Author:

Hannah Maria Bergenroth, Jeremias Neth, Bien Seongjin
Supervisor:Prof. Gudrun Klinker
Advisor:Adnane Jadid
Submission Date:29.02.2020

Abstract

In this lab course, held by Adnane Jadid, we created a city simulation game in augmented reality. As such, the gameplay is inspired by earlier games in the genre, like SimCity. Such a city simulation is composed by multiple game elements, like building roads or buildings, managing resources and planing complex infrastructure. By using the HTC VIVE Pro and multi-marker tracking, the city is projected onto a table. Object persistence is achieved with a combination of multi-marker tracking and the base stations of HTC VIVE Pro.

Table of Contents

Project Description

Goal of the project

The goal of the project was to create a game in augmented reality. Furthermore, this game is supposed to be a building simulator placed in a modern setting with appropriate buildings and roads. Those are supposed to be arranged on a grid based system. Additionally, its gamespace has to be defined by one or more user placed markers which are tracked by the game.

Lab Course Requirements

Tracking

TableCity uses its own multi-marker tracking with the help of OpenCV and combines it with the VIVE's tracking to get the best results.

Visualization

By using Unity3D we visualize the gameplay with custom assets.

Logic

The game uses carefully crafted game rules which are further explained in the documentation.

Results

Gameplay Screenshots

Figure 1: The hardwares required - VIVE Pro and markersFigure 2: A close-up view of the gamespace in ARFigure 3: The primary interaction menu

Figure 4: Controller laser indicating the selected tileFigure 5: The starting menuFigure 6: A demonstration of how the gamespace is projected using the markers

Game Design

This page explains the game design choices.

Gameplay Video

Protocol

The protocol for TableCity can be found under this link.

Documentation

Kickoff Slides 

Poster

Conclusion

To conclude, TableCity combines multiple aspects of the city building genre with augmented reality to bring new and exiting gameplay. While the content of the game was limited by the given time constraints, this prototype proved the feasibility of such a concepts and additonally, during the creation of the game we widened our AR knowledge especially in regards to marker tracking and general augmented reality techniques, as such the lab course succeded in teaching us by giving hands-on experience you do not get elsewhere.


Authors


Seongjin Bien

s.bien@tum.de

Jeremias Neth

Jeremias.neth@tum.de

Hannah Bergenroth

hannah.bergenroth@tum.de