Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Game engine Unity'

Tato práce se zabývá možnostmi herního vývoje pro víceré platformy pomocí enginu Unity 3D. Rozebírá různé aspekty multiplatformního vývoje na počítačích i mobilních zařízeních. Důraz je kladen na analýzu tvorby her současně pro více platforem a problémy spojené s tímhle přístupem. Práce poskytuje možnosti řešení problémů, které vyvstanou při použití tohohle postupu, pomocí nástrojů, které poskytuje Unity 3D. Analýza se zabývá zejména na zvyšování výkonu her za použití metod dostupných na všech platformách vybraných pro testování. Tyhle vylepšení zahrnují způsoby jak snížit práci ve scéně a naopak zvýšit počet vykreslení za sekundu při zachování stejné vizuální kvality. Práce také nabízí pohled do minulosti tohoto odvětví a předpoklady o jeho příštím směrování.

This report discusses the design and development of Wu, a 2D action game intended to serve as a means for exporting Chinese popular culture to Western players. Developed with the Unity engine, the game features a dynamic difficulty system that monitors player behavior and automatically modifies the content to better match the observed level of skill. Feedback from playtesting confirmed that the dynamic difficulty adjustment significantly increased the probability of completing the game, and that most players acquired a better understanding of the Wuxia genre on which the game is based.

Before Eternity is a short 3D adventure game that addresses the purpose of our earthly lives, inspired by the Sufi poet Rumi. To support its mystical theme, the design employs impressionistic elements and symbolic activities which deliberately defy many conventions of traditional adventure games. This report explains the design and implementation of the game, as well as its technical and production aspects.

This work is about reverberators as system for simulating space properties of sound and their implementation in game development software Unity. The goal of this thesis is to create a working plug-in module for this development software, which is capable of working in real time and also can change it's parameteres in real time.

In questa tesi vedremo un breve sunto riguardo lo stato dei Sistemi Multi-Agente e andremo ad analizzare le limitazioni che attualmente ne impediscono l'utilizzo ai programmatori di videogiochi. Dopodiché, andremo a proporre un nuovo linguaggio BDI, basato su Prolog e inspirato a Jason, che, grazie all'interprete Prolog sviluppato da I. Horswill, darà la possibilità al programmatore di videogiochi di esprimere comportamenti dichiarativi di alto livello per agenti autonomi all'interno del game engine Unity. Andremo anche a proporre una versione di Artefatto per la modellazione dell'ambiente in una scena Unity e un layer di comunicazione che agenti e artefatti possano utilizzare per interagire tra loro. Infine presenteremo un caso di studio per sottolineare i benefici che questo sistema fornisce.

In questo elaborato viene descritto il lavoro svolto per sviluppare un generatore procedurale di ambienti per videogiochi, più propriamente definiti con il temine dungeon. Lo strumento creato viene integrato all'interno del game engine Unity ed è di carattere generale: può essere utilizzato per qualunque gioco che richieda una generazione procedurale di livelli.

This paper evaluates major features of PTC’s augmented reality SDK Vuforia, available for Android, iOS and the Unity3D game engine. The performance of these features are evaluated in terms of frame rate and power consumption and the testing prototypes are developed using Unity3D. Augmented reality is a rapidly growing medium and the Vuforia SDK is very popular with over 325 000 registered developers and thousands of published applications. Despite being used to such extents, there are surprisingly few works evaluating different aspects of its performance. This paper provides an introduction to augmented reality and describes the technology used by the Vuforia SDK to deliver said features. This paper shows that Vuforia is capable of maintaining sufficient performance with interactive frame rates over 20 Hz in most cases. The power consumption of these features reduces the battery lifetime to acceptable levels, suitable for hand-held devices. In some cases, however, the performance in terms of frame rate reaches levels lower than recommended. These cases should be considered by developers looking to use Vuforia.

Context: Today there are a lot of different kinds of game engines to choose from, but is one of these engines more suitable for a developer with a beginners' experience in game development? Objective: This is something we explore in order to help teachers choose a suitable engine for teaching game development to beginners.In this study, two teams of two persons each compare two of these engines, Godot and Unity. Method: We conducted a study, consisting of six iterations, to observe the development of a prototype game using the two engines. We collected data during the development of the game using a think-aloud protocol and a questionnaire, and after the development using a questionnaire that included the SUS scale for assessing the overall usability of the game engines. Results: The Godot engine have been focused on completing their documentation and the documentation is somewhat directed to more experienced developers. In comparison the Unity engine got more solutions outside of the documentation and also got their own special guides towards beginners.Although Godot engine got a more simpler GUI which will be easier at first but as the tasks became more difficult this became more of a disadvantage and some solutions were not found easily among the documentation. In comparison the Unity engine got more menus and can seem a lot to a beginner but became to be more helpful the harder the tasks became and even though most solutions were not found among the documentation, there were enough information from other sources to solve all problems with an easy search.Neither of the engines provided with a lot of helpful information within the tool, although the Godot engine had some cases where the tool would let the developers know a certain component was needed. Conclusion: Our main conclusion is that Godot is a good entry point into game development but as the tasks gets more difficult students would need the teacher’s help in order to solve the tasks as easy as with Unity. In contrast, Unity starts more difficult but as tasks gets more difficult Unity have more solutions online, which makes it more suitable if students are to develop on their own.\\This study is rather small with only four participants and this limits the results, for future studies it would be best to have more participants. Keywords: Cognitive task analysis, game developer experience, Godot, Unity, game engine, usability

