Advanced Engineering Informatics 25 (2011) 600611

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Advanced Engineering Informatics

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/aei

Designing a BIM-based serious game for re safety evacuation simulations

Uwe Rppel, Kristian Schatz
Institute of Numerical Methods and Informatics in Civil Engineering, Technische Universitt Darmstadt (TUD), Petersenstrae 13, 64287 Darmstadt, Germany

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: This paper presents results of the rst phase of the research project Serious Human Rescue Game at
Available online 30 August 2011 Technische Universitt Darmstadt. It presents a new serious gaming approach based on Building Informa-
tion Modeling (BIM) for the exploration of the effect of building condition on human behavior during the
Keywords: evacuation process. In reality it is impossible to conduct rescue tests in burning buildings to study the
Serious gaming human behavior. Therefore, the current methods of data-collecting for existing evacuation simulation
Game design models have limitations regarding the individual human factors. To overcome these limitations the
Building Information Modeling (BIM)
research hypothesis is that the human behavior can be explored with a serious computer game: The deci-
Fire safety engineering
Evacuation simulation
sions of a person during the game should be comparable to decisions during an extreme situation in the
real world. To verify this hypothesis, this paper introduces a serious gaming approach for analyzing the
human behavior in extreme situations. To implement a serious game, developers generally make use of
3D-modeling software to generate the game content. After this, the game logic needs to be added to the
content with special software development kits for computer games. Every new game scenario has to be
built manually from scratch. This is time-consuming and a great share of modeling work needs to be exe-
cuted twice (e.g., 3D-modeling), at rst by the architect for the parametric building model and the second
time by the game designer for the 3D-game content. The key idea of the presented approach is to use the
capabilities of BIM together with engineering simulations (re, smoke) to build realistic serious game
scenarios in a new and efcient way. This paper presents the rst phase results of the research project
mainly focusing on the conceptual design of the serious game prototype. The validation concept is also
presented. The inter-operability between building information modeling applications and serious gaming
platforms should allow different stakeholders to simulate building-related scenarios in a new, interactive
and efcient way.
2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction new buildings and refurbishments, indicates that in Germany the

During the last decade, the signicance of emergency manage-
ment in public infrastructures has increased due to changed secu-
rity conditions worldwide, which has led to the necessity of
computer-aided emergency assessment process for extreme situa-
tions. Nearly every day natural as well as re disasters or terrorist
attacks are reported in the news and show the importance of mak-
ing the built environment as secure as possible. Especially, in the
eld of Fire Safety Engineering (FSE) engineers have to face many
challenges. The population growth leads to urbanization and re-
sults in mega-cities with densely populated areas. In such areas a
wide spread of building types and ages are present: high-rise
buildings, architectural and historical monuments, airports, rail-
way stations and shopping malls only to address a few standing
side by side. The decreasing number of building permits, counted
by the German Federal Statistical Ofce (DESTATIS) [1] for both,
Corresponding author. Tel.: +49 6151 16 67 45; fax: +49 6151 16 55 52.
E-mail address: schatz@iib.tu-darmstadt.de (K. Schatz).
building stock is slowly being renovated. For this reason, the aver-
age building age is getting increasingly old. Moreover, statistics in
Germany show that the number of deaths due to re and smoke is
re-increasing since 2007 [1]. It is difcult to say whether there is a
correlation between building age and death rate in case of building
re. However, according to interviews we conducted with re
ghters in the context of this research, most of these people died
in older residential buildings. This fact underlines the assumption
that there is deferred maintenance, particularly for re protection,
which prevents the safety level of existing buildings from being as
high as it could be according to the state of the art. The challenge
for civil engineers is no more to build new buildings; whereas
more and more existing buildings are being refurbished and
redeveloped. This new work focus is characterized by uncertainty,
complexity and is conict-ridden. During the re safety design pro-
cess, re safety engineers have to consider a lot of prescriptive
codes. This often results in the use of unnecessarily large safety
factors and overly expensive costs to the building owner in case
of refurbishments. For this reason, necessary refurbishments, espe-
cially to improve the safety level, run the risk of being deferred.

