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First-Person Shooter Modified For Fire Drill Simulation
Hugh Pickens writes "Researchers at Durham University have modified a video game and turned it into a fire drill simulator using the Source engine (the 3D game engine used to drive Half-Life 2), and created a virtual model of one of the university's departments. Dr. Shamus Smith said that although 3D modeling software was available, modifying a video game was faster, more cost effective, and had better special effects. 'We were interested in using game technology over a customized application and the Source Engine, from Half-Life, is very versatile,' said Smith. 'We used the simulation to see how people behaved in an actual fire situation and to train people in "good practice" in a fire.' The team says the virtual environment helped familiarize people with evacuation routines and could also help identify problems with a building's layout. One problem, however, was that while the simulation worked for most people, those who played a lot of video games did some unusual things when using the simulation. 'If a door was on fire, [the gamers] would try and run through it, rather than look for a different exit,' said Smith."
This makes me wonder to what extent entertainment software will fill the role of non-entertainment software as the tools and engines become more and more powerful. Ars mentions related news that the US Dept. of Naval Research is dumping millions of dollars into "virtual reality-like simulations of small-scale urban conflicts." It's unclear whether this is related to the US Army's similar program.
'If a door was on fire, [the gamers] would try and run through it, rather than look for a different exit,' said Smith."
You need the firesuit mod for that perk.
The opposite of progress is congress
video games are dangerous!
How are we supposed to ban them now?
Reminds me of the story of the airline pilot who, late at night and after a long transatlantic trip, smashed into the back of a car at a red lght. When questioned, he swore that his first relex was to pull back on the steering wheel and fly over the obstacle rather than brake...
Getting back on topic, why not? Simulation programs have traditionally been bespoke, hugely expensive and frequently less 'rich' than some games. Also, actually doing a fire drill in a large complex is not without risk and expense.
I'm pretty sure I'd also run through the fire, at least a few times or until video-game-death, just to see what happens..
Obligatory XCKD link
New webcomic updated on Sundays: HERE
First video games allegedly are the cause for kids to shoot up their high school. Now they're using the Half-life engine for educational simulations?
Sounds a bit like having their cake and eating it, too.
On a more humorous note, I wonder if any of the players tried strafe-jumping down the hall to exit the building faster!
Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, START
does diviant behaviour include looting the corpses of my co-workers in between running up to all the walls looking for the secret doors?
... and in my more frustrated moments dreamed of seeing the building in this state :)
'Tilde'
Console: Godmode
[enter]
'Tilde'
Console: Allweapons
[enter]
Buaahahahaha!
Sorry. Really. It had to be done. :P
Strat
(Yes, I know they aren't really valid commands, but they make the point.)
Progressivism (aka US 'Liberalism'): Ideas so good they need a police/surveillance-state to enforce.
US Dept. of Naval Research is dumping millions of dollars into "virtual reality-like simulations of small-scale urban conflicts."
Mainly they've found they can't fit a battleship down small side streets...
----------------------------------- My Other Sig Is Hilarious -----------------------------------
If a door was on fire, [the gamers] would try and run through it
Well, why not? Everyone knows fire only does 5-10 points of damage if you run through it quickly enough.
Jack Thompsonwhen you really need him!?
Seriously though, I am certain he is going to point to this as conditioned behavior caused by gaming, cause, you know, gamers will jump through an actual flaming door, despite the heat and all. A message for ya, Jack: Gamers may be conditioned by games, but only when actually playing games.
Cliffs and ponds are far more common than building fires and we don't see crumpled or floating bodies of gamers beside these natural hazards despite their low danger level in video games.
public void karmaWhore(String url){addSlashdotComment(fetchContent(url));}
I may as well ask here... I'm looking for a 3D engine to make a game that's not a FPS, more of a creatures game like Nintendogs or The Sims.
What game engines are the most suitable for that kind of modding, and are there any F/OSS 3d engines that are good? I'm thinking in terms of AI programmability, ease of creating models and levels, etc.
I'm not a fire expert by any means but several things really annoyed me about the video linked to on the BBC article. Mostly about the realism of the situation and several to do with "training" people to do things correctly.
