98 research outputs found
Offene-Welt-Strukturen: Architektur, Stadt- und Naturlandschaft im Computerspiel
Welche Rolle spielen Algorithmen für den Bildbau und die Darstellung von Welt und Wetter in Computerspielen? Wie beeinflusst die Gestaltung der Räume, Level und Topografien die Entscheidungen und das Verhalten der Spieler_innen? Ist der Brutalismus der erste genuine Architekturstil der Computerspiele? Welche Bedeutung haben Landschaftsgärten und Nationalparks im Strukturieren von Spielwelten? Wie wird Natur in Zeiten des Klimawandels dargestellt? Insbesondere in den letzten 20 Jahren adaptieren digitale Spielwelten akribischer denn je Merkmale der physisch-realen Welt. Durch aufwändige Produktionsverfahren und komplexe Visualisierungsstrategien wird die Angleichung an unsere übrige Alltagswelt stets in Abhängigkeit von Spielmechanik und Weltlichkeit erzeugt. Wie sich spätestens am Beispiel der Open-World-Spiele zeigt, führt die Übernahme bestimmter Weltbilder und Bildtraditionen zu ideologischen Implikationen, die weit über die bisher im Fokus der Forschung stehenden, aus anderen Medienformaten transferierten Erzählkonventionen hinausgehen. Mit seiner Theorie der Architektur als medialem Scharnier legt der Autor offen, dass digitale Spielwelten medienspezifische Eigenschaften aufweisen, die bisher nicht zu greifen waren und der Erforschung harrten. Durch Verschränken von Konzepten aus u.a. Medienwissenschaft, Game Studies, Philosophie, Architekturtheorie, Humangeografie, Landschaftstheorie und Kunstgeschichte erarbeitet Bonner ein transdisziplinäres Theoriemodell und ermöglicht anhand der daraus entwickelten analytischen Methoden erstmals, die komplexe Struktur heutiger Computerspiele - vom Indie Game bis zur AAA Open World - zu verstehen und zu benennen. Mit "Offene-Welt-Strukturen" wird die Architektonik digitaler Spielwelten umfassend zugänglich
3D Information Technologies in Cultural Heritage Preservation and Popularisation
This Special Issue of the journal Applied Sciences presents recent advances and developments in the use of digital 3D technologies to protect and preserve cultural heritage. While most of the articles focus on aspects of 3D scanning, modeling, and presenting in VR of cultural heritage objects from buildings to small artifacts and clothing, part of the issue is devoted to 3D sound utilization in the cultural heritage field
Permanenze e innovazioni nell'architettura del MediterraneoMediterranean Architecture between Heritage and Innovation
The volume offers considerable material for reflection on the subject of Mediterranean Architecture between Heritage and Innovation, demonstrating the wide range of aspects linked to architectural technology, highlighting the flexibility of the disciplinary boundaries with regard to the various meanings that can be applied to the concept of resource. To be read as a continuation of previous Osdotta publications, this allows to trace the current developments in third-level education in a particularly critical moment for the university institution, continuing to emphasize the crucial question of the supply/demand in research, in comparison with other institutions and with the world of production in this sector, in the current scenario dominated by increasingly rapid and incisive transformations. The main challenges to be faced are the quality improvement of PhD courses, through reflection on immediate and long-term results, alongside with clarifying the identity contents of the disciplinary sector
Towards Fully Dynamic Surface Illumination in Real-Time Rendering using Acceleration Data Structures
The improvements in GPU hardware, including hardware-accelerated ray tracing, and the push for fully dynamic realistic-looking video games, has been driving more research in the use of ray tracing in real-time applications. The work described in this thesis covers multiple aspects such as optimisations, adapting existing offline methods to real-time constraints, and adding effects which were hard to simulate without the new hardware, all working towards a fully dynamic surface illumination rendering in real-time.Our first main area of research concerns photon-based techniques, commonly used to render caustics. As many photons can be required for a good coverage of the scene, an efficient approach for detecting which ones contribute to a pixel is essential. We improve that process by adapting and extending an existing acceleration data structure; if performance is paramount, we present an approximation which trades off some quality for a 2–3× improvement in rendering time. The tracing of all the photons, and especially when long paths are needed, had become the highest cost. As most paths do not change from frame to frame, we introduce a validation procedure allowing the reuse of as many as possible, even in the presence of dynamic lights and objects. Previous algorithms for associating pixels and photons do not robustly handle specular materials, so we designed an approach leveraging ray tracing hardware to allow for caustics to be visible in mirrors or behind transparent objects.Our second research focus switches from a light-based perspective to a camera-based one, to improve the picking of light sources when shading: photon-based techniques are wonderful for caustics, but not as efficient for direct lighting estimations. When a scene has thousands of lights, only a handful can be evaluated at any given pixel due to time constraints. Current selection methods in video games are fast but at the cost of introducing bias. By adapting an acceleration data structure from offline rendering that stochastically chooses a light source based on its importance, we provide unbiased direct lighting evaluation at about 30 fps. To support dynamic scenes, we organise it in a two-level system making it possible to only update the parts containing moving lights, and in a more efficient way.We worked on top of the new ray tracing hardware to handle lighting situations that previously proved too challenging, and presented optimisations relevant for future algorithms in that space. These contributions will help in reducing some artistic constraints while designing new virtual scenes for real-time applications
