Assignment 3 Report

KIT208 Virtual and Mixed Reality » Devlog

2 years ago by WillBruce

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Introduction

My application aims to determine and even practice ones hand eye coordination. There are applications that already exist to practice aiming but I think a virtual reality version of this could be beneficial both safety practices of firearms or the more applicable cognitive training of firearms. This application can be as a tool to hone spacial awareness, hand-eye coordination and reflexes.

Description

My application allows the player to firstly select the amount of targets using two (2) virtual reality buttons, when the desired amount is reached the player can then start the simulation by pressing another virtual button that looks like a shooting dummy. This then spawns a shooting dummy that once shot summons another until the amount of dummys shot equals the player's requested duration. There is a timer that times how long the player takes to eliminate all the targets. It is this aspect that the player can judge their precision and reflexes against.

There is use for this application for both gamers who want to improve their skill level on a game as well as real world sharpshooters wanting to test their draw. People from different backgrounds and intentions can test their cognitive fitness in a customizable and entertaining way. As well as player's using this tool to test their skill, my application like many other cognitive tests can be used to diagnose and detect cognitive deficits, in this example this application could be used to evaluate a persons, decision making, reflexes, spacial awareness, coordination, head and hand dexterity etc. (Psychological Testing in the Service of Disability Determination, 2015).

VR allows the player to practice their craft in a 3D virtual environment, unlike other aim trainers such as 3D aim trainer. This application is therefore more applicable to real life scenarios than it's non-VR competitors.

Interaction Design

Interactions:

Up and Down arrows: These arrows allow the user to increase and decrease the targets spawned when the application is functioning, they are necessary to give the user a customizable and efficient experience. This feature may also be necessary to recreate a cognitive test with specific parameters.
Start button: This interaction allows the player to start the simulation when their ready, ensuring a fair cognitive test.
Gun: The gun is a helpful tool in giving the player a way to physically express their cognitive capacity, be that for leisure or testing purposes. It uses the right controller trigger to fire and it tracked using the right hand controller, the controllers can be switched for left handed user with little difference. The button also either glows red or green depending on if the simulation is in action or not, this helps the player with any ambiguities if the simulation is in progress.

Technical Development

An Oculus Quest 2 was used to test and run this simulation, a VR headset is necessary to engage in this application. The player uses their hands and controllers move, look and interact with the environment. The main feature has been added as a proof of concept but if the production of this application continued I would expect to focus on an improved environment, more variation in dummy appearance and spawn locations, , switchable main hand, maybe add an in-game slider that would let the player choose the fire-rate of the gun. On feature that I am sore didn't get into the app was once the start button was pressed a timer count down before the dummy spawns, I think this would help with the accuracy of the simulation as well as being a quality of life upgrade.

Descriptions of 3D Models

Dummy model:

This model acts as the shooting target for the player.

Up and down buttons:

These buttons allow the player to increase and decrease the amount of targets respectfully. Their appearance was designed to be easily understood by the player.

Hang frame:

I added this model to hold the dummy up, as well as adding a chaotic effect to add to the experience.

Gun and VR hand:

The gun is tracked instead of a right hand, it shoots a raycast and adds force to the dummys when an accurate shot is made. The hand is the default Unity Oculus VR Distance Grab Hand Left, this model is representative of the players real life hand, and is able to interact with buttons.

The environment I chose to be a bare bones western-esque ranch. I thought this would add a more fun filter for the experience, and be fitting for the dummy which was already implemented. I found a large model for a large western town and heavily modified it for my purposes.