social gaming in virtual reality using 360 degree immersion gaming in...social gaming in virtual...

Social Gaming in Virtual Reality using 360Degree Immersion

Jackie Engberg ChristensenJune 14, 2016

University College Nordjylland

Teknologi og Business

Sofiendalsvej 60

Phone: +45 7269 8000

Fax: +45 7269 8001

http://www.ucn.dk/

Theme:Social Gaming in 360 Degree VirtualReality

Project period:Spring 2016

Author(s):

Jackie Engberg Christensen

Supervisor: Simon KongshøjTotal Pages: 44Appendix: 1Completed June 14, 2016

Synopsis:

This report covers the develop-

ment of a game, which takes

place inside a room, that gives

the players a 360 degree immer-

sive experience. With virtual re-

ality headsets being very popular

these days, and with their domi-

nance on the market, it would be

interesting to find alternatives.

Furthermore does the virtual re-

ality headset suffer on the so-

cial area as only one person can

use the headset at a time, and

also locks out everyone around.

This report will also focus on

a social aspect of gaming, and

how multiple people can play to-

gether physically at once, and

this way establish communica-

tion between players. This report

will look into the history and in-

novation of virtual reality, what

alternatives could be made, and

how it was made for this project,

and lastly there will be an conclu-

sion for the project and potential

future work.

Social Gaming in Virtual Reality using 360 Degree Immersion

Contents

1 Overview 51.1 Problem Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61.2 The Innovation of Virtual Reality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71.3 Problem Statement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

2 System Design 102.1 The Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102.2 Hardware . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

2.2.1 Server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112.2.2 Projectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112.2.3 Accessories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

2.3 The Experience Room Prototype . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142.4 Games in 360 Degree . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

3 Game Design Document 163.1 Technologies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163.2 Unity and Virtual Reality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163.3 Unity and 360 Degree Video/Games . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173.4 External Libraries and Assets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183.5 Game Ideas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

3.5.1 Cooperative Versus Competitive Gameplay . . . . . . . 183.5.2 Defender Games . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193.5.3 Escape Games . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203.5.4 Defuse the Bomb . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203.5.5 Exploration/Dungeon Crawling . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213.5.6 Story/Scenario Based Games . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

4 Implementation 224.1 Rendering 360 Degrees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

4.1.1 Camera Field of View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234.1.2 Camera Functionality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

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4.1.3 Extending the Camera to Roof and Floor . . . . . . . . 264.2 Graphical User Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 274.3 The Tech-Demo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 294.4 Zombie Shooter Game . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

4.4.1 Game Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 294.4.2 The player(s) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 304.4.3 Weaponry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 304.4.4 Enemies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 304.4.5 Gameplay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

5 Testing 325.1 General thoughts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 325.2 Usability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 335.3 Socializing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 345.4 Improvements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

6 Conclusion 366.1 Future Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

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1 Overview

Virtual reality is these days becoming bigger and more accessible for everyday consumers. Even though virtual reality is now starting to be cheaperand more accessible, virtual reality is far from a new concept. But recentlythe technology have been taken the next step forward.

Virtual reality headsets have the past years been developed in larger quan-tities; first Oculus Rift, Then Samsung Gear VR, and latest HTC Vive. Withthese headsets a player can be even more emerged in the gaming experience,that certain games can provide, but it also seems to creates restriction, oneof them being the social aspect.

When using virtual reality headsets the players often tend to emergethemselves as much as possible into the game, which isolate the player frommost, if not from all, aspects of social interaction, that is not in the game.Often virtual reality games also builds on single player experiences whichagain limits the social aspect, and sitting besides someone using a virtualreality headset can fast be boring for the spectators. Additionally virtualreality headsets also gives some users motion sickness. However, with mostcommunication happening over the Internet, it can be argued that virtualreality also can be a great tool for meeting people online in cyberspace, andbring them closer together, but it is important remember this is still virtual,and the users will not be physically together.

This rapport will look into virtual reality technologies, and how they areused, the benefits and disadvantages it creates, and what problems it stillfaces. There will also be looked at the usage of virtual reality, in a way thatcan compliment the social aspects, and interaction between players. Thiswill be done by making a game, that can take advantage of virtual reality inalternative ways, which will also be talked about and describe in this rapport.Lastly there will be a conclusion to the project and some results this projecthave given as well as a talk about what directions the project could take inthe future.

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1.1 Problem Analysis

When looking into the social aspect of gaming, it is often seen that peoplemeets outside the game in real life to attend, for instance computer parties.There by do people see each other, and interact with each other outside thegame too. But as mentioned, when sitting together, using virtual realityheadsets, players tend to emerged them self completely and does not seemto be able to see or interact well with each other outside the game.

This social aspect of interaction however, seems to only be a minor disad-vantage of virtual reality. In Mark E. Koltko-Rivera, Ph.D. ”The PotentialSocietal Impact of Virtual Reality” [1] he ask the question ”How will theavailability of virtual family life affect people’s desire or intention to pursuefamily life in the real world?”. He consider an example of a human beingliving in a small apartment with only the basic need to live, kitchen, bath-room, bed etc. But by using virtual reality, he is able to enter a ”perfect”life in a huge mansion, living with the perfect wife, which can be simulatedthrough artificial intelligence. He then goes on to talk about, how this couldmake the users’ expectation increase in real life, as a real person would notbe able to do the same as a computer simulated person. Here he talks aboutboth potentially sexually fantasies/impulses and closure, and generally re-place family with virtual reality. The fear is that marriage and childbirthrate will decrease, if vitual reality becomes so sophisticated, which in it selfcould result huge problems. Mark E. Koltko-Rivera also talk about such”game” could be connected to the Internet, and there by have your friendsinteract with each other, in this virtual world as avatars. It is seen hereagain, that the interaction is online rather than actual physical contact witheach other, which over time could lead to problems, not only in a society,but for each individual human being using the technology this way.

Furthermore ”The Social Impact of Virtual Reality” by ”Sandra L. Calvert”[2] back up a lot of the statements made in [1]. Sandra L. Calvert Mentionhow Internet users, and players of these virtual worlds, can become addictedto the virtual life. It seems to her that the virtual world can be a ”gatewaydrug” for users suffering from loneliness, Depression, or similar mental oreven physical issues.

Lastly ”Virtual Reality Society” [3] speculate about how criminality canbe committed in virtual reality, which can traumatize or mentally damage,the user of the virtual reality. They do also say that ”The disadvantages ofvirtual reality described above are minor in comparison to the wide benefitsof virtual reality” [3] which will be discussed as well.

