Ref. Ares(2017)2702002D4.1 - Final - 30/05/2017 ENhance VIrtual learning Spaces using Applied Gaming in Education H2020-ICT-24-2016 D4.1 - Architecture and Interface Design Dissemination level: Public (PU) Contractual date of delivery: Month 5, Feb 28, 2017 Actual date of delivery: Month 8, May 29, 2017 Workpackage: WP4 - Virtual labs authoring tool Task: T4.1 - Architecture and interface design Type: Report Approval Status: Pre-final Version: Final Number of pages: 53 Filename: D4.1_DesignAndInterfaceArchitecture_Final.docx Abstract Relying on the functional requirements gathered in T1.2, we define the architecture of the Virtual labs authoring tool that will be capable of integrating the functionalities developed in WP2 and WP3 into a web interface component able to communicate with a game engine remotely in order to produce a lab. As regards the integration with WP2 and WP3, the adopted architecture should make provision for effectively injecting the necessary metrics in the virtual lab project to assess the user behavior during the experience of the virtual lab. The selection of the basic technologies will also be made. Another responsibility of this task is to analyze the functional requirements provided by WP1 in order to deliver an accurate interface design of the authoring tool suitable for the virtual labs. Mockups will be used to simulate the workflow between the supported functionalities and also act as a running exercise between the interface designers and the author-users in defining the look and feel of the authoring tool. The information in this document reflects only the authors views and the European Community is not liable for any use that may be made of the information contained therein. The information in this document is provided as is and no Page 1 D4.1 - Final guarantee or warranty is given that the information is fit for any particular purpose. The user thereof uses the information at its sole risk and liability. Co-funded by the European Union Acknowledgment This work is part of project ENVISAGE that has received funding from the European Unions Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 731900. Page 2 D4.1 - Final Copyright © Copyright 2017 ENVISAGE Consortium consisting of: 1. ETHNIKO KENTRO EREVNAS KAI TECHNOLOGIKIS ANAPTYXIS (CERTH) 2. UNIVERSITA TA MALTA (UOM) 3. AALBORG UNIVERSITET (AAU) 4. GOEDLE IO GMBH (GIO) 5. ELLINOGERMANIKI AGOGI SCHOLI PANAGEA SAVVA AE (EA) This document may not be copied, reproduced, or modified in whole or in part for any purpose without written permission from the ENVISAGE Consortium. In addition to such written permission to copy, reproduce, or modify this document in whole or part, an acknowledgement of the authors of the document and all applicable portions of the copyright notice must be clearly referenced. All rights reserved. Page 3 D4.1 - Final History Version Date Reason Revised by v0.1 (alpha) 23/3/2017 Initial draft with Table of Dimitrios Ververidis Contents v0.2 03/5/2017 First version Dimitrios Ververidis V0.3 05/5/2017 Incorporating visual analytics Dimitrios Ververidis, Christoffer Holmgård V0.4 12/05/2017 Incorporating tracking Dimitrios Ververidis, Fabian Hadiji V0.5 (beta) 19/05/2017 Beta version for internal review Line Ebdrup Thomsen V0.6 25/05/2017 Pre-final version Dimitrios Ververidis V0.7 (final) 29/05/2017 Final version Spiros Nikolopoulo Author list Organization Name Contact Information CERTH Dimitrios Ververidis [email protected] CERTH Stathis Nikolaidis [email protected] CERTH Spiros Nikolpoulos [email protected] CERTH Ioannis Kompatsiaris [email protected] UoM Christoffer Holmgård [email protected] Goedle.io Fabian Hadiji [email protected] Page 4 D4.1 - Final Executive Summary In this deliverable, we present the architecture of the virtual labs (games) authoring tool which is a web based application to create web based or desktop based virtual labs. The virtual labs authoring tool is a WordPress plugin that can be used by educators to create custom Unity3D games without writing any code. The plugin allows the educator to create game projects, scenes and assets by defining only their category and uploading the 3D models. The categorization of the entities allows the entity to inherit the necessary behavior from its category and thus hiding unnecessary details from the educators. The WordPress plugin visualizes game analytics that are already embedded into the games as object behaviours. This visualization allows the educators to improve the games accordingly in order to adapt to learners needs. Envisage approach is connecting two dominating technologies in two separate fields, namely WordPress for web based content management systems, and Unity3D for game authoring, in order to achieve a high quality solution for building virtual labs and games in general. Page 5 D4.1 - Final Abbreviations and Acronyms CMS Content