Re-engineering jake2 to work on a grid using the GridGain Middleware

With the advent of Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOGs), engineers and designers of games came across with many questions that needed to be answered such as, for example, "how to allow a large amount of clients to play simultaneously on the same server?", "how to guarantee a good quality of service (QoS) to a great number of clients?", "how many resources will be necessary?", "how to optimize these resources to the maximum?". A possible answer to these questions relies on the usage of grid computing. Taking into account the parallel and distributed nature of grid computing, we can say that grid computing allows for more scalability in terms of a growing number of players, guarantees shorter communication time between clients and servers, and allows for a better resource management and usage (e.g., memory, CPU, core balancing usage, etc.) than the traditional serial computing model. However, the main focus of this thesis is not about grid computing. Instead, this thesis describes the re-engineering process of an existing multiplayer computer game, called Jake2, by transforming it into a MMOG, which is then put to run on a grid

An investigation into community travel patterns, navigational strategies and virtual reality route learning after an acquired brain injury

Making a simple journey may appear to require very little planning on behalf of the navigator but it, in fact, utilises multiple cognitive processes, modalities and skills, many of which may be impaired in acquired brain injury. The aim of this thesis was to explore community travel and route learning in this population through a series of studies. The first study explored changes in community travel patterns and showed a reduction in all types of journeys, particularly unaccompanied and leisure trips. Disability and anxiety played some role in the reduction in travel but not as large a role as expected. The results of this study indicated that the reduction in community travel also impacted on quality of life. A virtual environment was developed and tested for use in the final two studies. This was followed by an investigation into the use of proximal and distal landmark strategies in route learning using the virtual environment. Findings suggested that people with traumatic brain injury have more difficulty using distal landmarks than proximal landmarks when learning a route. The final study built upon these results to develop a set of procedures to test whether it was possible to improve route learning in people with traumatic brain injury. Route learning skills were assessed using the virtual environment and then their naturally chosen strategy was supplemented with an additional one in order to improve performance

Emerging Technologies For Military Game-Based Training

The use of Serious Games in today\u27s military is becoming the new standard for training. Games, however, have implications reaching farther than standard training procedures. Initiatives in distance learning and games as assessments may revamp the way the military implements game based technologies. Emerging game technologies that make games even better tools for today\u27s military by facilitating user created content will also be reviewed