Team Bitforge at the YB Hackathon

After a somewhat slow start to the adventure, which was mainly due to the SBB, we arrived at the Stade de Suisse in Bern slightly late. There were 10 challenges to choose from, which were distributed among the participating teams according to preference. As hoped, we were assigned the only AR theme: “Augmented reality mix for a better stadium experience”. The aim of the challenge was to create a “new stadium experience” for stadium visitors using augmented or mixed reality and to get them more involved via smartphone. Each team had 24 hours to implement the project, including the final presentation.

Where to start? Logical: First of all, we went to the rich and high-quality buffet, where we stocked up on food and discussed ideas for implementation in a creative brainstorming session.

In the end, we decided on a very challenging project: fans of the opposing teams were to be given the opportunity to play against each other virtually in parallel to the actual match live in the stadium – thanks to augmented reality directly on the football pitch. Due to the lack of time, we chose air field hockey as the game. We did this in the hope of achieving a playable result in the short time available due to the limited functionality.

One of the biggest challenges in an AR game is of course the AR part itself. However, thanks to our extensive experience, we were able to transfer this plus/minus from the Bitforge AR template. What would otherwise take about two days of work could be completed in just a few minutes. So we already had a good basis.

At the beginning, we made a few more fundamental decisions. Since all three of us only had Android devices with us, the choice of platform was logical. We also decided to implement as much as possible in Unity.

We used UNet for networking and network matchmaking. Although UNet is deprecated and Unity has not yet released a successor technology, we opted for the outdated technology to save time. A decision that we would later regret, as networking was one of the biggest problems we encountered.
All the physics were created with PhysX engine, the AR is based on ARFoundation. The code language used was C#.

In addition to the choice of UNet, the fact that we had decided on a very fast game caused us additional difficulties: a delay of one second is hardly a problem in chess, but in air field hockey it makes a decent gaming experience impossible. With movement prediction and a lot of time, however, we were able to get a lot out of it.

We also spent more time than we had hoped on Git LFS, which simply wouldn’t stop pointing to different files on different devices. However, chief mechanic Stefan took care of the issue and ensured that we were able to work properly again.

Of course, one thing that should not be underestimated in a hackathon was the lack of sleep. After 20 hours in front of the screen, you don’t make the same good decisions as you did at the beginning. Stefan therefore allowed himself 4 hours of sleep at some point, Luca spent an hour or two dozing at the table and Rafi went through without sleeping at all: “I work most efficiently when the others are asleep, as I can just upload everything as I please.” OK, Rafi, OK…

It was Rafi who finally went through the entire code again and rewrote it, making HolokickAR suitable for online use.

Hacking ended at 11 a.m. on the dot. Each team presented their solution and a jury evaluated all the projects and chose the three best.

Although it wasn’t enough for an award in the end, we are very satisfied with what we achieved. We managed to build a playable multiplayer AR game within 24 hours and it felt like we had the most fun of all the participants.
Our downfall was that we were still working on developing our application until shortly before the end, which meant that the preparation for the final presentation was a little too short.

Overall, however, we have a lot of positive things to take away from Bern. There was a very good atmosphere in our team and also with the other participants, the food was extremely good and the experience of being able to shower in the visiting team’s shower was also a highlight. A Propos Football: The YB Hackathon was an opportunity for Rafi to finally see the inside of a football stadium.

After so many positives, it was clear that something else had to come: Luca’s car decided to have enough of life itself and go up in smoke. So a very fun, productive and successful weekend unfortunately ended on a negative note. Nevertheless, this was certainly not the last hackathon for Team Bitforge!