With these disadvantage, it would be interesting to take advantage of

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virtual reality in a way, that can create a great social experience, where theplayers are physically together, rather than each player sitting with a virtualreality headset on. It would be great to get the players out of their rooms,and meet each other and have a great time together.

It is, however, up to discussion if these sources are more of a skeptical viewon virtual reality. There exist multiple articles, talking about how virtualreality can help people with Asperger’s Syndrome [4], or autistic spectrumdisorders [5] to increase their social skills. In this case it should be able tohelp regular people too, to socialize with friends living far away, or in foreigncountries, which contradict some of the disadvantages talked about earlier.Others suggest that virtual reality can be used as a pain relief [6], and istalking about this is already being used at some dentists instead of sedatives.It have also been mention that virtual reality can be used for medical purposessuch as rehabilitation [7] and e-learning [8], as well as entertainment. Virtualreality is even used in the U.S. army, to train soldiers in combat simulators[9], which makes it possible to create realistic training in a safe environment,where the soldiers can be monitored.

It seem that virtual reality have big potentials, and that lots of the dis-advantages is more speculations, rather than actual proven facts. Most ofthe advantages is much bigger than the disadvantages, but it seems that itis much more of a design problem, of how the users uses the technology. It isworth looking more into the advantages and to use the advantages to furtherimprove virtual reality. Especially the social aspect and learning seems to beareas, that can be used very well and easy in virtual reality, but rather thanusing virtual reality headsets, which isolates the user, it would be interest-ing to find alternatives, as physical contact and interaction, will completelyremove some of the disadvantages talked about.

1.2 The Innovation of Virtual Reality

Virtual reality is far from a new concept, but have been extended and de-veloped much more in depth, the past years. The first instance of virtualreality is believed to first have been seen in a science fiction short storycalled ”Pygmalion’s Spectacles” [10] which was described as goggles withhologram recordings, that included both smell and touch. However in 1920the first flight simulator was invented for training of novice pilots [11]. Laterin 1957 the Sensorama was developed by Morton Heilig, which were an inter-active theater [11], that supposedly had stereoscopic images displayed in anenclosed booth, oscillating fans, surround audio and devices that can emitsmells.

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It is first in 1968 that the first virtual reality head mounted display, alsoknown as ”The Sword of Damocles” [12], was created by Ivan Sutherlandand Bob Sproull. It was also the first of its kind to use augmented reality.The device is described as bulky and extremely heavy.

The term virtual reality was first born in 1982 in the science fiction novel,”The Judas Mandala” written by Damien Broderick, and five years later, in1987 the term ”virtual reality” was registered in Oxford English Dictionary[13].

Jumping to 1991 the first virtual reality arcade [14] machines was born,with some even linked together for multiplayer possibilities. In 1992 CaveAutomatic Virtual Environment, or also known as ”the cave”, was presented,which is a room with walls having imagery projected on to them [11], it isnot specified if it was on a sigle wall or 360 degrees projections, just that itcould be used for example, flight simulators or to help architects to visualizetheir constructions before building them.

In 1993 Sega made the first try to make virtual reality available for theirSega Genesis [14], they had stereo sound, head tracking and LCD screen,and was generally far ahead for the time, but the virtual reality headset wasnever released due to development difficulties, and never left the prototypestage. Later in 1995 Nintendo was ready with it’s answer, the Virtual Boy[14], however, the Virtual Boy was a huge failure and had very few games,as well as, the display was black and red. The Virtual Boy was discontinued,and was believed to only be on the market for a year.

Jumping to the 21st century a lot have happen with virtual reality. Therehave been the released of Google Glases in 2012, the introduction of OculusRift, as well as Samsung’s Gear Virtual reality Headset [13], and the latest onthe market HTC Vive, which seems to be some steps ahead from the othersheadsets due to the possibilities of moving in real life [15].

Lastly there is Microsoft Hololens, which creates holograms in the realworld. This technology is also more known as argumented reality, as it altersthe world we live in [13]. The Hololens is surely ahead, as it makes it possibleto combine both the computer world, and real world together and does seemto be the way of the future.

1.3 Problem Statement

From the problem analysis, it is clear to see that virtual reality is a tool, thatcan be used for not only games, but also for medical, socializing and learningpurposes. It is important to look at some of the disadvantages, that havebeen speculated about to prevent these disadvantages from happening. For

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instance, how a virtual world potentially could make people live in a virtualworld, rather than going out socializing in the real world, which can lead toboth loneliness and lower birthrate. It is also clear to see, that virtual realityheadset is becoming more popular these days, and it may there by be worthto find alternative solutions, that can bring games and gaming to the nextlevel, but also be used in different and unique ways, that virtual reality head-sets might not be capable of. Additional most of these technologies seems tobe based on a single player experience, rather than in anyway take advantageof multiplayer or social aspects of gaming. It would be interesting to makeit possible for players to be in a virtual world or game together, physically,as being together this way is the best way of socializing.

This has led to the following problem statement:

How can virtual reality technologies be used in new unique ways, that cantake advantage of social aspects where users can be together physically?

To answer this a game will be developed that uses virtual reality in a way,that makes it possible for players to be together physically, while playing thegame.

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2 System Design

After looking at the virtual reality opportunities in section 1.2, it seemsthat the virtual reality headsets, is currently taking over on the market. Asaddressed earlier, there is a concern when it comes to the social interaction,between humans when using these headsets.

After looking more into ”the cave” and 360 videos, it seems like an in-novative idea to have the possibility to step into a room with one or morepeople, and play a game together this way. Besides that it is possible to beused for, for instance videos or presentations, and since it can be designedinside a room, it is possible to add furnitures, or maybe even put rooms nextto each other.

When it comes to consumers, a system like this might be expensive for aneveryday consumer. It will mostly be a system, that can be set up in publicareas, and people can rent the room or pay by hour of usage, like they woulddo in a net cafe, laser tag or other spare time amusements.

2.1 The Setup

Finding a place to setup a room like this was somewhat easy. From aninternship at a company called Brainstorm Crossmedia, which specializes invideo production, and the past years have started to look into the possibilitiesof 360 videos in what they call ”experience rooms”, it was possible to lendtheir equipment. After talking to them about how their design and ideas,could be extended with games in the experience room, and the potentialfor social interactive experiences, an agreement was established to use theirequipment and develop a game prototype in collaboration.

Although the room is only in a prototype state, there is already plans onhow the room can be set up and used, which hardware should be used andthe benefits of such room.

This chapter is written in collaboration with Brainstorm Crossmedia,information and knowledge in this chapter is partly gathered from brainstorm

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crossmedia.

2.2 Hardware

To be able to make the experience room, it is important to understand whichhardware is needed, as well as the possibilities to use these. The followingsections will discuss and talk about what is minimum viable and necessary,to make it possible to play games in the room, and possibilities to make itpossible to interact even more with the game within the room.

