THE POTENTIAL TO USE GAMES ENGINES AND GAMES

SOFTWARE TO DEVELOP INTERACTIVE, THREEDIMENSIONAL VISUALIZATIONS OF GEOGRAPHY

Germanchis, T. and Cartwright, W.
Department of Geospatial Science, RMIT University,
GPO Box 2476V, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 300.1
E-mail: tim_germanchis@hotmail.com and william.cartwright@rmit.edu.au
ABSTRACT
The visualization of spatial information has a strong foundation in two-dimensional form (Moore 1997). Twodimensional abstractions have proven value and practicality. However, its important to remember that not everyone is
comfortable with this view of the world. Much geographical data is multidimensional. Three-dimensional
representations can impart more appropriate information in many instances. Three dimensions can provide an intuitive
organisation of spatial objects that replicates or reflects the real world. This in turn utilises the users natural perception
and memory of space and spatial relationships.
Three-dimensional representations of geographical data on computer are known as Geospatial Virtual Environments or
GeoVEs. Previous work in the display of GeoVEs utilises a conventional multimedia/hypermedia approach. However,
in recent times, large technological advances has seen computer games technology offer a fitting environment for
serious academic study (Laird 2001). Much literature has argued that GeoVEs lack meaningful interaction and realism,
especially as compared to games (Champion 2002). Therefore, research into applying games technology to GeoVEs
may be satisfactorily used to create a more interactive, realistic and hence more engaging environment. This paper will
explore the potential of utilising a games approach in displaying GeoVEs and discuss the advantages it has over a
conventional multimedia/hypermedia approach.
Keywords: Games Engines and Software, Visualization, Interactivity, Three-Dimensions, Geography, Geospatial
Virtual Environments.
1.

INTRODUCTION

Contributing to the authors doctoral candidature, the study focuses on developing a GeoVE prototype of a real
environment and examining its effectiveness for use by the general public or non-expert user.
This research will address the following objectives:
! Development of an effective three-dimensional, interactive (and animated), Web-based desktop GeoVE, built using
games technology and applying interactive strategies;
! Design, implementation and distribution of a 3D GeoVE for public use;
! Investigation of appropriate methods that minimise the pre-use learning required for the effective use of Virtual
Environments, whilst maximising information yield;
! Ascertain whether GeoVEs enhance understanding and cognition of real environments through a more naturally
human visual perception of the world; and
! Demonstrating the potential and viability that Virtual Environments have in general decision support where
information about geo-location is paramount.
The intended proof-of-concept prototype will model the town of Queenscliff, Australia (Figure 1). This historical
township covers approximately 1.5 square kilometres and it is located on the eastern tip of the Bellarine Peninsula in the
state of Victoria. It is a coastal town boasting historic buildings, situated on top of a slightly undulating landscape.
Queenscliff was chosen because it is accessible, enclosed by Port Phillip and Swan Bays, it contains historic
information that eliminates problems associated with temporal issues and previous research assignments have been
undertaken there, which has further simplified the logistics of gathering data.
The researcher aims to target the wider general public in offering an accessible and understandable means to visualize
landscapes. It is intended that the visualization system be offered over a desktop PC and to further engage user interest,
the virtual world would be built on games technology.
Proceedings of the 21st International Cartographic Conference (ICC)
Cartographic Renaissance
ISBN: 0-958-46093-0

Durban, South Africa, 10 16 August 2003

Hosted by The International Cartographic Association (ICA)
Produced by: Document Transformation Technologies

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Figure 1. Aerial photo of Queenscliff, Australia.

Games are a familiar medium for users with an estimated 75% of people under thirty having played a computer game.
The development of virtual environments as learning tools, based on games technology and a gaming metaphor could
provide educators with a superior mechanism to entice learners into places where knowledge is acquired through
intrinsic motivation (Bryce et al. 2001) .
2.

PROBLEM

From an outsiders view, there exists one main criticism from each industry about the other between cartographers and
gamers. From a geospatial view, non-expert users tend to have their understanding in conceptualising the real world
limited with current geovisualization tools and techniques. On the other hand, virtual environments illustrated in gaming
regularly draw depictions of cyberspace, but not place. There is a need to solve these two criticisms by one joint
solution - to provide non-experts with the ability to understand the dimensions of a real place through improved
realism, meaningful content, interaction, navigation, orientation and useful feedback mechanisms. Finally, issues of
providing widespread distribution for this information is also required to meet the accessibility needs of everyday
users.
Cartographers have seen the value of utilising the third dimension in mapping. From the origins of 3D landscapes, seen
in the works of Berann (1991), Imhof (1982) and Harrison (1944), work has progressed from these hand-sketched
mountain panoramas and sculpted models to multidimensional interactive models in which the map user can
participate in a multi-sensory experience, or virtual reality (VR) (Moore 1999). The main problem when the use of
virtual reality systems and technologies are implemented, lies in the fact that this automatically distances the general
public from using these often expensive, large and bulky immersed environments run on the back of a supercomputer.
In fact, this not only distances the general public but also the researchers who obviously have difficulties accessing
these expensive installations.
3.