1474-0346/$ - see front matter 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.aei.2011.08.001
 U. Rppel, K. Schatz / Advanced Engineering Informatics 25 (2011) 600611
The next section gives a brief introduction to an alternative to pre-
scriptive codes: the performance-based re protection design.
1.1. Performance-based re protection design
Today, re safety engineers have an alternative to the use of
prescriptive codes. Since a few years ago, a new way to reach re
safety design decisions is just being established: the perfor-
mance-based approach. This process started at the beginning of
the last decade driven by the ISO [2]. Many countries follow this
strategy in redesigning their re safety code systems with two
parallel tracks to include performance-based as well as prescrip-
tive regulations. In the German re safety community a lot of
work is still in progress in this particular eld. With applying
the performance-based approach for re protection design deci-
sions the focus is rather on demonstrating the safe performance
of a building as a whole than meeting the detailed code require-
ments (e.g., height and area limits, re-resistance ratings, egress,
separations). For this purpose, it is important to understand the
performance of the building and the behavior of endangered peo-
ple in this building under re exposure. During a re event struc-
tural systems have to meet different functions (e.g., load-bearing
and barrier). The load-bearing function on the one hand is impor-
tant to avoid the collapse of the structural system, on the other
hand the barrier function has to prevent the expansion of re
and smoke. To provide safe and smoke-free escape routes both
functions must be fullled by the structural system. Johann
et al. [3] describe an approach to integrate performance-based
re protection into the design process for structural framing sys-
tems. Johann et al. mention that it is necessary to integrate theo-
retical knowledge, empirical information, analytical capability
and technology that has been developed by re safety engineers
into the design process. To carry out these tasks re safety engi-
neers make use of computer models and simulations for the
description of expected spread of re and smoke, the safety evac-
uation and the analysis of the overall safe performance of a build-
ing [4]. Especially, to estimate the behavior of endangered people
is an essential purpose for analyzing the safety evacuation of a
building, since the protection of human life is the primary aim
of the performance-based approach. Beyond the peoples behavior
and the corresponding human factors, the rescue mission is inu-
enced by other factors like alarm systems, building elements and
the spread of re and smoke. In particular to map the human fac-
tors onto computer models is a challenge, because each persons
singular behavior is based on individual decisions and parameters
and is not deterministic like the spread of re and smoke, which
can be modeled and simulated based on natural principles. So,
according to Santos and Aguirre [5], for an evacuation simulation,
three analytical dimensions need to be considered: Firstly, the
built environment (physical location), secondly, the management
of this environment (signage, escape routes), and thirdly, social
psychological and social organizational characteristics of the
occupants. Tavares [6] mentioned that an evacuation simulation
model must consider four interactions: occupantsstructure;
occupantsoccupants; occupantsre (in case of re events) and
restructure (for this purpose, a re model should be used).
The next section gives a brief overview of evacuation simulation
with the focus on data-collecting efforts to model the human
behavior.
1.2. Evacuation simulation
As mentioned in Section 1.1, considering the human factors is a
big challenge for re safety engineers in the performance-based
re protection design process. There are different reviews of exist-
ing evacuation models published in the last years [5,7] showing
601
that every modeling approach has its strengths and weaknesses.
The next section focuses on the question of how to collect data
for the human behavior models. Most current evacuation simula-
tion models follow the agent-based approach. An agent is a soft-
ware instance which represents a virtual person during the
simulation runtime. To nd out the human factors scientists use
different methods like interviews, (online) questionnaires, map
exercises, experimentation or the analysis of past emergency situ-
ations using interviews of survivors or CCTV recordings. The focus
of the data-collecting efforts in the past was more to nd out clin-
ical mobility parameters, for example, motion speed or required
space of the people according to their age or gender. These param-
eters were then used for statistical assumptions to describe the
agents movement during the evacuation simulation. Nowadays,
re safety engineers are in agreement that these parameters are
insufcient to describe the complex process of decision making
of people during evacuations and to cover all dimensions of an
evacuation simulation as mentioned in the previous section. These
human factors must be considered in a more holistic manner, espe-
cially regarding the interaction with the actual building status quo.
The results from the Society of Fire Protection Engineers Sur-
vey (SFPE) [8], for example, show that people often come to unex-
pected decisions if they are asked what they would do if they
were exposed to a threatening re. The SFPE survey concludes
that some kind of behavior like ghting the re or trying to gath-
er belongings often results in delays before people decide to evac-
uate. So these delays could lead to dangerous situations, because
re and smoke spread very quickly through a building. Such
behaviors are based on individual decisions and it is not quite
clear why some people decide this way while others decide to
evacuate immediately. Furthermore, the SFPE survey mentions
that human factors, which are based on individual decisions
and risk assessment, should be considered by re safety engineers
to reach better design decisions.
During the research work, several software systems for evacua-
tion simulation were evaluated. As a result, the state of the art
evacuation simulation software buildingEXODUS [9], developed
by the Fire-Safety Engineering Group (FSEG) at the University
Greenwich, UK, was chosen for further consideration. BuildingEX-
ODUS makes use of agent-based modeling and according to the
developers it incorporates a wide range of sociological attributes
and characteristics. These human factors data are collected over
years as a result of different research activities in this eld. Differ-
ent methods, which were documented by various publications,
were used for data acquisition. One example is an online survey
published by Kinsey et al. [10]. In this survey, the scientists of
the FSEG wanted to nd out the key factors, which inuence hu-
man behavior during an evacuation of a high rise building regard-
ing the question to select the lift or the stairways. The Survey
participants were presented with a series of hypothetical situa-
tions and asked how they would behave. Further within the UK
High-Rise Evacuation Evaluation Database (HEED) study [11], sci-
entists make use of interviews to collect and classify the experi-
ences and behaviors of WTC evacuees in a database. The aim of
other research methods is to improve the underlying agent-based
model of buildingEXODUS by integrating waynding processes
[12], the inuence of signage [13] or to introduce a prototype emo-
tion model into an agent based circulation simulation [14]. It is
important to take all of this into account in agent-based simula-
tions, because in reality human behavior in complex environments
is dynamic and xed plans are often changed and adjusted accord-
ing to the persons individual interpretation of the emergent condi-
tions. For the visualization of the simulation results of
buildingEXODUS the add-on vrEXODUS is available. vrEXODUS
can be used to generate 3D visualizations of the evacuation simu-
lations in virtual reality.
602 U. Rppel, K. Schatz / Advanced Engineering Informatics 25 (2011) 600611
As a further result of the analysis of software systems for evac-
uation simulations, the agent-based simulation software FDS+Evac
[15] was chosen as well for further consideration. FDS+Evac is
based on the NIST Fire Dynamics Simulator [16] and uses Smoke-
view for 3D output. For the validation of FDS+Evac an observation
of evacuation drills with video cameras and persons with Radio
Frequency Identication (RFID) tags was documented [17].
The described research work above is only focused on the ef-
forts for collecting data, which can be used to model the human
behavior in evacuation simulation. Yet, a problem with the col-
lected data is the question whether these data are resilient enough
to model the complex human behavior. Santos and Aguirre [5] ar-
gue that appropriate methods for validation of the human behavior
model are not available. So they state that proper validation tools
have to be developed and that multidisciplinary collaboration is
needed. However, according to them, there is one particular aspect
that is missing from computer evacuation models: the ability to
