Gaming on large displays is something I really want to experience. Just imagine to play a strategy game with your friend on a wall-sized display with the entire map visible, or a fighting game with characters of your size, or a jump and run game with enormously large levels. This should be an incredible feeling which is totally different in comparison to common desktop experience. That is why I am so excited seeing research in this direction. This is a brief overview of the games for large, high-resolution displays I have seen so far.
Pac-Many
Pac-Many is a collaborative Pac-man game developed for a ca. 4-meters wide and 1-meter tall display with a total resolution of approximately 50 megapixels. It was implemented using node.js and system.io. To control their characters, players can use smartphones with a special application on it. This solution allows players to navigate freely in front of the display. The designed maze contains over 70K tiles and more than 36K Pac-Dots to eat. Just imagine how awesome it is.
Want to know more? Read the Paper!
Miners
Miners is a collaborative (lemmings-like) game for a touch-sensitive display wall. Four players have to cooperate to rescue workers trapped in a cave. Each player has its own role and tool to influence the game world. One player can build bridges, another player can build ladders, the third has a pickaxe to remove obstacles, and the last can place lights. The interaction with the display is bi-manual. The player has to use one hand to put and hold a tangible on the display in order to identify himself to the system. With the other hand, the player can execute an action assigned to his role (e.g. build a bridge block).
Miners was implemented using Python and media application framework libavg. It runs on a display wall of 5×2 meters with a total resolution of 24 megapixels.
Want to know more? Read the Paper!
PyBomber
PyBomber is a collaborative Bomberman-like game. It has two modes 4-player mode and 12-players mode! The players can control their characters using Wiimote controllers. The game is running on a wall display with a total resolution of 96 megapixels.
Want to know more? Read the Paper!
Of course, all these games were developed for research purposes only. They are not in the free access, and there is still plenty of work to do to get this kind of games into mass production. Nevertheless, I hope one day I can play such a game!