Effect of dynamic camera control on spatial reasoning in 3D spaces

Authors:
Ogechi Nnadi;Ute Fischer;Michael Boyce;Michael Nitsche
Affiliations:
Georgia Institute of Technology;Georgia Institute of Technology;Georgia Institute of Technology;Georgia Institute of Technology
Venue:
Sandbox '08 Proceedings of the 2008 ACM SIGGRAPH symposium on Video games
Year:
2008

Citing 7
Cited 0

CamDroid: a system for implementing intelligent camera control

I3D '95 Proceedings of the 1995 symposium on Interactive 3D graphics
The virtual cinematographer: a paradigm for automatic real-time camera control and directing

SIGGRAPH '96 Proceedings of the 23rd annual conference on Computer graphics and interactive techniques
Intelligent multi-shot visualization interfaces for dynamic 3D worlds

IUI '99 Proceedings of the 4th international conference on Intelligent user interfaces
Expressive autonomous cinematography for interactive virtual environments

AGENTS '00 Proceedings of the fourth international conference on Autonomous agents
Towards an architecture for intelligent control of narrative in interactive virtual worlds

Proceedings of the 8th international conference on Intelligent user interfaces
Pause & Effect: The Art of Interactive Narrative

Pause & Effect: The Art of Interactive Narrative
Narrative event adaptation in virtual environments

Proceedings of the 9th international conference on Intelligent user interfaces

Quantified Score

Hi-index	0.00

Visualization

Abstract

Game worlds have to be presented to players via some form of visualization to be accessible. Consequently, there is a direct dependency between the virtual game world and this form of presentation. But how does the camera work affect our understanding of the game space? We implemented a dynamic camera system that procedurally switches camera styles depending on the type of region the player is in. We then tested to what degree this camera behavior affects the players' understanding of the game world and its zoning in comparison with a control group playing the same zoned environment with a default camera. In both cases, recognition of the zones was lower than expected but our results show that after an initial learning phase the recognition was significantly faster when the dynamic camera system was active. Players also appeared to be less "lost" in the game world. The results validate the role of the camera in virtual spaces and suggest a stronger role for visualization strategies in 3D game worlds.