Unity3D Game Engine Research Articles

Manufacturing floor mapping and presence tracking with a physics-based game engine

The manufacturing shop floor exists in a dynamic environment with constantly changing components regarding position and features. Presence tracking on the manufacturing shop floor is essential to enhance effective operations and safety. Internet of Things technology solutions have been developed to track and monitor machine and operators’ movements and materials on the shop floor to enhance machine availability and worker safety and improve overall operational effectiveness. However, for SMMs with limited financial resources and infrastructure, there is a need for a financially friendly approach to shop floor presence tracking and monitoring. This work presents the use of Internet-of-things and physics-based engines to develop a scalable and customizable solution to track presence on a manufacturing floor. The paper aims to improve and promote the adoption of I-4.0 technologies and digital manufacturing by SMMs with the development of an affordable, repeatable, customizable, open-source solution. The article describes a methodology for mapping, modeling, monitoring, and reporting presence on a manufacturing floor using physics-based engines. The methodology describes mapping the manufacturing floor into zones, the design of the IoT solution, selecting and placing sensors, and presenting the data using dashboards and physics-based engines. The paper investigates the methodology by implementing a case study on the Interdisciplinary Center for Advanced Manufacturing Systems (ICAMS) manufacturing floor using the Unity3D game engine, open-source software, and off-the-shelf motion sensors.

Imagining Just and Sustainable Food Futures: Using Interactive Visualizations to Explore the Possible Land Uses and Food Systems Approaches in Revelstoke, Canada

Food systems are linked to multiple critical sustainability issues such as climate change, environmental degradation, and growing socioeconomic inequalities, and there is a clear need for transformative changes in how food systems are imagined and enacted. For transformations to occur, local governments and stakeholders must be able to consider achievable and desirable futures that involve radically different reconfigurations of space and land use. Based in Revelstoke, Canada, this study uses interactive visualization methods to engage local government and food systems stakeholders in an exploration of three future food systems scenarios that center on changes in food supply, food affordability, and food governance. An interactive visualization tool was developed using the Unity3D game engine, which visualizes how transformations of an underutilized railway site in Revelstoke may appear in 2100. The visualizations were presented to the study participants (n = 10) through an online, Zoom-based workshop, where ‘walkthroughs’ of the scenarios were performed by the researchers and the participants subsequently provided feedback. The results of this study indicate that visualization tools can elicit emotional responses, convey human relationships with food and nature, communicate power dynamics, and incorporate social justice considerations. The results also show that the visualization’s representation of local infrastructure and services, the completeness of a virtual environment, and the plausibility of a depicted future affect the user assessment of the visualized scenarios.

Integration of 3D Gaussian Splatting and Neural Radiance Fields in Virtual Reality Fire Fighting

Neural radiance fields (NeRFs) and 3D Gaussian splatting have emerged as promising 3D reconstruction techniques recently. However, their application in virtual reality (VR), particularly in firefighting training, remains underexplored. We present an innovative VR firefighting simulation system based on 3D Gaussian Splatting technology. Leveraging these techniques, we successfully reconstruct realistic physical environments. By integrating the Unity3D game engine with head-mounted displays (HMDs), we created and presented immersive virtual fire scenes. Our system incorporates NeRF technology to generate highly realistic models of firefighting equipment. Users can freely navigate and interact with fire within the virtual fire scenarios, enhancing immersion and engagement. Moreover, by utilizing the Photon PUN2 networking framework, our system enables multi-user collaboration on firefighting tasks, improving training effectiveness and fostering teamwork and communication skills. Through experiments and surveys, it is demonstrated that the proposed VR framework enhances user experience and holds promises for improving the effectiveness of firefighting training.

