I'm evolving a game controller framework I created called VirtualGameController (VGC) to support multiplayer ARKit games.
The basic idea:
- User setup steps would be used to position a game arena between two devices/users, hopefully so that it is well-oriented and well-sized - consistent between the two devices..
- An appropriate example game would be tennis or hockey
- VGC would be used to exchange the game control activity of each user with the other device. That is, each device would transmit controller activity to the other device, and each device would combine the two controllers (remote and local) in driving the game play.
- The game itself would play on each device so that, for example, each game control action would consistently trigger the same game physics on each device. The worlds displayed on each device should always be in sync, creating the illusion that the users are inhabiting a single game space.
- Games that have deterministic game play, with no randomness, would be suitable for this framework.
- Both devices would need to represent the game arena coordinates in a common, proportial coordinate system to accomodate different sized screens
- I anticipate controller lag of around 40 ms but have not tested this extensively - that would need to be considered in the type of game this framework is used for.
I'd love to get feedback on the idea.
The functionality is mostly in place and I need a good ARKit app to prove out the usefulness of the framework. I've struggled to create something as well as adapting one of the Apple sample apps but I've struggled with it. If you'd be willing to help me by putting together a simple sample app, perhaps in SceneKit or Spritekit, that is suited to the above constraints and that will test the ability of the approach, that would be super-helpful. Something with a lot of virtual balls getting knocked around by two users would be perfect, since the final end-state of all the balls would provide a good indication if the devices have been kept in sync.
The version of VGC on GitHub does NOT include the ARKit-related functionality yet. I can share a working copy as appropriate if you want to work on this project with me.
Please feel free to comment here or contact me via e-mail at virtualgamecontroller@gmail.com
