Gameplay and Design Issues in Outdoor Augmented Reality

Gameplay and Design Issues in Outdoor Augmented Reality Games

SPEAKERS: Assoc. Prof. Bruce Thomas Director of Wearable Computer Lab, Uni. SA Chief Technical Officer, a_rage pty ltd Dr. Wayne Piekarski, Assoc Director, WCL Director of Research, a_rage pty ltd Benjamin Avery Uni. SA Computer and Information Science Honours student, WCL Lead Game Programmer, a_rage pty ltd Joe Velikovsky Creative Director & Game Design Lead, a_rage pty ltd

OVERVIEW: 3 AR Game Case Studies ARQuake – Assoc Prof Bruce Thomas 3 -D Moon Lander & the ARAGE Hardware – Ben Avery 3 -D Sky Invaders – Joe Velikovsky

Gameplay & Design Issues in Outdoor Augmented Reality Games Case Study: ARQuake Assoc. Prof. Bruce Thomas, WCL Uni. SA

What do people like & dislike about ARQuake? • What aspects of the game should be highlighted? • What should be avoided?

ARQuake in a nutshell: • Built in 2000, first `Outdoor AR GPS’ game • Take a desktop pc First-Person-Shooter game and modify it - to be used as an indoor/outdoor AR game. • Track the user’s head orientation and position in an indoor/outdoor setting. • Player, NPCs (Critters, Monsters), & Game Objects (Health, Guns, Armour, Ammo) are all rendered normally. • Model physical buildings - and render the game walls black, co-located with physical walls.

ARQuake in a nutshell: • Black will appear transparent in HMD to the user, but the rendered black graphics will occlude monsters, critters and game objects. • Virtual walls, corridors, pillars, and doors are all still rendered. • As the user walks around the physical world moving their head, the game will update with this orientation and position information.

Original/Desktop Quake

Augmented Reality:

Non-AR View:

AR View:

Example Critters: Quake vs ARQuake

demon New textures Old textures

enforcer

soldier

zombie

ARQuake In-Game Footage: Video 1

Field of View (FOV) • FOV of the HMD was 24 degrees horizontal – Necessitated excessive head-turning by the users. – thought to be “extremely narrow”. • FOV of 90 degrees – commented that this felt much better. – Registration problems. • FOV of 120 degrees. – “weird”; difference in parallax: physical virtual - uncomfortable.

Visuals That Worked Well • Floating objects worked well: – “they looked like they belonged in the game world. ” – Users simply accepted them as part of the game. • One effect the users liked was flames: – “the fire in ARQuake looked pretty good” and “it looked genuinely like fire. ”

Walking Around • Users were able to walk through the virtual walls. – “Walking through walls, while being an interesting idea…. . It looked solid, but I wasn't worried about walking through it because I knew that there was a room on the other side. Strangely enough, I didn't want to go out the other side…. ” • One user noticed at one point, they were physically walking up a hill, but the game depicted flat ground. They stated it seemed to feel, while unexpected, easier to walk up because it looked flat.

Interaction • Users experienced difficulties picking objects up. – Objects “tantalizingly” within arm’s reach, but could not be picked up. – This problem became quite frustrating for some of the users. • Opening and closing doors - not difficult • Flying monsters require the correct weapon and strategy

Conclusion: • • Users overall, enjoyed ARQuake Issues with Field Of View. Small orientation errors - quite noticeable. The standard shape of doors & corridors in Quake worlds - not well-suited to ARQuake. The world feels better to the user, if it is brightly-lit. Use of skybox/sky colour should be avoided. Users did not like the use of shadows. Floating objects work quite well in ARQuake.

