mvidaldp / wd_ride

Modification of Project Westdrive's original "AVAS" VR city ride including simultaneous recording of head-tracking, eye-tracking and EEG data

Westdrive TAM (Technology Acceptace Model) Ride

Modification of Project Westdrive's original "AVAS" VR city ride to assess self-driving car acceptance using VR by Farbod Nosrat Nezami and Maximilian A. Wächter.

This optimized modification allows simultaneous recording of head-tracking and eye-tracking (using the HTC Vive Pro HMD), and EEG data while performing the experimental task. This simultaneous recording of data is achieved using LSL (LabStreamingLayer).

All this work would not have been possible without the help of my colleague Debora Nolte.

Introduction

Important Notice:

For better ease of use, we have divided the project into two separate repositories, one containing 3d assets and a model called Westdrive Assets Foundation and the other for functionalities of Westdrive which is called Westdrive Core. One can use these two repositories combined or separately to create their simulation outside the scope of scenarios existing in this version of Westdrive.

you can find the Westdrive Assets Foundation here: https://gitlab.com/farbod69/westdrive-asset-foundation and Westdrive Core here : https://gitlab.com/farbod69/westdrive-core

Demo Video

Hardware Requirements

Minimum Requirements

• Intel Core i7 7th Generation
• 16 GB RAM
• Geforce GTX 1070Ti
• Operating System: Windows 10 home

Sugessted Requirements

• Intel Core i7/i9 8th Generation or newer
• 16 GB RAM
• Geforce GTX 1080Ti or better
• Operating System: Windows 10 home

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Project Westdrive has been developed and tested on the following hardwares:

System 1:

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System 2:

Software requirements

Testing Releases:

• You need only the latest Nvidia drivers and Steam VR
• the project has been tested on Nvidia 2080 Ti but should work with the minimum of GTX 1070
• This version includes a connection to a web-based questionnaire. Since in this release, the questionnaire is not included. that part will be skipped.
• the current version is based on the German language. This can easily be changed by changing the language to "ENG" in the config.ini file however part of the embedded audios for this release is only in German.

Note: The executable release is meant to be a showcase of Westdrive capabilities. Westdrive is meant to be customized and built for your specific needs. So we recommend you to download the code and build it yourself after implementing your own scenarios.

Note: We still consider Westdrive in the beta phase, we are using it at its current state to gather data for our project, yet we are constantly working on the code to improve its stability and add new functionalities.

Builded version

you can download the standalone version here

Build preparation

in the following section, it explains how you can clone and improve the project for build and development inside Unity environment.

Step one: Preparing Unity

please download the corresponding version Unity and install it on your machine. It is highly recommended to download and install Unity through Unity Hub. It is easier to manage various installations of Unity when using Unity Hub. You can find more information on Unity Hub here.

notice:

Please always make sure you are using the unity version mentioned here to ensure the correct build and functionality of Westdrive.

Step two: cloning the project

First, make sure you have installed a git client on your machine. If you need one you can find many of them online. Alternatively, you can just download and install the official GitHub client for Microsoft Windows.

If you just want to use Project Westdrive you can alternatively download the project as an archive file (see below), however, to contribute to the project or make your forks you will need a GitLab account.

Tutorial Videos:

Subject	Link	comments
Project Overview	Westdrive project overview	including build process and configurations
City AI Overview	Westdrive City AI part 1	City AI toolkit overview, creating paths
City AI make a dynamic object	Westdrive City AI part 2	preparing cars and making dynamic objects using City AI toolkit
Generic API	Westdrive generic API	Serialization, Traking, IO and Net

Third-party assets

in the following section, all used assets with their links in the unity asset store, with their corresponding functionality are listed.

note:

Assets are separated in tagged with paid and free, and also essential or optional.

note:

If you plan to use the paid assets in other projects, please make sure you purchase them for your organization in the Unity asset store

note:

Optional assets are usually 3d assets that can be replaced by your designs or other 3d models.

