
Eye tracking in video games - Phithagoras
https://www.theverge.com/2017/5/7/15561224/soma-tobii-eye-tracking-support-hands-on
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hashhar
For everyone who hasn't played SOMA, give it a try if you like video games
and/or philosphy (related to self discovery).

The game itself has great mechanics, environment and audio. But the story is
what makes me like the game more than anything. It makes you think.

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flanbiscuit
I 2nd this. Loved the game. Played it just a couple months ago for the first
time. It's not as scary as the developer's other game, Amnesia: The Dark
Descent, but I actually liked SOMA's story more.

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pizza234
I think the game is significantly misunderstood (although fortunately, still
appreciated) - IMHO, the developers wanted to make an unsettling game, rather
than a scary one, so the typical comparison with Amnesia, which is a pure
horror, is somewhat misplaced.

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gambiting
I actually really recommend playing it with the mod that makes almost all
monsters non-aggressive.

It's great for players who are not into horror games, and I would argue that
it makes the game even more unsettling once you realize what the monsters are.

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katamaritaco
Although I don't see eye tracking in games as 'the next big thing' in any
sense (the few I've tried were severely lacking in the fun department), I
would be interested to try playing Soma with this.

Soma had some flaws to be sure, but damn did it do some things really well.
I'd highly recommend it - eye tracking or no.

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astrobe_
One great application I can think of is depth of field adjustment. Some games
have depth of field simulation, which makes far away scenery blurry.
Personally I always disable it because I think it belongs to the uncanny
valley: it's nice on screenshots, but it doesn't work so well in-game because
the focus doesn't change with where/what you're looking at. Eye tracking, by
making this feature dynamic, would I think enhance 3D rendering for relatively
cheap.

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Crespyl
Good use of eye tracking could also allow for foveated rendering, drawing the
out-of-focus areas with lower resolution and leaving more time to render the
areas of interest.

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WrtCdEvrydy
Now we just need cheaper dual eye tracking setups and support for lower
quality sections in your screen (just lower quality where you're not looking).

Open source community to the rescue!

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rtkwe
What you're talking about is called foveated rendering and it's already used
today in VR to reduce the rendering workload around the edges.

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SimonPStevens
I'm not sure I'd quite class it as in use yet, when none of the major
commercially available VR headsets use it.

It's certainly being actively researched though and seems likely to be part of
a future generation of VR headsets.

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rtkwe
Eye tracking will require new headsets or new accessories but basic foveated
rendering which just goes to the center could be done on today's VR hardware.

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pandaman
No mention of GT5? It tells how impressive is this feature when few people
remember a game that shipped 10+M units with it, does not it? I figure it
could be much more useful in AR applications than in games but, even there,
it's a long shot (remember Amazon Fire Phone?).

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modeless
You're thinking of head tracking. Eye tracking is very different and neither
GT5 nor the Fire Phone had it.

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pandaman
Fire Phone definitely had it (see [https://www.wired.com/2014/06/amazon-fire-
phone/](https://www.wired.com/2014/06/amazon-fire-phone/) for example), GT5
called the feature "Head Tracking" but, since it is played on a fixed display
it was essentially tracking the direction of gaze in that setup, from the POV
of gameplay I don't see much difference between that and true eye tracking.

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dahauns
_since it is played on a fixed display it was essentially tracking the
direction of gaze in that setup, from the POV of gameplay I don 't see much
difference between that and true eye tracking._

Absolutely not. Head and eye movements might complement each other, but they
are completely different in execution. And you _can 't_ reliably track gaze
from head movements alone.

Focusing on distinct objects by looking at them, for example, is something you
can only do with eye tracking (except for the most extremely coarse cases
where there's only one object in the general direction of the head).

BTW: Head tracking in games is nothing new, TrackIR e.g. has been around and a
staple in sim racers for ~15 years now.

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pandaman
In GT5, when you looked in the door mirror, the camera view shifted there. How
could that be different with eye tracking?

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dahauns
_(except for the most extremely coarse cases where there 's only one object in
the general direction of the head)_

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pandaman
Am I being too audacious when I interpret your quoting a part of your own
previous message as your implying that: a) I did not read your previous
message or did not understand it. b) The answer to my question is, indeed,
positive as there is no difference but you don't want to admit that?

Thanks in advance for a reply not consisting of quotes of your previous
messages.

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dahauns
You are correct: I'm implying a), because the GT5 mirror look is exactly such
an example.

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skocznymroczny
I don't think eye tracking will have much use for gameplay. It will have much
use for ads though, "your eyes have moved away from the banner for more than
500 milliseconds, please try again, and remember, no looking away for 20
seconds"

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jbrooksuk
Very Black Mirror-esque.

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Arizhel
All the best video games were published before 1990.

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dkersten
Citation needed.

This is clearly subjective. There are many aspects of games and many games
implementing these aspects. Some pre-1990 games excel at some of them and some
newer games excel at others. Apples and oranges. For example, as a medium for
interactive storytelling, in my own opinion, only very recently have games
managed it in a way that I found more engaging than non-interactive mediums in
terms of storytelling impact. Part of this, for me, is that decisions actually
impact the gameplay and continuing story and things like lifelike facial
animation. When engaging visuals are combined with rock solid storytelling,
you've got a great movie, but when you add solid interactivity and gameplay,
it really becomes something else. This just wasn't possible pre-1990.

You're obviously talking about the simple "small number of mechanics" pure
gameplay games (the tetrises, bombermans, pacmans, space invaders etc), sure,
there are some great and long-lasting games, but there are plenty of amazing
modern games too in terms of gameplay (eg Rocket league).

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Arizhel
No citation needed, it's the truth. But of course it's subjective, just like
any opinion, which is why asking for a citation is simply absurd. That's like
asking for a citation when someone says "I like ham sandwiches".

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dkersten
It's not the truth, it's your opinion. You said so yourself, after all.