WHY CHOOSE GAMES?

The question of the choice of a suitable modelling environment comes down to a trade-off between fulfilling needs,
accessibility and cost to the researcher and more importantly, the user.
With respect to the real environment, the modelling engine is required to be:
! a true 3D environment;
! able to successfully model landscape as well as architecture;
! is accessible over a desktop PC;
! allows the user real-time movement around the virtual environment;
! allows the user to interact with the model;
! provides animation; and,
! offers powerful graphics quality without diminishing system performance to an unsatisfactory level.
The researcher has reviewed numerous visualization techniques and 3D modelling programs available in the
multimedia/hypermedia scene. Some of these include VRML (Virtual Reality Modelling Language), GeoVRML,
Terragen, Bryce3D, World Construction Set, Director 3D, Java 3D, Vue DEsprit and Wild Tangent. These options
were lacking in one or more elements required to fulfil the research. Indeed, the goal of bringing photorealistic, realtime technology to desktop computers has challenged the geovisualization and VR communities (DeLeon et al. 2000).

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The solution was to use the very latest in 3D rendering engines from an industry that has been dealing with heavy
polygon processing on low-end equipment for years the videogame industry (DeLeon et al. 1998). It was important to
lower the cost without sacrificing rendering capabilities so a gaming-based 3D engine was chosen over a room full of
supercomputers.
4.

THE GAMING ENGINE STRING CVE (COLLABORATIVE VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENT)

Careful deliberation over the appropriate 3D gaming engine was paramount. The attributes under consideration were
purchasing cost and accessibility, functionality and programming and modelling difficulty (since the author has a
background in cartography and not computer science). The appropriate choice was String CVE (Collaborative Virtual
Environment).
String CVE is an application based on the Torque game engine that has been licensed by Garage Games (GG) from
Sierra Studios. The origin of the engine is the highly successful Tribes 2 game. Before releasing to GG Sierra extracted
all the Tribes specific functionality (A.I., vehicles, weapons, avatars etc.) and in the process destabilised some of the
functionality. GG received 200,000 lines of code and with the input of a dedicated net community have extracted a
software development kit to enable the production of game titles at comparatively low cost. The University of Auckland
has negotiated with GG to develop a CVE application for educational purposes String CVE (at this stage Beta 1.2.7).
String is a real time multi player environment and editing application. Geometry, surface, and sound are authored in
external applications and accessed from within String to compose a CVE. This involves working with a range of
software - typical workflow is outlined below in Figure 2 (Moloney 2002).

Figure 2. Typical workflow of the String CVE (Moloney 2002).

5.

THE NEXT STEP

Initial modelling of Queenscliff is currently in progress. Photogrammetric and GPS work has been undertaken to obtain
the elevation data necessary for modelling the shape of the land in String. It is intended that this height data be directly
imported into the model. String CVE also has a brush tool allowing the user to manipulate the shape of the terrain
manually (Figure 3).

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Figure 3. Terrain manipulation brush seen in String CVE.

Buildings, avatars, animated objects, sounds and textures are all packaged in outside programs before importing them
into String CVE (See Figure 2 for workflow) and will be introduced after modelling the terrain. Allowing user
interaction through programming routines is done through Strings scripting language. It is envisaged that scripting for
user interaction will take final place in the process. The general appearance of the String environment is shown below
(Figure 4). Given that this environment allows for real-time movement and user interaction, String CVE and other 3D
gaming engines offer a power and ease-of-use that cartographers are beginning to widely accept.

Figure 4. A modelled environment in String CVE.

6.

CONCLUSION

The paper has drawn attention to the potential of utilising 3D gaming engines for visualizing real environments as an
alternative to existing multimedia products.

