Please Note: The C-G Arena is for copyrighted by the Anxiety Research Group and the University of Arizona, and is for NON-COMMERCIAL use only. In addition, please do no distribute it without telling us first. We want to keep track of who has the arena program. If you think someone else would like to use this program, give them the URL and have them download it from here instead.
We appreciate it if you would inform us that you have downloaded the
arena by signing the guestbook.
There are three main components of the Arena software: the Experiment
Editor, the Arena Engine, and the Experiment Viewer. The generic procedure
should be to use them in the following order:
- Start the Experiment Editor and either create a new experiment or load an existing one. Make any changes necessary to set up the experiment as desired and then save the experiment. If an existing experiment was loaded and modified, the new experiment can either be saved under the original filename or be saved under a different filename in order to avoid overwriting the previous experiment. All experiments are saved as experiment definition, or .DEF, files.
- Start the Arena Engine and load the experiment definition file created by the Experiment Editor. The Arena Engine also provides a short list of additional options that effect how the engine performs. By default, the Arena Engine generates an output, or .OUT, file containing the data recorded during the experiment. This output file can be reloaded in the Arena Engine to replay the experiment, or loaded in the Experiment Viewer in order to analyze the data. If the Arena Engine generates a .OUT file, it will also create a .DAT file containing statistical data about the experiment which can be loaded into SPSS.
- Start the Experiment Viewer and load the .OUT file created by the Arena Engine. The Experiment Viewer will display a top down view of the subject's path and statistical data for each trial. The Experiment Viewer allows the user to generate a .DAT file containing statistical data generated from a .OUT file which can then be loaded by SPSS. You can also generate bitmap, or .BMP, files containing the top down views. These bitmaps can be printed, included in documents, etc.
To be completed
- Screenshot (36K): Everyone loves a screen shot, so here's a screen shot of one of the arenas.
-
Movie (447K) Here is a RealVideo
movie of the arena. It's streaming video, so you can view the file as it's
downloading, which makes the process a bit more tolerable.
To run the New Arena, make sure you have the following (this is probably no longer a problem for most modern computers, so you can skip to download if you have a computer bought in the last few years).
Pentium 90 with MMX, equivalent, or better. Install DirectX [Download DirectX 7.0] Video Card with 1 MB memory, 2+ MB preferred. Latest Drivers for your video card [windrivers.com is a good place to start] Sign the guestbook.
Download Arena.zip: This contains the program files as well as several definition files.
- Concise Readme: This is a pared down version of the readme file contained inside the New Arena zip file. It lists the steps to take before you run the arena to maximize the chances that New Arena will work properly.
The Arena Manual (also included in the zip file) contains many of the common setup and configuration information.
- Email for further problems: Should you have any further problems with the C-G Arena, or if you have any helpful suggestions.
- Common Problems
- Incorrect bitmaps: textures (i.e., pictures) should all be in 256 colors (8bits). Size should be 256x256, or any exponent of 2 smaller, e.g., 64x64, 128x128. This may seem limiting, but it is in fact what all computer games use, as it is faster to compute. Some video cards may be more "generous" in their size support, so you may be able to get away with using irregular sizes, but don't count on it. Voodoo card for example require 256x256 pixel bitmaps. S3s are a bit more generous; and Matrox cards are somewhere in between.
- Old Drivers: get the newest drivers you can find for your video card. If you can, get the WHQL certified drivers. The arena uses directX, which is very picky about the drivers (blame Microsoft).
- Wrong display formate: You should choose either the "Ramp Emulation" (Software mono in some versions), or "Direct3D HAL" (Hardware in some versions). Ramp emulation is using software rendering, so if you have an old video card you would have to use that. Direct3D HAL uses your hardware, which is prefered because it is faster. Do NOT use RGB Emulation. It is only included for debugging purposes, and to see if your computer will run it at all.
We are now putting together a database of data from all our experiments for you to download. We will shortly post the data from our latest experiment, Memory98 on the website. If you just can't wait for it to come out however, :) contact us to get the working database (about 90% complete).
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