Scenior: An Immersive Visual Scripting system based on VR Software Design Patterns for Experiential Training

TL;DR

Scenior introduces a visual scripting and VR editing platform for rapid, code-free creation and modification of immersive VR training scenarios, utilizing new design patterns and a modular scenegraph architecture.

Contribution

The paper presents a novel, code-free visual scripting system and VR editor for experiential training, along with new software design patterns and a modular scenegraph architecture.

Findings

Users of varying expertise can effectively create and modify VR training scenarios.

The visual scripting tool enables rapid prototyping of training applications.

The proposed system enhances flexibility and adaptability in VR training scenario development.

Abstract

Virtual reality (VR) has re-emerged as a low-cost, highly accessible consumer product, and training on simulators is rapidly becoming standard in many industrial sectors. However, the available systems are either focusing on gaming context, featuring limited capabilities or they support only content creation of virtual environments without any rapid prototyping and modification. In this project, we propose a code-free, visual scripting platform to replicate gamified training scenarios through rapid prototyping and VR software design patterns. We implemented and compared two authoring tools: a) visual scripting and b) VR editor for the rapid reconstruction of VR training scenarios. Our visual scripting module is capable to generate training applications utilizing a node-based scripting system whereas the VR editor gives user/developer the ability to customize and populate new VR training scenarios directly from the virtual environment. We also introduce action prototypes, a new software design pattern suitable to replicate behavioral tasks for VR experiences. In addition, we present the training scenegraph architecture as the main model to represent training scenarios on a modular, dynamic and highly adaptive acyclic graph based on a structured educational curriculum. Finally, a user-based evaluation of the proposed solution indicated that users - regardless of their programming expertise - can effectively use the tools to create and modify training scenarios in VR.