2.2.1 Server

The server, or host computer, that is, the computer that is running thegame and software, need to be powerful enough to handle multiple displayoutputs, but also have the power for a game to be rendered to four or moreoutputs at once. It have been suggested that alternatively a server could besetup, that could stream video to the screens, which could be connected toraspberry pies, however for gaming, the latency and delay this can create,might be noticeable, as well as both input and output needs to go back andforth between multiple computers, which therefore suggest a single dedicatedcomputer seems much more doable.

The computer need to handle high graphics output, which means it willneed a high performance graphic card, such as nVidia GeForce GTX980(ti)or AMD Radeon R9 Fury, possibly even in SLI or crossfire configuration.Additional a high performance CPU (minimum a quad core) is needed tohandle the software and input devices. Lastly a sound card with 5.1 surroundsupport, is needed for the full immersion in the room. Custom drivers couldbe made, which could make it possible to determine, which speakers thesounds should come from, depending on the people within the room, if theirmovement were tracked, but this would only be needed for 3D sounds in angame environment, where you would move/turn around, as this would makeit so the sound sources, differentiate from the speakers in the room, but it isa design limitations which should be considered.

2.2.2 Projectors

There is multiple options for screens in the experience room, but probablythe best and most viable solution, would be projectors as these can createlarge images, at a relatively short distance. There exist a variety of differentprojectors, which generally is called normal throw, short throw and ultra

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short throw. As can be seen in Figure 2.1 the most viable solution is theultrashort, as others projectors might be blocked by people within the room,which could ruin the immersion and experience of being in the room.

Figure 2.1: The figure illustrates the types of projectors which can be usedin the room and the size of the image displayed. The figure is created byBrainstorm Crossmedia

A possibility to completely eliminate the problem with a person walkingin front of the projectors and blocking the light, is to setup the projectorsso that the screens will be backlit, similar to modern LED monitors. Thedownside of this is that walls can not be used as screens, and to a setup likethis, would require a semi-transparent canvas, all around the people usingthe room. Additionally there should be approximately a 80 cm. distance,from the canvas to the projectors, which means that a setup of a room wouldhappen within a room, using these semi-transparent canvases.

2.2.3 Accessories

As part of the room, different accessories can be use to interact with theroom and game.

The first thing that comes to mind is an kinect, as this motion tracker isknown for its capabilities in gaming, and is often a go to when talking about

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motion tracking. The kinect comes with one huge disadvantages, which isthat the kinect camera needs to be placed roughly in chest height, whichmight ruin the experience and immersion for the player(s).

Another possibility is gamepads, but rather than using normal controllersand/or joysticks, a possibility would be to specially design accessories, thatmatches the game. A prime example could be a shooter game could use agun, which would make it possible to aim at the screen, and with a click ona trigger, could send input to the game, with a direction vector of where theplayer is shooting, for instance using infrared sensors, gyroscopes or similar.

Alternatively to gamepads, tables or phones could be used, as a multidevice input option to interact with the game. Using a tablet or phone thisway could also make it possible, to create some sort of argumented reality,as illustrated in Figure 2.2, where looking through the phone or tablet couldshow more information, which can be used in the game. The downside of thisis, that an app for the phone and tablets would be needed to be developed,and walking around with a phone or tablet within the room might as wellruins the experience, is there was to come messages or notifications.

Figure 2.2: The figure shows an illustration of argumented reality using atablet

Lastly there is the possibility of using a laser for interaction. A laser works

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by sending pulses of light and pick up the reflected light, and can therebymeasure the distance from the laser to the object blocking the light. Withthe laser it would be possible to interact on a 2D surface and use multitouchgestures, which means that it can be possible to make hand gestures, withinthe laser zone and interact with the game in this way.

2.3 The Experience Room Prototype

After consideration and planning, a basic prototype was developed withBrainstorm of the actual room. The room is in its current state basic, butworks generally impeccably. The host pc consist of an Intel I7 4770k proces-sor, NVidia GTX 780TI graphics card, and 16 gigabytes of ram.

To the pc, four ”Nec um301w” ultra short throw Projectors is connected,which each have a resolution of 1280x800, and by using NVidia’s driver soft-ware, the four projectors is connected together in a surround display config-uration, which makes the system register multiple screens as a single screen,and brings the display size up to 5120x800, which is an aspect ration of 64:10.

As illustrated in Figure 2.3, all projectors is placed roughly 60 cm. awayfrom a semi-transparent canvas, all placed outside the room, so the walls arebacklit, which can be seen in Figure 2.4. The projectors creates an image onthe canvas which is roughly 2 meters long and 1,2 meter wide.

Figure 2.3: An illustration of the experience room, the square representthe roughly four square meters space the players can walk around in, andoutside the projectors is setup as backlight on a semi transparent canvas,which creates the room.

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Figure 2.4: Camera images of the actual experience room prototype.

2.4 Games in 360 Degree

Although virtual reality is far from new, it have been impossible to find anysort of games, made for a room such as this. The closest find is the HTCVive, which allow to map out a 5x5 meter play area, that lets the playermove around within, and can be tracked within the game. Similar rooms,such as the cave, have seen use for architects, to be able to take a look insidetheir creations in a virtual environment, which is the closest to an interactiveexperience in a 360 environment, that could be found.

There might already be, or have been attempts to make a gaming envi-ronment such as this before, but after some hours of searching, without anyresult with games in focus, it is hard to say if this is a completely new field ingaming, or merely just a extension on work that could not be found online.

Without any previous work found in this field or anything to work from,it gives a chance to think outside the box, as making a game in the experienceroom would require the possibilities to think in new directions. Most gameswould be played in front of a computer, and would most likely not work wellin an environment such as this. Using a kinect, touch input on the walls,motion tracking, treadmills or similar technologies to give a more immersiveexperience, could be a viable option as these accessories could be availablein a room like this. However, due to budget limitations and time restraintsthe focus will be on making a game that can be played in this environment,as well as an API that makes it possible to render a game in the experienceroom, and use the tools a game engine offers, extending these to make itpossible to display a game all around the players.

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3 Game Design Document

For most games, it is important to have a general idea of what should beincluded, as well as knowledge about tools and external libraries. For this agame design document is often used when making larger games. This chapterwill be used as a basic game design document, to explain tools and some ideasfor games that could be developed for this project.

