Sponsored by ONR

Research by BBN

A Survey of Militarily Useful Game Technologies

Games or game-based technologies are used in artificial intelligence research, interactive computer art, collaborative virtual environments, training and educational applications, experimental and therapeutic applications in psychology, and in marketing, public policy analysis, augmented reality research, and architectural visualization and design.

Game Engines - Gaming has advanced the technology of PC-based graphics and simulation so that game engines now provide excellent rendering and graphics capabilities. Game engines are the code modules upon which a game is based. They render the complex three-dimensional (3-D) environment viewed by players. As the most complicated and critical component of the game, [3-D technology] is typically regarded as proprietary intellectual property and is not modifiable by the user. With game developers now providing tools such as level editors for constructing maps and scenarios, external APIs and scripting languages for modifying NPC behaviors, and in some cases even releasing the game code (e.g., Quake III), it is now possible to simply purchase a copy of the game – typically around $40 – and create one’s own scenarios using the advanced rending engine.

Content Creation Tools - Game developers have noticed the user's attraction to creating their own game content. This ranges from 3-D world construction, avatar modeling, skins (new graphical representations for existing objects) and the construction of new objects with which to populate a world. For example, The Sims now has hundreds of thousands of downloads available with player-created content ranging from furniture and clothing to houses. In addition to third-party tools, the game developers have themselves begun releasing tools to facilitate this. In fact, some games have been developed with user-designed content creation as one of the primary selling points for the game (e.g., Second Life, Neverwinter Nights). In most cases these tools are free, and often come with the game release.

Networking and Multiplayer Capabilities - Like rendering engines, the architectures supporting multiplayer gaming have evolved considerably. Originally, games like Doom and Duke Nukem used peer-to-peer architectures where each game was synchronized with all other games, generating the same game logic on the same inputs, and thus producing the same results. Next came client-server architectures used by Quake, Unreal, Ultima On-line, and others. Here, one machine is designated a server and is responsible for the game logic. The client machines - used by the players - are used to capture player actions (which are sent to the server), and for rendering the graphics. Client-server architectures are continuing to advance, with current games placing more simulation logic and code to predict game flow on the client side in order to make use of client-side CPU capabilities and reduce bandwidth requirements. These architectures are highly optimized for game-play and typically are not the limiting factor in game presentation. One factor limiting this approach is the fact that any game logic that gets performed on the client is open for exploitation by hackers. On-line games (e.g., Diablo by Blizzard) have had problems with cheaters modifying the game client to make their avatars stronger or able to move faster. The situation can be worse in the genre of Massively Multiplayer On-line games, where there can be a financial incentive to cheat, in the form of trading game items for US dollars. Raph Koster, the lead designer for Star Wars Galaxies and Ultima On-line sums up this point: "Never put anything on the client. The client is in the hands of the enemy. Never ever ever forget this." Like rendering engines, these networking capabilities are obtained by purchasing the game. The capability for collaborative interactions through game networking technologies is yet another possible area of interest to the military. In fact, the U.S. military in Iraq and Afghanistan is making use of collaboration systems including on-line chat and on-line conferencing. Applications such as Second Life and There are the next generation of such interactive, collaborative environments.

Matchmaking - Tools that facilitate multiplayer on-line game-play are now available from utilities such as GameSpy and Blizzard’s Battle.net. These tools provide mechanisms for searching the Internet to find games and game servers, match players up, and initiate multiplayer games. In addition, these services provide scoring systems (so players can see how they match up against each other), message board forums, and chat rooms, thus allowing for the formation of an on-line community and social bonds.

Community Building - In addition to matchmaking technologies, game technology companies are providing developer toolkits, which provide community facilities both as SDKs to build features into a game and as out-of-game capabilities to supplement existing game activity. These features include in and out-of-game chat capabilities, instant messaging, buddy lists, user lobbies, voice-over-IP communication, and competition facilities such as player scoring, rankings, ladders, and tournaments. There are many 3rd party tools used by gamers to communicate outside of a game, including free message boards (e.g., www.ezboard.com), free Internet Relay Chat (IRC) clients (www.mirc.com), and voice chat (www.rogerwilco.gamespy.com).

Some Commercial Games Currently in Use by the U.S. Military