The application was initially developed in the VRI lab at the University of Pretoria for the Department of Mining Engineering in 2019. The goal of the project was to expose students to the underground environment and enable them to identify geotechnical features in this simulated environment.
The application consists of three rooms. The first room teaches the student the basics of tracked VR and the basic controls of the specific application. The second room serves as a “gallery” of sorts to show the student examples of geotechnical features and provide them with simplified environments where these features can be seen.
The third room is where the student gets to choose the different “levels” of the game. These consist of tunnels between 40m to 400m with randomized hazards for the students to identify. This room also has a gamefied version where students can buy different upgrades based on previous performance.
The application was developed by Jason de Andrade. Design was done by Koos de Beer and Jannie Maritz (UP, DOME). The gamified components were design by Yan Wong (UP).
The video below shows an early version of the game shot using mixed reality application Liv
The current version being used by students at the Department of Mining Engineering is shown in the video below.