3.1 Technologies

The game will developed in Unity3D [16], as Unity3D is a free, yet powerfulgame engine for 2D and 3D games. Besides being free Unity3D also has ahuge community that are helpful, and able to provide help and knowledge if itwill ever be needed. Unity3D also have the possibility to target a wide rangeof platforms, so that the finished product can be deployed on almost anyplatform. Unity3D uses the Mono Development and the .NET framework,that Mono comes with. This means that all scripting is in C# but are notlimited to this as others .NET languages have been implemented, those beingUnityScript and Boo Script. For this project C# will be used as the mainlanguage.

3.2 Unity and Virtual Reality

Unity3D already comes with support for most, if not all modern virtualreality headsets. Unity3D often seems to be out early, to make agreementswith companies, so that they can have the APIs ready for launch day.

Even with Unity having support for most virtual reality headsets, thereis not a native out of the box support for 360 video recording or rendering,which means an alternative must be found.

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3.3 Unity and 360 Degree Video/Games

Even though Unity3D does not have native support for 360 video recording,there exist a plugin called ”360 Panorama Capture”, which render out images,which can be rendered to a video in 360 format. After looking into thisimplementation, it was seen that it render out a single whole image to aspheremap, which is standard for 360 video.

Even though that it could be possible to use a render texture, which cantake the image output and display on the screen, rendering a single framewith this plugin took with a approximate average half a second. Besides that,the plugin only seems to be supported in the Unity editor, so a standaloneversion would not be able to render out any frames.

The plugin seems however to be useful for 360 video recording, but a testshowed that, rending out the images and rendering to a 360 video, took atotal of 30 minutes for a 25 seconds video, using FFMEGP to output thevideo.

After playing some more with the plugin, it was clear that it could not beused for this project, partly due to the time it take to render a single frame,and mainly due to the fact, that it did not work in a stand alone version.

Looking at Unity’s built-in camera, it was also clear that a single cam-era can not display a game in 360 degree, due to the camera field of viewlimitation is set to 179 degrees at maximum. Alternatively multiple camerascould be used, but it is important to note, that this would require additionalrendering power, as each camera will render what it sees, which can resultin a performance problem. Alternatively render textures can be used, butusing render textures is also a performance heavy process, especially if mul-tiple images needs to be stitched together on the screen. Additionally, usingrender textures can give problems when it comes to game interactions, as youwould not interact with the game as such, but a texture on a plane surface.

To render the environment in the experience room, a lot of thoughts andthinking will be needed. While the Camera might be performance heavy,using render textures will suffer on the interaction, and the lack of pluginsfor 360 rending/video, which also only seems to work in the editor and notstandalone games, makes it even harder.

The general idea right now is multiple cameras, which can be setup sothey can display the whole environment around the player(s), seems the mostuseful for the project, as interaction is a important concept in any game.

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3.4 External Libraries and Assets

As this project is worked out by one person, over the course of 10 weeks,some external assets and libraries will be used. As already mentioned ”360Panorama Capture” have been used to render out videos together with FFM-PEG, but is not as such used directly in the project.

Additionally, most, if not all, 3D models, and textures/sprites will bedownloaded from Unity’s assets store, which does have multiple great free3D models.

Most code and scripts for the game will be developed from the bottom up,as well as an API/Unity3D Package, which can make it possible for othersin the future, to develop using this technology.

3.5 Game Ideas

As it have been impossible to find any similar project in a 360 environmentwith focus on games, it have been hard to find idea for games. However, aftertalking to some people, and hearing about their thoughts and ideas on theproject, a fine list started to pile up. Multiple ideas were remakes of alreadyexisting games, which is believe could work well in a 360 environment.

3.5.1 Cooperative Versus Competitive Gameplay

As the experience room would most likely be rented out to a group of peopleat a time, it seems like the best experience would be cooperative gameplay.If the players were to play against each other, and a player could die onlymid-game, that player’s experience might suffer due to the fact that he is nolonger playing the game, and in worst case he could possibly also ruin theexperience for his fellow players.

If competitive gameplay should be in the game, the best way would prob-ably be to let it be in a form of a highscore, achievements, or individualcompetition between the players, as the game should compliment people be-ing physically together, and the effort the player(s) makes as a team.

This also mean that if a single player could die in a game, it seems oddif that player is out of the game for good, especially also due to the possibleskill curve between players, that is, if one player is new to the game and havea hard time learning and keeping alive, where others might stay alive for along time, and being the first to die is never fun, and waiting for the rest todie would possibly create a negative effects. If a player can die it should betemporally, so the player can jump back into the fun with the other players,

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but also without punishing the other player(s), in ways such that they mayexclude the ”bad” player from their team or create rivalry.

Cooperative gameplay does not necessary mean that all players need tohave the same goals, or work together non-stop. In fact all players mightwork together but have individual goals that may or may not, be possiblefor all players to complete. This sort of cooperative gameplay can howevercreate some rivalry and chaos between players, which also may make theunderdog in a group be the strong captain in the game, which all might needto keep alive and are dependent on, to complete their objective. The captainmight want to do his own objective, which might make the crew want to gointo mutiny, and others might need to captain to survive to complete theirobjectives.

With these thoughts in mind a lot of ideas were excluded or changed.Some ideas included permanent death to players, were completely removed,and others slightly changed to make it possible to revive or heal ”dead”players, which rather could be knocked out than dead, and first end if allplayers were dead/knocked out.

3.5.2 Defender Games

The very first idea that came to mind, is a defend the point game. As theplayer(s) are surrounded by the game, it would be interesting to put thethem in the middle of the game and just throw enemies at the player(s). Theplayer(s) would then need to stand their ground until they either fall pray tothe enemies, die, or have met a victory condition. A game such as this couldtake place in a zombie apocalypse, on a space ship or even a pirate ship.

Using a kinect or infrared cameras could make it possible to use customcreated controllers, such as plastic guns, which could send inputs wireless tothe PC, and the cameras could send information about the players’ positions,and where they aim with the gun.

The game might make players communicate, where the enemies are com-ing from, and where some of the players might be needed with their weapons,if they have been knocked out or need help. This will also give the possi-bility for strategic thinking in picking weapons, and the need to use specificweapons depending on enemies or range.

The game can simply end when all player(s) have been knocked out or aredead, and enemies can spawn infinitely, or in waves where after each waveplayer(s) can upgrade weapons and/or change weapons to make the gameslightly more strategic.

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3.5.3 Escape Games

A spare time experience, that currently is growing forth all over the world, isthe ”Escape Games”. The games have one simple goal, which is for a groupof players, to escape from a place they have been trapped at, by finding cluesand solving puzzles, which can grant them back the freedom.

Usually you are giving a single hour to escape, but is not necessarilylimited to a single hour, or the need to escape from a place they have beentrapped at. Other escape games makes you solve mysteries about a place, asthe players takes the roles of detectives.

