interactive virtual characters cannot adapt online due to interaction with a human user; (3) programming of behavioral models is a difficult and time-intensive process. This dissertation presents a collection of papers that seek to overcome each of these problems. Specifically, these issues are alleviated through novel machine learning schemes. Problem 1 is addressed by using fast regression techniques to quickly approximate a cognitive model. Problem 2 is addressed by a novel multi-level technique composed of custom machine learning methods to gather salient knowledge with which to guide decision making. Finally, Problem 3 is addressed through programming-by-demonstration, allowing a non technical user to quickly and intuitively specify agent behavior.

Cognitive and behavioral models have become popular methods to create autonomous self-animating characters. Creating these models presents the following challenges: (1) Creating a cognitive or behavioral model is a time intensive and complex process that must be done by an expert programmer (2) The models are created to solve a specific problem in a given environment and because of their specific nature cannot be easily reused. Combining existing models together would allow an animator, without the need of a programmer, to create new characters in less time and would be able to leverage each model's strengths to increase the character's performance, and to create new behaviors and animations. This thesis provides a framework that can aggregate together existing behavioral and cognitive models into an ensemble. An animator only has to rate how appropriately a character performed and through machine learning the system is able to determine how the character should act given the current situation. Empirical results from multiple case studies validate the approach taken.

This thesis involves the creation of a historically-themed museum element. The element, titled “Improving Community,” is a virtual interactive game that allows players to explore certain realities of colonial American life. Within the game, players are presented with a number of civic-related issues that existed throughout the eighteenth century, and they are then given options to improve the situation. Interactivity and immersion are key features of the game, and they have been incorporated so that players may engage with the past and assume a more active role in the process of historical reconstruction. Research for the games draws mostly upon historical primary sources, including firsthand accounts, letters, diaries, periodicals, pamphlets, meeting minutes, and legal documents. In addition, the process of developing the games was informed by a number of secondary source works, and therefore this study inspects the ways in which “Improving Community” fits within the ongoing scholarly debates. Ultimately this project contributes to the field of public history by demonstrating the usefulness of games as a tool for historical exhibition. “Improving Community” is both entertaining and educational, and as a result, the game provides individuals with a unique outlet for exploring and experiencing the past.