The goal of the thesis is to create an extension for Unity Development Platform that will allow creation of computer games from design of game logic to scene programming on visual level. The extension forms an abstract layer between designers, who manage game objects on logic level, and programmers, who are responsible for implementation of parts that can't be created automatically. It then facilitates some designing processes and iterations by eliminating the need of manual programming in places that can by automate and allows to concentrate on the design process itself.

This report investigates if an HLA-plugin for the game engine Unity can be made and whether or not it would lead to any drawbacks in regard to data exchange and performance. An implementation of a plugin and performance tests on it proceeds to show that the possibilities of running HLA as a plugin in Unity shows a lot of promise for 3D-applications designed in Unity communicating over HLA.

Questa Tesi prende in esame tutte le fasi che portano alla realizzazione di un generico videogioco applicandole per creare, dal principio, un gioco 3D con Unity. Se ne analizzerà l'ideazione, la progettazione degli ambienti ma anche degli algoritmi implementati, la produzione e quindi la scrittura del codice per poi terminare con i test effettuati.

The thesis explains the development process of a production cell simulation in 3D implemented using Unity3D. The developed simulation communicates with existing control software and aims to test this control software in a 3D environment with physics simulation. The final result includes 3D models and also works as a visualization since it allows us to present the control system, and this visualization can be viewed using most web browsers. The thesis also includes a brief study and comparison between currently popular game engines to choose an appropriate option for this project.This is a project in collaboration with a local company (ARiSA) and has a high practical relevance.

This thesis deals with 3D Driving School simulator development, especially with control compliance of traffic rules. Thesis introduce game engine Unity 3D, which was the key factor of creating simulator. Game development in thesis begins with model and ends with scripting object behaviour.

This thesis presents optimization techniques for efficient rendering of complex scenes on mobile devices. The introductory part of the text describes Unity game engine and the topic of mobile game development using this tool. Then follows a presentation of important optimization principles and methods for terrain rendering, large scale rendering of animated objects, rendering of animated water surfaces and of other elements in the scenes. The described methods include both general principles of optimization and specific optimization approaches based on the features of Unity game engine. The implementation of presented methods is described and used in practice in the context of mobile strategy game development.

In 2019, the Covid-19 pandemic struck the world, creating a need for social distancing to stop the spreading of the virus. This report will discuss and cover how a simulation was implemented in the game engine Unity that simulates human movement-patterns, which in turn will help with spreading people out in public areas. To be able to do this accurately, research was made about which behaviours can be of importance to get as realistic a representation of human movements as possible. The performed research showed that some contributing factors to get a realistic result includes how many destinations (e.g. in a Supermarket, a destination would be a shelf with wares) a human usually visits during a shopping trip to a supermarket. This is something that was quickly realized and could be used and implemented in the simulation, as it directly affects how long each human stays in the store, which in the long run makes crowds, and places where they form, more realistic. When the simulation was finished, a Google Forms was created, which were spread in numerous different groups on Facebook and Reddit, in which a total of 60 participants were registered. This quantitative research gave a good understanding of how the project had turned out and what could be improved. The results were very promising, and more or less what was hoped for. There is still room for further improvements, which are all mentioned in the chapter “Further Research” of this report. One example that is mentioned here is whether or not collisions between our simulated humans matter enough to make a difference to the end result. It is argued that it does not, but this is something one should perform further studies on.

The main goal of this master's thesis is to research different approaches of rendering geometries and spaces in virtual reality. Learn more about the terms, non-Euclidean geometry and non-Euclidean spaces, their origin and different principles used in video game industry to simulate such geometries or spaces. Based on the research, a selection of an optimal API is needed for the implementation of such application. Application is designed to run on desktop computers with Microsoft Windows operating system. Application, in it's core, is a video game and the main goal of the player is to successfully complete each and every level of the game. These levels are designed in a specific way so that they each individually represent some form of non-Euclidean geometry or space.

L'obiettivo di questa tesi è lo studio e la realizzazione di un'applicazione di realtà aumentata senza l'utilizzo del marker in modo da rendere noto a tutti gli utenti la bellezza delle tombe di Koguryo tramite la ricreazione delle pareti e dei dipinti che si trovano al loro interno in modo virtuale, così da non andare ad intaccare tali opere tramite una visita reale. L'applicazione è stata pensata per trasmettere informazioni cercato il metodo più diretto ed affascinante in modo che tali nozioni possano essere adatte a tutte le tipologie di visitatori che un ipotetico sito archeologico potrebbe ospitare. In particolare questa tesi è nata grazie alla collaborazione con gli studenti del corso di Laurea Magistrale Internazionale di Conservazione dei Beni Culturali dell'Università di Bologna con Sede a Ravenna che hanno permesso lo studio di queste tombe, quale fosse il modo migliore per la loro conservazione e quali sono le cause della degradazione dei murali all'interno di questo bene che fa parte del patrimonio mondiale.