accurately and comprehensively simulate human behavior in re
[5]. Kuligowski and Gwynne [18] have taken up this criticism
and suggest a new approach to model the human behavior in re
evacuation simulations. According to them, current evacuation
models often have the problem that the behavior simulated in
the scenario is actually prescribed by the user (with probabilistic
assumptions based on collected data) rather than predicted by
the model and that the current models are only simulating sepa-
rated behavioral facts. They list the following behavioral facts:
(1) Peoples rst instinct is to feel safe in their environment; (2) People
will engage in information seeking actions; (3) People act rationally
and altruistically; (4) People are likely to engage in preparation activ-
ities before beginning their evacuation response; and (5) People move
to the familiar.
But the problem pointed out by Kuligowski and Gwynne is that
there is little or no understanding why these behaviors occur. Be-
cause of these facts they suggest to develop a complete, compre-
hensive conceptual model concerning human behavior in re
evacuations. Tavares [6] points out that difculties occur, because
re safety engineers did not understand the phenomenon itself as a
whole within all dimensions of an evacuation. However, all this
shows there is need for a new approach to validate existing human
behavior models. To execute this, it is necessary to nd new meth-
ods for analyzing human behavior in extreme building evacuation
situations. With the presented research hypothesis it is assumed
that the use of serious gaming, augmented and virtual reality could
offer new possibilities to solve these problems.
1.3. Virtual reality for re safety application
Advances in the simulation and automation include the use of
technologies such as augmented and virtual reality for a more real-
istic visualization of the planned environment. In a study [19],
Woksepp and Olofsson analyzed the credibility and applicability
of virtual reality (VR) models for design and planning teams and
for the construction site. Within their study a, 3D CAD Model,
which consists of 3D objects with attributes like volume, weight
and material, was manually converted into a VR model. It is docu-
mented in Ref. [19] that the differences in the denition and repre-
sentation of objects in CAD and VR system currently limit a direct
visualization of 3D CAD Models with VR systems. This is the result
of an interoperability bottleneck when passing data between CAD
and VR applications. It has been demonstrated that the respon-
dents who use the VR models at the building site considered them
to be useful and could imagine using them in their daily work par-
ticularly for the handling unfamiliar tasks. The second target group
of this study were design and planning teams. In team meetings
the VR models were used to examine design solutions from the dif-
ferent perspectives and requirements on function, work environ-
ment, and maintenance. It was documented by Woksepp and
Olofsson that the VR models helped to detect clashes between
the different design disciplines that minimized the risk of misinter-
pretation. However, one great advantage they found out was the
increased understanding of the overall design and the multidisci-
plinary consequences of a decision. Several respondents argued
that the use of VR would probably increase in future projects and
that more built-in intelligence in the VR Model would extend
its use in designing, planning and process simulation [19].
However, some concerns are related to the time and expenses
to convert the 3D CAD Model into the VR Model and keep the VR
model up to date. Trenholme and Smith [20] published the idea
of using computer game technology to build virtual worlds in order
to solve this problem and to minimize time effort and expenses in
the complex process of building realistic virtual environments.
They examined and compared different computer game engines
regarding their ability for developing rst-person virtual environ-
ments. Based on this idea, Smith and Trenholme explore the rapid
prototyping of virtual environments with computer game technol-
ogy [21]. A study conducted in this research context documented
that a single developer needed around three weeks for building a
realistic model of a real world building. In such a virtual building
re drill evacuation scenarios could be simulated. One result of a
user study conducted in this context was that participants felt
the simulated environment as realistic so that it can be assumed
that virtual environments can support the training and observation
of re evacuee behaviors in 3D virtual buildings.
1.4. Summary
In the performance-based re protection design process, re
safety engineers make use of computer models and simulations
for the analysis of the overall safe performance of a building. In
particular, considering the human factors for evacuation simula-
tion models is a great challenge. To examine the human factors dif-
ferent methods like interviews of survivors, online questionnaires,
map exercises or experimentations are used. These methods often
cover only singular aspects of human behavior and studies are car-
ried out independent from each other. Another problem is that
interviewees mostly know that they are not in a dangerous situa-
tion and therefore feel no cognitive emergency stress. Thus, this
answering content for a questionnaire is not exactly useful to ana-
lyze human behavior in emergency situations. However, it was
found out that in the FSE community there are some discussions
about the point what human factors are and how they are consid-
ered in evacuation models and what proper solutions to validate
the human behavior model might be. Some human factors are
known, but there is only little understanding why they occur. Espe-
cially, to consider the interactions between occupants and building
structure as well as the question how the destruction due to explo-
sion or building re inuences the egress route and the corre-
sponding decision making have only been under little
examination so far. Real world experimentation cannot be con-
ducted, due to the fact that it is simply too complex, expensive
and dangerous for the participants. Virtual reality technologies
can be used for a more realistic visualization of the parametric
building model and help the design and planning teams to feel
more inside the building and helped them to get a better under-
standing about it. But inside the static VR model the interactive
and dynamic aspects were missing. Hence, a singular VR-Model
is not suitable for putting people inside a 3D-scenario. Computer
game technology can close this gap. But creating realistic game
scenarios is still time-consuming, because of the large amount of
modeling work that is to be executed twice (e.g., 3D-modeling),
at rst by the architect for the parametric building model as part
of the traditional building planning, and the second time by the
 U. Rppel, K. Schatz / Advanced Engineering Informatics 25 (2011) 600611
game artist for the 3D-game content. This indicates that further re-
search work is required: Firstly, to develop an environment for
stimulating the egress feeling, secondly, to use this environment
for empirical studies to nd new methods for analyzing the human
behavior in extreme situations, and thirdly, to use these results to
evaluate existing and - if necessary - to develop new models. The
focus of this paper as a report on research work in progress is on
the rst research part. The research hypothesis to be examined
is: Human evacuation behavior can be explored with a computer
game. To test this hypothesis a serious gaming approach was cho-
sen to research new possibilities to track and observe human
behavior in a controllable virtual environment. The novelty of this
approach is to make use of the capabilities of Building Information
Modeling (BIM) together with engineering simulations (re,
smoke) to bring BIM and serious gaming together in the area of
building safety applications.
2. Approach
To provide new opportunities for analyzing human behavior in
extreme situations, this paper describes the approach of a BIM-
based serious gaming environment for re safety applications.
The aim of the presented research is to achieve better understand-
ing of what actually happens during an extreme situation and how
an endangered person comes to decisions. Specically, the interac-
tion occupant-building structure is of particular interest because
this could not really be investigated by real world experimenta-
tions. To work on this question, the project Serious Human Rescue
Game (SHRG) started at the Technische Universitt Darmstadt in
December 2009. In this project, the Institute for Numerical Meth-
ods and Informatics in Civil Engineering and the Institute of Psy-
chology are working together to research for human factors in
the evacuation process with a serious gaming approach. For this
approach, the building and its occupants are seen as a complex so-
cio-technical system because there are interactions between the
building (technical aspects) and human behavior (social aspects)
which inuence each other in a building re scenario. The technical
aspects like the spread of re and smoke or the structural behavior
of the building can be modeled and simulated based on natural
