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Using the Game Engine Unity Efficiently in Teaching - Development of a fully-automated webserver-based build pipeline

Mosler, Pascal ; Gehring, Maximilian ; Dokonal, Wolfgang ; Cizmeci, Melisa ; Geist, Pascal ; Haas, Tim ; Soares, Tiago ; Sohlmayer, Christopher ; Rüppel, Uwe
eds.: Dokonal, Wolfgang ; Hirschberg, Urs ; Wurzer, Gabriel (2023)
Using the Game Engine Unity Efficiently in Teaching - Development of a fully-automated webserver-based build pipeline.
41st Conference on Education and Research in Computer Aided Architectural Design in Europe (eCAADe 2023). Graz, Austria (20.09.2023)
Conference or Workshop Item, Bibliographie

Abstract

The Unity game engine is becoming increasingly popular in professional architecture, engineering, and teaching. Unity provides the ability to bring architectural geometries developed during a design process into a virtual reality (VR) environment. This gives designers an additional tool for developing their designs using VR. Until now, the cumbersome and time-consuming build process of a Unity project has been a challenge. This process involves compiling a Unity project for a target platform, such as Windows or Android. Here, many options have to be chosen in advance. In the context of a course in group format, all groups usually have to make the same choices. So far, there has been a lack of possibilities to specify these options centrally. This paper describes the development and prototypical use of a Unity build pipeline developed at the Technical University of Darmstadt, which simplifies working with the Unity game engine. By providing an outsourced build process for Unity projects and further implemented functionalities especially intended for teaching, a significant time advantage in the completion phase of Unity projects is achieved. Therefore, both lecturers and students within a teaching-learning scenario can focus more attention on the actual content in Unity, such as the architectural design process.

Item Type: Conference or Workshop Item
Erschienen: 2023
Editors: Dokonal, Wolfgang ; Hirschberg, Urs ; Wurzer, Gabriel
Creators: Mosler, Pascal ; Gehring, Maximilian ; Dokonal, Wolfgang ; Cizmeci, Melisa ; Geist, Pascal ; Haas, Tim ; Soares, Tiago ; Sohlmayer, Christopher ; Rüppel, Uwe
Type of entry: Bibliographie
Title: Using the Game Engine Unity Efficiently in Teaching - Development of a fully-automated webserver-based build pipeline
Language: English
Date: 13 October 2023
Place of Publication: Graz, Austria
Book Title: eCAADe 2023 Digital Design Reconsidered (Volume 2) - Proceedings of the 41st Conference on Education and Research in Computer Aided Architectural Design in Europe
Series: Proceedings of the 41st ecAADe Conference, 18-23 September 2023 in Graz, Austria
Series Volume: Volume 2
Event Title: 41st Conference on Education and Research in Computer Aided Architectural Design in Europe (eCAADe 2023)
Event Location: Graz, Austria
Event Dates: 20.09.2023
Abstract:

The Unity game engine is becoming increasingly popular in professional architecture, engineering, and teaching. Unity provides the ability to bring architectural geometries developed during a design process into a virtual reality (VR) environment. This gives designers an additional tool for developing their designs using VR. Until now, the cumbersome and time-consuming build process of a Unity project has been a challenge. This process involves compiling a Unity project for a target platform, such as Windows or Android. Here, many options have to be chosen in advance. In the context of a course in group format, all groups usually have to make the same choices. So far, there has been a lack of possibilities to specify these options centrally. This paper describes the development and prototypical use of a Unity build pipeline developed at the Technical University of Darmstadt, which simplifies working with the Unity game engine. By providing an outsourced build process for Unity projects and further implemented functionalities especially intended for teaching, a significant time advantage in the completion phase of Unity projects is achieved. Therefore, both lecturers and students within a teaching-learning scenario can focus more attention on the actual content in Unity, such as the architectural design process.

Alternative Abstract:
Alternative abstract Language

Die Game Engine Unity wird in der professionellen Architektur, im Ingenieurwesen und in der Lehre immer beliebter. Unity bietet die Möglichkeit, architektonische Geometrien in eine Virtual Reality-Umgebung (VR) zu übertragen. Dies bietet Designern ein zusätzliches Werkzeug für die Entwicklung ihrer Entwürfe in VR. Bislang stellte jedoch der mühsame und zeitaufwändige Erstellungsprozess eines Unity-Projekts eine Herausforderung dar. Dieser Prozess beinhaltet die Kompilierung eines Unity-Projekts für eine Zielplattform, wie z. B. Windows oder Android. Dabei müssen viele Optionen im Voraus ausgewählt werden. Im Rahmen einer Lehrveranstaltung im Gruppenformat müssen alle Gruppen normalerweise die gleichen Entscheidungen treffen. Bislang fehlte es an Möglichkeiten, diese Optionen zentral festzulegen. Dieser Beitrag beschreibt die Entwicklung und den prototypischen Einsatz einer Unity-Build-Pipeline an der Technischen Universität Darmstadt, die das Arbeiten mit der Unity-Game Engine vereinfacht. Durch einen ausgelagerten Build-Prozess für Unity-Projekte und weitere implementierte Funktionalitäten speziell für die Lehre, wird ein signifikanter Zeitvorteil in der Fertigstellungsphase von Unity-Projekten erreicht. Somit können sowohl Dozierende als auch Studierende innerhalb eines Lehr-Lern-Szenarios mehr Aufmerksamkeit auf die eigentlichen Inhalte in Unity, wie zum Beispiel den architektonischen Entwurfsprozess, richten.

German
Uncontrolled Keywords: Unity; Build Pipeline; Lehre; Virtual Reality; Softwareentwicklung
Divisions: 13 Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering Sciences
13 Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering Sciences > Institute of Numerical Methods and Informatics in Civil Engineering
Date Deposited: 16 Oct 2023 13:40
Last Modified: 16 Oct 2023 13:46
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