Unity Game Engine Research Articles

Web Based Escape Room Game “La Cosa Nostra” Using WebGL

"La Cosa Nostra" is a two-dimensional website-based escape room game that can be accessed using 
 internet browser. This game was developed with Unity Game Engine. The player will play as a 
 detective investigating the case of a missing woman. Testing methods was done by Blackbox testing, Alpha 
 testing by lecturer and Beta Testing will be using survey form.

Development of a 2D Action Adventure Game with Rhythm Element Named “Omnicaelum, The Way Out”

“Omnicaelum, The Way Out” is an action adventure metroidvania game with rhythm element for Windows. The
 story follows a knight trapped in a lost land of Omnicaelum, looking for the way out by defeating enemies
 and avoiding traps. The game is made with Unity Game Engine using C# programming language to
 write the scripts. The game implements a rhythm system where the timing of the enemies’ and traps’ attack
 follows the beat of the background music. Testing was done using blackbox testing, alpha testing by
 advisors, and beta testing by surveying 30 respondents. The result showed that the game has an interesting
 gameplay and the rhythm feature has been well implemented.

2D Web-Based Battle Game "MONSTER BEATer" With Rhythm-Base Combat System

“Monster BEATer” is a rhythm genre game with 2D graphics developed for the Web. This game is developed by
 Unity game engine with the C# programming language. In this game, player will control the musical note
 character Bita to fight against musical notes which turned into monsters. The game has 10 levels with
 different songs and obstacles. This game offers the freedom to play using either a PC/Laptop or smart phone as
 long as it is connected to the internet. The Monster BEAter game testing is done by blackbox testing, alpha testing
 and beta testing methods. The test results show that the Monster BEATer game is a game that can be played
 anywhere as long as it has internet connection, has a high level of difficulty and has a unique gameplay.

Expression Techniques for Human Body Motion Using a Game Engine

In this paper, we acquired Taekwondo motion data using motion capture technology and conducted realistic and abstract visualization studies of the motion data. The motion expression techniques was composed of four stages of character, mesh, skeleton and joint visualization according to the degree of realism to abstraction. The Unity game engine was used to create interactive content that can visualize Taekwondo movements in real time with various expression methods. According to the expression method, the audience's opinions on the four perspectives of understanding, creativity, aesthetics, and interaction were surveyed and analyzed.

PROCEDURAL GENERATION IN 2D METROIDVANIA GAME WITH ANSWER SET PROGRAMMING AND PERLIN NOISE

Designing metroidvania games often poses a unique challenge to video game developers, namely the difficulty of consistently preventing soft-locking, which hinders or blocks the player’s ability to traverse through levels effectively [1]. As a result, many turn to hand-making all levels to ensure the level’s traversability, but in the process often forsaking the ability to rely on procedural generation to lessen the time and burden on human game developers [2]. On the other hand, when developers rely on popular ways of procedural generation such as using perlin noise, they find themselves unable to control those procedural algorithms to guarantee certain characteristics of the outputs such as traversability [3]. Our paper aims to present a procedural solution that can also effectively guarantee the traversability of the generated level. Our method uses Answer Set Programming (ASP) to verify generation based on restrictions we place, guaranteeing the outcome to be what we want [4]. The generation of a level is divided into rooms, which are first mapped out in a graph to ensure traversability from a starting room to an ending boss area. The rooms’ geometry is then generated accordingly to create the full level. Using perlin noise, we were also able to create a demonstration of how traversability works in another form of procedural generation, and compare it with our methodology to identify strengths and weaknesses. To demonstrate our method, we applied our solution as well as the perlin noise algorithm to a 2D metroidvania game made in the Unity game engine and conducted quantitative tests on the ASP method to assess how well our method works as a level generator [5].