Electroacoustic music is often regarded as not being sufficiently accessible to the general public because of its sound-based abstract quality and the complexity of its language. Live electronic music introduces the figure of the performer as a gestural bodily agent that re-enables our multimodal perception of sound and seems to alleviate the accessibility dilemma. However, live electronic music generally lacks the level of detail found in studio-based fixed media works, and it can hardly be transferred outside the concert hall situation (e.g. as a video recording) without losing most of its fresh, dynamic and unpredictable nature. Recent developments in 3D simulation environments and game audio technologies suggest that alternative approaches to music composition and distribution are possible, presenting an opportunity to address some of these issues. In particular, this Portfolio of Compositions proposes the use of real and virtual space as a new medium for the creation and organisation of sound events via computer-simulated audio-sources. In such a context, the role of the performer is sometimes assumed by the listener itself, through the operation of an interactive-adaptive system, or it is otherwise replaced by a set of automated but flexible procedures. Although all of these works are sonic centric in nature, they often present a visual component that reinforces the multimodal perception of meaningful musical structures, either as real space locations for sonic navigation (locative audio), or live visualisations of physically-informed gestural agents in 3D virtual environments. Consequently, this thesis draws on general game-audio concepts and terminology, such as procedural sound, non-linearity, and generative music; but it also embraces game development tools (game engines) as a new methodological and technological approach to electroacoustic music composition. In such context, space and the real-time generation, control, and manipulation of assets combine to play an important role in broadening the routes of musical expression and the accessibility of the musical language. The portfolio consists of six original compositions. Three of these works–Swirls, Alice - Elegy to the Memory of an Unfortunate Lady, and Alcazabilla–are interactive in nature and they required the creation of custom software solutions (e.g. SonicMaps) in order to deal with open-form musical structures. The last three pieces–Singularity, Apollonian Gasket, and Boids–are based on fractal or emergent behaviour models and algorithms, and they propose a non-interactive linear organisation of sound materials via real-time manipulation of non-conventional 3D virtual instruments. These original instrumental models exhibit strong spatial and kinematic qualities with an abstract and minimal visual representation, resulting in an extremely efficient way to build spatialisation patterns, texture, and musical gesture, while preserving the sonic-centric essence of the pieces.

When developers or organizations need to develop a game, simulation or a similar project, they phase the question of whether or not to use a game engine as well as the question on which one to use. Are all game engines the same or does the architecture change and how is the game design different between various game engines? The objective of this thesis is to research these questions as well as giving a concrete understanding of the impact of picking one engine over the other and how each engine influences the way games are developed and answer some more specific questions regarding architecture and usability.  A project was designed with the goal of developing a game. This game was developed by two separate teams over a period of 6 weeks, using two different game engines. The development was split into separate iterations done simultaneously between the teams and questionnaires were filled in to gather data. The game engines used for projects had similarities but also things which were different. Each engine offered ways to speed up development by allowing the developer to reuse and distribute changes among objects to reduce work. The differences caused one engine’s code architecture to be more complex than the other while allowing a better code structure as well as adding more time to learn how the engine handles certain things such as collisions. In conclusion, there is an importance to properly evaluating different game engines depending on the project a developer or organization is creating, not evaluating this properly will impact development speed and project complexity. Even though each engine has their differences, there is no superior game engine as it all depends on the project being developed. The game developed for this project was only touching on certain areas related to 2D games.