The base principles of such games could easily be adapted to a virtualexperience, where the players would need to interact with the game environ-ment all around them to find clues. Further more, as there could be extraplace in the experience room, real props could be used, so that you wouldneed to find some clues in the interactive game world, to open a real lockin the room you’re in, and maybe have clues in the real items, which couldsolve puzzles in the game world.

A game as this would possibly not be the hardest to make, but a lot ofthoughts and consideration would need to be putted into the puzzles, forthem to not be boring, nor too hard. Additionally a story would be neededto written out, which would create the sense of confusion and mystery aboutthe place.

3.5.4 Defuse the Bomb

After the success of ”Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes”, which is a bombdefuse game where one person is sitting with a bomb, and one or more peoplewith a bomb manual to guide the person sitting with the bomb, on how todisarm the bomb without it blowing up, it only seemed obvious to mentiona game like this.

An idea was to make a game similar to this, where each player could geta manual and have bombs around them. The manuals could all be different,and some of them have misprint, that other manuals would say is wrong.

A game as this will focus on one common goal, and require a lot oftalking between the players and cooperations, as one mistake might blow upthe bomb(s).

Again this is a fairly simple game, but a lot of thoughts and considerationneeds to be made to both the puzzles and the manual, on how to defuse thebomb.

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3.5.5 Exploration/Dungeon Crawling

Rogue-like dungeon crawler games have been a huge part of games for manyyears, and lots of games still to this day uses rogue-like elements in termsof randomization and permanent death. To have the player(s) explorer arandomized world, maze or dungeon could in its self be a interesting idea, butextending on it, to for instance be based on games like ”Darkest Dungeon”,which is a dungeon crawler combined with roleplaying game elements, whereyou have a party of multiple people fighting together versus monsters thedungeon throws at you, could be a possibility.

A game such as this is some what more complex, and the interaction withusing abilities and fighting with magic, might be hard to simulate without agamepad/game controller.

The exploration aspect could be a fun way to interact and work togetheras player(s), and the possibility to maybe complete some quest, and see someamazing fantasy places, could really appeal to the adventurous player(s), thatlikes to just walk around without limitations in an open world.

3.5.6 Story/Scenario Based Games

After a meeting with the supervisor for this project, another idea werethought of. This idea consisted of a scenario where the player would beon a spaceship, and each set into different roles, where the players through-out the game, will learn more about each others’ characters, which mightboth be grim details or useful informations.

The game would take focus in player coming to terms with each other, ormaybe even sacrifice someone for the greater goods of the others. The goalwould be to get the most points, depending on different outcome throughoutthe scenario.

Making this into an intractable game, would require a good amount ofthinking, both to write a story the player(s) would go through, but alsoobstacle the players will face in the game.

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4 Implementation

After having the room designed and looking into some possible game ideas,it is time to look at the implementation part. Besides the need to render 360degree gameplay, multiple things such as user interface and some calculations,which can make it possible to interact with the game and room in differentways as a user.

First and most important a frame work or API will be implemented. Itshould make it possible to both render the game onto the screens in theexperience room, but also make it possible to interact with the game. Nextit was then decided to make a tiny tech-demo to test the 360 rendering, anda shooting game where you stand your ground and defend a point for as longas possible.

4.1 Rendering 360 Degrees

As mentioned in section 3.3, the rendering of the game would need to bethought out carefully. It was tested if it could be possible to use Unity’s”RenderToCubemap” method, that render a static image, which is usuallyuseful for ”baking” static cube-maps of a scene, to either a cube-map or asphere-map. However, this process was very heavy, and ended out in causinga frame rate below 20, which would cause a game to be close to unplayable.The other possible solution, that in the end seemed to work well, was to usefour cameras, which each render an individual wall in the experience room.This solution also makes it easier to implement interactions in that game,as the cubemaps/static images would need to redirect input to the gameworld, as everything displayed would just be images. There might be otherpossibilities to render a 360 environment with a better performance, but ithave not been possible to find any better alternatives, which also have thebenefits of making the interactions within the game work well.

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4.1.1 Camera Field of View

With the usage of multiple cameras it also means more rendering, as eachcamera will render only parts of the screen. With all the cameras operating,the game runs at a solid frame rate of 30-40 frames per second, in the ex-perience room prototype, which is very playable, however the host computercurrently does have an older graphics card and only one, where the finalproduct would have better and/or multiple graphics cards.

Each of the four camera is assigned to a child object of a parent objectcalled 360Camera, and unlike the real world, all cameras can be places on theexact same position, and rotated 90 degree, which makes it so the camera ispointing toward X+, X-, Z+ and Z- (in scene world space). Next each cameraneed to be stitched together, such that each screen render a horizontal fieldof view of 90 degrees. However, Unity only allow assignment of vertical fieldof view, which mean that it is needed to convert the vertical field of viewto horizontal, by using the field of view conversion equation, which can beseen in Equations 4.1, 4.2 and 4.3, where r is the aspect ratio, w and h thescreen size (width and hight), and H and V the field of view (Horizontal andVertical).

r =w

h=

tan(H2

)tan

(V2

) (4.1)

H = 2atan

(tan

(V

2

)× w

h

)(4.2)

V = 2atan

(tan

(H

2

)× h

w

)(4.3)

By using Equation 4.3 and assigning H to be 90, it is possible to findthe suitable vertical field of view, which is can be assigned to the cameras inUnity. Next the viewports, that is where and how much each camera shoulddisplay on the screen, is adjusted such that, each camera render 25% of thescreen, and with 25% screen distance between each other. As can be seen inFigure 4.1 the four cameras now creates a cube, as each camera is rotatedexactly 90 degree according to each other, and the horizontal field of view isalso 90 degree, which creates 360 degree rendering. This makes it such thatthe camera now creates a panoramic image across the screen(s) as seen inFigure 4.2.

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Figure 4.1: A scene view of the camera component which render 360 degree.

Figure 4.2: A game view of the rendered screen from the camera component.

4.1.2 Camera Functionality

The next important thing to consider is the functionality of the camera com-ponent in Unity, such that this functionality will work correctly in a 360environment. The cameras in Unity have the functionality to convert be-tween viewport, screen, and world space, which is often used method tointeract between the game world and the 2D screen space, which often showsthe graphical user interface, to for instance, shoot from a crosshiar objecton screen onto the world, or display where an enemy is shooting from bydisplaying feedback on the screen.

Using each of these method needs to be relative to the camera, that acertain object is seen by. This means that it is needed to find a certaincamera from the parameters, which should also be used by that camera, toconvert between the different spaces. The cameras are set up so they canbe accessed by index, from left to right (according to the screen). Using thecode in Listing 4.1, makes it is possible to find the correct camera index fora screen position.

