Change game design

[urbster1]

I wanted to open a new issue because there is a problem with the way the game is currently designed. It would be really helpful to base it on the actual amblyopia Tetris study shown here: https://cusm.ca/sites/default/files/A%20game%20platform%20paper_0.pdf

On page 6 of the PDF they describe 2 modes of playing.
In mode 1, some blocks are visible to one eye, some are visible to the other, and some are visible to both as shown:

In mode 2, blocks at the bottom are visible to both eyes, and parts of the falling block are visible to both eyes, but other parts of the falling block are visible to one eye only:

In each mode, the eyes are forced to work together. The figure here shows the amount of contrast that is visible to each eye. (The block in the center is the falling block. The block in the upper right is the Next block to fall, which would also be a nice feature.)

Mode 2 would seem to be the quickest to implement the way the game is currently coded, so if anything could be changed from these suggestions, it would be best to change to how the falling blocks are viewed.

In addition I think that options for contrast should be enabled to increase/decrease the amount of contrast. The user needs to be able to choose whether their left or right eye is the amblyopic eye that needs the higher contrast, so to that end, contrast should be adjustable for each eye independently.

I do realize this is a substantive change to the game engine, but I think it's necessary in order for the project to be worthwhile. The way the game is currently designed has not been proven in any study to actually help coordinate vision in both eyes. These changes should make the game not only more challenging but ultimately more helpful to users who want to improve their vision.

[aliaksei135]

Mode 2 is definitely the option I would go for as well. The problem I see with the current code is that it defines the colour for the shape as a whole instead of per constituent block, so this would require quite a bit of work to the TetrisModel class.

That said I have created a new branch on my fork and after I have done the controller controls, I will give this a shot.

[raphaelrk]

Sticking to the paper could be good, though do note the motivation here was porting the paper to Google Cardboard, and changing the coloring should be simple enough. Harder part might be updating the code to the recent API's which it looks like you've done/started in #13

What brings you to the project? Curious

[urbster1]

For me it's been a long journey that started with seeing Sue Barry's TED Talk a few years ago. I've had amblyopia and strabismus since I was born and have been researching vision training for the past couple years. Most recently I've gotten a chance to try out Vivid Vision when I visited a vision therapist, and after seeing how promising VR can be for training 3D depth perception, I ordered a Wearality Sky VR kit (essentially a more immersive Google Cardboard, and much more affordable than a Rift/Vive). One of the main motivations for getting it was that I was hoping to be able to use it for vision training. I stumbled upon this project from the Google Cardboard subreddit, so now here I am. Hope that answers your question!

[aliaksei135]

I'm also here from Reddit, I used to have pretty severe strabismus and amblyopia that resulted from it. Although I've had an operation and the strabismus is essentially unnoticeable, I still have amblyopia to some degree. I was researching treatment for it when I stumbled upon this.

@raphaelrk I think most of the deprecated libraries are gone (I can only remember the FloatMath library off the top of my head, but I'm sure there's more)

[aliaksei135]

I have implemented Mode 2, it randomly selects squares in the active block and colours them with a colour for each eye. The fallen blocks are the same colour on both eyes.

[gatchi]

I'm confused -- you said you implemented Mode 2, but this is still open? I'm also assuming the apk hasnt been updated?

[aliaksei135]

@gatchi Not sure why it's not merged, I assume it's dead here. AFAIK my fork has the latest build