I’m doing a PhD on why older drivers have more accidents and particularly more accidents at intersections. I’m planning on testing lots of things about how they see, what they do and don’t notice when looking at complex scenes, and try to work out what is changing in their brains that makes some of this go down hill after 60 for some people.
I want to put them in a driving simulator to see exactly what mistakes they make while driving, but I have very few resources (code for no money) so I am trying to build something using blender. What I have in mind is something as realistic as possible, but just a city scene they can drive around in. Some other cars they have to avoid, and if possible be able to record some reaction times to particular events and that sort of thing.
My assumption (might be wrong) is that this would be fairly easy for someone with plenty of experience. If anyone thinks this sounds interesting and would like to help me you would save me a huge amount of time and effort. I’ll do it myself eventually and then make it freely available to other researchers. So far I’ve started with a physics demo from the Gamekit, and I’m slowly trying to learn modelling, lighting and all the rest, but even a little help would be appreciated.
Thanks.
Hello
in my opinion, it’s not really easy, and sure its a quite amount of work!
And there’s no “magic” in Blender; to save you “huge amount of time and effort” someone
will have to handle “huge amount of time and effort”.
Anyway, me, I don’t have the time to help you, but I’ve some objects ( cars, characters, buildings) that you can use, for free, of course!
Bye
Always wanted a good reason to model some cars. Anything in particular you were thinking of? Will try my best to keep the faces to a minimum. Also if you get many people modeling/texturing and pitching in on the project you may find that project will slowly come together. Lemme know if you have something in mind.
HatDriver
Sounds like a really good idea. I would recommend digging into the Blender Game forums to see if there are similar setups like driving games. You may also want to purchase (if you have not already done it) the Blender Game Kit. It is somewhat outdated but the game applications that come with it should run under and older version of blender and I believe there are some games that you could learn enough from to create your own simulation. I will keep my eyes open for any similar simulations.
woa woa woa woa have i just found the person who i am looking for 
okay…lemme explain
ive been looking for a blender-related topic for my research class, which is a year long thing, and id be glad to work with you.
just so you know, im in high school.
pm me ^^.
Thanks for the encouraging responses. I will take any help that is offered. Unlike most driving games which tend to use sports cars and cool looking cars, I’m looking for just normal ones. For example Kator Legaz has a nice looking VW beetle on his page. Same thing with buildings - office blocks, shops, normal lookng houses. Any you think I might be able to include would be great. I’ll no doubt be back on the support forum with questions about how to do specific things. This was a first attempt to see if a project like this would attract interest.
Thanks
So you need to put these people inside a real car :D.
I mean…
Does you game really needs to look like the real situation?
Games are not about coping reality (<<<but this is, of course, my own point of view, you don’t need to agree with that ; ).
Maybe you should spent less time in graphics and more on trying to reproduce the variables of an intersection. Just a though. Good luck! All the best for your project!
Also, my experience when talking with this age group is that most of them do not use a computer and some are terrified of them.
You may have a tuff time finding a control group that wont be intimidated by the contols, etc and give an acurate data curve.
I recall a show on tv, on this same subject. They put cameras and mics in the autos and had a set driving locations that they controlled for acuracy.
But even then they had to fudge on unexpected circumstances, like pets in the intersections, or streets, and actors not getting bored and staying on cue.
Wishing you good luck in this. I think its becaue they feel safe at an intersection and their guards drop… lol…
when I drift Im lucky because I always stop for every light (green ones included) and rail road tracks…LOL I hope I stop for humans and animals too.
Hat Driver,
i would advise against this as your pHd. Even if others do most of the work it’s still a big task to put it all together.
I’ve seen research that uses a camera strapped to someones head pointing at the road and pointing at the pupil of a driver before. They used the pupil position to draw on the camera view exactly where the driver is looking whilst he drives. I believe this method has been used to analyze the difference between new and experienced drivers finding that new drivers are often just following the curve of the road with their eye rather than toggling between people signs and cars in their view.
Perhaps a research method like this would allow you to focus on the point of your study rather than stretching the purpose of a basic Blender set up.
goodluck.
I must also say, I think that it would be near impossible to make the hardware that I think would be needed, along with the game interaction. I personally say that they’d ace it if they had to just use the arrow keys, but I think that the real thing would be using pedals and a steering wheel, not to mention gear shifts, etc. Good luck anyway.