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1 public Camera ScreenPositionToCamera ( Vector3 pos )2 {3 return this . t rans form . GetChild ( Mathf . FloorToInt (

Mathf . Abs ( pos . x / ( ( f loat ) Screen . width / 4 .0 f ) ) )% 4) . GetComponent<Camera>() ;

4 }

Listing 4.1: The code which finds the camera according to a position on thescreen.

Next there is the viewport to a camera, as seen in Listing 4.2. Viewportis a value between zero and one that represent a percentage. This percentagerepresent a position on the screen, relative to the a percentage of the screensize. For instance point (0.5,0.5) would be exactly in the middle of the screen.

1 public Camera ViewportPositionToCamera ( Vector3 pos )2 {3 return this . t rans form . GetChild ( Mathf . FloorToInt (

Mathf . Abs ( pos . x ∗ 4) ) % 4) . GetComponent<Camera>() ;

4 }

Listing 4.2: The code which finds the camera according to a viewportposition.

Lastly there is World position to camera, which is slightly more tricky asit is a place in a three dimensional world space, projected on to the screenspace. As seen in Listing 4.3, trigonometry have been used to find wherean object is in the world according to the cameras. Depending on the anglebetween the camera360 component and the position, it is possible to findout, which camera sees a certain object or point in world space.

1 public Camera WorldPositionToCamera ( Vector3 pos )2 {3 Vector3 vec = new Vector3 ( ( ( Mathf . Atan2 ( pos . y −

this . t rans form . p o s i t i o n . y , pos . z − this .t rans form . p o s i t i o n . z ) ∗ Mathf . Rad2Deg) + 180 .0 f )% 360 .0 f ,

4 ( ( Mathf . Atan2 ( pos . x − this . t rans form . p o s i t i o n . x ,pos . z − this . t rans form . p o s i t i o n . z ) ∗ Mathf .Rad2Deg) + 180 .0 f ) % 360 .0 f ,

5 ( ( Mathf . Atan2 ( pos . x − this . t rans form . p o s i t i o n . x ,pos . y − this . t rans form . p o s i t i o n . y ) ∗ Mathf .Rad2Deg) + 180 .0 f ) % 360 .0 f ) ;

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67 i f ( vec . y > 315 && vec . y <= 45)8 {9 return this . t rans form . GetChild (2 ) . GetComponent<

Camera>() ;10 }11 else i f ( vec . y > 45 && vec . y <= 135)12 {13 return this . t rans form . GetChild (0 ) . GetComponent<



Camera>() ;22 }23 return Camera . main ;24 }

Listing 4.3: The code which finds the camera according to a position in worldspace.

4.1.3 Extending the Camera to Roof and Floor

Although the experience room is currently in a prototype stage, the goal is tohave the possibility to add imagery both above and below the people insidethe room. To do this additional two cameras would be needed to cover thelast two directions, up and down.

As this can not be tested, nor used currently in the prototype, the primefocus will not be on implementing this. It is however, important to note thatthis is completely possible to do so, as long as the hardware allows it.

Unlike the 4 other cameras the two cameras needs to be setup slightlydifferent. First the camera pointing up should be rotated 90 degrees on the Xaxis, and the camera pointing down -90 degrees. Secondly, the field of viewEquation 4.3 is used to find the vertical field of view, which is then subtractedfrom 180 to find the suitable field of view, for the roof and floor camera. Next

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the far clipping plane, that is how far the camera should render, is calculatedusing Equation 4.4 where f is the far clipping plane, h and w is the screenhight and width, n the total numbers of cameras, which is often six, two foreach axis, and t which is the target far clipping plane, that is the default farclipping plane for the four cameras rendering the walls.

f =h(wn

) × t (4.4)

Lastly the viewport width is set to the screen hight divided by the screenwidth, and the offset is set to the percentage of one divided by the number ofcameras, and then the view port width divided by two is added to this, suchthat the sides will be black, as the roof and floor will be perfect squares.

4.2 Graphical User Interface

A challenging part of games in a 360 degree environment, is to make itpossible to display the graphical user interface, or rather the interface whichneed to be moved all the way around the room, for instance a crosshair or textsliding around the screens. In Unity3D and most modern game engines usesa canvas system, which basically is 2D sprites displayed on the screen. Thecanvas displaying the interface is often the size of the screen, this meaningthe canvas will stretch over all the cameras. As all the cameras are next toeach other and technically not set together in a way, that makes it so when ainterface object come to the end of the screen it will come back on the otherside, a script need to be made that makes this possible.

To overcome this issue of the intractable interface not being able to goout the canvas and come back in on the opposite side, the script in Listing 4.4have been developed to take care of handling the object leaving the canvasborders, and cloning the object to enter the other side of the screen.

1 void Update ( )2 {3 i f ( width360 )4 {5 i f ( ! isGameObjectSpawned && this . GetComponent<

RectTransform >() . p o s i t i o n . x < 0 + ( s izeX /2 .0 f ) )

6 {7 SpawnObject (new Vector3 ( this . t rans form .

p o s i t i o n . x + GetCanvasWidth ( ) , this .

27


trans form . p o s i t i o n . y , this . t rans form .p o s i t i o n . z ) ) ;

8 }9 else i f ( ! isGameObjectSpawned && this .

GetComponent<RectTransform >() . p o s i t i o n . x >GetCanvasWidth ( ) − ( s izeX / 2 .0 f ) )

10 {11 SpawnObject (new Vector3 ( this . t rans form .

p o s i t i o n . x − GetCanvasWidth ( ) , this .t rans form . p o s i t i o n . y , this . t rans form .p o s i t i o n . z ) ) ;

12 }1314 i f ( this . GetComponent<RectTransform >() . p o s i t i o n .

x < −( s izeX / 2 .0 f ) && isGameObjectSpawned )15 {16 GameObject . Destroy ( this . gameObject ) ;17 }18 else i f ( this . GetComponent<RectTransform >() .

p o s i t i o n . x > ( GetCanvasWidth ( ) + ( s izeX / 2 .0f ) ) && isGameObjectSpawned )

19 {20 GameObject . Destroy ( this . gameObject ) ;21 }22 }23 }

Listing 4.4: Code snippet from the update method in the Gui360 script.

The way the code works is to check at every frame, if parts of the interfaceobject have moved outside of the specified area. If the object is outside ofthe area, a clone will be created of that object, unless a clone already havebeen created. When a object is completely outside the canvas, and cant beseen anymore, that object is removed.