A Study of Performance of Consumer Level Hardware for Outdoor Augmented Reality Gaming by Benjamin Avery Supervisor: Assoc Prof Bruce Thomas Assoc. Supervisor: Dr Wayne Piekarski

This Presentation: • • • Background AR On-The-Cheap Game Technology Example AR Game: 3 D Moon Lander Conclusion

a-rage • Research for a-rage AR game dev company • a_rage & ITEK provided scholarship for studies

Background: • Augmented Reality is: the overlay of computer-generated images onto the real world, using a Head Mounted Display

Other Indoor AR Games Examples of Indoor AR games: • • • Aqua. Gauntlet AR 2 Hockey MIND-WARPING Touch. Space etc

Indoor is Easy: • Trackers can be tethered • Very accurate trackers available • Controlled environment Image courtesy polhemus. com

Outdoor is Harder: • • • Unpredictable environments Lower-accuracy trackers Limited computer power Limited power Mobility and reliability OST vs VST HMDs

Outdoor AR Games Only two real examples: – ARQuake – Human Pacman

…I want one at home? • Expensive systems exist • Accurate tracking(50 cm), high-resolution, compact • Cost: AU$20, 000 • Too expensive for kids to play games on! • Need a consumerlevel alternative

The Question: Can AR games be designed and implemented, in such a way as to make them playable on low-performance level hardware?

AR `On-The-Cheap’ Our consumer-level hardware system: Possible cost: ~$500

What problems does this cause? • • Cheap GPS is only accurate to 5 meters Trackers ‘drift’ PAL/NTSC resolution Limited input so: • in your backyard is not yet possible…

Game Design vs AR Technology! • Make the game fit the hardware limitations – eg. OST - ‘ghosts’ in Ghosts of Sweet Auburn • GPS ‘snap-to’ grid system, with hysteresis • Picking the correct tracker • Avoid registration with the real world

3 -D Moon Lander • Example AR game - demonstrating the concepts • Based on 1979 Atari game Lunar Lander - and pc clones

GPS Snap-To: Video

Conclusion • Many games can be designed to work on this hardware platform • Problems do exist, but careful Game Design can work around these • We have tested the system outdoors and the GPS snapping and tracker work well • Further play-testing by a_rage will reveal any other problems this system may offer, which we can then improve on.

AR Game Design • joe velikovsky [Game Design Lead] game designer former national games market analyst, Inform BACS, AFTRS JOETEEVEE. COM 10 years in the games industry

HMV PROTOTYPE

Design Elements • 3 -D AR `port’ of Space Invaders • 5 m GPS = – 2 locations 5 m apart • (Turret & Bunker) • Immersive game space = N, W, E, • Flames & floating objects = UFO FPS! Set in 1950’s • UI = intuitive = HMV is pointing device as per ARQuake • Content = TV set! • Directional sound • Dev cycle = short

5 m GPS TURRET 5 m BUNKER

In-Game Video

AR OUTDOORS/INDOORS

IDG 2003 GAMES INDUSTRY WHITE PAPER "I hope that peripheral companies start to look at opportunities for getting the joystick out of peoples’ hands and doing something different, - or getting us away from the TV screen with something like Head. Mounted Displays. I would love to see someone take on this challenge of establishing a real virtual environment with the power that the new consoles should provide. " Ted Price, CEO, Insomniac Games Spyro, Ratchet & Clank from IDG 2003 Games Industry White Paper p. 94 -95

DESIGN PHILOSOPHY 1) Port `hit’ games over to AR [Space Invaders: Old Games, New Platform] 2) K. I. S. - Keep It Simple! [Games low on Graphics / high on Gameplay] 3) Play-Balance/Flow Theory - `Challenge & Reward’ 4) 10 Mini-games (like Eye. Toy bundle) 5) Risk management - Shorter Dev Cycle! Later: bigger budgets, and longer games

GAME DESIGN 1) USER-FOCUSED GAMES (`Plug & Play’) 2) SIMPLE ADDICTIVE GAMEPLAY = FUN FACTOR 3) HIGH REPLAY VALUE 4) Age: 15+ - for physical co-ordination 5) SAFETY - in goggle view is never `off’

Shoot-em-up: 3 -D

Arcade Platform

Adventure Puzzle

Sports Action

RTS

THEME PARKS & ARCADES

WHY A. R. PLATFORM? 1) POSITIVE SOCIAL ASPECT (Multiplayer) 2) ACTIVE GAMING OUTDOORS = Healthy 3) BROAD AGE & GENDER APPEAL = Adults, M & F 4) FOLLOWS MOBILE GAMING TREND (e. g. cell phone games, GBA, N-GAGE PSP) 5) ADVANCES the gaming `State of the Art’ 6) Look & Feel = instant appeal/looks awesome

CONSUMER HMV

Q&A