2018-04-10 22:38:04

http://accessiblerealities.com/blog/acc … ow-vision/

2018-04-11 03:28:43

hmm. the video is mono though...

2018-04-11 09:34:17

Hi,

I submitted a request to alpha test the library as a gamer, would be very awsome

@ianhamilton,

definately a thumbs up for this one, thanks for letting us know.

Greetz mike

Visit the following website to see what games we have:
http://www.nonvisiongames.com
Or the following English marketplace to see what retrogames and game merchandise I am selling:
https://www.retro-kingdom.com

2018-04-11 10:09:36

Hi ian.
Wow.
So this is what you have been leading up to.
I can't wait to see what this is doing.
The only issue with tactical battle was the memmory leak with large units sizes but even so I do wander

2018-04-11 10:25:32

brilliant, brilliant, brilliant
This is what we need. This is what we needed for a very long time. oh my goodness I can't believe this. amazing job.
@ian, how can i contact you?

twitter: @hadirezae3
discord: Hadi

2018-04-11 12:39:13

@4:
Wrong Ian. smile saw this on twitter earlier, will definitely be signing up

2018-04-11 16:34:50

hi, I can definitely see the promis in this library. I can't really see it being used for complex, detailed fast paced games with many different objects on the screen at once, but for things like adventure games or slower, turn based games it might be all you'd need. It worked pretty well for the platforming thing, which does sound like a fast game, but then again the reason that probably worked so well was because there aren't that many things happening. Still, this sounds like a great project and I've also signed up to be an alpha tester.

I used to be a knee like you, then I took an adventurer in the arrow.

2018-04-11 17:09:43

I definitely se potential in this, though maybe not necessarily in the types of games I would play like fast paced fighting games or action games like Samurai Warriors 4. But in an action adventure series like Yakuza, I could see this going miles towrds making the games playable... if only they were on pc! Definitely interested in joining testing!

Discord: clemchowder633

2018-04-11 21:41:04 (edited by ianhamilton_ 2018-04-12 11:46:35)

hadi.gsf you can get me on @ianhamilton_ or [email protected], are you sure you have the right person though?

crashmaster looks like you have me muddled with Ian Reed from A Hero's Call. Apparently Ian isn't a very common name in the USA smile

jasonblaze i don't know for definite but it looks like the in-game audio is mono anyway. So rather than communicating spatial information through audio, it communicates it through speech.

if you want stereo / spatial audio that's the kind of feedback that would be great to send over to the developer

2018-04-12 08:06:15

Hi.
Wow. Sounds fantastic. I can't wait to see what it turns into, and if it is something developers wanna implement in their games.

Best regards SLJ.
Feel free to contact me privately if you have something in mind. If you do so, then please send me a mail instead of using the private message on the forum, since I don't check those very often.
Facebook: https://facebook.com/sorenjensen1988
Twitter: https://twitter.com/soerenjensen

2018-04-12 11:39:02

I really like your real world demo would love to test this out further using android.

Bitcoin Address:
1MeNca7h6m8du4TV3psN4m4X666p6Y36u5m

2018-04-12 11:47:10 (edited by ianhamilton_ 2018-04-12 11:47:39)

SLJ what it becomes is up to you, they're looking for testers smile

hurseth405 it isn't mine, I'm just sharing the post here. please get in touch with him via the contact details in the article.

2018-04-13 01:10:16

update! it is not mono, that was just a problem with the videos. here's a video clip that is not in mono, showing that it does indeed use spatialised audio, in conjunction with the spoken cues.

the visual content of the video is a car driving towards a destination, with pins to either side of the destination representing enemy cars. at one point while the destination is far away and multiple enemies are on screen the car stops and the scan command is triggered, making it read out the screen contents in speech + stereo. Then the car drives forward a bit more so that the destination is closer and only a couple of enemies are on the screen, and the scan command is triggered again.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EN4Fcgk … e=youtu.be

2018-04-13 07:14:30

Hi everyone,

My name is Zohar. I'm the person behind Accessible Realities and available here for your feedback.

First, I wanted to say big thank you for all the encouraging comments! It really means a lot to me!!

Some background on the project: this social impact project was a challenge I took upon myself, working on it full time for a year using my own savings. After many years in the high tech industry I decided to take time to contribute to the community via this project.

The goal of this library is to help developers make video games and VR, AR, MR accessible for people who are blind or have low vision. It supports Unreal Engine 4 and is in Alpha stage. A year later, I am now sharing via the blog post and videos what the Accessible Realities library can do and ask for your valuable feedback.

Thanks a lot again for your comments.

@ianhamilton_ thanks for posting the blog link and clarifying the mono\spatial audio issue (sorry about that, was a temporary problem with the videos) and of course thanks for all your feedback and great online resources I have used during this year.

@JasonBlaze please see above post from @ianhamilton_ regarding mono clarification. After a very interesting Twitter discussion earlier today with the audio experts of Unreal Engine (they are so nice and helpful) looks like I can do even more with audio to support better spatial audio - stay tuned :)

@pelantas thanks a lot for your Alpha request and for your kind words!

@crashmaster thanks a lot for your feedback :) I'm not sure I understood the memory issue, if you could elaborate that would be great.

@hadi.gsf I'm so happy you like it, this is why I created it.

@cj89 great! thank you!

@connor142 thanks for signing up for Alpha and for the feedback. I agree with you that at least for now, complex, detailed fast paced games with many different objects on the screen at once are not the immediate candidate games for the library. I have quite a few ideas for these as well, but first I want to focus on simpler games, get feedback from both developers and testers and then move on gradually to more complex environments.

