Virtual reality
Topic outline
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Virtual Reality
Presential course in INF2 by R. Boulic with one Lecture by Dr Bruno Herbelin on May 6th(the use of the webinar is limited to the presentation course of the first week)see the detailed schedule below for the the type of activity during the 10-13h time rangethe course plans 5 weeks of VR hands-on with coding work (--2h/week) from weeks 3 to 9 of the semester. For this reason, the 1h of exercise from 12h to 13h is used for teaching for the first 2 weeks whereas there will be only 1h of lecture from 10h to 11h during the weeks 4 to 9 period.
The paper study is an individual work starting on week2 with a deadline on week6.
The project is written in C# on UNITY3D ; it starts on week 3 where groups of 3 persons are formed and can retrieve their Oculus Quest HMD(s) on a first-come first-served basis; we only have 19 of them (half Oculus Quest and half Quest2) for spring 2024. The project pitch is planned on week 5 after the Oculus Quest hands-on. The project end on week 13.
GRADING SCHEME (spring 2024)
- The paper study grade has a weight of 15% ; you will know your grade before the final theoretical oral (see below)
- The programming assignment has a weight of 50% that includes a project oral evaluation conducted in presential (with individual questions on the code).
- The individual theoretical oral control during week 14 has a weight of 35% (the duration is 15 minutes / closed books / the first third of the oral exam is presenting a summary of the paper study and the rest consists of questions on related VR theoretical concepts)) . The theoretical oral exam will be conducted in presential during the whole week 14.
DETAILED SCHEDULE for spring 2024
- The paper study grade has a weight of 15% ; you will know your grade before the final theoretical oral (see below)
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Feb. 19tht [1h course presentation and embodied VR concepts +2h about perception]
10h15 :R. Boulic : Course structure including a brief overview of the 4 hands-on demos, the paper study and the small project
R. Boulic : VR as "Embodied Interaction"
11h15: R. Boulic 1h: Feeding human senses through "Immersion"
12h15: R. Boulic 1h: Depth Perception
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You will be able to select the paper you want to study by registering soon below to the "paper study group" with the number of the first authors' name on the first page.
Carefully read the abstracts before choosing a paper as you cannot revert your choice.
You can join only one group => one paper to study (alone) ; it's not a work to do with the potential other person choosing the same paper to study. We'll run the plagiarism detection tool to check such issue. -
reminder: choose MAXIMUM 1 group / the paper study work is individual. The word "group" comes from the moodle interface design ; it just means the maximum number of person choosing a specific paper.
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February 26th : PROJECT [2h teaching by Betül Güres; 1h by Loën Boban] from now on, without webinar ; recorded video from previous year will be visible after the course period
Betül Güres : Introduction to game designBetül Güres: Game: Play testing
Loën Boban: VR systems and project presentation
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Build of the tutorial showed during week 2.
To install it on your HMD, you need to have already installed adb (H01) and to follow the procedure :
- download the .apk
- place it in an appropriate folder
- open a terminal in this folder
- type "adb install -r tutorial_demo.apk"
- The build should then appear in the "unknown source" section of the HMD applications
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You are free to define your project group, at the latest on Monday March 4th 23h55. (week 3)
We expect a standard group size of four people ; the groups of 3 persons will be completed to 4 persons after the above deadline. Consider checking this guide of good practices for team work.
Details can be found in the pdf document "VR Project Guidelines", which can be found in the general section, or within this section.
Once your group is registered, it is important to brainstorm your ideas with the group and come up with a short document that provides the details of your game idea. This document should be uploaded in the assignment "VR Project Pitch Proposal (Max. 2-Page)" (see Topic 5) until friday march 15th (23h55). We encourage you to upload your pitch before March 15th to receive the appropriate feedback for your project.
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March 4th [2h teaching and 1h UNITY intro]
R. Boulic 1h: How much Immersion is necessary ? what is he difference between Immersion and Presence ? and Flow ?
R. Boulic 1h: Cybersickness
Hands-on HO1 Week3-
The game design document is maximum two pages. This is not graded ; it will be used to provide better feedback during the pitch session.
Please Mark your group_id in the pdf name and your document title.
One person per group make the submission
We recommend that you follow the format of the GDD examples document (Moodle > topic 2)
You should include the following bullet points (please carefully read the project guidelines and make sure you precise how your project will fit the requirements of the project):
1. Game background description. (e.g. narrative (if any), game world (if any))
2. Basic gameplay (e.g. the goal of the game)
3. Game mechanism ( e.g. the core game mechanism, key interactions, etc)
4. Locomotion style.
5. Designs to avoid cybersickness (Optional).
6. Other features (User interface, Sound & Effects).
We recommend that you use drawings or other forms of graphical representation to convey your idea more efficiently.
