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Conference Presentation Remote Multi-Player Synchronization using the Labstreaming Layer System FANOURAKIS, Marios Aristogenis, LOPES, Phil, CHANEL, Guillaume Abstract We present an open-source collection of modules and plugins that can be used to perform synchronous data collection from multi-player games. In its current state, the system can acquire players behaviors (facial expressions, eye-movements, posture, and mouse/keyboard events), physiological reactions (electrodermal activity, heart rate, etc.) together with events indicating the game state. Two games are supported: "Xonotic", and "Counterstrike: Global Offensive" but the system can be easily extended to other games. The different data streams are recorded and synchronized through the use of the Labstreaming Layer (LSL) system. We demonstrate the successful synchronization of physiological responses, eye-movements, and a camera to within 42ms. Reference FANOURAKIS, Marios Aristogenis, LOPES, Phil, CHANEL, Guillaume. Remote Multi-Player Synchronization using the Labstreaming Layer System. In: FDG 2020, Malta, 15-18 September, 2020, p. 5 Available at: http://archive-ouverte.unige.ch/unige:148594 Disclaimer: layout of this document may differ from the published version. 1 / 1 Remote Multi-Player Synchronization using the Labstreaming Layer System Marios Fanourakis Phil Lopes Guillaume Chanel [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] University of Geneva EPFL University of Geneva Geneva, Switzerland Lausanne, Switzerland Geneva, Switzerland ABSTRACT we aim at developing a modular open source solution which might We present an open-source collection of modules and plugins that fit the needs of several research cases without being costly. can be used to perform synchronous data collection from multi- In this paper, we present a modular solution for synchronous player games. In its current state, the system can acquire play- recording of video game play (a video of the game and game events); ers behaviors (facial expressions, eye-movements, posture, and player behaviors such as facial expressions, eye-movements, pos- mouse/keyboard events), physiological reactions (electrodermal ture, and mouse/keyboard events; and physiological reactions such activity, heart rate, etc.) together with events indicating the game as electrodermal activity (EDA), electrocardiogram (ECG), respira- state. Two games are supported: "Xonotic", and "Counterstrike: tion, and electromyography (EMG). The proposed solution consists Global Offensive" but the system can be easily extended toother of a collection of modules which can record data from multiple games. The different data streams are recorded and synchronized players connected remotely. With this collection we seek to further through the use of the Labstreaming Layer (LSL) system. We demon- facilitate experiments for studying human emotions, behaviours, strate the successful synchronization of physiological responses, and responses during video game fruition. The software modules 3 eye-movements, and a camera to within 42<B. are open source and licensed under the MIT license. We developed these modules for the Labstreaming Layer (LSL) 4, a popular and KEYWORDS open source data synchronization system. Several applications have been developed for various sensors and software to stream their affective computing, video games, multi-player, data synchroniza- data to LSL and are available online at the official LSL repository tion, physiological data, Labstreaming Layer or from other sources. ACM Reference Format: The LSL system is confined to the local area network (LAN) Marios Fanourakis, Phil Lopes, and Guillaume Chanel. 2020. Remote Multi- which is adequate for the majority of experiments. However, in Player Synchronization using the Labstreaming Layer System. In Proceedings some situations it is necessary to collect data remotely. For example, of FDG 2020. ACM, New York, NY, USA, 5 pages. https://doi.org/10.1145/ 1122445.1122456 to allow players to be at the comfort of their own home. To facilitate remote data collection and synchronization we propose the use of 1 INTRODUCTION a virtual private network (VPN).The performance of the system in term of modality synchronisation is thus evaluated for both local Interactive media experiences such as video games are a versatile and remote connections. and multi-faceted stimulus. Video games are more and more realistic with detailed graphics, accurate physics, convincing emotional 2 RELATED WORK characters, and immersive virtual reality. As such, video games elicit complex player experiences which makes them quite attractive in Over the past few years the collection of player data has become the research community. A common finding is that it is necessary a serious consideration and necessity for both researchers and to perform multimodal recordings in order to capture as much as developers [1, 2]. Player telemetry allows designers to observe possible of the player experience during video game play; a task and obtain an accurate representation of several player behaviours, that requires the synchronization of several heterogeneous sensors which in turn can be used to make important game design decisions and events. Research labs either develop their own experimental and modifications. Telemetry is also often used for matchmaking platforms or purchase an often costly platform that fits their needs and ranking players in competitive multiplayer games [3], as a way like Biopac1 and iMotions2. Although both options have advantages, of providing a more enjoyable experience for players who fall in different skill ranges. 1 https://www.biopac.com/ Due to the ability of video games to immerse players and to elicit 2https://imotions.com/ complex emotions, it has been widely studied in the domain of Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or psychology where, in addition to in-game measures, various physi- classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed ological data (ex. ECG, EDA), facial expressions, and body posture for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM are collected [4–9]. It can often be difficult to manage the multitude must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, of different data streams due to synchronicity issues. Although the to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]. usage of physiology to study player behaviour is quite common in FDG 2020, September 15-18, 2020, Malta the literature, it is rarely done within a multiplayer setting where © 2020 Association for Computing Machinery. ACM ISBN 978-1-4503-XXXX-X/18/06...$15.00 3https://gitlab.unige.ch/sims/esports-data-platform https://doi.org/10.1145/1122445.1122456 4https://github.com/sccn/labstreaminglayer FDG 2020, September 15-18, 2020, Malta Marios Fanourakis, Phil Lopes, and Guillaume Chanel Player Local Area Network (LAN) Game Screen rec. LSL Camera LSL Eyetracker LSL Sensors LSL Game server LSL data server Event capture LSL LSL LabRecorder Figure 2: Xonotic gameplay screenshot. Figure 1: The architecture of the data collection and synchro- nization platform. Player Player Player Player Game Server each player’s data streams are collected concurrently. Furthermore, although multimodal data collection has been achieved, we are not Game aware of a study which collected all the modalities presented in Log Reader this paper in a multi-player scenario. Topics of interest include, be- havioural effects of video games, differences of affective responses Filter Parse to games between different types of players, dynamic difficulty ad- log event justment based on player’s affective state, effect of game elements Log file on player experience, and many more. Developers can also benefit push data Outlet LSL from the this research by creating emotionally intelligent games and peripherals to better engage players. Figure 3: Xonotic data capture architecture. 3 ARCHITECTURE The resulting platform has a client-server architecture that relies on 3.1.1 Xonotic. the LSL system for data synchronization and modularity. Adding or Xonotic is an open source multi-platform online removing components is trivial as long as these components have multiplayer first person shooter (FPS) game that resembles Quake an LSL stream outlet and have a command-line interface (CLI) with III (Figure 2. Our strategy to record Xonotic events is to develop a the required parameters. client which parses the game log and send relevant events to an An overview of the architecture is shown in Figure 1. There are LSL outlet (see Figure 3). It is preferable to configure the output log several components and sub-components: as a POSIX pipe in order to minimize latency. Given that Xonotic is open-source we modified the logging system to add events of • The game server (section 3.1). interest such as power ups and health stats. However, given that • The player (section 3.2) includes several sensors and com- several events are logged by default our recording strategy does ponents: the client game, the screen recorder, the input to not require any modifications per se and can easily be applied for peripherals, the camera, the eyetracker, the sensors. games that are difficult to modify. By using this strategy, weare