Procedural modelling of terrains with constraints

Terrain is an essential part of any outdoor environment and, consequently, many techniques have appeared that deal with the problem of its automatic generation, such as procedural modeling. One form to create terrains is using noise functions because its low computational cost and its random result. However, the randomness of these functions also makes it difficult to have any control over the result obtained. In order to solve the problem of lack of control, this paper presents a new method noise-based that allows procedural terrains creation with elevation constraints (GPS routes, points of interest and areas of interest). For this, the method establishes the restrictions as fixed values in the heightmap function and creates a system of equations to obtain all points that they depend this restrictions. In this way, the terrain obtained maintains the random noise, but including the desired restrictions. The paper also includes how we apply this method on large terrain models without losing resolution or increasing the computational cost excessively. The results show that our method makes it possible to integrate this kind of constraints with high accuracy and realism while preserving the natural appearance of the procedural generation

Multiresolution Foliage Rendering

Ponència presentada en CoSECiVi 2020, VI Congreso de la Sociedad Española para las Ciencias del Videojuego On-line, 7-8 d'octubre de 2020.This work presents a continuous level of detail representation of foliage of trees. Multiresolution modeling allows to adapt the number of polygons to render to the relevance of the object in the scene. However, foliage is represented by isolated polygons, so most of the multiresolution modeling methods do not work properly with this part of the tree. This paper presents a multiresolution model that allows to adapt the number of leaves to the relevance of the foliage in the scene. The criterion to select the appropriate leaves to render is based on a previously performed view-driven simplification. To adapt this parameter in real time, data structures and the necessary algorithms that allow us to extract the appropriate number of polygons are presented. Some tests have been developed to evaluate the proposed solution and results show the good performance of the presented continuous level of detail

Learning First Aid with a Video Game

Any citizen can be involved in a situation that requires basic first aid knowledge. For this reason, it is important to be trained in this kind of activity. Serious games have been presented as a good option to integrate entertainment into the coaching process. This work presents a video game for mobile platforms which facilitate the formation and training in the PWA (Protect, Warn, Aid) first aid protocol. Users have to overcome a series of challenges to bring theoretical concepts closer to practice. To easily change the point of view of the game play, Augmented Reality technology has been used. In order to make each game looks different, neural networks have been implemented to perform the behavior of the Non-Playable Characters autonomous. Finally, in order to evaluate the quality and playability of the application, as well as the motivation and learning of content, several experiments were carried out with a sample of 50 people aged between 18 and 26. The obtained results confirm the playability and attractiveness of the video game, the increase of interest in learning first aid, as well as the greater fixation of the different concepts dealt with in the video game. The results support that this application facilitates and improves the learning of first aid protocols, making it more enjoyable, attractive, and practical.This research was funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Technology (Project PID2019-106426RB-C32/AEI/10.13039/501100011033) and the Universitat Jaume I research project UJI-B2018-56

Learning History Using Virtual and Augmented Reality

Master lectures of history are usually quite boring for the students, and to keep their attention requires a great effort from teachers. Virtual and Augmented Reality have a clear potential in education and can solve this problem. Serious games that use immersive technologies allow students to visit and interact with environments dated in different ages. Taking this in mind, this article presents a playful virtual reality experience set in Ancient Rome that allows the user to learn concepts from that age. The virtual experience reproduces as accurately as possible the different buildings and civil constructions of the time, making it possible for the player to create Roman cities in a simple way. Once built, the user can visit them, accessing the buildings and being able to interact with the objects and characters that appear. Moreover, in order to learn more information about every building, users can visualize them using Augmented Reality using marker-based techniques. Different information has been included related to every building, such as their main uses, characteristics, or even some images that represent them. In order to evaluate the effectiveness of the developed experience, several experiments have been carried out, taking as sample Secondary School students. Initially, the game’s quality and playability has been evaluated and, subsequently, the motivation of the virtual learning experience in history. The results obtained support on the one hand its gameplay and attractiveness, and on the other, the student’s increased interest in studying history, as well as the greater fixation of different concepts treated in a playful experience

Procedural modeling of plant ecosystems maximizing vegetation cover

Vegetation plays a major role in the realistic display of outdoor scenes. However, manual plant placement can be tedious. For this reason this paper presents a new proposal in the field of procedural modeling of natural scenes. This method creates plant ecosystems that maximizes the covered space by optimizing an objective function subject to a series of constraints defined by a system of inequalities. This system includes the constraints of the environment taking into account characteristics of the terrain and the plant species involved. Once the inequality system has been defined, a solution will be obtained that tries to maximize the radius of the projected area of the trees and therefore the extension of the vegetation cover on the ground. The technique eliminates the trees that do not achieve a minimum growth radius, simulating the typical competitive process of nature. Results show the good performance and the high visual quality of the ecosystems obtained by the proposed technique. The use of this kind of optimization techniques could be used to solve other procedural modeling problems in other fields of application.Funding for open access charge: CRUE-Universitat Jaume

A game development environment to make 2D games

The creation of video games involves multidisciplinary processes that are not accessible to the general public. Currently, the development environments are very powerful tools, but they also require an advanced technical level to even start using them. This article presents a 2D game development environment to propose an alternative model to reduce the technical complexity existing in these systems, presenting a data model and a game editor that allows fulfilling this goal. In order to test its capabilities, several games have been successfully implemented in the proposed environment. With this achievement, it can be stated that it is possible to create video games simply and affordably for the general public without giving up its potential and remarking that there is still a long way to go to reach democratization in the creation of video games and the need to continue working in this field