The computer game industry has during the past years performed a paradigm shift from physical to digital online retailing based on game portals. Due to the many possibilities Big Data in combination with personalized marketing provides, especially in the form on in-game shops in the software, it is interesting for the computer game companies to investigate how this marketing approach can be performed most beneficially. Since the computer game industry has not been thoroughly investigated in relation to personalized marketing and customer integrity, it has in this study been performed as a predictive research, based on how personalized marketing is used in other industries. This benchmark has been combined with a literature study as well as a case study on a Swedish computer game company, Paradox Interactive in the form of personal interviews, a customer survey as well as gathering of internal data. The analysis of the chosen industries, the grocery store industry, the travel and hospitality industry as well the online gambling industry, demonstrates the importance of offering the customers relevant marketing offers that benefits the customers as well as the company. This approach has been shown to imply a positive spiral of increased customer loyalty and raised revenue for the company. The performed customer surveys emphasizes high loyalty, satisfied customers, positive attitude for a loyalty program as well as for an in-game shop as well as a majority of positively minded customers for personalized marketing. The negatively minded was shown to be affected by data security, the feeling of being monitored as well as the fear for data spread. The investigation further shows a high level of technology knowledge among the computer game customers. This increases the importance of offering high data security as well as describes the used approaches for the customers. Based on these results recommendations related to the implementation of personalized marketing was developed for computer game companies. These emphasizes the importance of using secure techniques related to the data security and the explicit information related to this, which is argued to lead to increased trust amongst the customers and an increased willingness to share personal data. Further the data and information related to the customers should be gathered from different sources and be analyzed together in order to increase the deep of the knowledge about the customers, which enables more accurate and relevant offers. This relevance should be high, but well balanced in relation to the negative aspects related to customers’ possible feeling of being monitored.   For increased knowledge about the customers as well improved customer loyalty the computer game companies should implement loyalty programs, which should be well aligned with the image of the company. This study contributes to the theoretical field related to personalized marketing by investigating how current models and theories aligns with, or should be modified in order to match, the computer game industry. Besides from this it contributes with theories related to data security within the field of personalized marketing, focused on personal integrity and privacy. Theories related to the importance of trust from the customers and the relation between trust and loyalty has been verified for the computer game industry. The importance of identifying a well-balanced level of the personalization has been verified, which in turn falsifies the theories emphasizing that maximized personalization is to strive for. Theories related to key aspects to take into consideration related to data security and handling of personal data has been verified for the computer game industry related to the handling of Big Data. / Dataspelsindustrin har under åren gjort en resa från fysisk försäljning i butik till digital försäljning via spelportaler på internet. I och med de många möjligheter Big Data i kombination med personlig marknadsföring möjliggör, speciellt i formatet av en inbyggd försäljningskanal inuti mjukvaran, är det av stort intresse för företag i spelbranschen att undersöka hur personlig marknadsföring mest fördelaktigt utförs.  I och med att dataspelinsdustrin ej blivit undersökt med avseende på personlig marknadsföring och kunders integritet tidigare, har detta utförts i form av en förutsägande undersökning baserat på användning av personlig marknadsföring i andra industrier. Denna utvärderande analys har kombinerats med en litteraturstudie samt en fallstudie på det svenska dataspelsföretaget Paradox Interactive i form av intervjuer, en kundenkät samt insamling av intern data. Analysen av de valda industrierna, matvaruhandeln, rese- och hotellindustrin och onlinespelindustrin, påvisar vikten av att erbjuda kunderna relevanta erbjudanden som i längden gynnar såväl kunden som företaget. Detta har påvisats leda till en god spiral av ökad kundlojalitet och ekonomisk vinst för företaget. Utförda kundundersökningar påvisar hög lojalitet, nöjda kunder, positiv attityd till sålväl en inbyggd butik i mjukvaran som ett lojalitetsprogram samt en övervägande andel positiva attityder för personlig marknadsföring. De negativt inställda påverkas av såväl datasäkerheten, känslan av att vara övervakad samt rädslan för att data sprids till tredje part. Undersökningen visar även på en hög kunskapsnivå inom data hos kunderna, vilket höjer vikten av att erbjuda hög säkerhet och även av att förmedla detta till dem. Baserat på dessa resultat har rekommendation gällande implementationen av personlig marknadsföring tagit fram för dataspelsföretag. Dessa framhäver vikten av att ha hög datasäkerhet och förmedla detta till kunderna, vilket i sin tur gör kunderna mer trygga och villiga att dela personlig information. Vidare bör data och information om kunderna skall samlas in från olika kanaler och analyseras tillsammans i syfte att öka kunskapem om kunder, vilket ger möjligheten att erbjuda kunderna mer träffsäkra och relevanta erbjudanden. Denna relevans skall vara hög, men väl avvägd mot den negativa effekten som uppstår om kunden känner sig övervakad.   För utökad kunskap om kunderna och samtidigt generera höjd kundlojalitet skall företag i industrin implementera lojalitetsprogram, vilka skall vara enhetlig med företagets framtoning. Detta arbete bidrar till teorier inom personlig markandsföring genom att undersöka hur rådande teorier och modeller passar eller skall ändras för att matcha dataspelindustrin. Utöver detta bidrar arbetet till teorier gällande datasäkerhet inom området personlig markandsföring, med fokus på integritet och privatliv. Teorier gällande vikten av fötroende från kunderna och sambandet mellan förtroende och lojalitet har påvisats stämma för dataspelindustrin. Vikten av att hitta ett mellanläge för markandsförings relevans har påvisats stämma, vilket i sin tur dementerar teorier som påvisar att maximal relevans är eftertraktat. Teorier gällande huvudaspekter att ta hänsyn till gällande datasäkerhet och behandling av personlig data har påvisats stämma för datapselindustrin relaterat till behandlingen av Big Data.