An evaluation of intelligent and immersive digital applications in eliciting cognitive states in humans through the utilization of Emotiv Insight

The amalgamation of Virtual Reality (VR) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) results in the development of many promising applications that are helpful for society in many aspects. This research was done to study the effect of immersive and non-immersive applications on user's psychological parameters. In this paper, an intelligent, interactive, and immersive digital application was designed, and the various psychological parameters of users while using the application were analyzed through the brain computer interactive device, Emotiv. The impact of these robust and immersive applications on the emotions of human beings was analyzed. According to the observations, the stress and relaxation levels are getting minimally affected, whereas the engagement levels are high for an immersive application rather than a non-immersive application. Hence, it can be concluded that immersive applications put users “in” the application environment and provide a near-realistic experience by blurring the line between the real and virtual worlds. Deeper immersion results from the increased sensation of presence, which in turn is helpful in increasing motivation and emotional investment.•This paper demonstrates the implementation of the A* algorithm within the Unity 3D Game Engine to develop an intelligent digital application, fostering interactivity and depth.•This paper explores the integration of VR technology to transform the digital application into an immersive and interactive experience, enhancing user engagement and realism.•This paper investigates the utilization of the Emotiv Insight device to analyze cognitive parameters within both non-immersive AI-based and immersive AI & VR-based applications, providing insights into user experiences.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) Based Game Development ``Memory Game'' for Training Functions Alzheimer and Dementia Cognitive

Smart games, especially crossword puzzles can be an effective tool in aiding cognitive and physical exercise by stimulating the brain and strengthening brain connections, which can help prevent or slow the progression of Alzheimer’s and dementia. This research aimed to develop a crossword puzzle game into a digital version in Bahasa Indonesia with Artificial Intelligence (AI) features. The benefit of this game product can be used as a cognitive therapy for Alzheimer’s and dementia sufferers. The research method used is game development using the Game Development Life Cycle (GDLC) model with stages of initiation, pre-production, implementation/development, testing, launch, and maintenance. Implementation of digital version using Unity 3D game engine with AI feature of hint generating. This research was carried out for 8 months. Game testing results were carried out by testing the functionality of game features and the results were that all features functioned well. The innovation and importance of this work was to implement the memory crossword puzzle game design into a digital version in Bahasa by implementing artificial intelligence methods for the hints feature. This work will inspire developers to do greater work on Bahasa and implement various features based on AI methods.
 Keywords: digital memory games, artificial intelligence, crosswords, game development

A review of the application of virtual and augmented reality in physical and occupational therapy

AbstractThis paper includes a research review in five bibliographic databases on using the application of virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) in physical and occupational therapy (POT). This literature review addresses five research questions and two sub‐research questions. A total of 36 relevant studies were selected in the review based on the defined keywords and inclusion‐exclusion criteria. The primary motivation for using the application of VR and AR in POT is that it is accurate, involves higher patient participation, and requires less therapy recovery time. The standard software tool used is the Unity 3D game engine, and the common device used is the Oculus Rift HMD. Various applications of VR and AR consist of different VR environments and AR contents used in POT. Post‐stroke rehabilitation, rehabilitation exercises, pain management, mental and behavioral disorders, and autism in children are the main aspects addressed through the VR and AR environments. Literature review indicates that questionnaires, interviews, and observation are the primary metrics for measuring therapy's effectiveness. The study's findings show positive results such as reduced treatment time, nervousness, pain, hospitalization period, making therapy enjoyable and encouraging, improved quality of life, and focus on using the application of VR and AR in POT. This review will be relevant to researchers, VR and AR application designers, doctors, and patients using the application of VR and AR in POT. Further research addressing multiple participants with clinical trials, adding new VR environments and AR content in VR and AR applications, including follow‐up sessions, and increasing training sessions while using the application of VR and AR in POT are recommended.