I och med att videospel blir mer avancerade, inte bara grafiskt utan också som konstform samt att dom erbjuder en mer inlevelsefull upplevelse, så kan det förväntas att spelen också ska erbjuda en större utmaning för att få spelaren bli ännu mer engagerad i spelet. Dagens spelare är vana vid fiender vars beteende styrs av tydliga mönster och regler, som beroende på situation agerar på ett förprogrammerat sätt och agerar utifrån förutsägbara mönster. Detta leder till en spelupplevelse där målet blir att klura ut det här mönstret och hitta ett sätt att överlista eller besegra det. Men tänk om det fanns en möjlighet att skapa en ny form av fiende svarar och anpassar sig beroende på hur spelaren beter sig? Som anpassar sig och kommer på egna strategier utifrån hur spelaren spelar, som aktivt försöker överlista spelaren? Genom maskininlärning i spel möjliggörs just detta. Med en maskininlärningsmodell som styr fienderna och tränas mot spelarna som möter den så lär sig fienderna att möta spelarna på ett dynamiskt sätt som anpassas allt eftersom spelaren spelar spelet. Den här studien ämnar att undersöka stegen som krävs för att implementera maskininlärning i Unity motorn samt undersöka ifall det finns någon upplevd skillnad i spelupplevelsen hos spelare som fått möta fiender styrda av en maskininlärningsmodell samt en mer traditionell typ av fiende. Data samlas in från testspelarnas spelsessioner samt deras svar i form av ett frågeformulär, där datan presenteras i grafform för att ge insikt kring ifall fienderna var likvärdigt svåra att spela mot. Svaren från frågeformulären används för att jämföra spelarnas spelupplevelser och utifrån detta se skillnaderna mellan dom. Skalan på spelet och dess enkelhet leder till att svaren inte bör påverkas av okända och ej kontrollerbara faktorer, vilket ger svar som ger oss insikt i skillnaderna mellan dom olika spelupplevelserna där en preferens för fiender styrda av maskininlärningsmodeller kan anas, då dom upplevs mer oförutsägbara och varierande.
As video games become more complex and more immersive, not just graphically or as an artform, but also technically, it can be expected that games behave on a deeper level to challenge and immerse the player further. Today’s gamers have gotten used to pattern based enemies, moving between preprogrammed states with predictable patterns, which lends itself to a certain kind of gameplay where the goal is to figure out how to beat said pattern. But what if there could be more in terms of challenging the player on an interactive level? What if the enemies could learn and adapt, trying to outsmart the player just as much as the player tries to outsmart the enemies. This is where the field of machine learning enters the stage and opens up for an entirely new type of non-player character in videogames. An enemy who uses a trained machine learning model to play against the player, who can adapt and become better as more people play the game. This study aims to look at early steps to implement machine learning in video games, in this case in the Unity engine, and look at the players perception of said enemies compared to normal state-driven enemies. Via testing voluntary players by letting them play against two kinds of enemies, data is gathered to compare the average performance of the players, after which players answer a questionnaire. These answers are analysed to give an indication of preference in type of enemy. Overall the small scale of the game and simplicity of the enemies gives clear answers but also limits the potential complexity of the enemies and thus the players enjoyment. Though this also enables us to discern a perceived difference in the players experience, where a preference for machine learning controlled enemies is noticeable, as they behave less predictable with more varied behaviour.

This diploma thesis deals with the simulation and vizualization of a golf ball flight. The final application is powered by the Unity engine and the PhysX physics library. The application includes the implementation of basic golf ball aerodynamics and advanced vizualization including simple gaming logic. The final solution can be used as a part of a cheap golf simulator. The text contains a theoretical introduction, existing solutions, basics of golf ball aerodynamics, an application design, the creation of courses and implementations. The conclusion of the diploma thesis describes experiments with the final solution and summarizes the achieved results.

碩士
樹德科技大學
資訊管理系碩士班
103
In recent years, the rapid development and evolution of information technology, smart phones and tablet PCs are common,approaching everyone have cellphone'' s degree,therefore, action learning is widely used in the field of education. Most scholars are very concerned about the number of e-learning (E-Learning) and game-based learning (Game-Based Learning), and e-learning and game-based learning is widely used in the various educational fields, ease of learning through the Internet, so that the wishes and interests of learners to enhance learning and improve the effectiveness of e-learning. In this research, using Unity 3D game engine and game Photon application server integration, build the online games competition Learning System, With the online games way to promote learning and to improve the effectiveness of learning effects. In this research, the subjects of the nature of learning and game combines, to design a competition multiplayer gaming and learning System, using the style-game method from competition and promote competition among peers to each other, That enhance the learners'' interest and motivation to achieve good learning outcomes. In this research, the use of experimental study, subjects of Kaohsiung a national fourth-grade students are the experimental and control groups and way of questionnaires were analyzed. To summarize the results of the questionnaire data students teaching the game the way the system has reached significant learning outcomes.

碩士
國立臺北教育大學
數位科技設計學系(含玩具與遊戲設計碩士班)
107
This research is dedicated to the interface of the current game engine. Unity's interface, which focuses on the expansion of the game engine, retains the original developer's production habits, allowing developers with Unity development experience to get started quickly, thereby reducing the time cost of re-learning. Developers can edit game objects in the application framework developed in this study and directly output them into a project file that can be executed by the browser. The application framework modules developed in this study include resource management modules, animation modules, sound effects modules, particle effects modules, and WebSocker modules. Since all engine components are modular, the developer simply loads the components onto the object and writes the code for the corresponding event in the system itself. In this way, the use of this modular design can increase the speed of development. With the development of HTML5, the efficiency and performance of web games have been improved. More importantly, via WebSocker support, the server can pass data to the client, no longer a passive SQL server. Mobile hardware also supports HTML5 web pages innately with cross-platform advantages, allowing developers to develop a single project to run on browsers on all platforms. The user experience of opening a web page for immediate play is far superior to the native app that needs to be downloaded and installed. The hardware performance and network environment of mobile phones have also increased year by year, and these premise make HTML5 the next major development platform. But currently, most HTML5 game engines don't include an editor, but use code directly to set the interface location. This method is quite unintuitive in production, and it is not easy for developers who are beginners to learn, and there is no network connection module. The author hopes that the application framework developed by this research can provide game designers with another choice of game development tools.