First - WHY DON'T THEY SHUT THE DOORS THAT LEAD TO A FIRE... chances are opening those doors where a fire was on the other side would probably have killed you quite quickly anyway, but for God's sake, SHUT THE DOOR, if you're not going that way to reduce the available oxygen. It's an FPS engine so you should be penalising people for not shutting the damn fire-doors after them.
Second - Why are the doors just "flung" open without checking - what happened to all the training I had as a child to put the back of my hand on the door, open it slowly etc. in case the fire was on the other side of the door I'm opening. You have an FPS engine, this should have been put in as your only "weapon".
Third - Why were there fires on metal stairs, and why only halfway up the staircase and WHY, when going into a stairwell which is obviously on fire within mere feet of the "down" stairs, do they continue to use the stairwell to go down? Abandon the attempt and back off if you don't want to die.
Fourth - No smoke. Fill the burning rooms with smoke, so that you can only just see the exit signs or, indeed, the fire. Much more realistic and useful (I can find my out of any building in broad daylight - that's not the problem you're testing here).
Fifth - That CS department modelled is really crap in terms of signposting the fire exits and I only saw one fire extinguisher on the entire three floors the character went through (though I might have missed one because it only occurred to me halfway through that I didn't rememeber seeing one). Stop making simulations and sort the real situation out if that model is any reflection on the actual physical location.
Does this mean you can frag the others and then tea bag them?
Somebody once created a complete level of our faculty building for a 1st person shooter, and we got to play it in the computer room (really play the game, not fire drill, with 30+ people). It was awesome...
But most impressive was that I actually got lost really easily in the game, whereas I never got lost in reality.
And how do you simulate this ?
Is someone with lots of spare time, and I'm sure there's many, planning on modding the fire escape game with a realistic simulation of S11 where you have to escape the building? Or how about the Titanic disaster or other disasters for that matter? Coz you know how sick people are, they're play it just to see if they would make it and probably pay money for it too. If it worked for Leisure suit Larry this one's a winner.
Analytic & algebraic topology of locally Euclidean meterization of infinitely differentiable Riemmanian manifold
Does your mommy know you're on the internet unsupervised?
Progressivism (aka US 'Liberalism'): Ideas so good they need a police/surveillance-state to enforce.
does the FPS trained soldier just run into middle screaming LEEEEEEROY JENKINSSSSSS!!!!!!! ?
Fifth - That CS department modelled is really crap in terms of signposting the fire exits and I only saw one fire extinguisher on the entire three floors the character went through (though I might have missed one because it only occurred to me halfway through that I didn't rememeber seeing one).
I counted 3 Fire Extinguishers... is this part of the game?
[Video = http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7867851.stm ]
Maybe it's just me; I had this mental image of all the avatars lined up in the sim, then someone shouts 'fire!' and they pull out BFGs and unload on the boss :)
Also, what happens when you trample your virtual co-worker in desperate attempt to save yourself? Could make for strained relations afterwards.
Heh, no... you should have him go here and then report back about how stupid you are. Sheesh.
everyone runs faster with a KNIFE!
...you put out the fire, BUT THE NOISE IS STILL THERE?!
Damn source engine and bugs.
Experienced it so many times... so damn annoying.
...to get past those pesky flaming doors and those stacked FedEx boxes.
Tell me those guys managed to have a copy of HL2 bought with research funds, and I am ready to crown them my heroes
My first program:
Hell Segmentation fault
Georgia Tech's Department of Architecture IMAGINE lab has been doing similar simulations for awhile.
See here. :D
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
I would swing the fire with my crowbar until it went out. Either that or some annoying person.
Am I the only one who remembers the basic concept of "Stop, Drop, and Roll"? If I was in a burning building, and came across a burning door, if it led to the outside you bet your ass I'd run right through it. Better a few scorch-marks from flames that can be put out by such a simple concept, than the alternative of burning to death.
"I'm not sure I like the fugnutish tone you used in your post!" -RogL (608926)-
Is that most games don't allow for real-world techniques. Case in point, Call of Duty 4. The first problem I have with this is it doesn't let you lean out from behind cover so you only expose your head and weapon. No properly trained person would expose his whole body. Second, you can't climb stuff you would normally be able to. Third, there is an exponential component to racking up kills. Once you get to call in air-strikes and helicopters, you usually rack up enough kills to get more air-strikes and helicopters. And since when to .223 rounds not blow through body armor at close range? And finally, a simulation only would be effective if you can't play it anymore once you're dead.
