Where do you look when playing?

[iatneH]

I am almost positive there is an existing topic with the same kind of title, but somehow I couldn't find it using the forum search.

Anyway, there is an eyegaze tracking monitor in my lab, and I thought it would be a fun thing to track my eyegaze while playing a shooter after hours today.

I made a little video of DDP's first stage, keep in mind that I was never good at DDP, this is my second run after not playing for a year, I am playing with a keyboard, and the framerate is incredibly slow due to the eyetracking software basically having to capture an entire 1280x1024 screen area. I've cropped out the interesting parts for the video here though.

rapidshare download, ~55MB

There is a blue dot and some lines, the size of the dot increases as I am fixated on a spot for a longer time.

Would be a bit more interesting to capture a later stage with more bullets to dodge, but I didn't have much time today.

Maybe I should have played some Sexy Parodius instead, but it is too obvious where MY eyes would go

[Damocles]

My head hurts from that framerate. Other than that, interesting stuff.

[sven666]

"Get your own Premium-account now! Instant download-access! (Or wait 82 minutes)"

wtf!?

[incognoscente]

"Get your own Premium-account now! Instant download-access! (Or wait 82 minutes)"

wtf!?

You or someone else reporting the same IP have already downloaded a file from RapidShare within the last hour or so.

. . .

[Dave_K.]

I've been wanting to do exactly this, setup an eye tracker on a cabinet, and output both the RGB from the game and eyetracker coordinates to a PC to merge into one recorded stream. This would make for an ultimate superplay DVD where you have the eye tracking data as an extra "angle view" option of DVDs, so you can turn it on/off.

Only problem is its still increadibly expensive to get the tracking hardware. One of those Tobii monitors is like 20K right?

[iatneH]

Thanks for the mirror, incognoscente.

Dave K.: Yes, I am lucky enough to be using a Tobii, and they are ridiculously expensive, around $25K. It's a shame that I suck at games, and it's a single-computer setup so emulation and software screen capture is pretty much all I can do.

I have read of people who have constructed their own eyetrackers using consumer camera equipment or completely DIY. Here is one I found just now.

[Frederik]

Applause!

I always wanted to see something like that. Yeah, the framerate is making me dizzy, and it´s not too much happening in the first stage of DDP anyways, but still a highly interesting project. I´d love to see more of this. It really gets interesting at the stage boss, especially when you dodge the big bullet cloud.

One question: Is this the framerate you´re PLAYING at or just the recording itself?

[Never_Scurred]

I mostly look around my ship, not so much *at* my ship.

[Frederik]

How big was the screen by the way and how far were you sitting from it?

[Icarus]

[MA7]

<applause>

[Twiddle]

but i like staring out the window it makes touhou seem more exciting

[shoe-sama]

original topic if anyone still cares lol

http://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?t=13921

[EOJ]

Thanks for the mirror, incognoscente.

Dave K.: Yes, I am lucky enough to be using a Tobii, and they are ridiculously expensive, around $25K. It's a shame that I suck at games, and it's a single-computer setup so emulation and software screen capture is pretty much all I can do.

We have one of those in our experimental linguistics lab. I never thought of doing this, but I can use the equipment whenever I like. Hmm.

[iatneH]

Thank you shoe-sama, that is exactly the thread I somehow could not find. Wasn't all that long ago, and differs by only one word too.

And Icarus, G2H You probably 1CC'ed Image Fight while making that picture in a different room.

The monitor is 17", my face was maybe 40-50 cm away, but from the command line I had forced MAME to run in 480x640. The captured video is horribly slow, but the gameplay itself was faster. Not anywhere near full-speed though, maybe closer to 15 fps.

If people still care at all especially with the duplicate topic and whatnot, maybe I will make a more bullet-happy capture, but there is still the problem that there is not a single game I can play decently well with a keyboard (or a joystick for that matter).

edit: TWE: DO IT!!! NOW!!

[shoe-sama]

Anyways uh I use my shot as a guide to better estimate my hitbox position when scanning the middle and top of the screen.

[Icarus]

You probably 1CC'ed Image Fight while making that picture in a different room.

Five minutes in Photoshop.
'twas a serious answer too, which is a rarity for me nowadays.

Interesting video by the way. Framerate is migrane-inducing, however.

[WarCheese]

Hi all:

Icarus, that was very well done. Someone should sticky that little tutorial.

I would even go a bit further. For those who have access to local arcades with shmups, I recommend printing the tutorial out and sticking it near those shmup machines. This way, those who are new to this genre would not die and give up so easily...

Cheers.

WarCheese

[PC Engine Fan X!]

Hi all:

Icarus, that was very well done. Someone should sticky that little tutorial.

I would even go a bit further. For those who have access to local arcades with shmups, I recommend printing the tutorial out and sticking it near those shmup machines. This way, those who are new to this genre would not die and give up so easily...

Cheers.