principles and are more or less deterministic. The realistic behavior
of endangered people - the social aspects - is more difcult to sim-
ulate and is based on individual decisions. For this reason real
people have to slip into the role of these endangered people in-
stead of software agents: but this is not possible in a real environ-
ment (a physical burning building with structural damage).
Therefore, to realize this approach, the challenge is to develop a
realistic and valid serious game for a new kind of immersive, dy-
namic and interactive simulation of building disasters. The as-
sumed benet of using a serious game is to track and observe
human behavior in a controllable environment.
2.1. Serious gaming
The approach of serious gaming combines fun methods and
concepts as well as game technology with other information and
communication technologies (e.g., sensors, computer graphics,
multimedia, articial technology) and sciences (e.g., computer
science, design, psychology, pedagogy) in serious elds of applica-
tions, beyond the pure entertainment use. Serious games are de-
signed for the purpose of solving a task, in this case for the
analysis of the human behavior during the evacuation process. Be-
yond the gaming approach of Trenholme and Smith described in
the previous section [19,20], the market provides other games for
re safety application, mainly to train tactic and strategic skills
of reghters. With these games emergency response teams can
603
prepare themselves for incidents in a virtual environment. Many
incidents can be virtually simulated in dynamic training sessions.
Examples for virtual training systems are RescueSim [23] or Tacti-
cal Command Trainer [22]. The focus of these games is on the train-
ing and teaching aspect. However, no serious game that fullls the
requirements could be identied. Firstly, to provide interfaces for
rapid development of scenarios based on the digital building mod-
el, and secondly, to collect the human behavior data in a satisfying
manner, thus, a new serious game is to be developed. In the next
step international research results around serious gaming have to
be analyzed to nd guidelines for designing such a game.
2.2. Triadic game design
The design approach of the SHRG follows the approach of Tri-
adic Game Design (TGD) introduced by Harteveld [24]. This ap-
proach specically focuses on the development of computer
games with serious purpose. According to Harteveld, the approach
of Triadic Game Design involves a triad consisting of the interde-
pendent worlds of reality, meaning, and play that has to be bal-
anced out during the design process. In Fig. 1 these main
components are presented with explaining information. Harte-
velds approach of TGD is based on the two design paradigm Con-
current Design and Iterative Design. This means that rstly, in
order to nd an optimum the three worlds should be considered
at the same time within critical parts of the design process (Con-
current Design), and secondly, a repeated cycle of prototyping,
testing, evaluating, and redesigning continues until the require-
ments for the three worlds are met (Iterative Design).
2.2.1. World of reality
This world deals with the question how the game is connected
to the physical world. This model depends highly on the type of
game and how elaborate, realistic, and valid this model needs to
be. Therefore, domain-specic knowledge from the thematic back-
ground of the game is required.
The challenges for developing the model of reality for the SHRG
are rstly, to model this based on parametric building objects
(geometry, structure and further technical semantic out of real
building designs), and secondly, to enhance the model with an
authentic simulation of the emergency scenario (e.g., re, smoke,
explosion). To make sure that the model is valid underlining
the serious of serious gaming it is essential that the simulations
are comparable to state of the art re safety engineering simula-
tions. This must be considered while creating the world of reality
for the SHRG. At this point in the design process domain-specic
knowledge especially from the eld of civil and re safety engi-
neering is required. One possibility is to retrieve this knowledge
from the Building Information Modeling (BIM) process by using
it as a knowledge repository. Meadati and Irizarry introduced
how BIM can be used as a knowledge repository for a learning
environment [25]. So it is assumed that BIM can also be used as
a knowledge repository for a gaming environment. During the
BIM process the focus is on data management of a semantical prod-
uct model of a building. Building elements are represented as 3D
objects with additional semantical information. BIM software tools
can provide an easy access to the information, visualization, and
simulation capabilities of the digital building model. Special infor-
mation regarding re protection like the Building Information
Model-Fire Protection (BIM.FIRE) developed at the IIB [26,27]
could be integrated in this process.
2.2.2. World of meaning
The world of meaning focuses on the type of value that needs to
be achieved. This is to be considered from a whole set of different
disciplines and criteria. Harteveld [24] uses a frequently applied
604 U. Rppel, K. Schatz / Advanced Engineering Informatics 25 (2011) 600611
Fig. 1. Triadic game design according to Hartveld [24].
distinction in knowledge, skills, attitudes, and assessment, data-
collection, exploration, and theory testing. So the question was:
What are the values the SHRG needs to have? These values can
be subdivided in values for the player and values for the obser-
ver/developer. The player should be able to acquire some knowl-
edge about the emergency scenarios and how elements interact
with each other. The SHRG can be seen as a method or tool to ac-
quire knowledge about emergency scenarios. To achieve this value
a valid model (see Section 2.2.1) for emergency scenarios is re-
quired. By immersing into this emergency scenario players achieve
understanding of what happens during that moment. Another va-
lue the player should achieve is to train skills which helps to sur-
vive a catastrophe by applying the knowledge about emergency
scenarios. An example here is to connect real equipment like a re
extinguisher to the serious game environment as a Human Inter-
face Device (HID). Another aspect that has to be considered in
the world of meaning is a persons predisposition to respond in sit-
uations of the emergency scenario. These responses are often based
on feelings, emotions and individual experience. Especially in
emergency scenarios these feelings (e.g., fear, panic) have to be ta-
ken into account. Another value can be seen as more useful for the
observer/developer of the game. Such a serious game can provide
possibilities for assessment, data-collection, exploration, and the-
ory-testing. A safe environment like a serious game could be an
appropriate place to evaluate the behavior of people during emer-
gency situation. If the structural damage could be properly simu-
lated in the game scenario, it could be possible to assess the
players reaction when the chosen egress route is blocked by debris
or locked doors. While playing such a game, data could be collected
(1) about the viewing direction, (2) at which virtual objects the
player looks, and (3) in which directions he decides to move. It is
also possible to record biometrical data of the player like heart rate
or brain activity at the same time. Directly after the game session
additional data could be collected by a questionnaire. This col-
lected data could be useful for achieving better understanding of
how the structural status quo inuences the decision making pro-
cess. For exploration it should be possible to change some aspects
in the emergency scenario. It is assumed that by comparing the dif-
ferent sessions with similar and different conditions, special as-
pects of an emergency scenario could be explored. Related to
exploration is theory testing, for example, whether the modeled
evacuation design motions based on theories, assumptions, and
empirical studies are working well. The game becomes an experi-
ment. So it should be possible for the researchers to be able to
play with variables in the SHRG. Some supposable examples
for these variables are the inuence of alarm-sounds and emer-
gency lightings.
2.2.3. World of play
One important thing to keep in mind for the design concept of
the SHRG is the type of game and in which genres it can be classi-
ed. Harteveld lists seven genres: action, adventure, puzzle, role-
playing, simulation, strategy, and virtual world games. The concept
of the SHRG follows a mix of action and simulation game. Accord-
ing to Hartveld, the characteristics of an action game, for example,
are that they do not have a long learning curve, they are fast-paced
and the amount of the avatars life-energy is limited. A simulation
game needs to stay close to reality and no predened story exists
(the online simulation results dene the story). In the following
step aspects regarding the game concept have to be discussed.
For the game concept the question what objectives players have
to achieve, and with what gameplay a player can reach these
 U. Rppel, K. Schatz / Advanced Engineering Informatics 25 (2011) 600611 605

objectives needs to be considered. The following will take up a re
scenario as one possible scenario of a building disaster. In this vir-
tual re scenario a gamer plays an avatar with a special amount of
vitality. The main objective for the gamer is to guide his avatar
through the virtual world to a secure area before his vitality de-
creases until zero. Optional objectives could be that he safes as
much vitality as possible or that he has to nd the quickest way
to a secure area. So, one requirement is that the information which
inuences the life-energy and the sense of orientation of a person
in case of re (e.g., heat, smoke, toxic gas), could be provided in the
re scenario. Another requirement is that it should be possible for
the avatar to move through the virtual building and handle objects
in the same way as in a real building (e.g., pass doors if they are not
locked or handle virtual equipment). The following section pre-
sents the use-cases assigned to the three worlds based on the ideas
and thoughts in this section.
2.3. SHRG design concept
During the design process, designers have to be equally con-
cerned about these three worlds to balance out the game. Follow-
ing the TGD approach, which is creating a model of reality, value
proposal, and game concept, it is useful to know what use-cases
occur, which people are involved and how they can be mixed
and put together to get a balanced game. These use-cases are
shown in Fig. 2 regarding the three worlds and their relevance

Fig. 2. Use-cases assigned to the three worlds (following Ref. [24]).

Fig. 3. Iterative design paradigm (according to Ref. [28]).

606 U. Rppel, K. Schatz / Advanced Engineering Informatics 25 (2011) 600611
for the SHRG design concept. As presented in the gure the in-
volved persons and their activities within the concept of the three
worlds are described.
The dened use-cases help to gure out the concurrent parts of
the SHRG concept. Now the focus is rather on the iterative part of
the approach. According to Schreiber [28] several iterative steps
need to be conducted. These steps are presented in Fig. 3. It starts
with making an observation by pointing out the problem and
developing a hypothesis (planning). Then the requirements have
to be described. As a next step, existing models, methods and tools
have to be analyzed and if necessary new models, methods and
tools have to be designed. Then the implementation phase of the
gaming software environment follows. When the software envi-
ronment is working then it is necessary to create experiments to
prove or disprove the hypothesis. Next step ahead is the execution
of the experiments (testing) and the interpretation of the results
(evaluation). If the evaluation is not satisfying, the next cycle
starts. Otherwise the serious gaming environment is completed.
The current stage of the presented research project is executed
with planning, requirements, analysis, and design is up to the
implementation stage during the rst cycle. Thus, as a result of
the research work up to now the technical aspects in developing
the game engine for the SHRG are presented in Section 3. Section
4 introduces the validation concept, planned to test and evaluate
the SHRG.
3. BIM-based serious gaming environment
Based on the concept described in the previous section, this sec-
tion gives a brief overview of the current state of development. It
starts with the description of the hardware system, the Darmstadt
CES-Lab, followed by an introduction to the software system, the
BIM-game engine.
Fig. 4. Existing and planned features of the Darmstadt CES-Lab.
3.1. Darmstadt CES-lab
A suitable hardware for the serious gaming environment is a
virtual reality lab like the Darmstadt Civil, Environmental and
Safety Engineering Lab (CES-Lab), which is established at the Insti-
tute of Numerical Methods and Informatics in Civil Engineering at
Technische Universitt Darmstadt (IIB).
The Darmstadt CES-Lab comes with an efcient virtual environ-
ment in the sense of an immersive system. It is assumed that the
immersion experience provided by this system will improve the
presence of the gamer inside the computer game. Generally, virtual
environments vary greatly in the quality of representing the real
world. It is plausible to assume that the more accurate and richly
detailed the real-world is mapped in the virtual-world as well as
senses can be stimulated, the more the immersion effect in a vir-
tual environment will increase. To test these assumptions, scien-
tists form the Institute of Psychology are currently conducting
several studies regarding active stereo capabilities, sound effects
and human interface devices (HID) in the context of the SHRG pro-
ject to nd optimal hardware settings. A selected number of the
existing and planned features are shown in Fig. 4: The main sense
areas to be considered are hearing, touching, smell, tasting, and
sight. In order to approximate the visual stimulus conditions, a
visualization technique is used which allows the display of stereo-
scopic 3D-information. In order to minimize unrealistic behavior in
the virtual world, the gamer should have the feeling to actually be
physically inside the virtual world. Playing computer-games, ga-
mers often tend to make unrealistic decisions due to lack of phys-
ical pain and injury responses from the virtual world. This is
known in military training as the super-soldier syndrome
[29,30]. The use of heating jackets, radiators, treadmills, and other
devices intended to ensure that gamers do not consider themselves
to be invulnerable super-evacuees. Beyond that, the realism of a
 U. Rppel, K. Schatz / Advanced Engineering Informatics 25 (2011) 600611
virtual environment is also inuenced by the design of the audio
component (surround sound) and sound effects (e.g., noise from
the roaring re, collapsing structures, crying children).
3.2. BIM-game engine
The software system behind the Darmstadt CES-Lab is the BIM-
game engine, which is being developed at the IIB. The BIM-game
engine is comparable to a usual game engine with the ability
to process BIM-data. According to Gregory [31], a game engine is
arguably a data driven architecture is what differentiates a game en-
gine from a piece of software that is a game but not an engine. When a
game contains hard-coded logic or game rules or employ special-case
code to render specic types of game objects, it becomes difcult or
impossible to reuse that software to make a different game. We should
probably reserve the term game engine for software that is extensi-
ble and can be used as the foundation for many different games with-
out major modication. In general, a game engine is modular and
consists of several components [31]. A graphics engine is responsi-
ble for the graphical display on the screen and provides interfaces
for loading, managing, displaying and animating textured 3D mod-
els. One example for a graphics-engine is Ogre3D [32]. The main
parts of Ogre3D are as shown in Fig. 5: resource management,
scene management and rendering. Resource management is
responsible to load the game objects from external resources,
Fig. 5. Ogre3D graphic-engine with physics and sound plugins.
607
scene management to manage the game objects during a game ses-
sion and rendering to generate a picture of the scene for screen
output. Beyond these main components, plugins can be added to
extend Ogre3D. A physics engine, like Nvidia-PhysX [33], can sim-
ulate the mechanics of rigid-bodies and soft-bodies (building ele-
ments) or particles (smoke, uids). A sound system provides the
ability to generate realistic (surround-) sound. To save and load
scenarios a game engine has to provide a data storage manage-
ment. The interaction is usually executed through input devices
such as keyboard, mouse, joystick and motion or gesture tracking.
For gesture tracking recent developments from consumer electron-
ics market like Microsoft Kinect [34] or Asus Wavi Xtion [35] offer
new possibilities. More interactive components are network sup-
port for multiplayer mode and tools for programming and scripting
at runtime without having to restart the game. The next section
provides a deeper look into the BIM-game engine, the physics en-
gine and how this can be used to simulate structural damage, re
and smoke and how the BIM-integration is implemented. In partic-
ular, the possibility to simulate the structural damage is of special
interest for the research of human factors which results from the
interaction occupant-structure.
3.2.1. Physics engine
A physics engine is a software component that is used to simu-
late the dynamic physical interaction between objects on the basis
608 U. Rppel, K. Schatz / Advanced Engineering Informatics 25 (2011) 600611

