Visual attention in 3D video games

Understanding players' visual attention patterns within an interactive 3D game environment is an important research area that can improve game level design and graphics. Several graphics techniques use a perception based rendering method to enhance graphics quality while achieving the fast rendering speed required for fast-paced 3D video games. Game designers can also enhance game play by adjusting the level design, texture and color choices, and objects' locations, if such decisions are informed by a study of players' visual attention patterns in 3D game environments. This paper seeks to address this issue. We present results showing different visual attention patterns that players exhibit in two different game types: action-adventure games and first person shooter games. In addition, analyzing visual attention patterns within a complex 3D game environment presents a new challenge because the environment is very complex with many rapidly changing conditions; the methods used in previous research cannot be used in such environments. In this paper, we will discuss our exploration seeking a new approach to analyze visual attention patterns within interactive 3D environments.

[1]  E. Farmer,et al.  Visual search through color displays: Effects of target-background similarity and background uniformity , 1980, Perception & psychophysics.

[2]  A. Treisman,et al.  A feature-integration theory of attention , 1980, Cognitive Psychology.

[3]  A. L. Yarbus.  Eye Movements During Perception of Complex Objects , 1967 .

[4]  James R. Bergen,et al.  Parallel versus serial processing in rapid pattern discrimination , 1983, Nature.

[5]  M D'Zmura,et al.  Detection of contrary chromatic change. , 1994, Journal of the Optical Society of America. A, Optics, image science, and vision.

[6]  Jeremy M. Wolfe,et al.  Guided Search 3.0 , 1997 .

[7]  A L Nagy,et al.  Visual search for color differences with foveal and peripheral vision. , 1990, Journal of the Optical Society of America. A, Optics and image science.

[8]  Hans-Peter Seidel,et al.  Perception-guided global illumination solution for animation rendering , 2001, SIGGRAPH.

[9]  Alan Chalmers,et al.  Selective quality rendering by exploiting human inattentional blindness: looking but not seeing , 2002, VRST '02.

[10]  C Bundesen,et al.  Color segregation and visual search , 1983, Perception & psychophysics.

[11]  C. Chabris,et al.  Gorillas in Our Midst: Sustained Inattentional Blindness for Dynamic Events , 1999, Perception.

[12]  Richard M Shiffrin,et al.  Confusion and compensation in visual perception: effects of spatiotemporal proximity and selective attention. , 2005, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[13]  Veronica Sundstedt,et al.  Top-Down Visual Attention for Efficient Rendering of Task Related Scenes , 2004, VMV.

[14]  V. Lakshminarayanan,et al.  Basic and Clinical Applications of Vision Science , 1997, Documenta Ophthalmologica Proceedings Series.

[15]  R. Carter.  Visual search with color. , 1982, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[16]  Donald P. Greenberg,et al.  Spatiotemporal sensitivity and visual attention for efficient rendering of dynamic environments , 2005, TOGS.

[17]  Fabio Pellacini,et al.  Perceptually-driven decision theory for interactive realistic rendering , 2003, TOGS.

[18]  Carol O'Sullivan,et al.  Collisions and attention , 2004, APGV '04.

[19]  C. Koch,et al.  A saliency-based search mechanism for overt and covert shifts of visual attention , 2000, Vision Research.

[20]  L. G. Williams,et al.  The effect of target specification on objects fixated during visual search , 1966 .

[21]  Hans-Peter Seidel,et al.  Perceptually Guided Corrective Splatting , 2001, Comput. Graph. Forum.

[22]  S. Smith,et al.  Color coding and visual search. , 1962, Journal of experimental psychology.

[23]  Karol Myszkowski,et al.  Perception-based global illumination, rendering, and animation techniques , 2002, SCCG '02.

[24]  A. Nagy,et al.  Critical color differences determined with a visual search task. , 1990, Journal of the Optical Society of America. A, Optics and image science.

[25]  Alan Chalmers,et al.  Detail to Attention: Exploiting Visual Tasks for Selective Rendering , 2003, Rendering Techniques.

[26]  Allen Allport,et al.  Visual attention , 1989 .

[27]  B. Green,et al.  Color coding in a visual search task. , 1956, Journal of experimental psychology.

[28]  S Ullman,et al.  Parallel and serial processes in motion detection. , 1987, Science.