In einer Zeit der Digitalisierung nimmt die Relevanz des Programmierens in Entwicklungsumgebungen wie Unity immer mehr zu. Zeitgleich werden Game Based Learning Anwendungen immer häufiger zum Erlernen neuer Inhalte eingesetzt. Solche Anwendungen sind für viele Programmiersprachen zu finden, allerdings gibt es kein einziges, frei zugängliches Produkt, das als Unity-Programmierspiel bezeichnet werden kann, welches anhand einer zusammenhängenden Story und eines klar definierten, roten Fadens Unity-spezifische Lerninhalte vermittelt. Das Ziel dieser Bachelorarbeit ist es, ein Simulationsspiel für das Erlernen der Unity-spezifischen Programmierparadigmen zu entwickeln. Dazu wird die folgende Forschungsfrage gestellt: „Wie kann eine Digital Game Based Learning Anwendung zum Erlernen der Programmierung in der Unity-Engine gestaltet werden, sodass sie benutzerfreundlich, motivierend und erweiterbar ist?“ Um diese zu beantworten, wurden zehn User Experience Tests zur Evaluierung des jeweiligen Entwicklungsstadiums durchgeführt, wobei die Probanden bei ihrem Umgang mit der Anwendung beobachtet und nach ihrer User Experience befragt wurden. Auf Grundlage der gewonnenen Erkenntnisse wurde die Anwendung iterativ verbessert und weiterentwickelt. Das dabei entstandene Ergebnis zeichnet sich in seiner Benutzerfreundlichkeit vor allem durch die Nutzung bereits zielgruppenbasiert bekannter Funktionalitäten, Reiz-Reduzierung, der Vorbeugung von Missverständnissen, ausführliche Feedbacks auf Fehler, genauen Erklärungen der Features und barrierefreie Lösungen aus. Die Motivationsgestaltung der entwickelten Anwendung basiert zum einen auf einer emotionalen Bindung zwischen dem Spieler und der Story/Spielfigur, sowie dem Ehrgeiz, sich ständig zu verbessern und zu überbieten. Entscheidend für die Erweiterbarkeit war es, die Anwendung, welche von Unity-spezifischer Programmierung handelt, auch in der Unity-Engine zu entwickeln. Automatisierungen und die Vereinheitlichung von Spielzielen, sowie die Eindämmung von Fehlerquellen hatten bei der Entwicklung der Anwendung eine hohe Relevanz. Dies zeigt einen möglichen Weg, wie eine solche, in diesem Kontext bisher einzigartige Digital Game Based Learning Anwendung gestaltet sein kann und ist Grundlage für weitere Forschungen, die insbesondere den möglichen Lernerfolg untersuchen sollten.:0. Einleitung 0.0 Motivation 0.1 Zielsetzung, Methodik und Aufbau 1. Grundlagen 1.0 Begriffserklärungen 1.0.0 Spiel (engl. ‚Game‘) 1.0.1 (Digital) Lernen 1.0.2 (Digital) Game Based Learning 1.0.3 Gamification 1.0.4 Serious Game 1.0.5 (Game) Flow 1.0.6 (Game) User Experience 1.1 Unity und C# 1.1.0 Unity 1.1.1 C# 1.2 Neurologische Grundlagen nach Celia Hodent 1.2.0 Wahrnehmung 1.2.1 Erinnerung 1.2.2 Aufmerksamkeit 1.2.3 Motivation 1.2.4 Emotion 2. Programmieren lernen am Beispiel von Unity 2.0 Motivation 2.1 Methoden 2.1.0 Suchmaschinen und Foren 2.1.1 Videos 2.1.2 Bücher 2.1.3 Unterricht 2.1.4 Digitale Spiele 3. Analyse vorhandener GBL-Konzepte 3.0 Pony Island 3.1 SQL Island 3.2 SoloLearn 3.3 Swift Playgrounds 3.4 CodinGame 3.5 Zusammenfassung 4. Zwischenfazit 5. Eigenes Spielkonzept ‚ENC#YPTED‘ 5.0 Zielgruppe 5.1 Lernziele 5.2 Story 5.3 Design 5.4 Features 5.5 Technische Umsetzung 5.6 Genutzte Ressourcen und Programme 6. Umsetzung des eigenen Spiels 6.0 Prototyp V1 – Grundfunktionalitäten 6.1 Prototyp V2 - Erweiterungen 6.2 Prototyp V3 - UX-Tests 6.2.0 UX-Test #1 vom 13.11.2019 (Entwicklung bis UX-Test #2) 6.2.1 UX-Test #2 vom 27.11.2019 (Entwicklung bis UX-Test #3) 6.2.2 UX-Test #3 vom 06.12.2019 (Entwicklung bis UX-Test #4) 6.2.3 UX-Test #4 vom 11.12.2019 (Entwicklung bis UX-Test #5) 6.2.4 UX-Test #5 vom 12.12.2019 (Entwicklung bis UX-Test #6) 6.2.5 UX-Test #6 vom 25.12.2019 (Entwicklung bis UX-Test #7) 6.2.6 UX-Test #7 vom 31.12.2019 (Entwicklung bis UX-Test #8) 6.2.7 UX-Test #8 vom 06.01.2020 6.2.8 UX-Test #9 vom 09.01.2020 (Entwicklung bis UX-Test #10) 6.2.9 UX-Test #10 vom 06.02.2020 (Entwicklung bis 10.02.2020) 7. Fazit 7.0 Entwicklungsausblick 7.1 Reflexion 8. Anhang 8.0 UX-Tests 8.1 Unity Foren Beiträge 8.2 Source Code Auszug 8.3 Selbstständigkeitserklärung I. Literaturverzeichnis II. Abbildungsverzeichnis III. Tabellenverzeichnis