A game engine designed to simplify 2D video game development

In recent years, the increasing popularity of casual games for mobile and web has promoted the development of new editors to make video games easier to create. The development of these interactive applications is on its way to becoming democratized, so that anyone who is interested, without any advanced knowledge of programming, can create them for devices such as mobile phones or consoles. Nevertheless, most game development environments rely on the traditional way of programming and need advanced technical skills, even despite today’s improvements. This paper presents a new 2D game engine that reduces the complexity of video game development processes. The game specification has been simplified, decreasing the complexity of the engine architecture and introducing a very easy-to-use editing environment for game creation. The engine presented here allows the behaviour of the game objects to be defined using a very small set of conditions and actions, without the need to use complex data structures. Some experiments have been designed in order to validate its ease of use and its capacity in the creation of a wide variety of games. To test it, users with little experience in programming have developed arcade games using the presented environment as a proof of its easiness with respect to other comparable software. Results obtained endorse the concept and the hypothesis of its easiness of use and demonstrate the engine potential

Mejorar la destreza matemática con un videojuego de Realidad Aumentada

Ponència presentada a CoSECiVi 2020, VI Congreso de la Sociedad Española para las Ciencias del Videojuego 2020 (On-line, 7-8 d'octobre de 2020)The traditional method of learning multiplication tables is a repetitive and boring task. Teachers try to find new methods to motivate children in this learning. One of the lines to keep in mind it is to integrate entertainment into educational processes. This work, aimed at 3rd year Primary Education students, presents a video game with Augmented Reality that allows you to practice the multiplication tables by gamifying their successes and memorization. In order to attract different player profiles, two mini-games have been created, one for fighting and the other for recycling, which are played after solving a series of proposed multiplications. The game will report the hits and misses made in each game, as well as the evolution of the successful answers between the first and last game played. In this way, teachers will be able to evaluate the improvement in the learning of their students’ multiplication tables. Mixing entertainment and Augmented Reality techniques will make this tedious process more enjoyable and attractive for children, greatly improving their math skills.El método tradicional de aprender las tablas de multiplicar es una tarea repetitiva y aburrida. Los docentes intentan buscar nuevos métodos para motivar a los niños/as en esta tarea. Una de las líneas a tener en cuenta es integrar en los procesos educativos el entretenimiento. Este trabajo, dirigido a alumnos/as de 3o de Educación Primaria, presenta un videojuego con Realidad Aumentada que permite practicar las tablas de multiplicar gamificando sus éxitos y su memorización. Para poder atraer diferentes perfiles de jugadores, se han creado dos minijuegos, uno de lucha y otro de reciclaje a los que se juega tras responder una serie de multiplicaciones propuestas. El juego informará de los aciertos y fallos realizados en cada partida, así como de la evolución de estos fallos y aciertos entre la primera y última partida jugadas. De este modo, los docentes podrán evaluar la mejora en el aprendizaje de las tablas de multiplicar de sus alumnos/as. Mezclar entretenimiento y técnicas de Realidad Aumentada harán que este tedioso proceso sea m´as ´ameno y atractivo para los niños/as, mejorando en gran medida sus habilidades en matemáticas

Prácticas externas y trabajo fin de grado en el Grado en Ingeniería Informática de la Universitat Jaume I

Comunicació presentada a la V Jornada Nacional sobre Estudios Universitarios: "estructura de títulos V3.2 y I Taller de innovación educativa: motivar para emprender", celebrada a Castelló de la Plana els dies 12 i 13 de novembre de 2015Todos los grados de la Universitat Jaume I exigen, además de un trabajo fin de grado, la realización de unas prácticas externas en empresas que son obligatorias para todos los estudiantes. En el nuevo plan de estudios del Grado en Ingeniería Informática se optó por integrar ambos requisitos en una única asignatura con una carga total de 18 créditos, de los cuales 12 (300 horas) deben realizarse en una empresa externa. En este artículo se presentan las principales ventajas e inconvenientes que hemos encontrado en el desarrollo de esta asignatura en los casi dos cursos que lleva implantada. Analizamos las conclusiones desde estos puntos de vista: La formación del estudiante, que debe realizar obligatoriamente un proyecto con un perfil profesional, ya que debe desarrollarlo en su mayor parte en la empresa; La participación de las empresas del entorno, que deben colaborar estrechamente con el grado; El proceso de evaluación, que implica al supervisor en la empresa, al tutor de la universidad y a un tribunal universitario; La gestión, organización y coordinación de la asignatura, que coordina estudiantes, empresas, profesores tutores y tribunales de evaluación. La valoración de este nuevo modelo que integra las prácticas externas con el TFG es muy positiva desde el punto de vista de la formación del estudiantado. Sin embargo, la valoración por parte de las empresas está más dividida. Aunque todas opinan que este modelo es muy beneficioso para la formación del estudiantado, algunas piensan que la gestión es poco flexible y podría proporcionar al estudiante una visión poco realista del trabajo real en una empresa, donde el trabajo del día a día no puede estar tan planificado

Image mapping system for simulating ceramic environments

Minimizing costs and increasing sales are a goal for every busi- ness nowadays. This fact, together with the development of new technologies, have driven the emergence of virtual applications where the customers can configure the product they are interested in only interacting with the images where the products appear. Many applications are available on Internet or app stores for this purpose. In all of them, a high realism is required. However, this fact is directly related to a high cost of storage of data and to the difficulty of generating the images of the scenes where the product is exposed. This paper presents a virtual configurator addressed to tile factories that solves these problems maintaining a high realism. The developed application generates the configurable images by rendering 3D modeled environments and the customization is performed taking advantage of the graphics hardware. It is in charge of performing the tiling of any size tiles in real time. The presented image mapping system is based on the real measurements of the walls or floor of the environment that appear in the image and on the dimensions of the tile to map. Taking these data into account, the application performs the final appearance adapting the final image to the requirements of the user. The presented method reduces the amount of stored information maintaining the realism of the customized images