AIoT-enabled digital twin system for smart tunnel fire safety management

High traffic flow in a confined tunnel makes fire safety a critical issue. This paper proposed a digital twin framework for tunnel fire safety management in real-time, driven by dynamic sensor data and AIoT technologies. A deep learning model trained by the Transformer network and simulation dataset is used to predict real-time fire location and size. Then, the AI model is integrated into a 3D digital twin platform developed by the game engine Unity 3D. The performance of the proposed digital twin framework is demonstrated using numerical experiments and large-scale tunnel fire tests. Results show that the established AI model achieved promising accuracy in predicting fire location and power for both numerical and experimental data. The digital twin platform can also visualize the 3D fire scene that supports evacuation, firefighting, and emergency rescue. This research demonstrates the feasibility of using a 3D environment and digital twin in real-time fire safety management.

Following the Writer’s Path to the Dynamically Coalescing Reactive Chains Design Pattern

Two recent studies addressed the problem of reducing transitional turbulence in applications developed in C# on .NET. The first study investigated this problem in desktop and Web GUI applications and the second in virtual and augmented reality applications using the Unity3D game engine. The studies used similar solution approaches, but both were somewhat embedded in the details of their applications and implementation platforms. This paper examines these two families of applications and seeks to extract the common aspects of their problem definitions and solution approaches and codify the problem-solution pair as a new software design pattern. To do so, the paper adopts Wellhausen and Fiesser’s writer’s path methodology and follows it systematically to discover and write the pattern, recording the reasoning at each step. To evaluate the pattern, the paper applies it to an arbitrary C#/.NET GUI application. The resulting design pattern is named Dynamically Coalescing Reactive Chains (DCRC). It enables the approach to transitional turbulence reduction to be reused across a range of related applications, languages, and user interface technologies. The detailed example of the writer’s path can assist future pattern writers in navigating through the complications and subtleties of the pattern-writing process.

Immersive Interaction in Digital Factory: Metaverse in Manufacturing

Digital twins and virtual reality are pivotal technologies in the context of Industry 4.0, facilitating the design, simulation, optimization, and remote interaction with production systems. These technologies also present new prospects for developing immersive and hyper-realistic digital factories within the metaverse. This paper aims to enhance collaboration and communication in a 3D virtual world, focusing on shared reality and the metaverse's integration in digital factories. Our main contribution enables users to have full-body immersive interaction with virtual 3D assets and realistic locomotion in a 3D environment, fostering flexibility in collaboration and environment monitoring/control. To achieve this, we propose a systematic methodology for designing and implementing a digital twin-based factory with an IoT infrastructure. By replicating sensors and actuators in digital twins, real-time asset management synchronized with the physical factory is realized, empowering full-body interaction. To enable full-body interaction with virtual equipment, we employ a human motion tracking system. A proof-of-concept case study, developed using Unity3D game engine, Solace PubSub+ event streaming APIs, and Awinda Xsens wearable inertial sensors as the motion tracking system, validates our proposed methodology. The results of the case study demonstrate the successful integration of digital twins, virtual reality, and the metaverse, enabling real-time monitoring and control, full-body interaction, and immersive user experiences in the virtual environment.

Efficient method for finding nearest neighbors in flocking behaviors using k-dimensional trees

<p>Flocking is a behavior where a group of objects travel, move or collaborate together. By learning more about flocking behavior, we might be able to apply this knowledge in different contexts such as computer graphics, games, and education. A key steppingstone for understanding flocking behavior is to be able to simulate it. However, simulating behaviors of large numbers of objects is highly compute-intensive task because of the n-squared complexity of nearest neighbor for separating n objects. The work in this paper presents an efficient nearest neighbor method based on the k-dimensional trees (KD trees). To evaluate the proposed approach, we apply it using Unity-3D game engine, together with other conventional nearest neighbor methods. The Unity-3D game simulation engine allows users to utilize interaction design tools for programming and animating flocking behaviors. Results showed that the proposed approach outperform other conventional nearest neighbor approaches. The proposed approach can be used to enhance digital games quality and simulations.</p>

