PREVENT–A Pipeline Approach to Prototype Realistic Virtual Environments Via the Reuse of Expert Domain Knowledge

PREVENT{A pipeline approach to prototype realistic virtual environments via the reuse of expert domain knowledge Mingze Xi B.Eng A Thesis presented for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy School of Electrical Engineering and Computing The University of Newcastle, Australia March, 2017 Statement of Originality This thesis contains no material which has been accepted for the award of any other degree or diploma in any university or other tertiary institution and, to the best of my knowledge and belief, contains no material previously published or written by another person, except where due reference has been made in the text. I give consent to the final version of my thesis being made available worldwide when deposited in the University's Digital Repository, subject to the provisions of the Copyright Act 1968. **Unless an Embargo has been approved for a determined period. Signed: Date: Mingze Xi ii Dedicated to My dear wife, Qi. It is your sacrifices, patience and encouragement that made who I am today. My dear parents. For your endless support in all things, great and small. Acknowledgements The completion of this thesis has been a long and challenging journey. I wish to express my sincere gratitude to the many people who have contributed to making this thesis and this PhD project possible. First and foremost, I wish to express my deepest appreciation to my supervisors, Dr Shamus Smith and Associate Professor Yuqing Lin, for helping develop this project and for providing insight, support and guidance as it progressed. To my primary supervisor, Shamus, the deepest thank you for your unswerving patience and willingness to share your expertise and experience on study design, research practice, project management, teaching skills, and the English language throughout my PhD, from the UK to Australia. Also, I would like to extend my gratitude to my co-supervisor, Yuqing, for your inspiring guidance on algorithm design and constructive feedback on my academic career development. Secondly, I want to say thank you to my friends and colleges: Dan Bell, Xin Gu, Geoff Martin, Hao Qin, Youwei Qin, Jiahe Shen, Mujiangshan Wang and many more. There were so many unforgettable moments working, studying and playing with you. I wish to express my special thanks to Dan Bell, for being the best listener even when I was grumbling and frustrated. Another special thank you to Yanping Lu, for your generous help that allowed me to settle down smoothly in Newcastle. Finally, I would like to acknowledge the financial support I received during this PhD. I was awarded the University of Newcastle International Postgraduate Re- search Scholarship (UNIPRS) and the University of Newcastle Postgraduate Re- search Scholarship Central (UNRSC). Additionally, I would like to thank the faculty and school for supporting my conference travels. iv Contents Statement of Originality ii Dedication iii Acknowledgements iv Abstract xvi Publications xvii 1 Introduction1 1.1 Introduction................................2 1.2 Statement of the Research Problem...................7 1.3 Significance of Research......................... 10 1.4 Structure of the Thesis.......................... 12 2 Literature Review 14 2.1 Human Behaviour in Fires........................ 14 2.2 Virtual Fire Evacuation Training Systems............... 16 2.3 Reusing Gaming Technology....................... 18 2.3.1 Unity............................... 19 2.3.2 CryENGINE Series........................ 22 2.3.3 Unreal Engine Series....................... 24 2.3.4 Source Engine........................... 27 2.3.5 Summary of Game Engines................... 30 2.4 Evacuation Simulators.......................... 36 v Contents vi 2.4.1 FDS+Evac............................ 38 2.4.2 BuildingEXODUS......................... 40 2.4.3 Simulex.............................. 41 2.4.4 VISSIM.............................. 42 2.4.5 STEPS............................... 43 2.4.6 Pathfinder............................. 43 2.4.7 Summary of Evacuation Simulators............... 44 2.5 3D Modelling Tools............................ 45 2.5.1 AutoCAD............................. 45 2.5.2 SketchUp............................. 47 2.5.3 Blender.............................. 47 2.5.4 Revit................................ 48 2.5.5 Summary of 3D Modelling Tools................. 48 2.6 Summary of Chapter2.......................... 48 3 PREVENT- A Pipeline to Reuse Domain Knowledge in Static En- vironments 50 3.1 Overview of the Pipeline Approach................... 51 3.1.1 Modelling Virtual Environments................. 51 3.1.2 Generating Human Evacuation Behaviour as Paths...... 52 3.1.3 Presenting Virtual Target Environment in a Game Engine.. 53 3.1.4 Summary of Pipeline....................... 