AWG Gaming and SimulationAWG Gaming and Simulation

Wolfgang HürstUtrecht University

Games – Some background information

Huge markets For example, entertainment games:

• 2005: US$ 20 billions

• 2009 (estimated): US$ 30 billions

Games – Some background information

Huge marketsNot just for fun

Source & copyright infos: M. Kam, A. Agarwal, A. Kumar, S. Lal, A. Mathur, A. Tewari, J. Canny. Designing E-Learning Games for Rural Children in India: A Format for Balancing Learning with Fun. Proceedings of ACM Conference on Designing Interactive Systems, DIS 2008, Cape Town, South Africa

Games – Some background information

Huge marketsNot just for funNot just for kids

Source & copyright info: http://theelderlies.wordpress.com/2007/02/

Games – Some background information

Huge marketsNot just for funNot just for kidsTruly innovative and pacemaker for whole IT industry

Source & copyright info: http://www.wii-discount.com/

Games – Some background information

Huge marketsNot just for funNot just for kidsTruly innovative and pacemaker for whole IT industry

Games: highly competitive market coolest, fastest, most realistic graphics needed

Simulations: real-life experience is critical realistic modeling of virtual worlds in real-time

Key issue: “realistic” knowledge needed

How do objects behave, react, interact with each other, influence each other, etc.

Games and simulations – Problems and tasks

Virtual charactersAgents and avatarsKnowledge-based annotationBody modeling, motor behavior, planning, …

Simulation and animationLearning with simulated worldsSimulation of realistic training scenarios

Interactions with the worldAugmented reality3D body model fitting, gesture recognition, …

Adaptive game play

Games and simulations – Problems and tasks

Modeling and creating virtual worlds Automate the creation of virtual worlds Complicated geometric algorithms Satisfy certain constraints Functional aspects of the elements Changing the model to achieve certain goals Changes over time Simulation based design Modeling for visualization

Knowledge about the real world needs to be considered and modeled(note: critical not only for simulations and realistic games but also, e.g., for fantasy worlds!)

Contacts and characteristics

Contacts#contacts: 22#questionnaires: 13

CharacteristicsStrongly heterogeneous application areas

e.g., cell phone, console, augmented realitye.g., young users, adults, seniorse.g., fun, education, training

cf. AWG members

Characteristics – Various applications

Entertainment, e.g. FOCUS K3D AWG member Silent Bay Studios

http://www.silentbaystudios.com

Characteristics – Various applications

Education, e.g. FOCUS K3D AWG member VSTEP

http://www.vstepoffice.nl

Characteristics – Various applications

Serious gaming, e.g.FOCUS K3D AWG member TXchange

http://www.t-xchange.nl

Contacts and characteristics

Contacts

#contacts: 22

#questionnaires: 13

Characteristics

Strongly heterogeneous application areas

e.g., cell phone, console, augmented reality

e.g., young users, adults, seniors

e.g., fun, education, training

Huge variety of companies and institutionse.g., companies of diff. sizes, research labs, universities

again, cf. AWG members, e.g.companies (<10, …, >1000)

education/gaming/oil industries

Games and simulations – Conclusions

Very heterogeneous field with various applicationsBut: critical issue for all of them = creating realistic virtual worlds by modeling knowledge about the real world Huge demand for knowledge technologies

However, current usage very limitede.g. common ways to store and retrieve 3D modelsare Windows Explorer and Google!