Procedural Terrain Generation by Sampling a 2D Monochrom Perlin Noise Map in Unity

This article presents a study on procedural terrain generation using Perlin noise in the Unity game engine, building upon prior research and established techniques [1,2]. The objective of the this study is to create realistic and visually appealing landscapes by leveraging algorithmic generation [3]. By utilizing a two dimensional monochrome Perlin noise map, the algorithm generates terrains with organic features such as hills, valleys, and mountains [4]. The research employs the Unity game engine, which offers a wide range of tools and technologies for implementing procedural generation algorithms [5].
 The performance analysis conducted during this study yielded important insights. The execution time test revealed that the algorithm's execution time increased significantly with larger grid sizes, emphasizing the need to consider the scale and resolution of the terrains [6]. This finding highlights the trade-off between generating detailed terrains and the time required for the algorithm to complete its computations. Additionally, the memory usage test demonstrated a quadratic relationship between memory usage and grid size, indicating the necessity of efficient memory management [7] for generating higher-resolution terrains. Optimizing memory usage is crucial to avoid excessive consumption and ensure efficient resource utilization.
 These findings from the performance analysis provide valuable guidance for optimizing and refining the algorithm discussed in this article. Techniques such as algorithmic refinements, parallelization [8,6], and memory optimization strategies can be employed to reduce execution times and minimize memory overhead.
 By understanding the algorithm's performance characteristics and leveraging the insights gained from the analysis, developers can make informed decisions to generate visually compelling and diverse landscapes within the Unity game engine.

Development of a Unity–VISSIM Co-Simulation Platform to Study Interactive Driving Behavior

This paper presents the system development of a co-simulation platform aimed at studying driving behavior with multiple participants. The objective of this study was to create an immersive and interactive environment where different driving scenarios could be simulated and driver behavior could be recorded and analyzed. The platform integrated the Unity game engine with the VISSIM microscopic traffic simulator to create a hybrid simulation environment that combined the advantages of both tools. A virtual reality massive multiplayer online (VRMMO) module was developed to capture the interactions of the participants during the simulation experiments. The external control devices of this co-simulation platform were calibrated using the empirical data of a Controller Area Network (CAN-BUS) from actual driving behaviors. The main contributions of this study are the demonstration of the Unity–VISSIM co-simulation platform in simulating interactive driver behavior and the potential for its use in various research areas, such as intelligent transportation systems, human factors, driving education, and traffic safety analyses. The platform could be a valuable tool for evaluating the effectiveness of collective intelligence countermeasures in improving traffic systems, with relatively lower costs and risks.

Creating an Interactive Urban Traffic System for the Simulation of Different Traffic Scenarios

The social and political efforts to fight climate change have contributed to a re-thinking of traffic systems, especially in urban areas under constant transformation. To simulate and visualize planning scenarios of urban traffic systems in a realistic way, the possibilities of virtual 3D environments have regularly been used. The modern potentials of (immersive) virtual reality, however, still require exploration, evaluation, and further development. Using the game engine Unity, an immersive virtual environment was developed to visualize and experience dynamic traffic conditions of a highly dense urban area. The case study is based on the characteristic model of a Central European city (not a representation of a real city), which brings together the specific considerations of urban traffic, such as mirroring the complex interplay of pedestrians as well as individual and public transport. This contribution has an applied methodological focus and considers possibilities as well as difficulties in the design of a reliably running (open-end) traffic system. The applied tool for the creation of a modular and customizable traffic system in Unity resulted in a traffic system that is capable of reacting to the individual behavior of the user (including the individualized motion of the avatar), without leading to accidents or uncorrectable traffic jams. Therefore, the tool used could be a valuable option for any developer of immersive virtual environments in Unity to equip these immersive virtual environments with a traffic system, without the use of additional third-party software.

OpenMPD: A Low-Level Presentation Engine for Multimodal Particle-Based Displays

Phased arrays of transducers have been quickly evolving in terms of software and hardware with applications in haptics (acoustic vibrations), display (levitation), and audio. Most recently, Multimodal Particle-based Displays (MPDs) have even demonstrated volumetric content that can be seen, heard, and felt simultaneously, without additional instrumentation. However, current software tools only support individual modalities and they do not address the integration and exploitation of the multi-modal potential of MPDs. This is because there is no standardized presentation pipeline tackling the challenges related to presenting such kind of multi-modal content (e.g., multi-modal support, multi-rate synchronization at 10 KHz, visual rendering or synchronization and continuity). This article presents OpenMPD, a low-level presentation engine that deals with these challenges and allows structured exploitation of any type of MPD content (i.e., visual, tactile, audio). We characterize OpenMPD’s performance and illustrate how it can be integrated into higher-level development tools (i.e., Unity game engine). We then illustrate its ability to enable novel presentation capabilities, such as support of multiple MPD contents, dexterous manipulations of fast-moving particles, or novel swept-volume MPD content.

