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Research tracking maze navigation: advice please!

by Etan Markus · in General Discussion · 01/07/2003 (1:24 pm) · 2 replies

Hi,

My laboratory studies the brain regions underlying spatial orientation and navigation.
I am interested in running subjects through simple virtual/game mazes.

This would be a basic navigation task like in Doom/Wolfenstien with doors, hallways and a few objects.

I need something that will provide information on the location of the subject, time it took them to complete the task, length of the route they took and errors (opening the wrong door, or going down a blind alley).

I have some experience programing in C-shell and Python but not much more...

Any advise regarding appropriate software would be highly appreciated!

thanks much!

Etan
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Associate Kyle Carter
#1
01/07/2003 (1:53 pm)
I would suggest using a variant of the DOOM engine. The source has been released, and there are a lot of projects that have upgraded and modified it over the years.

It fits your needs (as I know them) well, because:

a) it's easy to make levels for it. I assume that as a researcher, you don't want to spend months mastering complex level editing tools. You can learn to make basic doom levels in a few weeks at the most.

b) it's easily instrumented. You can use the demo functionality in the engine to record every move the subject makes. If you're feeling more ambitious, it's relatively easy to add some timers, or even make it so that the engine will output a list of where the player was in the map at what times.

c) It enforces real spatial relationships (this might be good or bad depending on the focus of your research). The original DOOM doesn't support rooms over rooms... However! The newer versions have added this sort of thing, so you can play with more complex spatial relationships if you like ;).

d) Many of them also have added scripting languages, which you might be more comfortable with, given your background with c-shell and python.

Ok...

doomworld.com/ports/index.shtml has a list of many different source ports for many different platforms. Take your pick :)

www.doomworld.com/ports/windows.shtml has the windows ports.

Good luck finding what you need! If you need any help, feel free to contact me.

Torque Owner Edward Smith
Silencersoft
#2
01/08/2003 (3:07 pm)
There is a mod of the DooM engine which has mouse look. Also some model support I think is around.