In this dissertation, a new method of interaction with virtual reality (VR) has been presented. The VR environment, developed in this work provides a realistic and immersive environment that is developed for studying human’s spatial cognition abilities. Different technical aspects of the implementation are described. To improve the accuracy of the experiments, a new method for comparing and analyzing trajectories has been presented. A set of human subject experiments have been conducted using the developed platform. The first experiment was based on an ordinary computer, a joystick and 40 cognitively healthy participants within the age range of 19 to 82 years. Participants were asked to perform the VR spatial cognition test by navigating in the VR environment. It was found that computer usage skills had an effect on the overall performance of the participants as well as motion sickness; such an effect was undesirable. To resolve both problems, a novel input device made from the combination of a wheelchair and a motion capture unit, called VRNChair was developed. The VRNChair allows the participant to move physically in the real world in order to navigate in the VR environment. This allows participants to have a more intuitive interaction with the VR environment. Since the participant physically experiences the motion seen in the VR, motion sickness is minimized. A test based on two age groups, 34 young (< 40 years) and 20 older (60+ years) participants was performed. The results showed no difference between using the VRNChair or the joystick for the young participants while it showed considerable improvement among the older participants. Furthermore, it was noted that participants became distracted while using the VRNChair, Hence, a head mounted display (HMD) was added to the platform. A test with 14 males showed less distraction to the participant by using the HMD. Overall, the VR environment designed in this work passed all the validation experiments successfully. It offers a novel solution to overcome induced motion sickness experienced as a side effect of VR environments. / October 2016

Before Eternity is a short 3D adventure game that addresses the purpose of our earthly lives, inspired by the Sufi poet Rumi. To support its mystical theme, the design employs impressionistic elements and symbolic activities which deliberately defy many conventions of traditional adventure games. This report explains the design and implementation of the game, as well as its technical and production aspects.

Electrically powered vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft could provide a new mode of air transportation of people and cargo that is low-cost, on-demand, and able to reach more areas than is possible with current technology. They have the unique ability to takeoff and land in congested spaces yet efficiently travel long distances which makes them a promising technology for applications such as rapid medical assistance, automated package delivery, or human transportation. This type of aircraft has only recently become a possibility, owing to advancements in battery technology, computing power, and sensor technologies, and thus support for eVTOLs is lacking among high-fidelity graphics simulation software. High-fidelity graphics are important for the goal of fully autonomous eVTOL aircraft in order to accurately simulate vision-based navigation using camera sensors. In this work, we present VTOL-AirSim, an extension of Microsoft AirSim with full integration of a tiltrotor eVTOL aircraft. Built on Unreal Engine, a high-end graphics game engine, it includes photorealistic graphics for simulated camera images and for high-quality presentations. We created the visual components of a fully animated tiltrotor vehicle and a detailed city environment for it to fly in. The tiltrotor can be controlled via motor PWM commands, by overriding its state in the world with the use of an external dynamics simulation, or by using the PX4 Autopilot. We give a tutorial on how to use VTOL-AirSim where we provide examples for each method of control, including scripts for controlling the tiltrotor via a geometric controller and control allocation module developed by others in the BYU MAGICC Lab. We also show how to further develop VTOL-AirSim, and how to add custom aircraft or custom environments so that others may use it in their own research.

Design review is a process of reviewing construction design documents to ensure that they reflect the owner's design intent, and are accurate in describing the owner's desired building or facility. Information generation becomes more intensive as the design stage progresses. The use of valuable information during design review stage can lead to a more comprehensive and high quality design, and a building or facility that is constructible, and within the intended budget. However, in current design practices, valuable design review information is scattered, ineffectively placed, and is not used efficiently. The design review process will be more efficient if this valuable information is integrated and centralized. The author developed a framework to improve the design review process by incorporating a centralized repository of design review information and 3D CAD model, in an interactive Virtual Environment (VE). To develop the framework, the author used Action Research style where he identified and confirmed the design review problem area, promoted the potential solutions to the problem, and developed a prototype. In gathering and analyzing the data for the research, the author used the synthesis of three methods. They include review of literature, a case study (interviews with industry personnel and content analysis of design review documents), and dissemination of the author's progressive findings in conferences, conference proceedings and journal publications. From his findings, the author developed the framework to improve the design review process by using information filtering based on context-aware concept, coupled with the benefits of a VE. The required design review information in the form of textual, numerical and geometric information is processed (queried, retrieved and stored). The author defined four contexts for information filtering: discipline-centric, task-centric, object-centric, and location-centric. IF-THEN rules are used to trigger the processing of the required design review information and present it to the design reviewer in a VE. A low cost 3D Game Engine is used as the enabling development tool to develop a work-in-progress (WIP) prototype design review application in a VE. / Ph. D.