WarCheese

Very effective "grassroots" way to promote arcade shmups for non-shmuppers with Icarus' diagram -- "it's so easy that a caveman can do it" -- Geico tagline... ^_~

Useless Factoid: Geico -- short for Government Employees Insurance Company (have wondered what the Geico name actual stood for until just very recently I learned of what it meant...)

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[Pirate1019]

I have the same conclusions about the video as everybody else. Awesome video save the bleeding eye frame rate.

This kind of stuff is really interesting. If you watched a clip of me playing the dot would leave the screen a lot because when I know nothings happening (boss approaches) A have a habit of looking at the controller or rubbing my eyes and generally not being the most astute individual.

[Frederik]

Now, I still don´t get why people insist that a huge arcade cabinet screen is SO much better for playing shmups than a small computer monitor. I agree with Icarus layout - but wouldn´t that mean that a smaller screen (not TINY, but smaller than the bigass ones in the arcades) makes it easier to react to coming bullet barrage since your eyes don´t have to dart around as much, and makes it easier to see the whole screen at once? (I am not saying that this is right and the other way is wrong, I just want to understand it for once.)

As shoesama said, the shot stream in many shmups (DDP Laser and Ikaruga both have a nice, single vertical line of fire) is my guide to the ship location - and in both games, the ships are surrounded by some sort of aura, which makes the ship location even easier without directly looking at it.

[Icarus]

Smaller screen = less eye movement making it easier to scan the screen, but harder to make pixel precision dodges.

Bigger screen = requires more head and eye movements which can put strain on head/neck during prolonged sessions, but easier to make more precision dodges due to larger view area.

Conclusion = one is not better than the other, and is dependent on your own level of comfort.

[D]

Now, I still don´t get why people insist that a huge arcade cabinet screen is SO much better for playing shmups than a small computer monitor. I agree with Icarus layout - but wouldn´t that mean that a smaller screen (not TINY, but smaller than the bigass ones in the arcades) makes it easier to react to coming bullet barrage since your eyes don´t have to dart around as much, and makes it easier to see the whole screen at once? (I am not saying that this is right and the other way is wrong, I just want to understand it for once.)

As shoesama said, the shot stream in many shmups (DDP Laser and Ikaruga both have a nice, single vertical line of fire) is my guide to the ship location - and in both games, the ships are surrounded by some sort of aura, which makes the ship location even easier without directly looking at it.

I don't think anyone would ever say that. It depends on how far away you are wrom the screen. It's all about aspect ratio's me thinks. Too bii is too big, too small is too small. also what one is used to is very important as well!

[Dave_K.]

Having the headtracker data, for the same players, using different size screens, would give us the answer to these questions about where newbies are looking v.s. pros, and what size screens are better or if there is any real difference at all.

[Shatterhand]

That would be really interesting to see.

I never paid to much attention to where I look when playing a shmup, but there's one game where I noticed my "where am I looking?" really made an impact.

In Cotton Boomerang, in the boss of the 4th stage, he shoots lots of patterns that "overlap" each other. I usually look at them, and look at the witch so I can dodge them with some precision. Trouble is that I have to keep look at the patterns so I know what's coming, and shift to the witch so I can dodge with some precision.... but I never can shift my eyes fast enough... I notice that every time I look at each new pattern coming, I am looking closer to the witch, until the point I just can't keep on with incoming patterns, give up, and just try to dodge everything at instinct... and completely fail because of the overlaping patterns.

Goddamn, I never got past that bastard dragon....

[Icarus]

In Cotton Boomerang, in the boss of the 4th stage, he shoots lots of patterns that "overlap" each other. I usually look at them, and look at the witch so I can dodge them with some precision. Trouble is that I have to keep look at the patterns so I know what's coming, and shift to the witch so I can dodge with some precision.... but I never can shift my eyes fast enough... I notice that every time I look at each new pattern coming, I am looking closer to the witch, until the point I just can't keep on with incoming patterns, give up, and just try to dodge everything at instinct... and completely fail because of the overlaping patterns.

Overlapping patterns are a pain to get through, because you technically have to deal with two or more patterns at once. There is no real easy way to get through other than to focus on an area directly in front of your character/ship (about two lengths) and try to quickly judge where the gaps will fall, then maneuver into the gaps. That and lots of practice to get a feel for where to focus your eyes.

Dodonpachi Daioujou is another game that uses patterns like that a lot, particularly the third, fourth and fifth bosses. Overlapping patterns like that are particularly annoying as you need both quick thinking and quick maneuvering.

[Gungriffon Geona]

I'd like it if you didn't use a shade of green and yellow that's impossible for me to tell the difference between. maybe use blue or something.

[Icarus]

How about black, black, and black?

[iatneH]

How about Purple, purple, and purple? Then it would look just like Mushi Ultra.

[Frederik]

Why did Cave make bullets in their recent non-Yagawa games all the same color anyways? I liked the many different colors in Esprade, made is a lot easier. I could be wrong thought; sometimes I have the impression that movement itself is more important than seperate bullet colors.