Tower Defense Game Design based on Unity3D

In today's society, with the rapid development of computer technology, personal computers have been integrated into our lives, and computer games have become a way of entertainment for people. Among them, tower defense games, as a branch of strategy games, have also been loved by the majority of players. On the computer game download platform, such as Steam's download list, you can also see all kinds of excellent tower defense games listed, such as “Bloom TD” and “Plants vs. Zombies”. However, in recent years, most tower defense games lack innovation, and the level game play is monotonous. Players are beginning to get tired of the gameplay of classic tower defense games, and their popularity has begun to decline. In order to solve this problem, this article is based on the Unity3D game engine, combined with the characteristics of UGC and RTS games, and made some innovations to the classic tower defense games. According to the actual needs, a tower defense game called “The Rise of The Tribes” was developed. The main work of this paper is to analyze and design The game, realize The switching between The three scenes in The game and each interface, and solve how to build buildings, how to defend defensive buildings, and how to deploy and move soldiers and attack, how to generate, collect and consume resources, completed The debugging and testing of The game, summarized the development process and made an outlook on how to improve the game.

Text-to-movie authoring of anatomy lessons

There is a need for a simple yet comprehensive tool to produce and edit pedagogical anatomy video courses, given the widespread usage of multimedia and 3D content in anatomy instruction. Anatomy teachers have minimal control over the present anatomical content generation pipeline. In this research, we provide an authoring tool for instructors that takes text written in the Anatomy Storyboard Language (ASL), a novel domain-specific language (DSL) and produces an animated video. ASL is a formal language that allows users to describe video shots as individual sentences while referencing anatomic structures from a large-scale ontology linked to 3D models. We describe an authoring tool that translates anatomy lessons written in ASL to finite state machines, which are then used to automatically generate 3D animation with the Unity 3D game engine. The proposed text-to-movie authoring tool was evaluated by four anatomy professors to create short lessons on the knee. Preliminary results demonstrate the ease of use and effectiveness of the tool for quickly drafting narrated video lessons in realistic medical anatomy teaching scenarios.

An Internet- and Kinect-Based Multiple Sclerosis Fitness Intervention Training With Pilates Exercises: Development and Usability Study.

Balance impairments are common in people with multiple sclerosis (MS), with reduced ability to maintain position and delayed responses to postural adjustments. Pilates is a popular alternative method for balance training that may reduce the rapid worsening of symptoms and the increased risk of secondary conditions (eg, depression) that are frequently associated with physical inactivity. In this paper, we aimed to describe the design, development, and usability testing of MS Fitness Intervention Training (MS-FIT), a Kinect-based tool implementing Pilates exercises customized for MS. MS-FIT has been developed using a user-centered design approach (design, prototype, user feedback, and analysis) to gain the target user's perspective. A team composed of 1 physical therapist, 2 game programmers, and 1 game designer developed the first version of MS-FIT that integrated the knowledge and experience of the team with MS literature findings related to Pilates exercises and balance interventions based on exergames. MS-FIT, developed by using the Unity 3D (Unity Technologies) game engine software with Kinect Sensor V2 for Windows, implements exercises for breathing, posture, and balance. Feedback from an Italian panel of experts in MS rehabilitation (neurologists, physiatrists, physical therapists, 1 statistician, and 1 bioengineer) and people with MS was collected to customize the tool for use in MS. The context of MS-FIT is traveling around the world to visit some of the most important cities to learn the aspects of their culture through pictures and stories. At each stay of the travel, the avatar of a Pilates teacher shows the user the exercises to be performed. Overall, 9 people with MS (n=4, 44% women; mean age 42.89, SD 11.97 years; mean disease duration 10.19, SD 9.18 years; Expanded Disability Status Scale score 3.17, SD 0.75) were involved in 3 outpatient user test sessions of 30 minutes; MS-FIT's usability was assessed through an ad hoc questionnaire (maximum value=5; higher the score, higher the usability) evaluating easiness to use, playability, enjoyment, satisfaction, and acceptance. A user-centered design approach was used to develop an accessible and challenging tool for balance training. All people with MS (9/9, 100%) completed the user test sessions and answered the ad hoc questionnaire. The average score on each item ranged from 3.78 (SD 0.67) to 4.33 (SD 1.00), which indicated a high usability level. The feedback and suggestions provided by 64% (9/14) of people with MS and 36% (5/14) of therapists involved in the user test were implemented to refine the first prototype to release MS-FIT 2.0. The participants reported that MS-FIT was a usable tool. It is a promising system for enhancing the motivation and engagement of people with MS in performing exercise with the aim of improving their physical status.

