Editorial: Special Issue - Graphics and Virtual Environments for Serious Games

Fotis Liarokapis
Department of Civil Engineering and Geomatics
Cyprus University of Technology

Eike Falk Anderson
The National Centre for Computer Animation (NCCA)
Bournemouth University, UK


Since the swift and dramatic emergence of serious games as a field of study in its own right, numerous challenges have been revealed. Serious games share most of their infrastructure with entertainment games and other interactive virtual and augmented reality (AR) environments and progressive development of games technologies and interactive techniques also improve serious games; however, the transfer of existing and new technologies and solutions to the younger application domain of serious games is not always straightforward, requiring creative solutions. For this Special Issue, we have accepted five articles that demonstrate the breadth of techniques for graphics and virtual environments for serious games. These articles are a mix of original submissions and of extended and revised versions of selected best papers presented at the VS-Games 2019 conference.

The first article, “Evaluation of Drop Shadows for Virtual Object Grasping in Augmented Reality” by Al-Kalbani et al. investigates the impact of rendered visual cues as drop shadows have for grasping interactions for monitor-based exocentric AR. It shows that the use of drop shadows increases usability of AR grasping while significantly decreasing task completion times while simultaneously providing significant improvements to a user's depth estimation of AR object positions. The article also demonstrates that using drop shadows does not improve the user's object size estimation, which remains as a problematic element in grasping AR interaction. In the article “Motion Primitives Classification Using Deep Learning Models for Serious Game Platforms,” Bakalos et al. combines convolutional and bidirectional long short term memory models for deep learning to improve the recognition and classification accuracy of dance motion primitives recorded using a KINECT II depth sensor. The aim is to apply this to aid the preservation of intangible performing arts heritage in a serious game platform designed for the learning of folklore dances. In terms of accuracy, precision, and recall regarding the recognition and classification of dance motion primitives, the approach the authors present outperforms existing methods. The article “Making the Invisible Visible: Illuminating the Hidden Histories of the World War I Tunnels at Vauquois Through a Hybridized Virtual Reality Exhibition” by Duer et al. presents a compelling virtual heritage experience in the form of an immersive VR exhibit that recreates the experience of tunnel warfare during the Great War, a chapter of the First World War that has received comparatively little public attention. The Vauquois Experience exhibit provides visitors with a realistic and multisensory representation of the Vauquois tunnel network in which more than 500 mines were fired by tunneling units from France and Germany from 1915 to 1918, combining a VR headset with passive haptics in a physical environment that is mapped to and aligned with the virtual environment. The detailed description of the authors' iterative design process and its application to the progressive refinement of the virtual heritage experience provides useful insights for developers of similar heritage experiences.

In the article “Do You Feel Like Flying? A Study of Flying Perception in Virtual Reality for Future Game Development,” Mashal et al. explore the extent of the virtual presence and body ownership of wings. The article focuses on the perception of wings as a natural body extension and the natural movement performed by humans when flying. Experimental results show that placing wings on the user's virtual shoulders in an angelic form and controlling these by arm movements is the preferred way to extend human capabilities toward flying in nontechnologically restricted VR-Games. The final article, “There's More to Sound Than Meets the Ear: Sound in Interactive Environments,” by Kenwright discusses a variety of important and intriguing psychological concepts and immersive sound techniques, used in interactive environments, such as video games, to improve engagement, and enhance the user experience. The article's focus is on the hidden abilities of sound in interactive environments and details how different sounds can be combined with visual information to help improve interactive conditions and stimulate the imagination, not to mention, control (or steer) the user's emotions and attention.

The guest editors wish to thank Pak Chung Wong for his guidance in producing this Special Issue and we also wish to thank the authors and reviewers for their hard work. We hope you enjoy reading these articles and learn more about graphics and virtual environments for serious games.