"With the rapid development of the Internet, cloud gaming has increasingly gained attention. Cloud gaming is a new type of cloud service that allows a game to run on the cloud servers, and players interact with the game remotely on their own light-weight clients. There are many potential benefits for both players and game developers to deploy a game on a cloud server, such as reducing the need for clients to update the game, easing development of cross-device games and helping prevent software piracy. In this work, I developed a cloud game engine, Drizzle, with a time warp algorithm for latency compensation, and implemented a new transmission method that reduces the network bandwidth. Using Drizzle, I also developed a simple cloud game to evaluate the functionality and performance. Experiments with this game in a controlled laboratory environment provide objective measurements of game performance and subjective measurements of user performance. Analysis of the results shows Drizzle with time warp did not reduce noticeable latency but helped players get higher game scores compared to Drizzle without time warp. Moreover, Drizzle reduced network bitrates compared to some conventional cloud transmission methods."

Game development is a complex and time-consuming activity that requires domain-specific knowledge and implementation skills. Networked games are particularly difficult due to the additional challenges of implementing the distribution. In recent years, game development has been simplified through tools that allow game development based on entities (objects that compose the game, e.g., avatar, vehicles, trees, and monsters). Entity-based tools simplify game programming by providing entity-level constructs and abstractions to the game developer. However, current entity-based tools fail to appropriately address the development of networked multiplayer games; they either do not support network gaming at all, or compromise the purity of the model by exposing low-level network programming to the game developer. In this thesis, we present a pure entity-based model for developing networked multiplayer games. In our model, the game developer is completely shielded from network programming concerns. In order to demonstrate the model’s practicality, we implemented a game development toolkit called Meerkat. Meerkat uses a combination of generic distribution algorithms and a proxy-based architecture to provide a pure entity-based game programming interface. The same interface can be used to develop both distributed and non-distributed games. Meerkat automates all aspects of networking for the game developer. To evaluate the performance of our system, we built three multiplayer games of different genres. Our experiments show that the overhead of using fully-automated networking can be acceptable for a wide range of games, except in extreme cases where there are strict performance requirements. Meerkat demonstrates that it is possible to extend the pure entity-based approach to networked games while ensuring sufficient performance. / Thesis (Master, Computing) -- Queen's University, 2012-08-29 14:54:00.647

abstract: The video game graphics pipeline has traditionally rendered the scene using a polygonal approach. Advances in modern graphics hardware now allow the rendering of parametric methods. This thesis explores various smooth surface rendering methods that can be integrated into the video game graphics engine. Moving over to parametric or smooth surfaces from the polygonal domain has its share of issues and there is an inherent need to address various rendering bottlenecks that could hamper such a move. The game engine needs to choose an appropriate method based on in-game characteristics of the objects; character and animated objects need more sophisticated methods whereas static objects could use simpler techniques. Scaling the polygon count over various hardware platforms becomes an important factor. Much control is needed over the tessellation levels, either imposed by the hardware limitations or by the application, to be able to adaptively render the mesh without significant loss in performance. This thesis explores several methods that would help game engine developers in making correct design choices by optimally balancing the trade-offs while rendering the scene using smooth surfaces. It proposes a novel technique for adaptive tessellation of triangular meshes that vastly improves speed and tessellation count. It develops an approximate method for rendering Loop subdivision surfaces on tessellation enabled hardware. A taxonomy and evaluation of the methods is provided and a unified rendering system that provides automatic level of detail by switching between the methods is proposed. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Computer Science 2011

