PhysX-based Framework for Developing Games with Haptic Feedback

The main goal of computer game is to immerse a user in a virtual environment. In traditional games, the user immersion is performed through the sense of visuals and sounds with interactions through 2D input devices like mouse and keyboards. Haptic technology can simulate tactile and kinesthetic sensations in virtual environments. Recently, there are a variety of games which take advantage of the haptic effects offered by some devices such as joysticks, gamepads and haptic devices. The main criticism of haptic-driven game development is that the real-time interactions must allow graphical updates of 30 Hz and a much higher rate of 1 kHz for force feedback. The rapid development of the physics engines in recent years has enabled real time simulation of multi-physics effects for 3D games. The major challenge of using such physics engines for realistic haptic rendering is the computation of physically simulated force at interactive haptic rates. This paper presents a framework for developing haptic-enabled 3D blocks arranging games like virtual “Jenga” and “Tsumiki” based on NVIDIA’s PhysX application programming interface (API). The proposed framework introduces a collision handling method to calculate feedback forces by using the collision geometry data obtained from PhysX and the haptic rendering device to provide force feedback.