List of assets

Asset Name	Link on Asset Store	Description	Paid / Free	Essential / Optional
SteamVR	SteamVR Plugin	main api to use HTV Vive/ Vive Pro HMDs in Unity3d	free
*MeshKit	MeshKit - Mesh Decimation, Separation, Combining and Editing Tools	used to simplify and combine mesh structures in the project	paid
Book Of The Dead	Book Of The Dead: Environment	published by Unity Technologies, trees and nature 3d models are used in city environment	free
**SUV03	Unlock Sport Utility Vehicle 03	one of the car assets used in the project	paid
**EC02	Unlock economy car #02	one of the car assets used in the project	paid
**EC03	Unlock economy car #03	one of the car assets used in the project	paid
**SS07	Unlock super sport car #07	one of the car assets used in the project	paid
**EC01	Unlock economy car #01	one of the car assets used in the project	paid
**SS05	Unlock super sport car #05	one of the car assets used in the project	paid
**SC05SI	Unlock sport car #05 SI	one of the car assets used in the project	paid
**SC05	Unlock economy car #05	one of the car assets used in the project	paid
+SALSA With RandomEyes	Deprecated	used to synconase taxi driver lips and voice	Paid
Truck	Single Detailed Truck	detailed truck with trailer	free
Tocus	3D Low Poly Car For Games (Tocus)	one of the assets used as parked cars	free
low poly car 1	Low Poly Destructible 2 Cars no. 8	one the assets used as parked cars	free
**European Buildings	European Building Collection Volume 1	part of buildings in the city	paid
**City building set	City Building Set 1	part of buildings in the city	paid
Tractor	Farm Machinery: Low Poly Tractor and Planter	tracktor has been used in the city	free
Sport Car	Sport Car - 3D model	used as parked car in the city	free
GR3D	GR3D Sports Utility Vehicle SUV 091614SSUV	used as parked car in the city	free
Low Poly Street Pack	Low Poly Street Pack	used for city street and construction sites	free
Nature Starter Kit 2	Nature Starter Kit 2	used for nature of city alongside book of the dead assets	free
Free HDR Sky	Free HDR Sky	used as the skybox of the city	free
Town Houses	Town Houses Pack	part of city buildings	free

*

This asset is used once and will be deleted once the city is updated with our assets but will be in use for the next year.

**

These assets are part of the city now but they will be replaced with the assets created by our team during next year and will be deleted from our repository then

+

This asset is deprecated, we have deleted its functionality since it was not visible in VR and replaced it with normal audio output from the Taxi driver. This asset will be removed from our repository on our next commit.

Avatars and animations:

Avatars and animations in Westdrive are created by us using Adobe Mixamo and Fuse cc. At the moment westdrive is using avatars of our creation using the mentioned tools but due to their complex mesh anatomy, we are replacing them with simpler low poly avatars created by us in Blender soon.

acknowledgment to creators and team assistants

Our acknowledgement goes to the creator of all free and paid assets mentioned above, Adobe, Unity Technologies, and Blenders for their tools as well as the following persons who helped us in creating and maintaining Westdrive

• Phillip Spaniol - a main graphic designer in our team who is creating our new 3d models
• Johannes Maximilian Pingle - helped to comment on part of the codes
• Sumin Kim - helped to comment on part of the codes
• Fabian Radke - working with ANN to convert head-tracking data to eye-tracking data within Westdrive
• Prof. Dr. Peter König - main supervisor of the project
• prof. Dr. Gordon Pipa - second supervisor of the project
• Stahlwerk Stiftung Georgsmarienhütte, University of Osnabrück and Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft for their financial support

Current term of use

You are free to share, change, and use Westdrive in whatever manner you like as long as you accept the following conditions:

• Westdrive is an open-source city simulation for self-driving cars and similar experiments. It is made available for scientists and anyone interested in research in an Virtual environment. Therefore any financial use of this tool is prohibited.

-Assets presented here are mainly free assets from the Unity asset store which can be used in other projects, however, if you plan to use assets that are paid please purchase them for your organization from the Unity asset store. The developing team of Westdrive does not accept any responsibility regarding this matter and we are strictly against piracy.

announcement:

We have started to replace most of the 3d models used in the project with those of our creation. You are free to use assets used by us in any way you desire. However please note that we will soon start to delete paid and third-party assets from the project as we replace them

License

All Documentation content that resides under the doc/ directory of this repository is licensed under Creative Commons: