Abstract: A modular game engine facilitates development of game technologies and game contents. The latter includes content creation by the player in the form of modding. Based on a requirements analysis to meet the needs of developers, gamers and modders, we present a novel concept for a fully modular game engine. This concept includes a module system, which allows additional code to be loaded at runtime, and various support systems that simplify the use of the engine and the creation of modules. We present a proof-of-concept implementation, underline its fulfillment of the unearthed requirements, and demonstrate its use.

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Abstract: Medical graduates lack procedural skills experience required to manage emergencies. Recent advances in virtual reality (VR)technology enable the creation of highly immersive learning environments representing easy-to-use and affordable solutionsfor training with simulation. However, the feasibility in compulsory teaching, possible side effects of immersion, perceivedstress, and didactic benefits have to be investigated systematically. VR-based training sessions using head-mounted displaysalongside a real-time dynamic physiology system were held by student assistants for small groups followed by debriefing witha tutor. In the pilot study, 36 students rated simulation sickness. In the main study, 97 students completed a virtual scenarioas active participants (AP) and 130 students as observers (OBS) from the first-person perspective on a monitor. Participantscompleted questionnaires for evaluation purposes and exploratory factor analysis was performed on the items. The extent ofsimulation sickness remained low to acceptable among participants of the pilot study. In the main study, students valued therealistic environment and guided practical exercise. AP perceived the degree of immersion as well as the estimated learn-ing success to be greater than OBS and proved to be more motivated post training. With respect to AP, the factor “sense ofcontrol” revealed a typical inverse U-shaped relationship to the scales “didactic value” and “individual learning benefit”.Summing up, curricular implementation of highly immersive VR-based training of emergencies proved feasible and founda high degree of acceptance among medical students. This study also provides insights into how different conceptions of perceived stress distinctively moderate subjective learning success.

Abstract: History education often struggles with a lack of interest from students. Serious games can help make learning about history more engaging. Students can directly experience situations of the past as well as interact and communicate with agents representing people of the respective era. This allows for situated learning. Besides using computer screens, the gameplay can also be experienced using immersive Virtual Reality (VR). VR adds an additional spatial level and can further increase the engagement as well as vividness. To investigate the benefits of using VR for serious games targeting the learning of history, we developed a serious game for desktop-3D and VR. Our serious game puts a player into the role of a medieval miller’s apprentice. Following a situated learning approach, the learner operates a mill and interacts with several other characters. These agents discuss relevant facts of the medieval life, thus enabling the construction of knowledge about the life in medieval towns. An evaluation showed that the game in general was successful in increasing the user’s knowledge about the covered topics as well as their topic interest in history. Whether the immersive VR or the simple desktop version of the application was used did not have any influence on these results. Additional feedback was gathered to improve the game further in the future.

Abstract: The widespread availability of smartphones facilitates the integration of digital, augmented reality (AR), and tangible augmented reality (TAR) learning environments into the classroom. A haptic aspect can enhance the user’s overall experience during a learning process. To investigate further benefits of using TAR for educational purposes, we compare a TAR and a smartphone learning environment with a traditional worksheet counterpart in terms of learning effectiveness, emotions, motivation, and cognitive load. 64 sixth-grade students from a German high school used one of the three conditions to learn about frog anatomy. We found no significant differences in learning effectiveness and cognitive load. The TAR condition elicited significantly higher positive emotions than the worksheet, but not the smartphone condition. Both digital learning environments elicited significantly higher motivation, in contrast to the worksheet. Thus, our results suggest that smartphone and TAR learning environments are equally beneficial for enhancing learning.

Abstract: Medical graduates lack procedural skills experience required to manage emergencies. Recent advances in virtual reality (VR) technology enable the creation of highly immersive learning environments representing easy-to-use and affordable solutions for training with simulation. However, the feasibility in compulsory teaching, possible side effects of immersion, perceived stress, and didactic benefits have to be investigated systematically. VR-based training sessions using head-mounted displays alongside a real-time dynamic physiology system were held by student assistants for small groups followed by debriefing with a tutor. In the pilot study, 36 students rated simulation sickness. In the main study, 97 students completed a virtual scenario as active participants (AP) and 130 students as observers (OBS) from the first-person perspective on a monitor. Participants completed questionnaires for evaluation purposes and exploratory factor analysis was performed on the items. The extent of simulation sickness remained low to acceptable among participants of the pilot study. In the main study, students valued the realistic environment and guided practical exercise. AP perceived the degree of immersion as well as the estimated learning success to be greater than OBS and proved to be more motivated post training. With respect to AP, the factor “sense of control” revealed a typical inverse U-shaped relationship to the scales “didactic value” and “individual learning benefit”. Summing up, curricular implementation of highly immersive VR-based training of emergencies proved feasible and found a high degree of acceptance among medical students. This study also provides insights into how different conceptions of perceived stress distinctively moderate subjective learning success.

Abstract: The alignment of virtual to physical surfaces is essential to improve symbolic input and selection in XR. Previous techniques optimized for efficiency can lead to inaccuracies. We investigate regression-based refinement techniques and introduce a surface accuracy eval-uation. The results revealed that refinement techniques can highly improve surface accuracy and show that accuracy depends on the gesture shape and surface dimension. Our reference implementation and dataset are publicly available.

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