Team Name
Texas Game Developers (TGD)
Timeline
Summer 2021 – Fall 2021
Students
- Madison Adams
- Zinah Aljanabi
- Allison Gardiner
- Hemanta Lawaju
Sponsor
Chris Conly and George Kramerov
Abstract
Texas Poker VR is a virtual reality (VR) poker game that provides players with the ability to play privately with friends. The Texas Game Developers team is working to develop a VR poker game that has a focus on the private room and socialization aspects of the game. The application is for the Oculus Quest 2, using the Unity game engine. We will be using a subscription server that will allow players to create a private room with other players they invite, visualize the poker screen, socialize with each other, and keep track of the fake money, all on a real-time basis. Because existing VR poker games have shortcomings in which players cannot create a private room to play poker with real friends, our primary focus as a team is to solve this problem and have more private socialization abilities, in addition to creating a VR poker game.
Background
With virtual activities and hobbies getting more popular after the pandemic, virtual games, like VR Poker, are more in demand than ever. Available VR poker games currently offer features such as audio chat, avatar customization, private tables, and many more. However, the highly requested feature that these games lack is the concept of offering private rooms with the option of inviting only the player´s friends, without the game adding a random person. Our customer desires to have this feature in the poker game which will mimic a real-life poker experience as if they went to a casino to play in person. The private room feature will attract plenty of players who want to only play with friends, have a choice to play with random players, and take their time playing without feeling rushed through the game.
Project Requirements
Player Account and Information Critical
Base VR Environment Critical
Basic Poker Game Play Critical
Accessing the Game through Oculus Quest 2 Critical
Adding Player to a Room Critical
AWS EC2 Server Connection High
Public/Local Room High
Private/Server Room High
Friend List Medium
Audio Chat Functionality Medium
System Overview
For the VR Poker Game, we will have an Oculus device that will use Unity software. The VR environment will have two options – a private/server room and a public/local room to play. The data will be sent and retrieved through our database. A high-level diagram of this is shown below.
Results
Results & Demo Video
Future Work
Server Connection
Private Rooms
Basic Audio & Text Chat Functionality
Customizable Avatars & Rooms
Stats Monitoring & Player Ranking System
Tournaments & Challenges
Moving to Other Platforms & Commercialization
Adding Other Poker Types
History
Project Files
Project Charter (link)
System Requirements Specification (link)
Architectural Design Specification (link)
Detailed Design Specification (link)
Poster (link)
References
[1] Arora, A. (2020, October 20). PokerStars VR Expands Beyond Poker, now supports blackjack and slots. Retrieved from https://pokerfuse.com/news/poker-room-news/211787-pokerstars-vr-expands-beyond-poker-now-supports-blackjack/
[2] View and understand the burndown chart. (2020, July 07). Retrieved from https://support.atlassian.com/jira-software-cloud/docs/view-and-understand-the-burndown-chart/
[3] Dubrova, D. (2018, May 22). Virtual reality apps development: 8 problems to overcome. Retrieved from https://theappsolutions.com/blog/development/virtual-reality-app-development-problems-to-overcome/
[4] Siddiqui, H. (2018, October 18). The Mutant Update and Poker VR Championship. Retrieved from https://medium.com/megaparticle/the-mutant-update-and-poker-vr-championship-8c5a2fd5ac2e
[5] Zhang, H. (2017). Head-mounted display-based intuitive virtual reality training system for the mining industry. International Journal of Mining Science and Technology, 27(4), 717-722. doi:10.1016/j.ijmst.2017.05.005
[6] Virtual Reality: The Future of Online Poker? (2020, September 21). Retrieved from http://www.pokerdictionary.net/news/virtual-reality-the-future-of-online-poker/
[7] Poker online: Play poker games at pokerstars.net. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.pokerstars.bet/
[8] Charara, S. (2017, December 26). Explained: How does VR actually work? Retrieved from https://www.wareable.com/vr/how-does-vr-work-explained
[9] Stein, S. (November 24). Oculus Quest 2 review: Facebook’s $299 VR headset is one of my favorite game consoles. Retrieved from https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/oculus-quest-2-review-facebook-s-299-vr-headset-is-one-of-my-favorite-game-consoles/ar-BB196Ym2
[10] Srapyan, V. (2021, January 8). Poker 3D and 2D , Texas hold ’em, Photon PUN, Multiplayer Template. Retrieved December 15, 2021, from https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/templates/systems/poker-3d-and-2d-texas-hold-em-photon-pun-multiplayer-template-186336
[11] Frequently Asked Questions: How To Host Photon Server On Amazon? (n.d.). Retrieved from https://doc.photonengine.com/en-us/server/current/reference/faq#how_to_host_photon_server_on_amazon_