The code is currently not functioning with roof and floor, due to this havea low priority. However extending it would be some what straight forward, asthe code from Listing 4.4 would be reused to check on the Y axis. Additionalthere should be a few changes to where the borders is and when an objectis outside this border, and where is should spawn on an other screen, whenpart of the object is outside the borders.

Alternatively each camera could have its very own canvas, which couldsimplify things with roof and floor, but the problem is much more checks

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need to be made, and objects needed to be cloned and destroyed, which isa slightly performance heavy task, each time it enter or exit the camera’sviewport.

4.3 The Tech-Demo

The tech demo was a fast experiment, using the 360 rendering and 3D soundsto test the experience room and the rendering possibilities. This small demotakes place in space with a few event, such as comet fly by and spaceshipfights. The demo can not be interacted with and mainly play as a movie,which shows the possibilities of the system.

The tech demo also shows a problem with the build in particle effects inunity3D, which is that particles are 2D billboarding textures, rather thanbeing volumetric, which does creates a few artifacts and strange graphicalglitches, which was suspected. Making an alternative particle system whichcould make volumetric particles was decided to be of minor priority as thiscould be a whole topic for it self.

4.4 Zombie Shooter Game

Although far from finish and release ready, the zombie shooter have beenthe prime focus on making the experience room interactive. The game is adefend the point game where the only objective is to stay alive for as long aspossible, while killing the hordes of zombies running towards the players.

In a meeting with brainstorm we agreed that rather than being a seriouszombie horror game, it was decided that a slightly more arcade feel to thegame would suit the system better.

4.4.1 Game Setup

When starting the game the player(s) are represented with a ”press startto join” text, which when start is pressed creates the setup interface seenin Figure 4.3, and setup the controller that pressed start, to be used withcertain components on screen. The game can currently have 4 players atmaximum, due to the experience room prototype otherwise would be toocrowded.

As seen on Figure 4.3 there’s a ready system, where all players must settheir state to yes for the game to start. This system is made so all playerscan join in and have time to prepare themselves, rather than having a timer

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count down and stress the players instantly. This also gives the players achance to discuss tactics, and what kind of weaponry they should pick forthe best outcome.

Figure 4.3: The setup screen with the possibility for 4 players to to play thegame at this point.

4.4.2 The player(s)

Each player in the game is represented by a selected weapon and a crosshairof a chosen color in the game, and can move the weapon and crosshair aroundby using the joystick on the controller. Each player have a life pool, and couldhave the possibility of being knocked out or killed in the game.

Each player also have the possibility to have multiple weapons, eventuallypickups, which can empower them or make the able to do special one shotabilities, for instance throw grenades, heal team members or change weapon.

4.4.3 Weaponry

The players have the possibility in the beginning to select their weapon, whicheach have their own play style, one weapon might have a high firerate andlow accuracy but have high damage, where another might empower damagewhen getting a headshot, and be extremely accurate but have low firerate.

It have also been made, but not entirely implemented, so it is possible tohave a melee weapon, so that when the enemies gets close to the player(s),the player(s) can use this weapon as an alternative, which each also could besetup with, each special ability.

Lastly an extra spot have been created, such that each player can pickup special items, which can either be permanent upgrades, items or weaponswhich can be used a limited amount of times.

4.4.4 Enemies

Currently the types of enemies are limited to zombie like creatures, but couldpotentially be extended to different creatures or monsters. All enemies havemultiple colliders attached to them, such that it is possible to check where a

30


player shoot a monster. This is done through raycasting from the crosshairinto the world, and then check if it hits an enemy, and which part of anenemy it hits. This raycast makes it possible to define different amount ofdamage, depending on where a player hits an enemy.

The enemies comes in waves, with each wave increasingly being harder, asmore enemies swarm in towards the players. When the enemies reaches theplayer(s), they will start attacking and damaging a player until all playersare knocked out or are dead, where the game will come to an end.

4.4.5 Gameplay

The gameplay of the zombie shooter is fairly simple, yet it seems addictingto the players, which will be talked more about in Chapter 5. The rulesare simple, and the mechanics are limited, which means those few mechanicsimplemented need to work well for the game to be fun. A game doesn’tneed 10 different mechanics to be a good game, often this only complicatesthe game even more, rather than having few mechanics, which works welltogether. Few mechanics also makes it possible to pick up a game relativelyeasy, even if the player have no previously experience with games.

Currently the gameplay mainly consist of the players shooting the zombiescoming towards them, as seen in Figure 4.4, and the players communicating,how they should take care of the hordes swarming in, while managing theresources at hand.

Figure 4.4: A screen from within the game with a single player playing.

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5 Testing

At the end of the project period, the experience room prototype was setupat a college in Aalborg for testing purposes. Being at the place and talkingto the users of the room, gave a good insight in the user experience whenusing the room and game. The testing period ran over a weekend (3 days)and there was roughly 20 different people trying the game in total. All testpersons or groups were also interviewed and asked a few questions about theirexperience, both in the room but also with other forms of virtual reality, aswell as general thoughts and improvements they had in mind.

5.1 General thoughts

After each session in the experience room, the group of users were asked abouttheir general thoughts about the game and room. The majority replied withthey thought the game were fun and the concept of 360 degree immersionhad huge potential. Others said that they would like the game to have somemore to it, as they thought it would get repetitive after a few games andcould need more work, which makes sense as it is a repetitive game in itscurrent state.

Some users also mentioned that it created a slight confusion to play agame like this, which might be due to the fact that it is a new way of playing,and that it is completely different than anything else, as they needed to movetheir whole body rather than a mouse and keyboard. The confusion mightalso be a good thing, as it makes the user think in new ways of playing,and need to take advantage of the 360 degree display with their teammates.It would also make sense, that people could feel a bit confused in an newenvironment, with enemies attack from all sides, so having this feeling mightadd to the experience. The users was also asked if the confusion element wasruining the experience, to which all said no and talked about, it was rathera thing about getting used to be able to look all around them.

A few users also commented about the game graphics and the quality of

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the display, which would be more a question of better hardware and assetdesigners, but they also said that the graphics is not everything in a game,and the slightly low graphics made it feel much more like an arcade system,which they did mentioned they really liked.

5.2 Usability

When the users entered the experience room, they were all handed a xboxcontroller and got an explanation on the button layout, and how they shoulduse the controller to interact with the game. After this they were on theirown, besides some of the group being slightly monitored, while in the room.The users were all asked about how easy they thought the game was to pickup and play and control. All users said it was easy or at least somewhat easyto learn and pick up, and even people would had barely ever had a controllerin their hands, said the game was easy to learn and pickup.

The users experience seems to be high, as even people with next to nogaming experience, could easily pick up the game and play it with next to noproblems, although some users did mention that the crosshair was slightlyhard to be precise with, and took a long time turning from one side of thescreen, to the other.