Digital reconstructions of picture galleries as art historical method: The virtual museum at the Royal Palace in Stockholm

We are now witnessing a wave of research using digital tools to create 3D reconstructions of buildings, exhibitions, and objects. We would therefore like to critically discuss the scholarly value of reconstructions. What are we learning? Which problems are solved? What new knowledge can be gained? These are questions posed from a background of history of display and a pilot study in which we are reconstructing two hangings in a gallery at the Royal Palace in Stockholm. We conclude that an immersive 3D reconstruction can give new insights into narratives and hierarchies of art displays. Our model, made with the game engine Unity and the software Virtual Museum, allows us to show and analyze historical changes and developments as well as aspects as eye-lines, visibility and visitors flow to a comparably low cost. This way an immersive 3D-reconstruction can be used not only for pedagogical visualizations, but become an effective research tool.

A Method for Decoding and Representing Time in Fourdimensional Spaces via Digital Game Environment

The search for novel representation method is one of the critical components of the creative design process. Discoveries in science, such as four-dimensional (4D) spacetime, influenced artists and architects. However, existing representation techniques constrained in two-dimensional (2D) sheets for 4D spacetime for representation is evaluated as a limitation of architecture discipline. Currently, digital game environments are the potential mediums of 4D architectural representation. This study aims to decode and represent time as an entity of 4D spaces. Digital game environment provides the needed flexibility for experimenting in 4D space. Therefore, unity game engine and C# programming are used together with computer aided design (CAD) tools to generate 4D representations. 4D representations are based on two different impressions of time dimension as (1) time dilation and (2) distortion of spacetime. While time dilation is represented via motion blur (mB) script, distortion of spacetime is represented via motion trail (mT) script. As preliminary results, metrics of the time dimension in 4D spatio-temporal representations are introduced. Experimental 4D representations produced via Unity game engine and C# programming are presented to discuss the potential of game environments to be the medium of architectural representation.

Using a mobile application to teach students to measure with a micrometer during remote laboratory work

In modern conditions, the transition to distance learning has set new tasks for teachers, in particular, related to laboratory work. In these works, students not only study the structure and features of special equipment, but also acquire practical skills in working with the tool. The purpose of the article is to present our own experience of developing and using in the educational process a mobile application for teaching micrometer measurements during the relevant remote laboratory work in the disciplines ``Interchangeability, Standardization and Technical Measurements'' and ``Physics''. The literature analysis showed that ICT is widely used in the educational process in higher education, but computer programs and mobile applications are usually developed for secondary school disciplines, so there was a need to develop an information program for teaching students in distance learning, in particular during laboratory work. In order to teach students to work with a micrometer during distance learning, we have developed a mobile application. The process of developing the application included modeling the micrometer in the CAD system, creating training scenes in the Unity game engine and writing scripts to fully immerse students in the learning process. The mobile application developed by us consists of three parts: theoretical, educational and practical. In the theoretical part, students learn the structure and principles of working with a micrometer. The training part is developed in the form of a video lesson of working with the equipment. The practical part contains an electronic model of the micrometer and allows you to make measurements. Thus, during distance learning using the developed application, the percentage of qualitative success of students in laboratory work on the topic ``Measuring parts with a micrometer'' increased by 7.3\% compared to the same period of distance learning without the use of this application.

Hijaiyah Letters Educational Game "EFRA” Based on Android as Learning Alternative at Darul Hawasyi Recitation

“EFRA” is an educational game. Educational games are games designed for learning. This game is designed using the Unity game engine with the C# programming language. There are 5 mini-games, namely Kartu Hijaiyah, Pasang Hijaiyah, Harakat Hijaiyah, Puzzle Hijaiyah and Menulis Hijaiyah. Besides mini-games, there are also 3 learning menus, namely Hijaiyah, Vocabulary and Harakat this menu is used for learning. This game is designed for children aged 7 years or above and anyone who wants to learn Arabic letters. The test was carried out using BlackBox testing, alpha testing and beta testing methods through a survey on Darul Hawasyi School.
 
