User Interfaces and Difference Visualizations for Alternatives in Visual Game Development

视觉游戏开发中替代方案的用户界面和差异可视化

• 批准号: RGPIN-2018-05921
• 负责人: Zaman, Loutfouz
• 金额: $ 1.68万
• 依托单位: University of Ontario Institute of Technology
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2020-01-01 至 2021-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=713948
• 关键词: User; Interfaces; Difference; Visualizations; Alternatives

In 2017, the game industry added CAD$3.7 billion to Canada's GDP, a 24% increase since 2015. There are 596 active game studios, a 21% increase since 2015. 40,600 direct and indirect jobs were created, an 11% increase since 2015. Recently, video games with short production times and budgets have been increasing in numbers and quality. One driving factor for this is the growing availability of middleware tools, making game development easier. VPEs (Visual Programming Environments) are partly responsible for this success. These systems allow game developers a level of control that was previously unobtainable without having some knowledge of code writing. Epic Games Unreal 4 game engine is an integrated environment for making games, which provides developers with an option to create games from scratch using VPEs and other Visual Game Asset Editors (VGAEs) only, without having to write a single line of code, making it popular among many indie studios. Although VGAEs make game development more accessible, these tools still do not adequately support conceptual designan integral part of designers' workflow. Most exploration in the conceptual stage of the design of game assets and mechanics happens with the aid of pencil and paper in the form of sketching. VGAEs are mostly used in the final stages of the design. As a result, an entire dimension of how designers actually work is largely missing from these tools, thus narrowing their scope of effective usage. This research program proposes to capture the non-linear iterative flow of the game development process in VGAEs through alternativesan important aspect of conceptual design. The solutions will be implemented as extensions to Unreal 4. This will be accomplished, among others, by integrating UIs for alternatives, design space exploration, history, revision control and difference visualizations into Unreal 4 to facilitate the creation and management of alternatives for game levels, interactive objects, construction scripts, HUDs (Head-Up Displays), material, AI behavior, sound, character animations, particle effects, UI designs, sprites, animations, cut scenes, static meshes and physics assets. This research program will define a body of knowledge through publications and by delivering an enhanced version of Unreal 4a commercially successful open-source AAA game engine. Game developers will be able to exploit the outcomes of this program directly and create more engaging and effective content for video games. This will help indie studios to pursue AAA titles. Beyond contributions to the game industry and basic science, the methods and tools developed will have wide application in the development of interactive digital media content (a key area of Canada's ICT sector), 3D modelling & architecture, city planning, the simulation industry and serious games, and the film industrykey issues for the Canadian economy.

2017年，游戏产业为加拿大GDP增加了37亿加元，自2015年以来增长了24%。活跃的游戏工作室有596家，自2015年以来增长了21%。新增直接和间接就业岗位4.06万个，较2015年增长11%。近年来，制作时间和预算都很短的电子游戏在数量和质量上都在不断提高。其中一个驱动因素是中间件工具的日益普及，这使得游戏开发变得更容易。VPE(可视化编程环境)是这一成功的部分原因。这些系统允许游戏开发人员在没有一些代码编写知识的情况下获得以前无法获得的控制级别。Epic Games虚幻4游戏引擎是一个集成的游戏制作环境，它为开发者提供了一个选项，只使用VPE和其他可视游戏资产编辑器(VGAE)从头开始创建游戏，而不需要编写一行代码，使其在许多独立工作室中很受欢迎。 尽管VGAE让游戏开发变得更容易，但这些工具仍然不能充分支持概念设计，概念设计是设计师工作流程中不可或缺的一部分。在游戏资产和机械设计的概念阶段，大多数探索都是通过素描的形式用纸和笔进行的。VGAE主要用于设计的最后阶段。因此，这些工具在很大程度上缺少设计者实际如何工作的整个维度，从而缩小了它们的有效使用范围。 该研究计划建议通过概念设计的一个重要方面来捕捉VGAES中游戏开发过程的非线性迭代流。这些解决方案将作为Unreal4的扩展实现。这将通过将替代方案、设计空间探索、历史、修订控制和差异可视化的UI集成到Unreal4中来实现，以促进游戏关卡、交互对象、建筑脚本、HUD(平视显示器)、材质、AI行为、声音、角色动画、粒子效果、UI设计、精灵、动画、剪切场景、静态网格和物理资产的替代方案的创建和管理。 这项研究计划将通过出版物和交付商业上成功的开源AAA游戏引擎Unreal4a的增强版本来定义知识体系。游戏开发商将能够直接利用这一计划的成果，并为视频游戏创造更吸引人和更有效的内容。这将有助于独立制片厂追求AAA级的头衔。除了对游戏产业和基础科学的贡献外，开发的方法和工具还将广泛应用于互动数字媒体内容的开发(加拿大ICT部门的一个关键领域)、3D建模和建筑、城市规划、模拟产业和严肃游戏，以及电影产业对加拿大经济的关键问题。