ChessQuest – CSE Senior Design

Team Name

The Best Team

Timeline

Fall 2023 – Spring 2024

Students

Javier Cardoso
Juan Gamez
Sofia Gutierrez
Alyssa Hammonds
Benjamin Montgomery

Abstract

Chess Quest is an educational VR chess game that is designed to engage elementary students
in various disciplines of computer science. Through its multiplayer functionality and Al Integration.
Chess Quest fosters collaboration and critical thinking skills, all while providing a tangible demonstration of the potential of STEM fields, including an element of fun.

Background

In a world increasingly driven by technological advancements and digital transformation, the traditional landscape of educational outreach programs faces numerous challenges and opportunities. Within this context, we introduce the VR Chess Game, which addresses the need for a fresh, engaging, and cost- effective approach to educational outreach.

The conventional model of educational outreach often relies on resource-intensive demonstrations, particularly in fields like robotics, where complex equipment, logistics, and maintenance pose significant
challenges. These resource-heavy approaches limit the reach of educational programs, both in terms of the geographical area they can cover and the demographic diversity they can engage. Furthermore, the limitations imposed by physical demonstrations can hinder the adaptability and scalability of outreach efforts.

Project Requirements

The application must provide an intuitive and visually appealing chess game interface that allows users to play chess in virtual reality using a flat surface. Users should be able to interact with the chessboard and pieces seamlessly.
The application must support both a Stockfish chess AI for single-player mode and a multiplayer mode. For multiplayer, it should integrate with the Chess.com API, allowing users to play against others and access features like game history and progress tracking.
XR Chess must adhere to strict privacy standards, encrypting and securely storing user data, including gameplay information and personal details. Compliance with international data protection regulations, such as GDPR.
Users should be proficient enough to set up advanced configurations like room-scale VR.
Users should be patient and comfortable with prolonged use of VR equipment and mentally engaging chess gameplay.
Users should be comfortable with adjusting in-game settings, such as graphics quality, to optimize the VR chess experience on their specific hardware.
Visual elements, such as graphics and animations, as well as audio cues, must be engaging without
being overly intense or startling. Bright flashing lights and excessively loud sounds will be avoided to prevent discomfort and potential adverse reactions, such as seizures or hearing damage, ensuring a safe and enjoyable experience for users.
The XR Chess application must respond to user interactions, such as moving chess pieces or accessing educational resources, with a maximum latency of 200 milliseconds.
Users must follow the official Meta standards for Oculus Quest 2, which can be found in the manual
that comes with the device, or by visiting the official Meta website.
Our XR Chess game will store personal information from the final users. So, it is necessary to implement the most accepted encryption standard to keep the user data safe from possible internal and external threads. In this way, we will implement the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES).

System Overview

The solution to the recruitment challenge at high schools and elementary schools involves developing
an Extended Reality (XR) chess game. The project objective is to incentivize young students to get
involved in the technological field. The XR chess game system can be divided into the following major
components: XR chess game application, user interface, game assets, chess API integration, and system
database. It is worth noticing that the project is in an early stage, and multiple components may be
added in the future.

Starting with the XR chess game application, this is the main application component that represents the XR chess game that will run on augmented reality headsets and traditional devices capable of running the application. This is what end users will download, install, and run.

The user interface (UI) is what the users, in this case, high school and elementary school students will
use to interact with the game. The user interface will include fundamental tools such as menus, control
options, and navigation elements to set up, customize, and play the game. The UI will be designed to
be as user-friendly as possible. The user interface also includes the XR chessboard itself.

The game assets component is responsible for managing and providing all the visual resources and
elements needed to provide a functional and immersive XR chess experience. The game assets are a
fundamental component since the quality of the immersive experience is what influences the most in
an XR game, especially for young audiences. We are planning to use 3D models to represent both the
chessboard and the pieces. The models should present quality textures and material representation. In
the same way, we are expecting to introduce sound effects and audio for a more immersive experience.
Similarly, we want to include asset management, so users have the option to select different chessboard
skins.

The chess API integration is a fundamental part of the XR chess game system. It will enable seamless
and dynamic chess gameplay within the extended reality environment and the assets. It also manages
the integration of chess-related functionalities and logic into the chess game. The component consists
of a chess engine. There are several open-source engines available. We are still researching what is the
best engine for this project. It also enables multiplayer and network play functionality. Similarly, the
chess API will provide other fundamental elements such as move validation, movement history, state management, and chess rules enforcement, among others.

Finally, the system database component consists of a central repository to store needed data for
the game system. The data may consist of user profile information, authentication data, game state
management, and game assets, among others.