 

Leveraging digital twin and game-engine for traffic simulations and visualizations

Combined with simulation software packages, City Information Models allow analysts and decision-makers to explore ‘what-if?’ questions and scenarios for various engineering and strategic applications. In this context, crowd and traffic simulations are most commonly utilized. Urban intelligent traffic management and pedestrian flow analysis greatly benefits from the latest generation of 3D City Information Models created from accurate urban-scale geospatial information. Analysis and simulation tools based on geometric, semantic, morphological, and structural information at the urban scale level offer the scientific foundation for all the activities required for identifying, detecting, planning, training, and analyzing vulnerability that may threaten human lives in urban environments. Nevertheless, the literature research showed that samples of operational Digital Twins incorporating simulation capabilities are impracticable for small municipalities and rural, low-income communities due to their complex infrastructure, hardware, and data requirements. It is desirable to reduce the requirements for these Digital Twins and still be capable of running comprehensive and accurate simulations based on urban-scale geospatial information. This article proposes an innovative framework and workflow capable of generating an operational Digital Twin and its visualization in the form of a 3D model using a procedural approach. The Digital Twin is connected with the traffic simulation SUMO and the Game Engine Unity for visualization using the TraCI middleware. The middleware is extended with additional functionalities and acts as an authoring tool. Unity allows visualizations in VR. The entire framework can be run on a single, standalone computer and is ready in a matter of minutes. The proposed framework for integrating modeling, simulation, and visualization of operational Digital Twins can help guide better decision-making for both rural areas as well as cities.

Mobile augmented reality system for object detection, alert, and safety

The usefulness of mobile devices has increased greatly in recent years allowing users to perform more tasks in daily life. Mobile devices and applications provide many benefits for users, perhaps most significantly is the increased access to point-of-use tools, navigation, and alert systems. This paper presents a prototype of a cross-platform mobile augmented reality (AR) system with the core purpose of finding a better means to keep the campus community secure and connected. The mobile AR System consists of four core functionalities – an events system, a policing system, a directory system, and a notification system. The events system keeps the community up-to-date on current events that are happening or will be happening on campus. The policing system allows the community to stay in arms reach of campus resources that will allow them to stay secure. The directory system serves as a one-stop-shop for campus resources, ensuring that staff, faculty, and students will have a convenient and efficient means of accessing pertinent information on the campus departments. The mobile augmented reality system includes integrated guided navigation system that users can use to get directions to various destinations on campus. The various destinations are different buildings and departments on campus. This mobile augmented reality application will assist the students and visitors on campus to efficiently navigate the campus as well as send alert and notifications in case of emergencies. This will allow campus police to respond to the emergencies in a quick and timely manner. The mobile AR system was designed using Unity Game Engine and Vuforia Engine for object detection and classification. Google Map API was integrated for GPS integration in order to provide location-based services. Our contribution lies in our approach to create a user specific customizable navigational and alert system in order to improve the safety of the users at their workplace. Specifically, the paper describes the design and implementation of the proposed mobile AR system and reports the results of the pilot study conducted to evaluate their perceived ease-of-use, and usability.

Aplikasi Ruangan Maya Berbasis Android OS pada Headset Virtual Reality Oculus Quest 2

Metaverse and VR (virtual reality) technology brings a lot of benefits to some sectors of life, especially education because VR technology makes it possible for users to be placed in a simulation of a certain scenario or situation which helps with the user’s learning experience. The development of computer technology where computer components are much smaller in size, have better computational capacity, and low cost has made VR technology more available and offers more and more opportunities as computer technology develops even further. In order to take advantage of the increasing opportunity, a virtual room application based on Android OS for Oculus Quest 2 is developed in order to learn about virtual reality development workflow on a VR headset using Unity game engine. The features implemented in the virtual room app are locomotion control by teleportation and continuous movement, rotation by snap turning, interactable objects such as a mirror, grabbable objects which the user can hold in the virtual room, and sockets to place digital objects in the virtual room.

