Take a Breath of the Wild: geoscience in computer games

contributed by Rolf Hut

During the recent “Games for Geoscience” session at the EGU General Assembly in Vienna, researchers, many from HEPEX among them, presented how they use games to actively communicate scientific results and/or to engage with stakeholders.

The success of using games for science communication sparked a new question in us (Sam Illingworth, Chris Skinner, Casper Albers and Rolf Hut). We wonder how people in general, and earth scientists in particular, view computer-generated landscape images that are now common in (video) games. To study this, we have designed a survey in which people are asked to judge images of landscapes from both the real world and from fictional worlds. We would greatly appreciate any input for this (short) survey, which you can access here if you’d like to take part: “Into the wild: how realistic are artistic renderings?”

Thanks in advance!