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Game Input with Delay—Moving Target Selection with a Game Controller Thumbstick

Published:27 June 2018Publication History
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Abstract

Hosting interactive video-based services, such as computer games, in the Cloud poses particular challenges given user sensitivity to delay. A better understanding of the impact of delay on player-game interactions can help design cloud systems and games that accommodate delays inherent in cloud systems. Previous top-down studies of delay using full-featured games have helped understand the impact of delay, but often do not generalize or lend themselves to analytic modeling. Bottom-up studies isolating user input and delay can better generalize and be used in models, but have yet to be applied to cloud-hosted computer games. In order to better understand delay impact in cloud-hosted computer games, we conduct a large bottom-up user study centered on a fundamental game interaction—selecting a moving target with user input impeded by delay. Our work builds a custom game that controls both the target speed and input delay and has players select the target using a game controller analog thumbstick. Analysis of data from over 50 users shows target selection time exponentially increases with delay and target speed and is well-fit by an exponential model that includes a delay and target speed interaction term. A comparison with two previous studies, both using a mouse instead of a thumbstick, suggests the model’s relationship between selection time, delay, and target speed holds more broadly, providing a foundation for a potential law explaining moving target selection with delay encountered in cloud-hosted games.

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          • Published in

            cover image ACM Transactions on Multimedia Computing, Communications, and Applications
            ACM Transactions on Multimedia Computing, Communications, and Applications  Volume 14, Issue 3s
            Special Section on Delay-Sensitive Video Computing in the Cloud and Special Section on Extended MMSys-NOSSDAV Best Papers
            June 2018
            317 pages
            ISSN:1551-6857
            EISSN:1551-6865
            DOI:10.1145/3233173
            Issue’s Table of Contents

            Copyright © 2018 ACM

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            Association for Computing Machinery

            New York, NY, United States

            Publication History

            • Published: 27 June 2018
            • Accepted: 1 January 2018
            • Revised: 1 November 2017
            • Received: 1 August 2017
            Published in tomm Volume 14, Issue 3s

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