@assault_freak great feedback, thank you very much!

@SLJ thank you very much, I'm so glad that you like it and see its potential.

@hurstseth405 joining the Alpha would be great. I think I saw your comment on the blog asking to join, thanks.

I hope I didn't miss any comment (if so, please let me know).
Keep up the comments and feedback. It is very encouraging for me to read them, listen to you and improve the library.

Best regards,
Zohar

2018-04-13 08:17:49

Hi Zohar. It's really great to see you here on the forum.
I'm quite busy with my job, but I would like to join the testing and help where I can. Does Accessible realities only works in games on the pc, or would it also work on games on consoles as well?

Best regards SLJ.
Feel free to contact me privately if you have something in mind. If you do so, then please send me a mail instead of using the private message on the forum, since I don't check those very often.
Facebook: https://facebook.com/sorenjensen1988
Twitter: https://twitter.com/soerenjensen

2018-04-13 08:40:37 (edited by hadi.gsf 2018-04-13 08:41:59)

@ianhamilton_ don't worry i'm not mixing you up with anyone. i just want to have your contact details because it'll be great if we work as a group if something comes up, I could ask you advice and we can collaborate and all. afterall we're looking for the same thing, video game accessibility, and  it's best to join efforts to make it happen.

@AccessibleRealities
i've got a question.
Can your accessibility software library be included in a big game that is already in development? what i'm saying is, is it possible to  put this in a game without the need of  rewriting the game or anything like that? sorry this  is a noob question but i'm not very technical with this stuff.
I happen to know a fps game in development with unreal engine 4. it is in alpha status but it has thousands of players. But because of how the game is (which i'll describe later), It's possible that the devs  would  help us, but them helping must not cause any trouble for the gamers that are already playing the game.

twitter: @hadirezae3
discord: Hadi

2018-04-13 08:46:54

Hi @SLJ and thank you for the warm welcome.

Joining the Alpha would be great. I think I still can't post links yet as I'm new in the forum so what you can do is: the first post in this thread includes a link to the blog post describing the library. The Alpha form link is a link using the words 'online form'. The form is a Google Form so should be accessible.

The blog post is quite long but I recommend to check out at least some of it like the initial summary, the videos, the Future section etc.

Regarding platforms, then I'm currently focused on PC as triggering the many features of the library is very easy using keyboard commands. In addition, it is also easier for me to test it first on a PC. I prefer to go very gradually step by step, start with a thorough test on PC first and later expand.

2018-04-13 10:50:25 (edited by AccessibleRealities 2018-04-13 10:51:40)

@hadi.gsf thanks a lot for coming up with an option for a game candidate for the Alpha.
The integration of the library with a game is quite straightforward. Nevertheless, for the purpose of the upcoming Alpha test I think that starting with a FPS with thousands of existing players would not be the best move. I prefer to start with something less complex initially (maybe a single player, PC, less fast paced game) and once it works great then expand. The Alpha would need to verify multiple things such as user experience that as far as know is new in the market, coordinating with a new group of Alpha testers (blind and low vision) and things like good performance to name just a few. I hope that such a gradual approach makes sense. Thanks again for your comment!

2018-04-13 18:51:30

Here's the direct link to the alpha form - https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIp … form?hl=en

2018-04-13 18:53:04

@hadi.gsf great, I'm often confused with Ian Reed on these forums, I assume there are people who aren't used to seeing the name Ian smile

2018-04-14 14:22:21

oops, sorry if I sounded harsh on my last post, but yeah, I am with everyone here, really looking forward for this big_smile

2018-04-15 04:15:07

I've already signed up to be a beta tester as a gamer and I truly hope that I get selected. I would absolutely love nothing more than to test this system out. Just imagine all of the future games we'll be able to play with this if developers take advantage of it. Eve online? the sims? cities skylines maybe? and who's to say that it should cease at only the unreal engine. Who's to say that other developers won't make this thing compatible with other game development engines like unity or even the others out there. What a wonderful open door right in front of us.

2018-04-15 08:00:50

@JasonBlaze no problem at all, I'm glad I was able to clarify this feature. Thanks for your encouraging words!

2018-04-15 08:13:42

@karate25 Thanks for your comments and for signing up for the alpha. With regard to accessibility solutions that are not tied to a specific game engine (whether this library or others like Epic Games' colorblind features or Unity UI Accessibility Plugin) I strongly support that. I personally think it should be defined as part of an industry standard (for example: OpenXR). Specific solutions and features could be thoroughly tested until the community is fully satisfied with how they function and perform and then they could be implemented across platforms. Here is the relevant paragraph from the Future section in my blog post which I think is relevant:

"It would be a great advancement for accessibility in games and XR if the game engines themselves would provide built-in accessibility features like colorblind modes, text to speech, accessible subtitles library, accessible UI components etc. Hopefully, the new colorblind mode from Epic Games which got a lot of excited comments is a good sign for things to come. And even better would be to develop a standard, for example an addition to OpenXR standard that would handle accessibility in the same way for all major game engines and platforms. Personally, I would be more than happy to contribute to either Epic Game’s Unreal Engine directly (via a coordinated Pull Request) or to work with many others, more capable than me, towards designing and implementing a standard accessibility solution."

2018-04-15 14:10:16

Not a fan of epic including colourblindness filters, colorblindness is not something that should be passed over to engines. Different games need different solutions, and filters should be a last resort not a first port of call.

But there's certainly plenty of potential for accessibility functionality at engine level. Remapping, subtitle presentation, text to speech etc.