Remember the story of the kid arrested for "terrorism" for making a game of his school for Counter-Strike?
I bet porting these maps to CS-Source would be trivial...
INSTA-TERRORISM!!!
45 5F E1 04 22 CA 29 C4 93 3F 95 05 2B 79 2A B2
..as I know that my university has been doing similar things with the source engine for training firefighters. We have a room, known as the cave, which is a small 1,5mx1,5m box with graphics projected on all walls for a comletely immersive environment.
;)
But although that's not really new, it IS cool
While you raise some interesting points(and truthful, IMO), this one is easy to figure out for the veteran FPS player:
Frag EVERYONE, they will only get in your way.
Make sure you teabag your PHB! (this is important for gaining XP and leveling up)
When you get safely outside, SPAWN CAMP FTW!!!
Grenades are your friend.
Oh yeah, loot the CEO's corpse for the BFG9000 and his Golden Parachute!
Mine and booby trap EVERYTHING!!
Have I overlooked anything?
Down With Slashdot BETA!!! I've been around the corner and seen the oliphant; you can only abuse me from your perspecti
In a fire, the best way to evacuate the building is simply to quickload from when you were about to enter the building, and not enter at all. Duh.... Oh, and if anyone gets critically wounded, just run up to them and hit them with your shock paddles. They can instantly heal bullet wounds, shrapnel, burns and broken limbs (at least, that's what it does in battlefield. That's accurate, right?). Just go around reviving ppl and you'll definitely get the gold star that round!
"It's not the drill procedure itself that's so terrible, once people are moving, they will continue following whoever's in front of them. It's getting them to start moving that's the hard part."
I am on the emergence response team, so when the bell goes off Scream "Oh dear God!", jump up, and run screaming to the exit.
I use to just fire a few round in the air to get people moving, but the 7th story start complain about bullet holes in their floor...whiners.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Efficient egress in a fire evacuation is really down to putting your portal in the nearest wall and stepping through. Assuming of course you've placed the other end appropriately.
Navy sponsors the open source engine delta3d.
What, exactly is strafe-jumping down the stairs that "real people" don't do?
I remember in a real emergency, I was out of my 2nd story office and in the front parking lot in about 17 seconds. :-)...amazing what adrenaline can do when it kicks in.
That was after about a 5-7 second pause before deciding it was the real thing and the building might not be left standing. I'm pretty sure I went down the stairwell and not out the window...
Please ignore my unfounded aand pointless ravings. :-)
I had totally misunderstood your point of view, smashed my nose from knee-jerking, and made a total arse of myself.
You have my sincere apologies!
Down With Slashdot BETA!!! I've been around the corner and seen the oliphant; you can only abuse me from your perspecti
The guys at http://www.virtualrealitytrainingsystem.com/ have created an interactive 3D simulation to evacuate entire coal mines (and other things). As far as I know, this is the only full 3D 360 degree simulation in the world and it is designed so that a group of 10 or 20 miners can work through detailed simulations with a trainer in their full equipment. I have seen a lot of virtual reality systems, and this is by far the most realistic one that I have seen. The users report that it is more like a coal mine than the concrete mock ups that they also use for training. Disclaimer - I did some work on it!
It may not be that simple.
The small house fire generates and contains an astonishing amounts of slate gray and very toxic smoke.
I had a sampling of that once - twice - in the real world.
You are blind.
You are disoriented.
You will probably die before you see or feel the flames.
It is an effort to think clearly - to walk or crawl or speak. You need to get low and stay low.
You are very short on time.
The reality is much closer to the maddeningly twisty, twisty, paths of the text adventure - all alike - than the CGI stage sets of Tomb Raider.
The danger isn't that the video game will tempt you into a singular act of supreme stupidity.
The danger is that the rules of the game world will more subtly shape your understanding - and mis-understanding - of the real world.
Cliffs and ponds are far more common than building fires and we don't see crumpled or floating bodies of gamers beside these natural hazards despite their low danger level in video games.
It depends on where you live.
Where I live, cliffs, lakes and ponds kill a fair number of young adults each year. They don't always give up the remains.