A presente dissertação foi desenvolvida em colaboração com o Instituto de Biofísica e Engenharia Biomédica(IBEB/FCUL)
A visualização de dados médicos complexos, em particular de dados imagiológicos, de forma intuitiva, simples e completa é um desafio. Com as tecnologias de aquisição de imagem médica usadas atualmente é possível ter acesso a um vasto leque de informação relevante para diagnóstico e tratamento de patologias. Assim sendo, é fundamental que a visualização dessa mesma informação seja feita de uma forma rápida e intuitiva. No presente trabalho desenvolveu-se uma nova ferramenta de visualização de imagens de ressonância magnética e de conectividade cerebral. Esta ferramenta contém em si uma interface amigável e intuitiva para o utilizador, fazendo uso de duas tecnologias emergentes, a realidade virtual e o reconhecimento gestual. No desenvolvimento da interface fez-se ainda uso de uma tecnologia menos usual na área médica, a Game Engine Unity 3D,usada convencionalmente na programação de jogos de vídeo. A interface oferece um ambiente imersivo 3D da anatomia e conectividade cerebrais, fazendo uso de óculos de realidade virtual. Nesta interface o utilizador consegue navegar no interior no cérebro, fazendo uma interação com as estruturas com recurso ao controlo do Leap Motion, um dispositivo ótico de reconhecimento gestual. Esta interface de "navegação cerebral" será útil no futuro para a comunidade médica, em particular para a formação de neurocirurgiões graças ao reconhecimento gestual. Além disso, a interface fornece informações sobre as estruturas cerebrais e vários parâmetros de dados de imagens e de conectividade cerebral, tornando-se adequada para o ensino e investigação em neurociências.
Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT)e Ministério da Ciência e Educação (MCE) Portugal (PIDDAC) integrado nos projetos PTDC/SAU-ENB/120718/2010 e PEst-OE/SAU/UI0645/2014

In 3D animation cinema, the elements of a scene are created by artists using computer software. To generate the final result, there must be a conversion (rendering) of the threedimensional models to two-dimensional images (frames) that will later be joined together and edited into a video format. 3D animation films have traditionally been rendered using pre-rendering engines, a time consuming and expensive process that usually requires the use of multiple computers rendering at the same time (render farms), renders which may need to be repeated if the results are not ideal. Videogames, on the other hand, are reactive applications where the player may have different possible courses of action that will generate distinct results. In those cases, it is necessary that the engine waits for the player’s input before it calculates the following frames. To allow for fast calculations in real time, 3D game developers use game engines that incorporate real time rendering methods which can generate images much faster than the prerendering engines mentioned above. To be able to generate a large number of frames per second, there must be an optimization of the entire scene, in order to reduce the number of necessary calculations. That optimization is created by using techniques, practices and tools that are not commonly used by animation cinema professionals. Due to that optimization necessity, videogames always had a lower graphic quality than that of animated films, where each frame is rendered separately and takes as long as necessary to obtain the required result. Physically Based Rendering (PBR) technology is one of the methods incorporated by some rendering engines for the generation of physically accurate results, using calculations that follow the laws of physics as it happens in the real world and creating more realistic images which require less effort, not only from the artist but also from the equipment. The incorporation of PBR in game engines allowed for high graphic quality generated results in real time, gradually closing the visual quality gap between videogames and animated cinema. Recently, game engines such as Unity and Unreal Engine started to be used – mostly by the companies that created the engine, as a proof of concept – for rendering 3D animated films. This could lead to changes in the animation cinema production methods by the studios that, until now, have used traditional pre-rendering methods.
No cinema de animação 3D, os elementos de uma cena são criados por artistas através da utilização de programas de computador. Para gerar o resultado final, é necessário fazer-se uma conversão (render) dos modelos tri-dimensionais para imagens bi-dimensionais (frames), que posteriormente serão unidas e editadas para um formato de vídeo. Tradicionalmente, o rendering de filmes de animação 3D é feita através de motores de pre-rendering, um processo demorado e dispendioso que geralmente requer a utilização de múltiplos computadores a trabalhar em simultâneo (render farms), e que poderá ter que ser repetido caso os resultados obtidos não sejam ideais. Os videojogos, por outro lado, são aplicações reactivas, onde o jogador pode ter várias sequências de acções, que poderão gerar resultados distintos. Nesses casos, é necessário o motor de jogo esperar pela acção do jogador antes de calcular as imagens seguintes. Para possibilitar cálculos rápidos em tempo-real, os criadores de jogos 3D usam motores de jogo que incorporam métodos de renderização em tempo-real que conseguem gerar imagens muito mais rápido do que os motores de pre-rendering mencionados acima. Para conseguir gerar um grande número de imagens por segundo, é necessário existir uma optimização de toda a cena, para reduzir o número de cálculos necessários. Essa optimização é criada através da utilização de técnicas, práticas e ferramentas que, geralmente, não são utiliadas por profissionais da área de cinema de animação. Devido a essa necessidade de optimização, os videojogos sempre tiveram uma qualidade gráfica inferior à dos filmes de animação, onde o render de cada imagem é gerado separadamente e pode levar tanto tempo quanto for necessário para obter o resultado desejado. A tecnologia de Rendering Baseado em Física (Physically Based Rendering – PBR) é um dos métodos incorporados por alguns motores de rendering para a geração de resultados físicamente correctos, usando cálculos que seguem as leis da física, tal como acontece no mundo real e criando imagens mais realistas necessitando de menos esforço, não só da parte do artista mas também do equipamento. A incorporação de PBR em motores de jogo possibilitou resultados gerados em tempo-real com grande qualidade gráfica, o que gradualmente vai aproximando a qualidade visual dos videojogos à do cinema de animação. Recentemente, motores de jogo como o Unity e o Unreal Engine começaram a ser utilizados – maioritariamente pelas companhias que criaram o motor de jogo, como prova de conceito – para renderização de filmes de animação 3D. Este passo poderá levar a mudanças nos métodos de produção do cinema de animação em estúdios que, até agora, utilizaram métodos de pré-renderização tradicionais.

