ER Demo 2

These pics are from a new Mod I'm working on which uses HL2 as a
medical training and simulation platform. The player works along
NPC medical personel to help assess and treat patients in a sort of
virtual moulage.

As a leveldesigner i dont think theres much to add, although i think
that the textures on the walls look a bit too blank and "skratch free".

The mod sounds like a good initiative but I have hard to understand how its going to help people being better doctors.

The light fixtures on the ceiling look like they're turned off, but I
don't think that's your intention. I agree about the walls needing a
little bit more texture, even though the cleanliness befits a hospital
setting well. The only real problem I see is the noticeably blocky
handles on the drawers. You can probably spare a few polys to model out
the handles, surely? :smile:

I would also consider changing the floor to some kind of tile. At the
moment, it looks too similar to the ceiling texture. I'm not sure why
that's a bad thing, but I usually try to avoid that myself.

MisterBister: I think there was a recent study that showed surgeons who
played video games actually made fewer mistakes in surgery. Video games
are getting quite popular for psychological research, despite all the
media sensationalism brewing around the violence stuff.

What a novel and original idea for a mod, good going :smile:

I second CJ's sentiments about the drawers, but not only on the
handles. Have you made them and the contents out of brushes? I would
really suggest you opt for modelling them if that is the case. Despite
this I think the overall appearance of the room is very impressive, and
really depicts the setting as well as you could hope to. Good job :smile:

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[img]http://card.mygamercard.net/sig/Default/reno84.png[/img]
Designer @ Haiku Interactive | ReNo-vation.net

If I'm not mistaken, the ceiling lights ... are off. And that was intentional. I believe, depending on the operation they use a specific light-source, so shadows never become an issue ... but I could be wrong.

As for the ceiling and floor textures, both look fine. Something I've noticed about Source is, if there's even the slightest evidence that there's a texture on the floor in the screen-shot ... it will probably be more prominent inside the game.
Because the ceiling and floor look very different, yet similar. Like a hospital.

But, those walls Do need more of a "texture". I think, it would benefit with some sort of cube map settings. Since, usually, there's a gloss on walls from the primer. Then again, if you're simulating a mat type of wall, that probably wont come across well.

I also agree on the handles and other objects. Whether they're world objects or models. They can be upped on the polys and smoothed out.

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Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

nice concept and well worked out so far. few suggestions already
mentioned. are you gonna try to make big money selling
this to hospitals ? :razz:

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These words are my diaries screaming out loud

Thanks for the feedback.

Re: drawers - yea those are just standin brush ones until I do some
model replacements. Got another trip to the ER on Tuesday to take
more reference pictures.

Re: Walls - agreed again. That's the problem with making a
mod that's got clean stuff - you can't reuse much of HL2's materials!
:^)

Re: Lights. Basically I turned off the ceiling lights
because I wanted to put emphasis on the spot light on the
patient. Though it's probably more correct to have it be well lit
at times, it's far more... well dramatic with the spot. Not to
mention it draws the players eye to the patient.

Re: Money. Actually, there has been some interest in funding for
this. It's got great potential for teaching basic procedures,
testing basic knowledge, ec.

If you go to http://www.trauma.org they have a "virutal moulage"
exercize at
[url]http://www.trauma.org/resus/moulage/moulageone.html [/url] Imagine
it as a FPH (First Person Healthcare) Mod instead of a "you see this,
do you do a, b, c or d?" type system. Oh - be
forwarned, that site has some very graphic stuff to educate about
trauma, not to gross out. It's not rotten.com, it's for education.

There's actually quite a large and growing interest in using games for
non-entertainment things such as training, simulation, etc. It's
not the most glorious site in the world, but check out
http://www.seriousgames.org which has info on the idea. Two
conferences coming up, one in Baltimore next week (where I will be
showing a bit of this) and another in Washington DC in late Oct.

Couple of updated pictures with a new wall texture...

Ah, the wall looks so much better now =).

I agree, and the models look really good (I'm looking at the oxygen (?) tank).

Heh, a nice idea. Wasn't this on the VERC a while ago as a newspost?

Anyway, is it mainly an operations sim or are you also planning to cover more aspects of healthcare?

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Create-ivity - a game development blog

Heh, a nice idea. Wasn't this on the VERC a while ago as a newspost?

Anyway, is it mainly an operations sim or are you also planning to cover more aspects of healthcare?

Yea - these are some more up to date shots of the same thing. The
old one on the collective was a CSH (Combat Support Hospital) setting,
this is more normal ER type setting.

Basically what it gets used for is a little up in the air. A lot
of potential ideas. But what ever actions the player has need to
be rooted in real medical "truths" as it were. I bought the "ER"
game a while back (based on the TV show), and part of it is flirting
with nurses, buying them gifts, etc. Ugh. That's not what
I'm aiming for. More like "OK your patient has been bleeding from
a wound, and a pulse rate of 110 and normal range blood
pressure." That's symptomatic of Level 2 shock, and you
probably need to treat them accordingly. Doesn't need blood
transfusions, but some Ringer's lactate might do wonders.

So if you're curious about what one might do, go to
http://www.trauma.org/resus/moulage/moulageone.html and run through
that virtual moulage. It lets you treat an injured patient in a
kind of "pick your own path" adventure. Now imagine that same
thing, but done in a first person "game" environment.

Moulage by the way - cool word - didn't know it until recently.
It's where you are doing triage, but in a simulated situation.

mmmh in this ( http://www.orst.edu/%7Eholtt/tamucc/fph_6.jpg ) picture
the doctor is doing some thing to the hand but he's seeing strait
forward

Btw nice mod :smile:

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Thx in advantage

About time more games were used for professions. Americas army is the main big game that comes to mind.

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-[Better to be Honest than Kind]-

picture the doctor is doing some thing to the hand but he's seeing strait forward

He's so skilled he doesn't HAVE to O_O wow , i think theres a way to get people to look where you want them to. I havent dealt much with hl2 ai though.

Took those virtual thingys , and i did remarkably well O__O considering i'm 16 and the only medical experience i have is from having contests with my brother on who could stand the most blood with those medical shows , AND my dad being a doctor.

on the first one i missed a LOT and the patient would have died like .. 5 times ;p.

Though on the second time i only got 2 wrong , the first was not talking to the fireman crew , and the second was not asking the paramedic what to do.

:wink: you really got me intrigued , i never had been interested by medicine before...

Best of luck , even though you dont need it , because you have good intentions and with good intentions you wont fail with a mod , there's too many helping hands out there on the internet ;p

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.else /me ~kill you
www.arclan.net

The... 'Thing to make AI look where you want to' is info_target I beleive.