Zinchenko E.E. in her master's thesis looks as widely as possible at the virtual, as the problem appears the uncertainty of the term "virtual". The object of research is the virtual reality and the subject is related aspects of the ontology, psychology, sociology and virtual technologies. The aim is a detailed study of the different approaches to the "virtual" and develop their own unified concept of this problem based on a single modern ontology. The material for the study in addition to literature represents by specific popular computer games, as well as the reviews and opinions of real players. The first chapter is dedicated to the most elaborated concepts in the field of "virtualistics" of S.S. Khoruzhiy and N.A. Nosov, as well as developing own structure of "virtual". The second chapter is devoted to the practical implementation of appropriate technology. The theoretical framework is based on the works of K. Jung, Z. Freud, G. Gibson, I.V. Burlakov and on projects of young game designers developed their ideas to existing games. Particular attention in this chapter is on computer games as the most common means of immersion in the virtual environment. Zinchenko E.E. adheres to a neutral position on the upbeat virtual reality, considering, in particular, the positive aspect of the phenomenon of the virtual. / В своей магистерской диссертации Зинченко Е.Е. максимально широко смотрит на виртуальное, так как проблемой выступает неопределенность самого термина «виртуальное». Объектом исследования выступает виртуальная реальность, а предметом - взаимосвязанные аспекты онтологии, психологии, социологии и технологий виртуального. Целью работы является подробное изучение различных подходов к «виртуальному» и разработка собственной единой концепции данной проблематики на базе единой современной онтологии. В качестве материала для исследования помимо литературных источников используются популярные и специфические компьютерные игры, а также отзывы и мнения реальных игроков. Первая глава посвящена наиболее проработанным концепциям в области «виртуалистики» Хоружего С.С. и Носова Н.А., а также разработке собственной структуры «виртуального». Вторая глава посвящена практической реализации соответствующих технологий. Теоретическая база основана на работах К. Юнга, З. Фрейда, Дж. Гибсона, Бурлакова И.В. и на проектах молодых геймдизайнеров, реально воплощающих свои идеи в существующих играх. Особое внимание в данной главе уделяется компьютерным играм как самому распространенному средству погружения в виртуальную среду. Зинченко Е.Е. придерживается нейтрально-оптимистичной позиции относительно виртуальной реальности, рассматривая, в том числе, положительный аспект феномена виртуального.

Объектом исследования является эмпатические способности и рефлексивность. Предметом исследования является различия в уровне выраженности эмпатических способностей и рефлексивности между игроками, предпочитающими одиночные и командные компьютерные игры. Магистерская диссертация состоит из введения, двух глав, заключения, списка литературы (77 источников) и приложений, включающих в себя изображения теоретических исследований, таблицы описательных статистик, подсчёта нормальности распределения шкал и бланки применявшихся методик. Объем магистерской диссертации составил 119 страниц, на которых размещены 39 рисунков и 35 таблиц. Во введении раскрывается актуальность проблемы исследования, разработанность проблематики, ставятся цель и задачи исследования, определяются объект и предмет исследования, формулируется основная гипотеза, указываются методы и эмпирическая база, а также научная новизна, теоретическая и практическая значимость работы. Первая глава включает в себя исследование российской и зарубежной литературы и ресурсов на тему эмпатических способностей, рефлексивности, цифровой среды и компьютерных игр. Представлены имеющиеся на данный момент в России и за рубежом исследования психологических особенностей геймеров. Выводы по первой главе представляют собой итоги по изучению теоретического материала. Вторая глава посвящена эмпирической части исследования. В ней представлено описание организации и методов проведенного исследования и результатов, полученных по всем использованным методикам: тест рефлексивности А.В. Карпова, многофакторный опросник эмпатии М. Дэвиса, торонтская алекситимическая шкала, тест межличностных отношений Лири. Выводы по главе 2 включают в себя основные результаты эмпирического исследования. В заключении в обобщенном виде изложены результаты теоретической и эмпирической частей работы, а также выводы по выдвинутой гипотезе, обоснована практическая значимость исследования и описаны возможные перспективы дальнейшей разработки данной проблематики. / The object matter of the study is empathic abilities and reflexivity. The subject of the study is the differences in the level of expressiveness of empathic abilities and reflexivity between players who prefer single and team computer games. The master's thesis consists of an introduction, two chapters, a conclusion, a list of literature (77 sources) and an appendix, which includes images of theoretical studies, tables of descriptive statistics, calculation of the normality of the distribution of scales and forms of the methods used. The volume of the master's thesis was 119 pages, which contain 39 figures and 35 tables. The introduction reveals the relevance of the research problem, the development of the problematics, sets the goal and objectives of the research, defines the object and subject of research, formulates the main hypothesis, indicates the methods and empirical base, as well as scientific novelty, theoretical and practical significance of the work. The first chapter includes a study of Russian and foreign literature and resources on empathic abilities, reflexivity, the digital environment and computer games. Presented are currently available in Russia and abroad studies of the psychological characteristics of gamers. The conclusions on the first chapter are the results of the study of theoretical material. The second chapter is devoted to the empirical part of the study. It presents a description of the organization and methods of the study and the results obtained by all the methods used: the reflexivity test of A.V. Karpova, M. Davis' multifactorial empathy questionnaire, Toronto alexithymic scale, Leary's test of interpersonal relationships. Conclusions on the second chapter include the main findings of the empirical study. In the conclusion, the results of the theoretical and empirical parts of the work are summarized, as well as conclusions on the hypothesis put forward, the practical significance of the study is substantiated, and possible prospects for further development of this issue are described.

