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VR‐Rides: An object‐oriented application framework for immersive virtual reality exergames
Author(s) -
Wang Yifan,
Ijaz Kiran,
Yuan Dong,
Calvo Rafael A.
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
software: practice and experience
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.437
H-Index - 70
eISSN - 1097-024X
pISSN - 0038-0644
DOI - 10.1002/spe.2814
Subject(s) - computer science , maintainability , virtual reality , overlay , human–computer interaction , usability , multimedia , software , modular design , reuse , mixed reality , software engineering , engineering , waste management , programming language , operating system
SUMMARY Exercise can improve health and well‐being. With this in mind, immersive virtual reality (VR) games are being developed to promote physical activity, and are generally evaluated through user studies. However, building such applications is time consuming and expensive. This paper introduces VR‐Rides, an object‐oriented application framework focused on the development of experiment‐oriented VR exergames. Following the modular programming pattern, this framework facilitates the integration of different hardware (such as VR devices, sensors, and physical activity devices) within immersive VR experiences that overlay game narratives on Google Street View panoramas. Combining software engineering and interaction patterns, modules of VR‐Rides can be easily added and managed in the Unity game engine. We evaluate the code efficiency and development effort across our VR exergames developed using VR‐Rides. The reliability, maintainability, and usability of our framework are also demonstrated via code metrics analysis and user studies. The results show that investing in a systematic approach to reusing code and design can be a worthwhile effort for researchers beyond software engineering.