Modification of Project Westdrive's original "AVAS" VR city ride to assess self-driving car acceptance using VR by Farbod Nosrat Nezami and Maximilian A. Wächter.
This optimized modification allows simultaneous recording of head-tracking and eye-tracking (using the HTC Vive Pro HMD), and EEG data while performing the experimental task. This simultaneous recording of data is achieved using LSL (LabStreamingLayer).
All this work would not have been possible without the help of my colleague Debora Nolte.
For better ease of use, we have divided the project into two separate repositories, one containing 3d assets and a model called Westdrive Assets Foundation and the other for functionalities of Westdrive which is called Westdrive Core. One can use these two repositories combined or separately to create their simulation outside the scope of scenarios existing in this version of Westdrive.
you can find the Westdrive Assets Foundation here: https://gitlab.com/farbod69/westdrive-asset-foundation and Westdrive Core here : https://gitlab.com/farbod69/westdrive-core
- Intel Core i7 7th Generation
- 16 GB RAM
- Geforce GTX 1070Ti
- Operating System: Windows 10 home
- Intel Core i7/i9 8th Generation or newer
- 16 GB RAM
- Geforce GTX 1080Ti or better
- Operating System: Windows 10 home
Project Westdrive has been developed and tested on the following hardwares:
System 1:
System 2:
- You need only the latest Nvidia drivers and Steam VR
- the project has been tested on Nvidia 2080 Ti but should work with the minimum of GTX 1070
- This version includes a connection to a web-based questionnaire. Since in this release, the questionnaire is not included. that part will be skipped.
- the current version is based on the German language. This can easily be changed by changing the language to "ENG" in the config.ini file however part of the embedded audios for this release is only in German.
Note: The executable release is meant to be a showcase of Westdrive capabilities. Westdrive is meant to be customized and built for your specific needs. So we recommend you to download the code and build it yourself after implementing your own scenarios.
Note: We still consider Westdrive in the beta phase, we are using it at its current state to gather data for our project, yet we are constantly working on the code to improve its stability and add new functionalities.
you can download the standalone version here
in the following section, it explains how you can clone and improve the project for build and development inside Unity environment.
please download the corresponding version Unity and install it on your machine. It is highly recommended to download and install Unity through Unity Hub. It is easier to manage various installations of Unity when using Unity Hub. You can find more information on Unity Hub here.
Please always make sure you are using the unity version mentioned here to ensure the correct build and functionality of Westdrive.
First, make sure you have installed a git client on your machine. If you need one you can find many of them online. Alternatively, you can just download and install the official GitHub client for Microsoft Windows.
If you just want to use Project Westdrive you can alternatively download the project as an archive file (see below), however, to contribute to the project or make your forks you will need a GitLab account.
| Subject | Link | comments |
|---|---|---|
| Project Overview | Westdrive project overview | including build process and configurations |
| City AI Overview | Westdrive City AI part 1 | City AI toolkit overview, creating paths |
| City AI make a dynamic object | Westdrive City AI part 2 | preparing cars and making dynamic objects using City AI toolkit |
| Generic API | Westdrive generic API | Serialization, Traking, IO and Net |
in the following section, all used assets with their links in the unity asset store, with their corresponding functionality are listed.
Assets are separated in tagged with paid and free, and also essential or optional.
If you plan to use the paid assets in other projects, please make sure you purchase them for your organization in the Unity asset store
Optional assets are usually 3d assets that can be replaced by your designs or other 3d models.