Media edukasi kerohanian Kristen tentang gembala dan domba tersesat berbasis game 3D

It is hoped that this Shepherd and Sheep Game can provide insight and knowledge about the depiction of God's love through the parable of sheep and shepherds and help Christian youths learn and understand Christianity. The making of this game uses the Unity 3D game engine and uses the C# programming language. This research uses the waterfall method as a system development method. The data collection methods used in this research are observation, interviews, and literature study. In the Shepherd and the Lost Sheep Game, there are four levels which have missions that must be completed by the player. The testing method uses Blackbox and Beta Testing. Based on the results of blackbox testing, overall this game has been successfully created and functions well. Based on the results of beta testing using a questionnaire distributed to 30 users, a score of 951 was obtained with a percentage value of 79.25%. It can be concluded that overall users feel satisfied after playing the Shepherd and the Lost Sheep game both in terms of system and material, and users feel quite helped in understanding Christian spiritual material by playing this game.

DESIGN AND BUILD VR HORROR GAMES WITH PROCEDURAL CONTENT GENERATION USING CELLULAR AUTOMATA ALGORITHM

The development of video games is very fast according to data obtained by ESA in 2021, about 226 million people on American played video games and in Indonesia 105 million people play video games and this will continue to increase, it is predicted that in 2025 video players gaming in Indonesia will reach 127 million people, this causes the need for game content continues to increase while for making game content it is not something that cheap, one way to reduce costs in making content in the game is to implement procedural content generation, procedural content generation is one way of creating content game automatically by using an algorithm. This research aims to design and build a virtual reality horror game using use cellular automata algorithm, cellular automata algorithm in research This research is used for map making, besides that this research also aims to measure the level of player satisfaction with the game that has been made. Game created using the Unity 3D game engine and the C# programming language. After game has been successfully built, will measure the level of satisfaction through cakes. questionnaire using GUESS-18, based on tests that have been carried out with GUESS-18, the results obtained are 77.1 percent, which can be concluded that the level of player satisfaction is categorized as good.

DESIGNING RAIL SHOOTER GAME “ZOMBIE ARCADE” BASED ON ANDROID WITH GYROSCOPE

"Zombie Arcade" is a three-dimensional rail shooter game designed specifically for Android smartphones. The game will be created using Unity 3D game engine, which is a widely known and frequently used platform for developing Android games. In "Zombie Arcade," players will face with various challenges in order to defeat all enemies, with the goal to reach the safe area. The game will utilizes the Gyroscope feature found in smartphones, allowing players to move the camera, aim enemies, and shoot them.

Biome Generation Tool: A Mixed-Initiative Software for the Procedural Generation of Biomes

This article presents the Biome Generation Tool (BGT), a mixed-initiative procedural content generator plugin for the Unity3D game engine that uses an Evolutionary Algorithm (EA) for the creation of biomes in videogames. A double-blind evaluation was performed with 28 videogame developers split into two groups. The experimental group received a standard BGT, while the control group received a version optimizing for the negative of the fitness function. A survey with semantic differential questions focused on AI impact, productivity, and user satisfaction was applied. The experimental group’s appreciation of the AI suggestions, perceived productivity increase, and satisfaction were significantly higher than those of the control group. From the results, we conclude that the BGT succeeds in assisting the development of biomes, generating products of acceptable quality while reducing the designer’s workload. In the future, we expect to confirm these results with a separate group of users evaluating the biomes built using BGT.