of laws of nature such as gravity and their effect on objects in vir- To connect the produced smaller parts together with joints dur-
tual reality. To be able to calculate the necessary simulations in ing the simulation runtime, the geometrical information is repre-
real time, strong simplications have to be applied in favor of per- sented in a class structure. Fig. 6 shows how the subdivided
formance and no entirely correct physics calculations conducted, parts of the parametric BIM object (in this case a wall) are con-
since simulation results mainly have to look realistic. nected to the class structure. CuboidStructure includes all parts
The simulation is normally based on the physics of rigid bodies of a structural element, which represents a structural element like
(rigid body mechanics), on the physics of elastic bodies (soft body a wall, a column or a beam and extends their parametric BIM ob-
dynamics), and mass-spring models (spring dynamics), on which it ject. A CuboidStructure is composed of several Cuboids, which in
is possible to simulate the behavior of ropes and fabrics. Modern turn have several CuboidFaces to describe the faces of a body.
physics engines also support particle systems, with which liquids These classes contain the necessary methods to establish connec-
or smoke (uid dynamics) can be simulated; also volumetric force tions between them. The information of a connection is stored in
elds, e.g., for the simulation of heat induced ows in case of re, the class JointOptions, the material properties such as density,
can be modeled. Connections (joints) between bodies can be de- connection strength and textures in the class MaterialProperties.
ned with up to six degrees of freedom. The simulation of the Between two Cuboids based on JointOptions and MaterialProper-
interaction between objects is based on collision detection and ties, a xed joint, a revolute joint or a triple combination (three
dynamics simulation. These two core components trigger certain times TwoAxesFixed) each with two limited degrees of freedom
reactions on the objects. In case of rigid body mechanics, they could be dened. The capabilities of these joints are used to model
are mainly used to model physical reactions such as bouncing, roll- the material behavior within a structural element and to model the
ing or sliding. bearing conditions of the connection between two CuboidStruc-
For each 3D object the game engine requires two different rep- tures. After this conversion is conducted throughout all the main
resentations: Firstly, a collision representation for the physics en- elements of a building, the result is a simplied structural model
gine, in order to take the object into account during the physical for the qualitative simulation of structural behavior with the phys-
simulation runtime, and secondly, a visual representation for the ics engine. With this real-time simulation of structural damage it is
graphics engine for rendering the object on the screen. In compar- ensured that it has an inuence on the gameplay, e.g., by blocking a
ison with the visual representation, the collision representation potential egress route.
generally contains a simplied geometry to reduce computing time
[31].
3.2.3. BIM integration
For this simplication convex shape is commonly used. Convex
As described in the previous section, the core part of the BIM-
in the mathematical sense means that all points of an object, which
game engine is a simulation model which will include re, smoke,
lie between any two boundary points, are located inside the body.
explosions and structural damage. Therefore, it needs comprehen-
According to the number of objects, the physics engine has to per-
sive information about a building. Requirements here are rstly, to
form thousands of parallel computations per simulation step.
support an international accepted data format, secondly, to have
Graphics Processing Units (GPU) often come with an optimization
for the calculation of many parallel tasks. Therefore, a direct hard-
ware support for GPUs is integrated in most of the physics engines.
The leading manufacturers of video cards, like Nvidia or AMD/ATI
have already integrated physics support to the current graphics
cards. Nvidia, for example, integrated the PhysX [33] engine (for-
merly NovodeX) in the CUDA system and offers a programming
interface with the PhysX SDK. The main focus of the engine is
the highly convenient support for Nvidia GPUs, which allows a
simultaneous interaction of many objects. The SDK and part of
the source code are available free of charge [33]. To synchronize
the physics simulation with the graphic engine the tool NxOgre
[36] is used. NxOgre is a wrapper around the PhysX SDK for the
open source graphics engine Ogre3D [32]. With NxOgre for simu-
lated objects collision, both the collision representation and the vi-
sual representation can be instantiated in virtual reality. The next
section will describe the approach to approximate structural
behavior of a building with PhysX for a real-time simulation during
the game-runtime.

3.2.2. Approximation of structural behavior with PhysX

For modeling the load-bearing system in PhysX it is important
to consider rstly, the material behavior, and secondly, the joints
between structural elements. This information can be retrieved
from the digital building model (see Section 3.2.3). For this pur-
pose, a structural element has to be split down into a nite number
of smaller parts. For the connections of adjacent parts, transition
conditions are dened, depending on whether it is subject to con-
nections within an element (depending on the material properties
like elasticity, density, and cohesion associated with the geometric
denitions of the parametric BIM objects), or between structural
elements (depending on bearing conditions). For the split-up the
GPC polygon library is used [37]. Fig. 6. Split-up of structural elements.
 U. Rppel, K. Schatz / Advanced Engineering Informatics 25 (2011) 600611
Fig. 7. File-based interchange of 3D-objects.
the semantic building information available, and nally, to have
access to facility management data. As discussed in the previous
section, this information should be provided via BIM. BIM nowa-
days is the standard modeling method for building design, so that
with the SHRG a large number of real buildings could be used for
the gaming environment with relatively low modeling overhead.
The information coming from BIM needs to be in a format, which
can be used for (1) generating the objects used by the graphic-en-
gine for visualization, (2) by the physics engine, and (3) to setup
re and smoke simulations.
The prototype of the presented BIM-game engine implements
two interfaces for BIM-data. The rst interface provides support
for Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) [38]. IFC is an exchange
format for building models. It has been specied by the IAI (Interna-
tional Alliance for Interoperability) and has become an interna-
tional standard and is supported by most CAD-software products
of the leading CAD vendors, e.g., Autodesk, Graphisoft, and Bentley.
It denes an exchange format and contains object classes for
storeys, roofs, walls, stairs, etc. With the IFC-format all BIM-
information is available to create the virtual environment where
the emergency scenario takes place. The second interface uses
Autodesk Revit API [39] to process the BIM data.
Revit is a BIM software by Autodesk for 3D modeling of build-
ings. The modeling is accomplished in associative 3D models only.
It supports parametric semantic elements such as stairs, doors or
furniture. In Revit the elements are managed in an internal format
and can be shared among multiple users. All information is cross-
linked, so that any adjustment is automatically followed up to all
affected areas. Revit supports common interchange formats like
gbXML, IFC, FBX and various CAD formats. Access to the objects
of the internal database is provided over the Revit application pro-
gramming interface (API). The data exchange between BIM-Soft-
ware (here Revit) and the BIM-game engine is implemented via
609
le system. Fig. 7 shows the process of data-exchange. The compo-
nent RevitToOgre can generate the 3D-Game-Elements for Ogre3D
(.mesh) and PhysX (.nxs). To re-create the building in the BIM-
game engine the information of positions and constraints (seman-
tical data) of the building parts are required. This information is
stored in separate les (.obim, .opos, .ojnt). The component
BIMGameStarter reads the information stored in the different les
and puts them together according to the game scenario. The com-
ponent BIMGame is the simulation-core and is responsible for con-
trolling the gameplay.
4. SHRG validation concept
One major challenge in following this serious game approach is
the question of validity. Does the SHRG replicate real building re
scenarios in a satisfying way? For validation of the SHRG a compa-
rable real environment has to be found. For such a real environ-
ment a BIM-model has to be created and used as a game
scenario basis. An adequate real world environment was found in
the Fire House of the re brigade academy of the state of Baden-
Wrttemberg [40]. Fire-ghters deal with re in their daily work
and have broad experience with it. They have to train their opera-
tions regularly to be ready for emergency situations. Real-life train-
ing in re houses is the commonly most acknowledged way to
develop competences in the extremely important hot part of the
reghters education, which is being face to face with the ames.
This is one of the signicantly involved prerequisites to ensure that
reghters are able to complete their mission successfully. They
need to develop a feeling for the conditions in a burning building
roaring ames, temperatures of more than 700 C and toxic
smoke can have serious consequences even if the smallest of mis-
takes occurs under the high stress for body and mind during an
610 U. Rppel, K. Schatz / Advanced Engineering Informatics 25 (2011) 600611

