Abstract

With Virtual Reality technology maturing and spreading widely in recent years, it is becomingan increasingly useful tool for entertainment and education. Its potential to simulate hard to reach environments and emulate unique experiences believably is of great interest, inparticular for recreational and professional diving. Many of the world’s most intriguing archaeological sites are located in the world’s oceans and are only accessible to experienced divers and underwater archaeologists. Virtual Reality could provide an immersive way for everyone to enjoy Underwater Cultural Heritage and the sport of diving from their own home or as a museum exhibit.This thesis provides a detailed look at Virtual Reality Systems and their use for Serious Games, focusing on their application for immersive diving simulation. An overview of the field of Virtual Reality, its current state of the art, and its usefulness in Serious Games is provided as a foundation for the design of our own Virtual Reality System. To asses the possibility and challenges of recreating diving in Virtual Reality, the sport is examined in detail and a gameplay and technological design for an immersive Virtual Reality diving simulator is proposed. A prototype of the simulator was developed following the suggested design and a questionnaire to evaluate its immersion and effectivity as a diver trainer and educational tool will be provided.

Video

Design Drawings

Screenshots

Game Download (ValveIndex/SteamVR)

Download 200Bar (Alpha)

Presentation

Final Presentation

Conclusion

This thesis aimed to explore the use of modern VR technology and design for the use in SGs to implement a realistic and authentic diving simulation. A comprehensive design for a VR System that can implement such a simulation has been proposed and a prototype was developed to test and validate the design decisions. Throughout the thesis many important findings have been made and could be utilised for the construction of the system.

Initially, we presented our motivations for the thesis and why the topic was chosen to introduce readers to the topic and help them understand the potential outcomes and opportunities stemming from our research. After a brief historical summary of VR technology, an extensive overview of the field was given, explaining the different aspects and advantages of the technology, and definitions for use in the thesis were established. The role andadvantage of VR for use in immersive SGs was highlighted and its potential for the use in UCH and dive training.

A number of related works were reviewed to examine the state of the art in the space of VR SGs and dive simulation. Through the study of this previous research we could extract valuable lessons for our own work, helping us with the design and implementation of our own VR system and avoid pitfalls in the progress. This knowledge was promptly applied to the theoretical exploration of the aspects and methods pertaining to the realistic, interactive simulation of a dive. The different sensory stimuli of the activity were brought up and possible technological, as well as design, solutions for their authentic translation into VR was discussed. Based on the results of this consideration, an extensive design for a modularand extensible VR diving simulation system was proposed, detailing both the hardware and software structures along with the underlying principles and philosophies. In cooperation with Guys Kost one possible experience for the system was envisioned aided by his findings in his own thesis. A prototype VR SG based on the previously proposed gameplay and design were then developed in partnership, with components pertaining specifically to dive simulation and VR elaborated here. Finally a user-study was planned for further evaluation of the prototype and the future possibilities resulting from the thesis were explored.

We found that Virtual Reality is likely a suitable technology for the realistic simulation of diving in the context of a Serious Game, in particular when an immersive and realistic virtual environment is used in conjunction with authentic, engaging gameplay. Our prototype provides an early look at the possibilities of such a simulator and could be used to facilitate immersive entertainment or accessible dive training in the future. We intend to furthere valuate the performance of the system with the proposed user-study and plan to continue development and research of the prototype in subsequent works.