Объектом исследования явилась идентификация младших подростков». Предметом исследования стала идентификации подростков с игровыми персонажами онлайн игр. Магистерская диссертация состоит из введения, двух глав, заключения, списка литературы (85 источников) и приложений. Объем магистерской диссертации 82 страницы. Во введении раскрывается актуальность проблемы исследования, разработанность проблематики, ставятся цель и задачи исследования, определяются объект и предмет исследования, формулируются основная и дополнительные гипотезы, указываются методы и эмпирическая база, а также этапы проведения исследования, научная новизна, теоретическая и практическая значимость работы. Первая глава включает в себя обзор иностранной и отечественной литературы по теме исследования виртуальной идентичности, в том числе идентичности с героями онлайн-играми. Особое внимание уделено разработке классификации онлай-игр и исследованию увлеченности онлайн-играми в подростковом возрасте. Вторая глава посвящена эмпирической части исследования. В ней представлено описание организации и методов проведенного исследования, к которым относятся: Тест-опросник степени увлеченности младших подростков компьютерными играми (Гришина А.В)., Методика «Незаконченные предложения», адаптированная Жичкиной А.Е. и Щепилиной Е.А., Рисуночная методика «Я в жизни и Я в игре», Методика «Q-сортировка» В. Стефансона. Полученные результаты представлены корреляционными плеядами. В заключении в обобщенном виде изложены результаты теоретической и эмпирической частей работы, а также выводы по ним, обоснована практическая значимость исследования и описаны возможные перспективы дальнейшей разработки данной проблематики. / The object of the study was the identification of younger adolescents." The subject of the study was the identification of teenagers with game characters of online games. The Master's thesis consists of an introduction, two chapters, a conclusion, a list of references (85 sources) and appendices. The scope of the master's thesis 82 pages. The introduction reveals the relevance of the research problem, the elaboration of the problem, sets the purpose and objectives of the study, defines the object and subject of the study, formulates the main and additional hypotheses, specifies the methods and empirical base, as well as the stages of research, scientific novelty, theoretical and practical significance of the work. The first chapter includes a review of foreign and domestic literature on the topic of virtual identity research, including identity with the heroes of online games. Special attention is paid to the development of the classification of online games and the study of the passion for online games in adolescence. The second chapter is devoted to the empirical part of the study. It describes the organization and methods of the study, which include: A test questionnaire of the degree of enthusiasm of younger teenagers for computer games (Grishina A.V.), the technique "Unfinished sentences" adapted by Zhichkina A.E. and Shchepilina E.A., the drawing technique "I am in life and I am in the game". , V. Stefanson's "Q-sorting" technique. The obtained results are presented by correlation pleiades. In conclusion, the results of the theoretical and empirical parts of the work are summarized, as well as conclusions on them, the practical significance of the study is substantiated and possible prospects for further development of this problem are described.

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