Tese de mestrado integrado, Engenharia Biomédica e Biofísica (Engenharia Clínica e Instrumentação Médica) Universidade de Lisboa, Faculdade de Ciências, 2018
Emoção é um dos elementos-chave envolvidos no processo de aprendizagem e afeta a nossa tomada de decisão e comunicação. Posto o papel fundamental da emoção na nossa vida e interação social, este projeto toma todo o sentido, e ajuda-nos a compreender que a emoção não diz respeito apenas à dimensão social da nossa vivência, é muito mais que aquilo que se sente, é também o que podemos fazer, adquirir e compreender através das ações e atitudes tomadas emocionalmente. Neste presente trabalho desenvolveu-se uma plataforma que permite a avaliação emocional do seu utilizador face à visualização de diversos estímulos visuais, neste caso associados a uma determinada categoria emocional. O objetivo não passava apenas pela construção desta plataforma de avaliação emocional, mas também pela sua implementação e teste junto de um pequeno conjunto de participantes. No desenvolvimento desta interface fez-se uso do Software Development Kit (SDK) da Affectiva, e de uma outra tecnologia não tão utilizada no âmbito da área médica, a Game Engine Unity, usada comumente na programação de jogos de vídeo. Affectiva é uma aplicação de software que permite detectar expressões faciais e as suas emoções correspondentes a partir de imagens faciais, sendo que estas podem ser adquiridas por uma câmara: imagens de webcam ou até mesmo pela câmara frontal dos dispositivos móveis; por frames: uma sequência temporal de imagens; e por vídeo: um ficheiro de vídeo que se encontre alojado no dispositivo local. A plataforma avalia 7 emoções básicas ou fundamentais, Tristeza, Alegria, Surpresa, Nojo, Raiva, Medo e Desprezo, sendo que cada uma delas tem como característica um conjunto de micro-expressões, por exemplo, o franzir das sobrancelhas é uma expressão característica da emoção Raiva, e o sorriso expressão da Alegria. A emoção detectada é calculada a partir das probabilidades associadas à identificação de cada emoção individual. O mapeamento das expressões para emoções dá-se com base em preditores de emoção, que recorrem às expressões faciais enquanto input, de forma a calcular a probabilidade de presença da emoção de uma dada frame. Este mapeamento das expressões faciais em emoções assenta no FACS - Facial Action Coding System - desenvolvido por Ekman e Friesen, em que uma expressão facial pode ter um efeito positivo ou negativo na probabilidade de ocorrência de uma emoção, por exemplo, osorriso aumenta a probabilidade de estarmos na presença da emoção Alegria, enquanto o franzir das sobrancelhas diminui esta probabilidade, tanto que esta última expressão é característica da emoção Raiva, e portanto a sua ocorrência aumenta a probabilidade de presença desta ultima emoção. A plataforma oferece um ambiente interativo, na medida em que é composta por uma interface de mímica facial, que permite ao utilizador proceder à reprodução facial e expressiva de uma série de emoções, de forma a atingir um certo valor-objetivo; é composta ainda por uma interface de avaliação e análise emocional face a um conjunto de estímulos, onde o utilizador quando apresentado a um pequeno grupo de excertos filmográficos tem a sua expressão facial emocional analisada e gravada com recurso a webcam do computador, a cada instante. Cada um destes excertos filmográficos utilizados como estímulos pertence a uma determinada categoria emocional, tendo sido retirados de duas bases de dados para estudo de emoções (Bartolini 2011) (Schaefer , et al. 2010). Esta plataforma de avaliação emocional poderá ser bastante útil na comunidade médica, que possibilita o estudo da compreensão emocional por parte de pessoas autistas, portadoras de demência, ou até mesmo com alguma perturbação psiquiátrica, mas também na comunidade de marketing que permitirá entender a emoção que um determinado produto transmite ao público.
Emotion is one of the key elements involved in the learning and it affects our decision making process and communication. Given the fundamental role of the emotion in our life and social interaction, this project makes perfect sense, and help us understand that emotion doesn’t only concern the social dimension of our experience, it is much more that what we feel, it’s also what we can do, acquire and understand through the actions and attitudes taken emotionally. In this present work a platform has been developed that allows the emotional evaluation of its user vis-à-vis the visualization of several visual stimuli, in this case associated with a certain emotional category. The goal wasn’t just build this emotional evaluation platform, but also to implement and test it with a small set of participants. Through the development of this interface was used Affectiva SDK, and another technology not commonly used in the medical field, the Game Engine Unity, used in video games programming. Affectiva is a software application that allows you to detect facial expressions and their corresponding emotions from facial images, which can be acquired by a camera: webcam images or even the front camera of the mobile devices; by frames: a temporal sequence of images; and video: a video file that is hosted on the local device. The platform evaluates 7 emotions, Sadness, Joy, Surprise, Disgust, Anger, Fear and Contempt, each of which has as characteristic set of micro-expressions, for example, frowning is a characteristic expression of the emotion Anger, and the smile of Joy. The detected emotion is calculated from the probabilities associated with the identification of each individual emotion. The mapping of expressions to emotions is based on predictors of emotion, which use facial expressions as input, in order to calculate the probability of presence of the emotion of a given frame. This mapping of facial expressions in emotions is based on the FACS - Facial Action Coding System - developed by Ekman and Friesen, in which a facial expression can have a positive or negative effect on the probability of occurrence of an emotion, for example, smile increases the probability of being in the presence of the emotion Joy, while the frowning diminishes this probability, so much that this last expression is characteristic of the emotion Anger, and therefore its occurrence increases the probability of presence of this last emotion. The platform offers an interactive environment in that it is composed of a facial mimic interface that allows the user to perform facial and expressive reproduction of a series of emotions in order to reach a certain target value; is also composed by an interface of evaluation and emotional analysis in front of a set of stimuli, where the user when presented to a small group of filmographic excerpts has his emotional facial expression analyzed and recorded using the webcam of the computer, every moment. Each of these filmographic excerpts used as stimuli belongs to a certain emotional category, having been taken from two databases for the study of emotions – (Bartolini 2011) (Schaefer , et al. 2010). This emotional assessment platform will be very useful in the medical community, which enables the study of emotional understanding by people with autism, dementia, or even some psychiatric disorder, but also in the marketing community, given to the public.

