Gaming and GIS is a very interesting topic, and there are a multitude of ways to incorporate this idea with AR since AR has different ways of being implemented. To really showcase a prime example of incorporating GIS into games and applying a form of augmented reality, we need to look no further than the most well-known MMO of all time, World of Warcraft.
To set the stage, we first need to explain some of the features of World of Warcraft and what data modders have to work with. World of Warcraft has many different professions that you can do, and all of them require that you collect the materials necessary to craft the items. There are different types of cloth, ore, flowers, archeology spot locations, cooking recipes, and many different crafting recipes that can be found all throughout the world. And this is ignoring armor, weapons, randomly spawning rare mobs, and world boss locations that can be found through the world.
In order to incorporate GIS into World of Warcraft, people mapped the terrain of the world map or pulled the data from the data files in the game, mapped locations of everything that spawns all throughout the world, and abstracted them into different layers that correlate with what they reference. Then, they overlay them over the world map and attach them to the mini map to show where they are while playing the game with the mod enabled.
As you can see, augmented reality doesn’t just apply to the real world, but also the fantasy world as well. This makes AR very versatile, especially when you can find ways to incorporate GIS into it. Next up, let’s take a look at some pure AR games that focus on the real world. The primary game we will look at is GeoGuessr. GeoGuessr began as a little web application that gives you the test of speculating the areas of a progression of irregular Street View pictures. After you've made your guess, it uncovers the genuine area and honors focuses in view of how close you get.
The next game we will look at is Pursued. It is a sought-after shockingly fun Street View amusement game from Hungarian diversion designers Nemesys Games. The fundamental subject of the diversion is as per the following: "You've been taken all of a sudden. A companion is endeavoring to help you; however, you should make sense of where you are!" The point of the amusement is to guess the name of the city you take a gander at and type the name in the textbox as quickly as possible. In case you can't guess by the visual pieces of information in the Street View, you can move around by clicking in the Street View picture and utilize your '+' and '-' keys to zoom in and out.
Third on the rundown is Smarty Pins. Smarty Pins is a game created by Google Engineers. The point is to discover the response to an inquiry and stick point this area on the guide. For instance, you would get the inquiry "Where is the most seasoned British college?" and you would need to put a stick on Oxford. The main inquiries are normally situated in a player's nearby nation or are identified with extremely well-known places or individuals, however, as you advance, the playing board grows to whatever is left of the world and gets more challenging.
Guide Race is number four on the rundown. The thought behind it is to demonstrate to you a satellite photo of an area and four possible answers. The challenge is to choose the right answer at the earliest opportunity. In the event that you guess the wrong city, you'll get more opportunities to fathom it, which is terrible.
Number five is MapsTD. MapsTD is a pinnacle barrier game that utilizes Google Maps to create levels from any area over the world. Your undertaking is to safeguard your palace from assailants by deliberately putting and dealing with your guard towers. It's a truly standard pinnacle protection setup, yet the delight originates from doing it crosswise over true lanes and areas.
Number six on the rundown is Build. It is an impact of coordinated effort of Google and LEGO to exhibit potential outcomes of Google Chrome. It let clients build anything they can envision with virtual LEGO, put it on Google Maps, and offer their manifestations to the world. As the name suggests, it only works in Google Chrome.
Geo Guns is a tank shooting game and is number seven on our rundown. The diversion takes a full preferred standpoint of Google Maps' 45° (Bird's Eye) satellite view. It overlays a few tanks on the satellite picture. Your assignment is to crush the enemy tanks. You can browse various preset war zone areas for your tank battle, yet you can choose any area by entering an area on the highest point of the screen.
Find Street is a StreetView-based game and is number eight. It gives you a progression of irregular Street View scenes. Your assignment is to make sense of the area of each picture and pick the right test reply. As you can see, you can very easily utilize GIS, georeferencing, and AR in your games all at the same time, or by utilizing various aspects of each of these to create them.
The key things to keep in mind and remember are as follows:
- Map design and the player interactions with maps are an essential part of the undertaking of creating a video game.
- The game's appearance, graphics-wise, therefore sets its tone just as much as the control experience, insecurity, exploration, or plot do.
- In competitive titles, the map represents the playing field. Every corner, every little modification, is crucial, as the players take their positions based on that. Monitoring this positioning is a must for the winning team.
- In open map titles, the game experience often exceeds the information provided by the maps.
These items are critical for determining which approach best fits the idea and structure you want to implement.