Half-Life Fire Drill

[The_root_of_all_evil]

Half-Life Fire Drill

Researchers at Durham University, England, have modified Gordon Freeman's escape from a resonance cascade and turned it into a fire drill simulator.

Durham University's Dr. Shamus Smith, who helped spearhead the project, has said that that while bespoke 3D modeling software was available, modifying a videogame was faster, more cost effective, and had better special effects.

And so, with a bit of work on the Source Engine, the Computer Science department in Durham University was modeled to simulate what would happen in a fire. The team at Durham say the virtual environment helped familiarize people with evacuation routines and could also help identify problems with a building's layout.

However, while the simulation worked for most people, those who played a lot of videogames did rather unusual things.

"If a door was on fire, they [gamers] would try and run through it, rather than look for a different exit," said Dr. Smith.

A video of the escape from the Computer Science block is available on the BBC website below, but unfortunately there's no gravity gun as of yet.

Source: BBC [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7867861.stm] via SilentD.


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[Mariena]

Omg I've been waiting for this article forever!!

Seriously though. It shows how versatile the Source engine is, yet again.

*23 views!*

 

[runtheplacered]

Very cool.

 

[Baby Tea]

Pretty interesting idea!

And such a finely written article!

Root, you have outdone yourself. Pardon me while this gets bookmarked.

 

[Neesa]

I love how many fire exits there were. Man, it would be horrible being on the top floor trying to go down to get out. Hey, if I wanted to seem bad ass, jumping through a fire wouldn't seem like a bad idea...hmm. Do they have a fire jumping simulator?

 

[DirkGently]

Ah, Source, is there anything you cannot do?

Did they setup a LAN and see what it would be like to have few dozen people trying to evacuate at once? Because that would be pretty important to figure at as well.

 

[Erana]

Moral of the story:
Put gamers in a flaming building, and they will run towards the shiny fire.

 

[Unknower]

Cool. I think they should do a flood next. Or an earthquake. Or a volcano.

Ah, Source, is there anything you cannot do?

Did they setup a LAN and see what it would be like to have few dozen people trying to evacuate at once? Because that would be pretty important to figure at as well.

"Go, leave me! I'll stay behind to fight the fire and buy you more time! RAARR CHARGE!"

 

[bitzi61]

I AM FREEMAN!!! *As I charge at the fire, forgetting that I, do not, in fact have a HEV suit...*

 

[Fightgarr]

They need to make this widely available with a watergun mod.

 

[Davey Woo]

I love the versatility of the source engine. I am lead to believe it is a modified version of HAVOK? which is in turn the same thing they used in Halo3 (I found this out recently).
And I'm personally feeling the watergun mod to be honest. Would be hilarious.

 

[Caimekaze]

Moral of the story:
Put gamers in a flaming building, and they will run towards the shiny fire.

This is sad, but true.
I was surprised that some of them didn't try and hit the fire with something.

 

[Grand_Poohbah]

Ha take that concerned moms! Not only can video games be educational, but they can save your life!

 

[Odjin]

What's the fuzz about "versatile source engine" damn it. This can be done with ANY recent game engine out there. Just here you had already office art assets around but the game mechanics are the same... and in other games even more realistic ( and better suited for such an undertaking ).

I like the idea to use a ( A ... not SOURCE ) game engine for such things though.

 

[Combined]

This is a good idea. They should use the HL2 engine, though. And make a Combine invasion simulator too.

 

[Samah]

I love the versatility of the source engine. I am lead to believe it is a modified version of HAVOK? which is in turn the same thing they used in Halo3 (I found this out recently).

Havok is a third-party physics engine that Valve licensed for use in the Source engine. From what you're saying, I assume it means that the developers of Halo 3 licensed Havok too. To be honest, Havok is pretty awful. Moving objects around in the Source engine is just plain nasty, with objects getting stuck and then shot up at ridiculous speeds.

I'm no id fanboy, but in terms of graphics I would honestly have to say that id Tech 4 is superior for indoor maps. Doom 3 misused it by making everything too shiny, but Quake 4 was a good implementation. However, Source provides much more convincing outdoor environments than Doom 3 in my opinion. It's a moot point anyway, as Unreal Engine 3 makes both of them look like crayon markings.

As always, regardless of how you use an engine, it's enjoyability that counts.

Disclaimer: Personally, I'd put UE3 as the next-generation of game engines after Source and id Tech 4, on par with id Tech 5 (which is actually based on id Tech 4 anyway). Apples and oranges, etc.

 

[Odjin]

The problem with the Havok implementation in Source is that they use Tri-Mesh collision shapes and this ( while closer fitting geometry ) is a bad thing. Unreal and company use Analytic collision shapes and this is why they are less prone to problems.

 

[Sporky111]

That is genious. I do agree with the gamers trying to run through a flaming door, that is why real fire drills work better.

I cant believe that this is a thread about fire drill and saving lives, and people are talking about the physics engine.