Pengembangan Aplikasi Augmented Reality Pada Mata Pelajaran Bahasa Inggris Untuk Kelas 1 Sekolah Dasar

This research was developed to overcome problems in students who tend to get bored in English subjects with book media. This research aims to develop Augmented Reality in English subject for grade 1 elementary school. The research method used in this study namely research and development (R&D) with the ADDIE application development model (Analysis, design, development, implementation, and evaluation), in this study is limited to stage implementation. Products are developed using game engine Unity 3D and Vuforia. Data analysis techniques in this study will use descriptive and quantitative analysis techniques. The data collection instrument used was a questionnaire with 8 respondents. The end result of the product is an educational game-based application Augmented Reality learning English which contains 3D objects, descriptions, sentences and sounds from objects that are run. The results of the feasibility test obtained an average score of 81.90% in the very good category. With the application Augmented Reality this is expected to help 1st grade elementary school students in learning English.

EduARdo—Unity Components for Augmented Reality Environments

Contemporary software applications have shifted focus from 2D representations to 3D. Augmented and Virtual Reality (AR/VR) are two technologies that have captured the industry’s interest as they show great potential in many areas. This paper proposes a system that allows developers to create applications in AR and VR with a simple visual process, while also enabling all the powerful features provided by the Unity 3D game engine. The current system comprises two tools, one for the interaction and one for the behavioral configuration of 3D objects within the environment. Participants from different disciplines with a software-engineering background were asked to participate in the evaluation of the system. They were called to complete two tasks using their mobile phones and then answer a usability questionnaire to reflect on their experience using the system. The results (a) showed that the system is easy to use but still lacks some features, (b) provided insights on what educators seek from digital tools to assist them in the classroom, and (c) that educators often request a more whimsical UI as they want to use the system together with the learners.

PENGENALAN KOMPONEN KOMPUTER BERBASIS AUGMENTED REALITY PADA ANDROID DENGAN METODE SINGLE MARKER

<p><em>Computers are one of the most popular electronic devices today. With the development of PC games and Esports in the world, computers are becoming more and more popular among young people today. Computers have many components that are needed as a support so that the computer can be used.</em><em> </em><em>At the education level, students are taught about the components in a computer. However, the introduction still uses images because it is difficult to introduce the components one by one. One way to easily introduce components on a computer is to use Augmented Reality technology. Augmented Reality allows users to be able to combine the virtual world, both 2D and 3D, with the real environment in real time. This application is based on Android and is built using the Unity3D Game Engine.</em><em> </em><em>The method used in developing this computer component recognition application is the single marker method and uses the FAST Corner Detection algorithm. In addition, application development will use the Multimedia Development Life Cycle (MDLC) method. The reason for making this computer component recognition application is so that it can be a tool to introduce computer components to students more attractively and make it easier for students to absorb the existing material.</em><em> </em><em>Based on the test results, the single marker method and the FAST Corner Detection algorithm were successfully implemented into the application. The application can run well on Android 5.1 to Android 10 with a minimum of 2GB RAM. The results of the single marker method test that the marker can be detected by the camera. Marker detection can be done on markers with a slope of 0° - 45°. The closest distance for marker detection is 4cm and the farthest distance for marker detection is 92cm. The results of the questionnaire on questions about the functionality of the application with a total of 30 respondents who were students of Class 12 Bunda Mulia School answered "strongly agree" more than 50% and on questions about the use of applications as learning aids answered "strongly agree" more than 50%. These results mean that the application of the introduction of computer components has a good impact on the respondents.</em></p><p><strong><em>Keywords: </em></strong><em> </em><em>Augmented Reality, Unity 3D, Vuforia, Android, Single Marker, FAST Corner Detection, Computer.</em></p>