| Asset Name | Link on Asset Store | Description | Paid / Free | Essential / Optional |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SteamVR | SteamVR Plugin | main api to use HTV Vive/ Vive Pro HMDs in Unity3d | free |  |
| *MeshKit | MeshKit - Mesh Decimation, Separation, Combining and Editing Tools | used to simplify and combine mesh structures in the project | paid |  |
| Book Of The Dead | Book Of The Dead: Environment | published by Unity Technologies, trees and nature 3d models are used in city environment | free | |
| **SUV03 | Unlock Sport Utility Vehicle 03 | one of the car assets used in the project | paid | |
| **EC02 | Unlock economy car #02 | one of the car assets used in the project | paid | |
| **EC03 | Unlock economy car #03 | one of the car assets used in the project | paid | |
| **SS07 | Unlock super sport car #07 | one of the car assets used in the project | paid | |
| **EC01 | Unlock economy car #01 | one of the car assets used in the project | paid | |
| **SS05 | Unlock super sport car #05 | one of the car assets used in the project | paid | |
| **SC05SI | Unlock sport car #05 SI | one of the car assets used in the project | paid | |
| **SC05 | Unlock economy car #05 | one of the car assets used in the project | paid | |
| +SALSA With RandomEyes | Deprecated | used to synconase taxi driver lips and voice | Paid |  |
| Truck | Single Detailed Truck | detailed truck with trailer | free | |
| Tocus | 3D Low Poly Car For Games (Tocus) | one of the assets used as parked cars | free | |
| low poly car 1 | Low Poly Destructible 2 Cars no. 8 | one the assets used as parked cars | free | |
| **European Buildings | European Building Collection Volume 1 | part of buildings in the city | paid | |
| **City building set | City Building Set 1 | part of buildings in the city | paid | |
| Tractor | Farm Machinery: Low Poly Tractor and Planter | tracktor has been used in the city | free | |
| Sport Car | Sport Car - 3D model | used as parked car in the city | free | |
| GR3D | GR3D Sports Utility Vehicle SUV 091614SSUV | used as parked car in the city | free | |
| Low Poly Street Pack | Low Poly Street Pack | used for city street and construction sites | free | |
| Nature Starter Kit 2 | Nature Starter Kit 2 | used for nature of city alongside book of the dead assets | free | |
| Free HDR Sky | Free HDR Sky | used as the skybox of the city | free | |
| Town Houses | Town Houses Pack | part of city buildings | free | |
This asset is used once and will be deleted once the city is updated with our assets but will be in use for the next year.
These assets are part of the city now but they will be replaced with the assets created by our team during next year and will be deleted from our repository then
This asset is deprecated, we have deleted its functionality since it was not visible in VR and replaced it with normal audio output from the Taxi driver. This asset will be removed from our repository on our next commit.
Avatars and animations in Westdrive are created by us using Adobe Mixamo and Fuse cc. At the moment westdrive is using avatars of our creation using the mentioned tools but due to their complex mesh anatomy, we are replacing them with simpler low poly avatars created by us in Blender soon.
Our acknowledgement goes to the creator of all free and paid assets mentioned above, Adobe, Unity Technologies, and Blenders for their tools as well as the following persons who helped us in creating and maintaining Westdrive
- Phillip Spaniol - a main graphic designer in our team who is creating our new 3d models
- Johannes Maximilian Pingle - helped to comment on part of the codes
- Sumin Kim - helped to comment on part of the codes
- Fabian Radke - working with ANN to convert head-tracking data to eye-tracking data within Westdrive
- Prof. Dr. Peter König - main supervisor of the project
- prof. Dr. Gordon Pipa - second supervisor of the project
- Stahlwerk Stiftung Georgsmarienhütte, University of Osnabrück and Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft for their financial support
You are free to share, change, and use Westdrive in whatever manner you like as long as you accept the following conditions:
- Westdrive is an open-source city simulation for self-driving cars and similar experiments. It is made available for scientists and anyone interested in research in an Virtual environment. Therefore any financial use of this tool is prohibited.
-Assets presented here are mainly free assets from the Unity asset store which can be used in other projects, however, if you plan to use assets that are paid please purchase them for your organization from the Unity asset store. The developing team of Westdrive does not accept any responsibility regarding this matter and we are strictly against piracy.
We have started to replace most of the 3d models used in the project with those of our creation. You are free to use assets used by us in any way you desire. However please note that we will soon start to delete paid and third-party assets from the project as we replace them
All Documentation content that resides under the doc/ directory of this repository is licensed under Creative Commons:
