Iterations of an Open-Source 3D Game Engine: Multiplayer Environments for Learners

Brett Shelton, Marco Alvarez, Michael Capell, Chad Coats, Jon Scoresby and Tim Stowell

Abstract

As virtual 3D environments become more common in education, it is important to pay attention to and learn from the experiences that take place during the development of these environments. A team made up of graduate, undergraduate, and recently graduated students, took a conglomeration of open- source libraries and glued them together to create 3D simulation called HEAT (Hazard Emergency and Accident Training). The development team has gone through many iterations during the development of HEAT, while learning what it takes to build a fully functional simulation and 3D engine. We discuss the experiences and some of the processes the development team has gone through to create HEAT, the 3D engine, and the separation of the two for a more general use for other simulations. We discuss some of the benefits and challenges recognized during this experience.