Management System API Application Program Interface GUI Graphic User Interface WebGL Web Graphics Language SDK Software Development Toolkit MAT Unity3D Material file format OBJ Wavefront Object file format MTL Wavefront Material file format Page 6 D4.1 - Final Table of Contents 1. State of the art review for educational games authoring 9 1.1 High Appealing educational games for kids 9 1.2 Existing game authoring tools 10 1.3 Trendy Technologies 13 1.4 Living Lab approach 14 1.5 User friendly for the teacher 15 1.6 Generic authoring tool 15 2. Requirements from the use case scenario 17 2.1 Shared high-level structure across generated games 17 2.2 Content requirements and technical specifications inferred from the Wind Energy Simulation lab 18 2.3 What the game authoring tool should be able to change. 20 2.4 Hardware specifications 22 3. Architecture and interfaces design 23 3.1 Introduction to the implementation pipeline 23 3.2 Architecture design 24 3.3 Definition of game entities 25 3.4 Front-end interface 31 3.4.1 Game manager 32 3.4.2 Scenes Management 34 3.4.3 Scene Editor 35 3.4.4 Scene Creator 36 3.4.5 Assets3D Manager 37 3.5 Front-end Scene 3D editor 37 3.6 Conversion mechanism from WordPress to Unity3D game project 39 3.6.1 Unity game project 39 3.6.2 Predefined game object types 45 3.6.3 Compiling a Unity3D game project to a game 47 4. Analytics metrics injection for the game feedback mechanism 49 5. Architecture for extracting deep analytics and visualizing shallow and deep analytics 51 6. Architecture summary 52 Page 7 D4.1 - Final 7. References 53 Page 8 D4.1 - Final 1. State of the art review for educational games authoring In this deliverable, an architecture of the virtual labs authoring platform is defined that: 1. delivers high appealing and educational games for kids; 2. it is based on existing tools for game authoring so that we will not re-invent the wheel; 3. it will not become soon obsolete; 4. it meets the Living lab approach of D1.1 and D1.2 where the game analytics are used by teachers to improve the game; 5. it is user-friendly for the educator; 6. it is generalizable for many use cases. These factors will be analyzed in the following and a decision for the architecture design and interface will be derived. 1.1 High Appealing educational games for kids There are several learning games for kids available online, but after a while they are abandoned. The main reason is the lack of several features that most of the educational games online do not have, such as enjoyment, passionate involvement, structure, motivation, ego gratification, adrenaline, creativity, social interaction and emotion [Prensky 01]. Educational games can be both two dimensional and three dimensional. Two dimensional games have been extensively used in the past as a learning experience with several examples such as those found in Go-Labs1, Photodentro2, and Fun4thebrain3. These games involve puzzles, crosswords and multiple-choice questions by clicking or drag-n-drop actions. Three dimensional games offer a more rich experience where the student can be immersed into the educational task. Such examples are Second Life, Minecraft and Quest Atlantis4. Second Life has obtained a negative opinion from parents since it is highly addictive and it can expose kids to danger. Minecraft is often used in educational contexts but the minimalistic graphics do not offer a realistic representation of many problems that should be visible in real graphics. Such a case is Quest Atlantis, as shown in Figure 1.1, as it is an educational gaming environment for upper elementary and middle school kids, in lessons from science to social issues but it is abandoned in the last five years since it is costly to update and maintain. In Envisage, the target is to build virtual labs, and therefore we will focus on 3D games as they offer a great level of immersion for virtual experiments and simulation. However, 3D games cost much more than 2D games because they are difficult to develop. These two 1 http://go-lab-project.eu/ 2 http://photodentro.edu.gr/aggregator/ 3 www.fun4thebrain.com/ 4 http://atlantisremixed.org Page 9 D4.1 - Final aforementioned conclusions will lead us in the final architecture in the end of this section. Figure 1.1: Atlantis Remixed was a 3D game specifically designed for education. 1.2 Existing game authoring tools There are two categories of authoring tools for making educational games, namely those for 2D and those for 3D. As regards 2D games, there are several authoring tools targeting educational purposes, such as Manga High5, which is one of the most advanced ones. Others 5 https://www.mangahigh.com Page 10 D4.1 - Final can be found in Classroom Aid6. However, authoring tools specifically for making 3D educational games do not exist, as it is not commercially viable to make a game editor only for educational games.