Enhancing Spatial Perception and User Experience in Video Games with Volumetric Shadows

In this paper, we investigate the use of volumetric shadows for enhancing three-dimensional perception and action in third-person motion games. They offer an alternative to previously studied cues and visual guides. Our preliminary survey revealed that from the games that require Kinect, 37 % rely primarily on a third-person view and 9 % on a first-person view. We conducted a user study where 30 participants performed object reaching, interception, and aiming tasks in six different graphical modes of a video game that was controlled using a Kinect sensor and PlayStation Move controllers. The study results indicate that different volumetric shadow cues can affect both the user experience and the gameplay performance positively or negatively, depending on the lighting setup. Qualitative user experience analysis shows that playing was found to be most easy and fluent in a typical virtual reality setting with stereo rendering and flat surface shadows. Author Keywords Depth perception; depth cues; stereoscopy; games; 3D use