Introduction to Breakout:
Breakout is a virtual reality game that’s based on the well-known VR game called Unseen Diplomacy. This game is a clever specimen of the application of a Fish Tank VR setup. This means that the game makes the fullest use of the confined space that the HTC VIVE can offer as game area since the HMD of the VIVE is tethered. Fish Tank VR setup, from its name implies that the environment is confined to a limited space. But what makes it unique in VR is that we can eliminate the reality of the player being in a confined space because once the player puts on the headset he enters a virtual environment which can be manipulated infinitely. Therefore, one can make a small room in the physical world to a gigantic maze in the virtual world by making the player walk around curves and turns, while maintaining space restrictions and eventually the player will lose his perception of the real world and think that he is walking in an unending environment connected by corridors, gateways etc. The game is interactive. It makes the player perform tasks. This ensures that the player is kept immersed in the virtual world and doesn’t get bored by it.
Breakout is a virtual reality game that’s based on the well-known VR game called Unseen Diplomacy. This game is a clever specimen of the application of a Fish Tank VR setup. This means that the game makes the fullest use of the confined space that the HTC VIVE can offer as game area since the HMD of the VIVE is tethered. Fish Tank VR setup, from its name implies that the environment is confined to a limited space. But what makes it unique in VR is that we can eliminate the reality of the player being in a confined space because once the player puts on the headset he enters a virtual environment which can be manipulated infinitely. Therefore, one can make a small room in the physical world to a gigantic maze in the virtual world by making the player walk around curves and turns, while maintaining space restrictions and eventually the player will lose his perception of the real world and think that he is walking in an unending environment connected by corridors, gateways etc. The game is interactive. It makes the player perform tasks. This ensures that the player is kept immersed in the virtual world and doesn’t get bored by it.
Description of the game:
The storyline of the game goes like this: the player is trapped in a building that would explode in some time. The player has limited time to escape until the building explodes. To escape, the player has to go through a series of rooms with each room having some task which needs to be completed to move on to the next one until finally the player can escape from the building.
In the game, the player can initially select his/ her avatar: a male and a female avatar are provided in the game. The avatar is applied to the player and stays with him/ her throughout the game. This can be tested by the player looking at the reflection of himself/ herself on mirror on a wall in the first room. We chose to add a mirror in the first room because the player would want to know how their avatar looks like in the game. A voice assistant explains the game to the player and gives instructional audio input whenever needed in the game.
Also, we decided to attach the controllers to the avatar's hands because we're using inverse kinematics (IK) to move the hands which means that sometimes the hands might not reach their end effector position. To avoid this problem and orient the user, we didn't hide the controllers in the game.
We have implemented 5 levels or hurdles that the player has to pass through to get to the final escape door. A global score keeps track of the players health throughout the game. This score depreciates if the player is hit by an attacking object or performs an invalid action. If the score reduces to zero, then it's Game Over! Once the player has reached a certain local goal within a room, the next room activates and the player can go on to the next level.
Hardware platform used:
HTC Vive with the controllers and speakers
Softwares:
Unity 3D (v5.6.3, August 1 2017) : unity3d.com/
SteamVR plugin for Unity: www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/32647
Blender: www.blender.org/
SketchUp: www.sketchup.com/
MakeHuman: www.makehuman.org/
The storyline of the game goes like this: the player is trapped in a building that would explode in some time. The player has limited time to escape until the building explodes. To escape, the player has to go through a series of rooms with each room having some task which needs to be completed to move on to the next one until finally the player can escape from the building.
In the game, the player can initially select his/ her avatar: a male and a female avatar are provided in the game. The avatar is applied to the player and stays with him/ her throughout the game. This can be tested by the player looking at the reflection of himself/ herself on mirror on a wall in the first room. We chose to add a mirror in the first room because the player would want to know how their avatar looks like in the game. A voice assistant explains the game to the player and gives instructional audio input whenever needed in the game.
Also, we decided to attach the controllers to the avatar's hands because we're using inverse kinematics (IK) to move the hands which means that sometimes the hands might not reach their end effector position. To avoid this problem and orient the user, we didn't hide the controllers in the game.
We have implemented 5 levels or hurdles that the player has to pass through to get to the final escape door. A global score keeps track of the players health throughout the game. This score depreciates if the player is hit by an attacking object or performs an invalid action. If the score reduces to zero, then it's Game Over! Once the player has reached a certain local goal within a room, the next room activates and the player can go on to the next level.
Hardware platform used:
HTC Vive with the controllers and speakers
Softwares:
Unity 3D (v5.6.3, August 1 2017) : unity3d.com/
SteamVR plugin for Unity: www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/32647
Blender: www.blender.org/
SketchUp: www.sketchup.com/
MakeHuman: www.makehuman.org/
Important Note:
Since we are limiting the player’s movement to involve only walking and not enabling flying or teleportation, this might give rise to safety concerns. The player might walk into physical obstacles in the real world and hurt himself/herself. We want to address this issue by first making the player clear out some fixed amount of space around himself/herself and designing the virtual rooms such that they are all located in the same limited space, all the while giving the player the illusion that he/she is moving in a much larger space and sequentially going through each of the rooms. This ‘limited space’ paradigm is inspired by the VR game Unseen Diplomacy. The link to a video of the game can be found here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KirQtdsG5yE
Since we are limiting the player’s movement to involve only walking and not enabling flying or teleportation, this might give rise to safety concerns. The player might walk into physical obstacles in the real world and hurt himself/herself. We want to address this issue by first making the player clear out some fixed amount of space around himself/herself and designing the virtual rooms such that they are all located in the same limited space, all the while giving the player the illusion that he/she is moving in a much larger space and sequentially going through each of the rooms. This ‘limited space’ paradigm is inspired by the VR game Unseen Diplomacy. The link to a video of the game can be found here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KirQtdsG5yE