BIM-Based Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment for Buildings
In recent years, the progress of digitization in the architecture and construction sectors has produced enormous advances in the automation of analysis and evaluation processes. This is the case with environmental analysis systems, such as the life cycle analysis. Methodology practitioners have found a fundamental ally in the building information modeling platforms, which allow tasks that conventionally consume large amounts of energy and time to be carried out more automatically and efficiently. In this publication, the reader will find some of the latest advances in this area
Sonic Interactions in Virtual Environments
This open access book tackles the design of 3D spatial interactions in an audio-centered and audio-first perspective, providing the fundamental notions related to the creation and evaluation of immersive sonic experiences. The key elements that enhance the sensation of place in a virtual environment (VE) are: Immersive audio: the computational aspects of the acoustical-space properties of Virutal Reality (VR) technologies Sonic interaction: the human-computer interplay through auditory feedback in VE VR systems: naturally support multimodal integration, impacting different application domains Sonic Interactions in Virtual Environments will feature state-of-the-art research on real-time auralization, sonic interaction design in VR, quality of the experience in multimodal scenarios, and applications. Contributors and editors include interdisciplinary experts from the fields of computer science, engineering, acoustics, psychology, design, humanities, and beyond. Their mission is to shape an emerging new field of study at the intersection of sonic interaction design and immersive media, embracing an archipelago of existing research spread in different audio communities and to increase among the VR communities, researchers, and practitioners, the awareness of the importance of sonic elements when designing immersive environments
Sonic interactions in virtual environments
This book tackles the design of 3D spatial interactions in an audio-centered and audio-first perspective, providing the fundamental notions related to the creation and evaluation of immersive sonic experiences. The key elements that enhance the sensation of place in a virtual environment (VE) are: Immersive audio: the computational aspects of the acoustical-space properties of Virutal Reality (VR) technologies Sonic interaction: the human-computer interplay through auditory feedback in VE VR systems: naturally support multimodal integration, impacting different application domains Sonic Interactions in Virtual Environments will feature state-of-the-art research on real-time auralization, sonic interaction design in VR, quality of the experience in multimodal scenarios, and applications. Contributors and editors include interdisciplinary experts from the fields of computer science, engineering, acoustics, psychology, design, humanities, and beyond. Their mission is to shape an emerging new field of study at the intersection of sonic interaction design and immersive media, embracing an archipelago of existing research spread in different audio communities and to increase among the VR communities, researchers, and practitioners, the awareness of the importance of sonic elements when designing immersive environments
The Use of Games and Crowdsourcing for the Fabrication-aware Design of Residential Buildings
State-of-the-art participatory design acknowledges the true, ill-defined nature of design problems, taking into account stakeholders' values and preferences. However, it overburdens the architect, who has to synthesize far more constraints into a one-of-a-kind design. Generative Design promises to equip architects with great power to standardize and systemize the design process. However, the common trap of generative design is trying to treat architecture simply as a tame problem. In this work, I investigate the use of games and crowdsourcing in architecture through two sets of explorative questions. First, if everyone can participate in the network-enabled creation of the built environment, what role will they play? And what tools will they need to enable them? And second, if anyone can use digital fabrication to build any building, how will we design it? What design paradigms will govern this process? I present a map of design paradigms that lie at the intersections of Participatory Design, Generative Design, Game Design, and Crowd Wisdom. In four case studies, I explore techniques to employ the practices from the four fields in the service of architecture. Generative Design can lower the difficulty of the challenge to design by automating a large portion of the work. A newly formulated, unified taxonomy of generative design across the disciplines of architecture, computer science, and computer games builds the base for the use of algorithms in the case studies. The work introduces Playable Voxel-Shape Grammars, a new type of generative technique. It enables Game Design to guide participants through a series of challenges, effectively increasing their skills by helping them understand the underlying principles of the design task at hand. The use of crowdsourcing in architecture can mean thousands of architects creating content for a generative design system, to expand and open up its design space. Crowdsourcing can also be about millions of people online creating designs that an architect or a homeowner can refer to increase their understanding of the complex issues at hand in a given design project and for better decision making. At the same time, game design in architecture helps find the balance between algorithmically exploring pre-defined design alternatives and open-ended, free creativity. The research reveals a layered structure of entry points for crowd-contributed content as well as the granular nature of authorship among four different roles: non-expert stakeholders, architects, the crowd, and the tool-makers
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