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3D gaming technology offers enormous opportunity to the 3D cartography scene as its use is not only superior in
computing graphics, navigation and interaction modes, but the lure of the gaming metaphor is highly evocative to the
non-expert user (Champion 2002). In fact, one may argue that these non-experts are actually not, for the medium
may be a familiar environment, even if they are not used the exploring virtual worlds without having to shoot and kill
some type of supernatural being!
The approach for this research is based on the brief that advances in games and digital entertainment have been
swifter than multimedia tools. Nack (2001) argued that this situation was not chiefly responsible for establishing a
competitive economic environment, where products thrive with successes and die with flops. Rather, it seems that the
underlying question behind the development of games is somewhat different. In digital entertainment, the customer is
king and developers constantly assess who their customers are and whether their products meet customers needs.
Multimedia researchers, however, tend to focus on how to solve a particular problem and therefore the real-world
applicability part of the equation may be ignored. This is the fundamental reason why the skills of non-expert users
will be identified so as to produce a 3D GeoVE that utilises the full technological extent of contemporary digital
modelling environments. This will lead to the non-expert user gaining a better understanding of the real place being
depicted.
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REFERENCES
Champion, E. (2002). 'Applying Game Design Theory to Virtual Heritage Environments,' in Computer Games
and Digital Cultures Conference, Tampere, 2002.
Nack, F. (2001). 'Play the game', Multimedia, IEEE, Vol. 8, No. 1, pp. 8-10.
Berann, H. (1991). Greater Yellowstone Poster. Washington D.C., U.S. National Parks Service.
Bryce, J. & Rutter, J. (2001). 'Presence In Public Computer Gaming,' In Dept. Of Psycology, University Of
Central Lancashire & Centre For Research On Innovation & Competition (Cric), Univerversity Of Manchester,
Presented At "Computer Games & Digital Textualities", It University Of Copenhagen, 2001, Digiplay Initiative.
Champion, E. (2002). 'Applying Game Design Theory To Virtual Heritage Environments,' In Computer Games
And Digital Cultures Conference, Tampere, 2002.
Deleon, V. & Berry, R. J. (1998). 'Virtual Florida Everglades,' In Virtual Systems & Multimedia Vsmm98, Gifu,
Japan, 1998.
Deleon, V. & Berry, R. J. (2000). 'Bringing Vr To The Desktop: Are You Game?' Ieee Multimedia, Vol. 7, No.
2, Pp. 68-72.
Harrison, R. E. (1944). Look At The World, The Fortune Atlas For World Strategy. Alfred A. Knopf, New York.
Imhof, E. (1982). Cartographic Relief Presentation. Walter De Gruyter, Berlin.
Laird, J. E. (2001). 'Using Computer Game To Develop Advanced Ai In', Computer, Vol. 34, No. 7, Pp. 70 - 75.
Moloney, J. (2002). Memory Games: Technical Reference For String Cve, Auckland University & Rmit
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Moore, K. (1997). 'Interactive Virtual Environments For Fieldwork,' In British Cartographic Society, Annual
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Moore, K. (1999). 'Vrml And Java For Interactive 3d Cartography', In Multimedia Cartography. SpringerVerlag, Berlin, Pp. 205 - 216.

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THE POTENTIAL TO USE GAMES ENGINES AND GAMES

SOFTWARE TO DEVELOP INTERACTIVE, THREEDIMENSIONAL VISUALIZATIONS OF GEOGRAPHY
Germanchis, T. and Cartwright, W.
Department of Geospatial Science, RMIT University,
GPO Box 2476V, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 300.1
E-mail: tim_germanchis@hotmail.com and william.cartwright@rmit.edu.au
Biography
Timothy Germanchis is currently conducting a research project for his doctoral candidature at RMIT University,
Melbourne, Australia. His PhD is entitled, Using Computer Games Technology to Develop More Effective Geospatial
Virtual Environments (GeoVEs).
The study focuses on developing Geospatial Virtual Environments (GeoVEs) using concepts of games theory and
applying games development software, hardware and technology. It also examines the effectiveness of this approach for
use by the general public or non-expert users for accessing 3D geospatial information using different methods.
This research will address the following objectives:
! Development of an effective three-dimensional, interactive (and animated), Web-based desktop GeoVE, built using
games software and applying interactive strategies;
! Design, implementation and distribution of a 3D GeoVE for public use using the World Wide Web;
! Investigation of appropriate methods that minimise the pre-use learning required for the effective use of Virtual
Environments, whilst maximising information yield;
! Ascertain whether GeoVEs enhance understanding and cognition of real environments through a more naturally
human visual perception of the world; and
! Demonstrating the potential and viability that Virtual Environments have in general decision support where
information about geo-location is paramount.
Timothy attained his undergraduate qualification of a B.App.Sci. in Geomatics (Hons) at RMIT University where he is
also a sessional tutor in Multimedia Cartography and Geographical Visualization subjects.
Timothy is a corresponding member on the Commission on Visualisation and Virtual Environments, International
Cartographic Association (ICA) and a member of the Mapping Sciences Institute, Australia (MSIA).

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