Technical aspects of virtual augmented reality-based rehabilitation systems for musculoskeletal disorders of the lower limbs: a systematic review

IntroductionMusculoskeletal disorders are one of the most common causes of physical disability. The rehabilitation process after musculoskeletal disorders is long and tedious, and patients are not motivated to follow rehabilitation protocols. Therefore, new systems must be used to increase patient motivation. Virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) technologies can be used in this regard. In developing such systems, various technologies and methods of movement recognition are used; therefore, this study aims to summarize the technical aspects of using VR/AR in rehabilitation and evaluate and discuss efficient methods of investigating studies using the Statement of Standards for Reporting Implementation Studies (StaRI).MethodsSearch in four scientific databases was done systematically based on PRISMA through online search engines from inception to June 2021. These databases include Medline (PubMed), Scopus, IEEE, and Web of Science. An updated search was also conducted on 17 December 2021. The research used keywords and MeSH terms associated with VR/AR, musculoskeletal disorder, and rehabilitation. Selected articles were evaluated qualitatively using the Standards for Reporting Implementation Studies (StaRI) statement.ResultsA total of 2343 articles were found, and 20 studies were included. We found that 11 (55%) studies used Kinect technology as input tools, and 15 (75%) studies have described the techniques used to analyze human movements, such as dynamic time warping (DTW) and support vector machines (SVM). In 10 (50%) studies, the Unity game engine was used for visualization. In 8 studies (40%), usability was assessed, and high usability was reported. Similarly, the results of the review of studies according to the StaRI checklist showed poor reporting in the title and discussion of the studies.ConclusionsWe found that academic studies did not describe the technical aspects of rehabilitation systems. Therefore, a good description of the technical aspects of the system in such studies should be considered to provide repeatability and generalizability of these systems for investigations by other researchers.

MiCellAnnGELo: annotate microscopy time series of complex cell surfaces with 3D virtual reality.

Advances in 3D live cell microscopy are enabling high-resolution capture of previously unobserved processes. Unleashing the power of modern machine learning methods to fully benefit from these technologies is, however, frustrated by the difficulty of manually annotating 3D training data. MiCellAnnGELo virtual reality software offers an immersive environment for viewing and interacting with 4D microscopy data, including efficient tools for annotation. We present tools for labelling cell surfaces with a wide range of applications, including cell motility, endocytosis and transmembrane signalling. MiCellAnnGELo employs the cross-platform (Mac/Unix/Windows) Unity game engine and is available under the MIT licence at https://github.com/CellDynamics/MiCellAnnGELo.git, together with sample data. MiCellAnnGELo can be run in desktop mode on a 2D screen or in 3D using a standard VR headset with a compatible GPU. Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.

Creating computer games that are controlled by EEG helmets

Electroencephalography (EEG) and a braincomputer interface (BCI) are relatively young technologies, that in some cases could replace the classic computer mouse control. We are using EEG and BCI to control computer games, which have always been very popular with people of all ages. In the paper, we focus on using the Epoc helmet for controlling two games, which we created in the Unity game engine. In the first game "Ball and Mind" the player's task is to navigate a ball from start to finish through a maze. The second game, "Objector of Mind“, is focused on avoiding obstacles with an Epoc helmet. The player controls a cube and he has to avoid obstacles that come to him with a gap.

Math-VR: Mathematics Serious Game for Madrasah Students using Combination of Virtual Reality and Ambient Intelligence

The challenge to increasing understanding of mathematics lessons for students in madrasah schools makes the learning process require the support of adaptive alternative learning media. In this study, we propose a serious game-based learning media supported by virtual reality and ambient intelligence technology to equip students with adaptive responses to subject matter scenarios. Ambient intelligence works based on recommendations generated by the Multi-Criteria Recommender System (MCRS). In calculating a similarity between users and reference data, MCRS uses cosine-based similarity calculations, and average similarity is used for ranking. We developed this learning media experiment called Math-VR using the Unity game engine. The experimental test results show that MCRS-based ambient intelligence technology can provide an adaptive response to the choice of geometry subject matter recommendations for students according to their pre-test results. The analysis results show that the recommendation system as part of ambient intelligence has the highest accuracy rate of 0.92 when using 80 reference data.