Submitted by Automa??o e Estat?stica (sst@bczm.ufrn.br) on 2017-07-03T13:37:23Z No. of bitstreams: 1 FelipeMagnoBarrosDeOliveira_DISSERT.pdf: 1852988 bytes, checksum: ce7c6e1a473093324b5ee517b5921684 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Arlan Eloi Leite Silva (eloihistoriador@yahoo.com.br) on 2017-07-06T15:34:25Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 FelipeMagnoBarrosDeOliveira_DISSERT.pdf: 1852988 bytes, checksum: ce7c6e1a473093324b5ee517b5921684 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-07-06T15:34:26Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 FelipeMagnoBarrosDeOliveira_DISSERT.pdf: 1852988 bytes, checksum: ce7c6e1a473093324b5ee517b5921684 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-03-17 / A tecnologia BIM (Building Information Modeling) vem sendo utilizada com sucesso em ambientes colaborativos, no qual arquitetos, engenheiros e outros colaboradores associam os modelos tridimensionais a um conjunto de informa??es que permeiam todo o ciclo de vida dos projetos. Os modelos criados pelos softwares BIM (e.g. Revit, SketchUP, outros.) incluem uma vasta quantidade de informa??es que comp?em um formid?vel cen?rio para aplica??es de Realidade Virtual. A Tecnologia de Realidade Virtual ? uma t?cnica avan?ada de interface, no qual o usu?rio pode realizar imers?o, navega??o e intera??o em um ambiente sint?tico tridimensional gerado por computador, utilizando canais multisensoriais. Tendo como base este conceito, vemos que um esfor?o muito grande teria que ser feito para implementarmos uma plataforma de suporte aos Ambientes Virtuais a partir da base de dados de refer?ncia BIM. Recentemente os softwares de desenvolvimento de games t?m se tornado plataformas acess?veis, trazendo consigo API?s que incluem v?rias funcionalidades, intera??es entre objetos, sistema de simula??o f?sica, ilumina??o, renderiza??o, efeitos sonoros, assim como drivers de interface entre diversos tipos de hardware interativos, permitindo a explora??o dos canais multissensoriais. Este projeto tem como objetivo implementar uma plataforma para projetos de ambienta??o com interatividade, imers?o em Realidade Virtual e comunica??o com tecnologias BIM. / The BIM technology has been used with success in collaborative environments, in which architects, engineers and other collaborators associate the tridimensional models to a set of information that permeates the whole life cycle of the projects. The models created by the BIM software?s (i.e Revit, Sketchup, others.) include a vast quantity of information that compose a formidable scenario for applications in Virtual Reality. The Virtual Reality technology is an advanced interface technique, in which the user can immerge, navigate and interact in a synthetic computer generated tridimensional environment, utilizing multisensorial channels. Having this concept as base, we see that a huge effort would be needed to implement a platform that supports Virtual Environments from the BIM database reference. Recently the game development software has becoming more accessible, bringing API?s with many functionalities, interaction between objects, systems for physics simulation, lightning, rendering, sound effects, as also interface drivers for a broad range of interactive hardware allowing an exploration of the multisensorial channels. This project has as goal to implement a platform for interior design with interactivity, immersion in Virtual Reality and communication with BIM technologies.

<p dir="ltr">In the ever-changing landscape of game development, the choice of game engine plays a critical role in deciding the efficiency and performance of a game. This research paper presents a comparative analysis of the performance benchmarks of large general purpose game engines, specifically Unreal Engine 5, Unity, and Godot, versus small genre-specific engines in the context of a simple 2D projectile dodging game. The study focuses on two-dimensional games, which are particularly popular with small studios and indie developers. All three general purpose engines evaluated claim to support building both 2D and 3D applications, however since 2D game logic tends to be smaller scoped and more compact such games are impacted greater by any overhead and bloat the engine introduces, which this research paper intends to evaluate. A series of controlled experiments are conducted to assess each engine's performance in processor utilization, power consumption, memory usage and storage space requirements.</p>

Research into gameplay can contribute to more self-conscious approaches to design, allowing designers to create effective gameplay with less testing, or to target specific cognitive and emotional affects of gameplay for serious games applications. Self-conscious design includes theoretically motivated design of game systems to facilitate gameplay motivated by cognitive, scientific and/or rhetorical theories of game affect and functionality. Deepening the understanding of gameplay requires a consideration of basic epistemological questions about the nature of understanding. Understanding gameplay is a matter of generating mappings to explanatory frameworks in alternative interpretation paradigms. All games are cognitive skill learning environments, and an especially useful approach that may aid in the creation of more self-conscious game design practices is to conduct research into gameplay using theories and methods of cognitive science and cognitive psychology. On this basis, a framework is proposed based upon the integration of schema theory with attention theory. Cognitive task analysis provides a foundation for developing schema descriptions, which can then be elaborated according to more detailed models of cognitive and attentional processes. This approach provides a rich explanatory framework for the cognitive processes underlying gameplay. Playing a commercial PC or consol game is a highly visual activity regardless of whether the purpose is entertainment or situated learning. Information about the visual attention of the player is an important foundation for detailed schema modelling. A range of different eyetracking equipment has been used in many studies of visual cognition. However, very few studies describe dynamic stimuli involving the visual interaction of a user/ player with a moving 3D scene displayed on a computer screen. In order to address this, a software interface has been developed linking a Tobii™ eyetracking system with the HiFi game engine for use in automated logging of dynamic 3D objects of gaze attention. The system has been verified in a detailed study, confirming correct operation of the system as well as providing a characterisation of its spatial and temporal accuracy. The integrated Tobii/HiFi system has been validated in a study to test three hypotheses concerning visual attention in a first-person shooter (FPS) computer game. Firstly, the cuing effect of the passive gun graphic on visual attention was tested, with no evidence being found to support this hypothesis. A second hypothesis, that a player directs their gaze at a target opponent while shooting at them, was found to be supported in most cases, while in a small percentage of cases targeting is achieved in peripheral vision. Finally, in most cases, a player targets the nearest opponent. These results provide a baseline for further investigations in which the stimulus game design may be modified to provide more detailed models of the visual cognitive processes involved in gameplay and how they are involved in player decision-making.