Fig. 8. Fire house of the state Baden-Wrttemberg in Germany.

Fig. 9. Validation concept of the SHRG.

operation. To learn about the effects of smoke, heat, re extin-
guishing, and evaporating water, the reghters can train in re
houses like the one of the re brigade academy of the state Ba-
den-Wrttemberg (see Ref. [40]). Fig. 8 displays the Fire House
from outside and one reghter in action.
As it is shown in Fig. 8, a re house is a real building with rooms,
each of them differently equipped for simulating realistic scenarios
for reghting. The computer-controlled burning unit is driven
with gas and different scenarios like a kitchen-, a warehousing-re
or a ashover can be simulated. However, the idea to evaluate
SHRG is to implement the re house described above as one gam-
ing scenario. The workow is shown in Fig. 9. Therefore, a BIM-
model of the real world environment is still under development
in cooperation with LFS-BW: This will be the basis for the serious
game scenario.
With this, reghters should be able to play through the same
scenarios both in the real Fire House and in the SHRG. After that,
the reghters should be asked for their individual impression
on reality in the SHRG. This would provide potentially useful clues
for further development and reviews for the SHRGs quality.
5. Future work
After the game prototype development is nished in a rst
step, a validation experiment following the concept described in
Section 4 is planned. This helps to gure out how to adjust the
virtual environment to stimulate the desired effect. Concurrently,
it is planned to enhance the underlying structural model for the
re and smoke simulation, so that the results become more phys-
ically realistic instead of only visually satisfying. In order to
realize the follow-up step, there are plans to use the optimized
SHRG to research human factors during extreme situations. If
the validation would prove the developed game to be a valid tool
for analyzing human behavior, many benets might be possible.
Then, the SHRG could be used for data collection, exploration
and theory testing in the eld of evacuation under building res.
Another future opportunity could be seen in using the collected
human factors to train machine-based learning environments.
These environments could be used for an improved prediction
of the agents behavior in agent-based evacuation simulation
models. This approach, for example, is used for robots to be able
to predict pedestrians movements [41] based on Markov decision
processes (MDPs) [42].
However, eventually, the system developed according to the ap-
proach described in this article, should enable new analysis meth-
ods for studying the human behavior in extreme situations within
the performance-based re safety design and it is assumed that
particularly, the human factors regarding the interaction occu-
pant-building structure could be explored in a new way. This could
help to improve existing or develop new evacuation models.
 U. Rppel, K. Schatz / Advanced Engineering Informatics 25 (2011) 600611
6. Conclusion
This article introduces the concept of a new kind of a BIM-based
serious game, the Serious Human Rescue Game, for an interactive
and real-time simulation of emergency scenarios using a serious
gaming approach. According to the concept, BIM-models serve as
a basis of the game scenario. This allows a quick setup of scenarios
by improving the interoperability to pass the data between the BIM
application and the serious game. This feature provides a close
relation to the world of reality (BIM-models are the standard data
pool for building facility management) and allows designers, cre-
ators, operators, and users of the building as well as rescue forces
to simulate various scenarios within the shortest amount of time
without extra modeling of the game scenario. It is assumed that
these capabilities can help to avoid clashes and to detect security
risks in an early planning stage. With the integrated physics engine
qualitative simulations of re and smoke as well as structural dam-
age after explosions or earthquakes are possible.
7. Future directions and challenges
The introduced serious game is a new and efcient implemen-
tation method for bringing BIM and serious gaming together in
the area of building safety applications. This combination has the
potential to set a new technology trend in using BIM for all serious
games with a close relation to the real built world. BIM software
tools can provide the bridging technology between the real world
and the virtual game world. But currently, as one result of the pro-
ject, not all information, which is required for generating realistic
game scenarios, is included in BIM. Additional information needs
to be retrieved from different resources or converters. For example,
major BIM tools provide functionality and integrating capabilities
for 3D data interchange technologies and facilitate data exchange
between several content creation tools for creating game objects.
But the denition of dynamic game objects for a realistic and
immersive real time simulation of building related game scenarios
is still associated with a major effort.
The future direction and challenge is to provide BIM-based seri-
ous gaming environments in such a way that they become a com-
mon engineering method for daily practice with new possibilities
for the analysis and exploration of a wide range of building related
aspects.
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