54 3.2 An Example Implementation of the Pipeline.............. 55 3.2.1 Exporting the 3D Building Model from SketchUp....... 57 3.2.2 Evacuation Path Generation in FDS+Evac........... 57 3.2.3 Fire Evacuation Simulation in Unity.............. 62 3.2.4 Summary of Pipeline Implementation.............. 65 3.3 Validating the Consistency of Evacuation Time............ 65 3.4 Validating the Scalability......................... 70 3.4.1 Scalability Test I: Simple Building................ 70 3.4.2 Scalability Test II: Large Building................ 71 3.5 Validating the Accuracy under Fire Conditions............. 75 Contents vii 3.6 Summary of Chapter3.......................... 77 4 Dynamic Path Switching in Virtual Environments 81 4.1 Introduction................................ 81 4.2 Path-Switching Framework........................ 83 4.2.1 Fire Warden as Interaction Initiator............... 84 4.2.2 Situation 1: Check Current Path................ 85 4.2.3 Situation 2: Search Its Own Path Library........... 85 4.2.4 Situation 3: Search the Global Path Library.......... 86 4.2.5 Situation 4: Generate New Path................. 87 4.2.6 Summary of Path Switching................... 90 4.3 Case Study: Validating the Path-Switching Framework........ 91 4.3.1 Test I: Situation 1........................ 92 4.3.2 Test II: Situation 2........................ 94 4.3.3 Test III: Situation 3....................... 96 4.3.4 Test IV: Situation 4........................ 97 4.3.5 Discussion............................. 98 4.4 Summary of Chapter4.......................... 99 5 Evaluating Virtual Human Behaviour - a New Turing Test 101 5.1 The Conventional Turing Test...................... 101 5.2 The Turing Test in Virtual Environments................ 104 5.3 Design of VHBTT - A Virtual Human Behaviour Turing Test.... 107 5.3.1 Phase I: Data Collection..................... 109 5.3.2 Phase II: Data Review...................... 112 5.4 Data Report................................ 114 5.5 Summary for Chapter5......................... 115 6 Evaluating the Realism of Reused Evacuation Behaviours 117 6.1 Data Collection: Generating Gameplay Data.............. 118 6.1.1 System Implementation..................... 118 6.1.2 Apparatus............................. 125 Contents viii 6.1.3 Participants............................ 126 6.1.4 Procedure............................. 126 6.1.5 Data Collected.......................... 128 6.2 Data Review: Reviewing the Fire Evacuation Replays......... 129 6.2.1 System Implementation..................... 129 6.2.2 Participants............................ 131 6.2.3 Procedure............................. 132 6.2.4 Data Collected.......................... 133 6.3 Results................................... 134 6.3.1 Metrics.............................. 134 6.3.2 Overview of the Judgement Results............... 135 6.3.3 Judgements Results of Three H/BGC.............. 140 6.3.4 Judgements Results of Three Fire Evacuation Scenarios.... 142 6.3.5 Evacuation Time With Bots................... 146 6.4 Summary of Chapter6.......................... 148 7 Conclusions and Future Work 149 7.1 Summary................................. 149 7.2 Overview of Contributions........................ 150 7.3 Future Work................................ 152 Bibliography 156 Appendix 189 A Table List 189 A.1 An Example Fragment of GPL...................... 189 A.2 Types of Participants in User Study................... 190 A.3 Fire Warden Evacuation Instructions.................. 191 A.4 The Configurations of Evacuation Sessions............... 192 A.5 The Judgement Groups.......................... 193 Contents ix B User Study Materials 194 B.1 Information Sheet for the Group of Players............... 195 B.2 Information Sheet for the Group of Judges............... 197 B.3 Consent Form............................... 199 B.4 Pre-trail Questionnaire.......................... 200 B.5 Data Review Form............................ 201 B.6 System Usability Scale (SUS)...................... 202 B.7 Recruitment Poster............................ 203 C Floor Plans 204 C.1 Floor Plan A............................... 205 C.2 Floor Plan C............................... 206 List of Figures 1.1 Technology components needed for creating a realistic fire evacuation drill system (No. 7)............................4 2.1 The user interface of the Unity Editor [237]............... 20 2.2 The user interface of the CryENGINE Sandbox [42]........... 24 2.3 The user interface of the Unreal Editor [51]............... 26 2.4 The user interface of the Unreal Blueprint editor............ 27 2.5 The user interface of the Valve Hammer Editor [244].......... 29 2.6 Project's classification on four design elements across game engines used in the literature............................ 34 2.7 Example fire

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