For the pitch session (3min presentation + 2min feedback), please prepare a presentation slide (maximum 5 pages).
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Please make a single choice PER GROUP
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March 11th [1h teaching, 2h TP with own laptop]
R. Boulic 1h: Basic 3D interaction techniques: Magic vs Naturalism (Part1)
Hands-on HO2 Week4
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March 18th [reduced teaching/ focus on the pitch]
R. Boulic : Basic 3D interaction techniques: Magic vs Naturalism [until 10h50]Project Pitch : sign-up and upload of the game design document are above ; 3min pitch + 2min feedback -
March 25 th [1h teaching / 2h TP]
R. Boulic 1h : Basic 3D interaction techniques: Magic vs Naturalism (part 4)
Hands-on Week6
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April 8th [1h teaching, the initially planned 2h TP]
R. Boulic 1h : Haptic interfaces (part1 & 2)
Hands-on week7
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April 15 th [1h teaching / 2h peer assessment of basic interactions]
R. Boulic : Haptic Interfaces (part3) / The perception and Action (Part 1/2)
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April 22 th [45 min]
R. Boulic : The perception and action (end)
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April 29th [45 min]
R. Boulic: What makes an interactive virtual human alive (or plain zombies) ? -
May 6 th [2h teaching] invited lecture from Dr Bruno Herbelin (EPFL Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory)
B. Herbelin: Immersive Virtual Reality, Telepresence and their cognitive foundation / Embodied Virtual Reality (course material from B Herbelin from EPFL-LNCO)
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May 13 th: 10h-13h Public Demo/PlayTesting in INF2 to everybody
This assessment session helps to gather some playtesting feedback from other players that are not members of your group. It will help to refine some aspects before the final upload of the project next week. Today, you can continue to finalize your project but we highly recommend that you take advantage of the presence of other groups' members to invite them to test your game (even partially) before/after the assigned student-assistant visits you.
For the test by the student-assistant, it is on a first-ready, first-tested basis ; so meet them at the beginning of the session to discuss your preferred time range for the test of your game. If you didn't proactively set any test time range the student-assistants will decide themselves when they visit you before 13h.
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May 20th is a non-working day : Project finalization before upload on Wednesday 22nd midnight
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The deadline for submitting the final version of the project is on May 22 at 23:59.
The submission, only one per group, must contain the build of the game, the sources, the report, and the video of the project.Submission item list:
- Build of the game
We will directly import your builds (i.e., games) in the .apk format to HMDs to evaluate your games. - Sources
We should be able to rebuild your game only based on the sources you provided to us. - Report (.pdf file)
It should contain a short synopsis of the game with an illustration of the theme of the game (e.g., a screenshot of a characteristic moment in the game)
Then the report would concisely describe the scenario followed by a description of the implemented interactions (e.g., how to trigger it, what it does, the feedback, and how it manages to do it with a short description of the implementation, schemas are highly appreciated).
A short description of the playtesting session(s) and feedback should also be described (e.g., you can describe interactions you had to change if it was too complicated or tended to induce motion-sickness, who tested your game, what you learned/disliked from participants, etc.)
You can put emphasis on the care you added to the graphics, the sounds, maintaining the theme of the game, or things you believe matter a lot to you while you develop the game.
The report shouldn't be longer than 5 pages (except for exceptional caption).
The report would concisely describe each group member contribution to the project.
Finally, you can add short acknowledgments for your playtesters, friends, family, StackOverflow, etc.
Pdf format mandatory - Video of the project
This should be a short video ( <5 mins) showing a full run of the game.
We don't expect a trailer with special effects.
Usual formats are accepted, and if the video is too heavy, it can be submitted as a link in a file to a video-sharing platform.
N.B. Let us know in case you do not want it to be posted on any video-sharing platform in the future (loen.boban@epfl.ch)
Submission methodThe submission must be a single .zip archive file named 2024_cs444_vr_project_group_XX.zip, where XX is the group number and must contain the following items:
- ./build.apk : the build
- ./sources : the folder containing the unity project (with the code and all assets)
- ./report.pdf : the report
- ./video.mp4 : the video
The archive must be uploaded on GDrive, please send us the corresponding link at loen.boban@epfl.ch AND fatma-betul.gures@epfl.ch - Build of the game
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May 27th: as the 3h available time won't be sufficient, the Final Individual Oral Exams for theory will be spread during the week of May 27-31th in presential in INJ 141.
The Project Group Presentation will be held on the 27th of May in presential in a room to be confirmed.
The additional individual oral on the project code (smoke detector) will be spread between the 28th and the 29th of May (zoom links to be announced).-
Please make a single choice PER GROUP
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in case you have another oral the same day, plan sufficient time between the two events as they are located in different buildings.