In this thesis we propose a navigation instruction validation tool and an user training tool for PERCEPT system. The validation tool evaluates the navigation instructions using a virtual reality environment by ensuring that each path in the virtual environment can be traversed by following the navigation instructions. This validation tool will serve as a first automatic validation of navigation instructions prior to testing them with blind and visually impaired users. The user-training tool enables the blind user to explore and get familiar with the real environment by using the virtual environment generated in the Unity3d based game. The user interacts with the game using PERCEPT Smartphone client just like the user would interact in the real environment. Motion in the game is emulated using the keyboard. Motion directions follow the navigation instructions obtained through the Smartphone. This user-training tool will improve the users experience in the real environment by enabling them to explore and learn the environment a-priori to their arrival in the physical space.

Game industry has recently emerged as a major software development industry. The number of games being developed has increased exponentially over the last few years [20]. And as these numbers grow there is also a need to test these games. Related to the game development workflow in diverse areas (AI, networking, graphics, engines, etc.) a unit testing and play testing component should be associated, which nowadays is rare or even nonexistent. Right now a common approach to testing games is hiring Testers to manually play a large number of potential scenarios that end users may exercise. Current game testing practices are labor intensive and become tedious and monotonous with the passage of time[3]. Furthermore, it gets quite expensive to pay someone to test these sort of games over and over again. Automated testing simplifies and makes these repetitive tasks efficient and automatic. This dissertation consists in the implementation and definition of a framework for a system that simplifies the creation of unit tests and automatic playtesting. The playtests test the integrity of the level and are able to determine whether it is possible to exploit the game in some way. This dissertation has a partnership with the ZPX company that provided a level to use and experiment the framework and manual playtesting in order to get results. The results obtained from the use of this framework are compared with the results of the manual testing performed by testers. These results consist of the time each testing approach takes, how many bugs were found in total and the quality of the report for the game level designer. These results uncover the advantages and disadvantages of the framework and the manual playtesting. One advantage to creating this framework in a highly general and modular way is that this framework can be applied to different games and the tedious work from the developer can be taken away since there is not a need to implement the more general playtests for each new game in development.