Some user did seem that they had a hard time understanding some ofthe weapons. As mention in Section 4.4 the weapon have different range andaccuracy when shooting, and when the users used the shotgun, which havean extremely low range they didn’t understand very well that they could nothit anything from afar. The same happen with the AK47 weapon, which isvery powerful but not very accurate, which also led to confusion as to whythey didn’t hit the enemies, or if they even hit the enemies at all. Lastlysome said they didn’t understand what led to game over and the playersdying as they didn’t see health anywhere.

Ways to fix this could simply be to have a screen, which explain how theweapons works including range and accuracy, which currently is not displayedin game. Secondly having some sort of feedback, for instance sounds, bloodsplats on the enemies, could make it easier for the players to see, that theyhit an enemy. Lastly having a health bar, or some similar indicator of howmuch damage the players have taken, could be implemented, such that theplayers can see how much health they have lost, or how close to death theyare.

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5.3 Socializing

As part of this project, the social aspect was partly in focus. It was seennearly in every game, that the players ended up in talking a lot to each other,warning each other where enemies came from and if they needed help. Someof the players playing didn’t know each other, and had never met before theyentered the experience room, yet they were able to have fun and get to knoweach other, through the game and establish a bit of communication betweenthe players.

The players were after trying the game, asked how they felt about thesocial aspect and interaction between them, where most of them said thatthey found it to be much better, than playing together online or sitting atan Internet party. Additional all said, when asked if they would take somefriends and visit a place and play a game in an environment like this, thatthey would like to go to a place where they could do this for some hours andhave a fun afternoon or evening with some friend, or even meet new people.One also said it could be a great way of meeting new people, with similarinterest.

5.4 Improvements

Besides the observations already mentioned in this chapter, the users had achance to mention what they would like to see improved about the experienceroom. A lot of the users mentioned that some sort of gun they could useto aim and shoot with, in game could both sort out the controller problemsmentioned about the precision and turning problems, but also increase theimmersion in the game.

Some of the users, mainly those who were in the room 4 at a time, talkedabout the room felt crowded and were too small when they needed to movearound, and would like a few extra square meters.

Some users also mentioned that a mix up in the gameplay, special enemiesor extra hard monsters could be really fun, especially if the players somehowcould take more advantage of the room space such that they tactically couldmove around or place them self places, which made it so they dodges attacksfrom an enemy. This would however, require some advance motion trackingdevices, to monitor the players every move, since it could easily lead tofrustration, if the motion detection is not precise.

Lastly some mentioned that it felt like, all that was needed is all the”small things”, which were hard to exactly know and get an idea what is,and what they referred to. Probably it is to make the game feel more like

34


a game than a prototype, and fix those problems, such as the players notknowing if they hit an enemy, fixing the accuracy on the weapons, and aslight improvement in graphics.

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6 Conclusion

It have been a great experience, to work on something as big as this projecthave been. The first thought about this project were, how much of a riskit could be to work on, as this first of all was new and never done beforewith games in mind. Additional it felt like a project that was hard to furtherdevelop on after the project period, and could have been hard to sell, as itlooked over ambitious. However after working with this project for this long,and having people trying the game with very positive feedback, it have beenworth both the chance and effort.

There have been a lot of learning about virtual reality, and even thoughit might not state it too much in this report, it have been a great insightin how gaming can be used for players to socialize, and how a game can bedesigned specific for this. As it was seen from the test, most player felt itwas a great way of socializing and work together as a team, and would evenprefer playing with some friends in the experience room, rather than using avirtual reality headset.

The way the game was needed to be developed, and the new way ofplaying a game, did open up for new ways of thinking about game design,and although the game is just in a prototype stage, there could be potentialsto further develop. There is also huge potentials to work on some of the ideasmention in chapter 3. All these ideas seems to be able to have huge potentialto work in the experience room, and all create difference experiences.

The solution that have been made to render the game to the 360 environ-ment, and the possibility for the interface to go all the way around, was foundto work well, and the game still ran smoothly. Although there probably stillcould be more to the API and script developed, they currently work for theprototype and can be extended as needed.

The project feel like it have been a success, and the outcome and chal-lenges it there have been, were bigger than expected. The interest is alsostill there for further development, both on this project but also on similarproject, and it could be fun to explorer the possibilities, for other games tobe played inside the experience room.

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6.1 Future Work

Although the project have been a success, there is still multiple things thatcould have been interesting topics to look into on this topic. Some if thesetopics would make the room and game even more immersive and fun to play,but was not included either due to some of the topics being outside the mainscope, or the time constrain.

One thing that could be very interesting, and some of the play testers alsomentioned was motion detection, or specialized controllers, which can be usedto aim with and translate this into the game. Additional to know where thepeople in the experience room are, would be great as this could make forgameplay, that utilizes the whole room to its advantages. Brainstorm doesalready have this in mind and wanted to try to set the room up with motiondetection, however they did not get the equipment within the project periodto actually be able to test or make anything with motion detection.

Some research on peoples problem solving skills, and how their social skillscould be improved by games, and in particular the games in the experienceroom, could be an interesting topic to actually see how much of a socialimpact of physically moving and being together, can have versus playingtogether over the internet, but also to see if the experience room could beused for more than just entertainment purposes. This is however, a researchtopic that is best suited psychology researchers.

Lastly, it would be great to see more games and research in this particulararea of making games, that is, in an environment that puts the player in thecenter with 360 degree immersion, both to reach a wider audience, but also tosee if other types of games works better, in an environment like this. To seeif there is other and better approaches to render a 360 degree environment,and alternatives to the virtual reality headsets, would also be a thing thatpotentially could make for great topics, for instance if rendering a spheremap could be a better solution.

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Acknowledgement

I wish to give a big thanks to Brain storm cross media for giving me thepossibility to use their equipment for this project as well as the cooperationwith them to make this project possible. Without them this project wouldnot have been possible.

Additionally I wanna give a big thanks to my supervisor Simon Kongshøjwhich have helped and giving advise on the project.

Lastly a big thanks to the ones who wanted to correct my grammar andspelling errors in the report.

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Bibliography

[1] Mark E Koltko-Rivera. The potential societal impact of virtual real-ity. Advances in virtual environments technology: Musings on design,evaluation, and applications, 9, 2005.

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Apendix

Source Code

A copy of the source code can be downloaded here:https://bitbucket.org/Jackie0100/vr360room/

It can also be forked from git by cloning the following repository:https://[email protected]/Jackie0100/vr360room.git

Unity3D version 5.3 or newer is needed to open the project and is avail-able for free on Unity3D’s home page.

In case of broken link(s) please contact [email protected]

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