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GuestJim Side Project - The Body on Games


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A while ago I had an idea for something that could be fun and interesting to do, then earlier this month I decided to get what I needed to actually do it. The idea is to record some biometrics while gaming, and have those measurements burned into the video, so you can see cause and effect. Currently it is just my pulse I'm recording (oxygen saturation too, but that's not as interesting) because I can't find a way to record anything else.

Well, I finished doing this with the first game, Outlast, and have uploaded the videos to my new YouTube channel, The Body on Games. (It's a better name than I first thought of.)

 

Outlast took me nine videos to complete, and while all nine are uploaded, they are going to be made public on a Monday-Thursday schedule. The schedule is to keep from having too much up at once, and to give me time to get another game completed before the previous finishes going public. (Not sure which I'm going to do next, as I check on companies' video policies.) This Thursday two videos are going to go public, because the mic audio for the second was bad.

Outlast Playlist

 

I also put together a playlist of highlights (except for the second video because of the mic audio) and those are all public. (I especially recommend Outlast - Chapter 5 - Highlight because of something funny that happens on the pulse graph.)

Outlast - Highlights Playlist

 

I hope you find these interesting!

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  • 3 weeks later...

Been forgetting about this thread with all the other stuff going on, but I have some news to share. First is that I finished the second game I did this with, Daylight. (I also discovered during this process that YouTube does not ingest h.265 video currently... that was annoying.) Those videos will start going public next week, after the Outlast videos finish up, but here are the highlight videos now:

Daylight - Highlights

 

The second bit of good news is that I heard back from WB Games, which owns the FEAR franchise, and I should be good to go for doing these recordings with those games. Haven't started on them yet, but that is my plan for what to do next.

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  • 4 weeks later...

It's been a little crazy for me since the last post, but I haven't forgotten about this, so starting Monday the first of the FEAR recordings will go live. So far I have ten done, with more to come because I've not actually had the time to finish the game yet. The first ten highlights are already up and public, and as I complete more recordings their highlights will be added to the playlist:

FEAR - Highlights

 

Once they start going live, the full videos will be in this playlist:

FEAR

 

Also, for anyone interested, I took advantage of the limited time Doom demo on Steam to make this recording, which went public yesterday.

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Finished FEAR yesterday, with chapter 13, which seems very appropriate. Everything finished uploading last night and the first chapter video will go public shortly. Haven't firmly decided which game I will do next, but it will either be F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin or Alien: Isolation. Have plenty of time to decide though.

Oh, and because this is an odd number of FEAR videos, I will try to do what I did with Daylight and do a single recording in another game to fill in. I would like to do it in the System Shock demo that released not too long ago, and even made a recording in it. Thing is the game crashed, so I don't really want to use that video, and I'm not sure if I want it to go up in that many weeks. I'll figure something out though.

 

Now for That_Guy's question, which I could give a long and complicated answer to, but I'm not sure if that's what you want. The short and simple answer is I use this: Contec CMS 50D+ (Amazon and manufacturer website). It took me a while to find it, but this oximeter is capable of sending real-time data to a desktop. Most other oximeters don't do that, but are instead limited to communicating with smartphones or intermittent transmission via Bluetooth to a computer with a receiver. Anyway, once you have that, or a comparable device (and I'm aware of one more that can do it, but it's more expensive), you can use something like OBS (classic or studio, I actually use both) to capture the graph and the gameplay (and we just happen to have a handy guide to get you started: Video Capture & Edit Guide).

From there, you have your choice of a simple method or complex method for overlaying the graph. I'm using a complex method, recording the gameplay and graph separately and capturing multitrack audio for the game and mic audio, and then compositing it all with Audacity and FFmpeg. The complex method's only real advantage is the greater ability to edit the video it affords me (can change where the graph is placed, its size, and the audio levels). I like that kind of control.

 

Oh, also I have to attach the oximeter to my toe so I have my fingers free. Oximeters work just as well on toes as on fingers, and with a different style of oximeter, it could even be attached to the earlobe. Hope that answers your question... and possibly more.

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Now for That_Guy's question, which I could give a long and complicated answer to, but I'm not sure if that's what you want. The short and simple answer is I use this: Contec CMS 50D+ (Amazon and manufacturer website). It took me a while to find it, but this oximeter is capable of sending real-time data to a desktop. Most other oximeters don't do that, but are instead limited to communicating with smartphones or intermittent transmission via Bluetooth to a computer with a receiver. Anyway, once you have that, or a comparable device (and I'm aware of one more that can do it, but it's more expensive), you can use something like OBS (classic or studio, I actually use both) to capture the graph and the gameplay (and we just happen to have a handy guide to get you started: Video Capture & Edit Guide).

From there, you have your choice of a simple method or complex method for overlaying the graph. I'm using a complex method, recording the gameplay and graph separately and capturing multitrack audio for the game and mic audio, and then compositing it all with Audacity and FFmpeg. The complex method's only real advantage is the greater ability to edit the video it affords me (can change where the graph is placed, its size, and the audio levels). I like that kind of control.

 

Oh, also I have to attach the oximeter to my toe so I have my fingers free. Oximeters work just as well on toes as on fingers, and with a different style of oximeter, it could even be attached to the earlobe. Hope that answers your question... and possibly more.

 

Thanks, that just the answer i was looking for!

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  • 4 weeks later...

I have noticed my pulse racing while gaming. I thinik I also tested it with my phone. I agree that simulated action affects the nervous system.

And I know studies have been done about how gaming can affect the body, but I'm not aware of any that looked at the instantaneous affects. Just wish I could capture more than pulse.

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