University of Huddersfield Repository Marples, Daryl The Influence of Intrinsic Perceptual Cues on Navigation and Route Selection in Virtual Environments Original Citation Marples, Daryl (2017) The Influence of Intrinsic Perceptual Cues on Navigation and Route Selection in Virtual Environments. Doctoral thesis, University of Huddersfield. This version is available at http://eprints.hud.ac.uk/id/eprint/34448/ The University Repository is a digital collection of the research output of the University, available on Open Access. Copyright and Moral Rights for the items on this site are retained by the individual author and/or other copyright owners. Users may access full items free of charge; copies of full text items generally can be reproduced, displayed or performed and given to third parties in any format or medium for personal research or study, educational or not-for-profit purposes without prior permission or charge, provided: • The authors, title and full bibliographic details is credited in any copy; • A hyperlink and/or URL is included for the original metadata page; and • The content is not changed in any way. For more information, including our policy and submission procedure, please contact the Repository Team at: [email protected]. http://eprints.hud.ac.uk/ The Influence of Intrinsic Perceptual Cues on Navigation and Route Selection in Virtual Environments. Daryl Marples A thesis submitted to the University of Huddersfield in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Huddersfield Submission date December 2017 Copyright statement i. The author of this thesis (including any appendices and/or schedules to this thesis) owns any copyright in it (the “Copyright”) and s/he has given The University of Huddersfield the right to use such copyright for any administrative, promotional, educational and/or teaching purposes. ii. Copies of this thesis, either in full or in extracts, may be made only in accordance with the regulations of the University Library. Details of these regulations may be obtained from the Librarian. This page must form part of any such copies made. iii. The ownership of any patents, designs, trademarks and any and all other intellectual property rights except for the Copyright (the “Intellectual Property Rights”) and any reproductions of copyright works, for example graphs and tables (“Reproductions”), which may be described in this thesis, may not be owned by the author and may be owned by third parties. Such Intellectual Property Rights and Reproductions cannot and must not be made available for use without the prior written permission of the owner(s) of the relevant Intellectual Property Rights and/or Reproductions Page | i ABSTRACT The principle aims of this thesis were to investigate the influence of intrinsic navigational cues in virtual environments and video games. Modern video games offer complex environments that may reflect real world spaces or represent landscapes from fantasy and fiction. The coherent design of these spaces can promote natural navigational flow without the requirement for extraneous guidance such as maps and arrows. The methods that designers use to create natural flow are complex and stratified utilising principles rooted in urban architectural design and navigational cues that are intrinsic to real-world wayfinding scenarios. The studies presented in this thesis analysed not only these commonly used architectural cues but also the potential for the reinforcing of these cues by the addition of lighting, visual and auditory cues. The primary focus of this thesis was a systematic and quantitatively rooted analysis of the impact lighting has on navigation and the levels at which variance in lighting makes a quantifiable difference to navigational choices within a virtual environment. The findings of this thesis offer clear guidance as to the influence that lighting has within virtual environments and specifies the thresholds at which the inclusion of guidance lighting begins to affect navigational choices and the levels that players become conscious of these cues. The thesis also analyses the temporal thresholds for the detection of changes in contrast, hue and texture within an environment. The relationship of other intrinsic cues such as the potential reinforcement or cue competition effects of both audio and other visual cues, for instance motion are quantitatively analysed. These data were reflected in the form of a series of heuristic design principles that augment those that underpin architectural and environmental design considerations by for instance suggesting levels of saliency for lighting cues or reinforcing existing cues via supporting audio guidance. Page | ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract ......................................................................................................................... ii List of Figures ............................................................................................................. xviii List of Tables .................................................................................................................. 1 Dedications and Acknowledgements .................................................................................. 3 List of abbreviations ........................................................................................................ 4 1 Chapter One: Introduction ......................................................................................... 5 1.1 Background ........................................................................................................ 7 1.1.1 Virtual Environments and Video Games............................................................... 8 1.1.2 Spatial Navigation .......................................................................................... 12 1.2 Experimental Framework ................................................................................... 13 1.3 Navigation in Video Games ................................................................................. 14 1.4 Historical Context .............................................................................................. 15 1.5 The Home Computer Market and Text Based Adventures ....................................... 17 1.6 Auxiliary Navigational Cues ................................................................................ 18 1.6.1 Cut Scenes as Navigational Cues...................................................................... 19 1.6.2 On Screen Destination Guidance Text ............................................................... 21 Page | iii 1.6.3 Navigational Pop-up Dialogue Boxes ................................................................. 22 1.6.4 Maps, Mini-Maps and Automaps ....................................................................... 23 1.6.5 GPS .............................................................................................................. 28 1.6.6 Quest-Maps ................................................................................................... 29 1.6.7 Teleport Maps ................................................................................................ 30 1.6.8 Open Space Maps .......................................................................................... 31 1.6.9 Compasses .................................................................................................... 33 1.7 Indicators, Arrows, Markers, Glyphs and Icons ..................................................... 36 1.7.1 Indicators ..................................................................................................... 36 1.7.2 Arrows (Auxiliary) .......................................................................................... 38 1.7.3 Floating Icons ................................................................................................ 41 1.7.4 WayPoint Markers and Quest Markers ............................................................... 43 1.7.5 Quest Trails / Path Markers ............................................................................. 44 1.7.6 Character Outlines as Guidance ....................................................................... 46 1.8 Summary ......................................................................................................... 47 1.9 In Game Navigational Modalities ......................................................................... 47 1.9.1 Character Based Abilities ................................................................................ 47 1.9.2 Vehicles ........................................................................................................ 49 Page | iv 1.9.3 Devices......................................................................................................... 50 1.9.4 Teleports and Portals ...................................................................................... 50 1.9.5 Keys, Puzzles, Enemies and Bosses .................................................................. 51 1.10 Intrinsic Navigational Cues ................................................................................. 52 1.10.1 Maps (Intrinsic) .......................................................................................... 52 1.10.2 Arrows (Intrinsic) ........................................................................................ 53 1.10.3 Ladders, Ropes and Other Climbable Objects .................................................