1. [Publications](/publications) 2. Lead Rush: A First-Person Shooter for User Studies and Understanding Effects of Frame Time Spikes # Lead Rush: A First-Person Shooter for User Studies and Understanding Effects of Frame Time Spikes ![](/sites/default/files/styles/wide/public/publications/lead_rush.PNG?itok=0ALj22aG) User studies are a cornerstone of human-computer interaction research, including measures of user performance and quality of experience (QoE) – particularly important for games where frame rates and frame timings can impact performance. Unfortunately, commercial games have limited options for customization and do not log player performance data with sufficient detail for use in such studies. This paper introduces Lead Rush, a first-person shooter game designed for conducting user studies on the effects of frame timing and frame rate. Lead Rush is tuned to run at extremely high frame rates and includes hooks to induce frame time "spikes". Researchers can configure Lead Rush’s gameplay, trigger frame time spikes during specific actions, and log player data per game round and per study session. This paper also introduces a dataset from a user study on the effects of frame time spikes on player performance gathered from Lead Rush, and includes gameplay logs with both performance data and QoE results. Some analysis of the dataset is presented to illustrate its use. ## Authors Samin Shahriar Tokey (WPI) [Ben Boudaoud](/person/ben-boudaoud) [Joohwan Kim](/person/joohwan-kim) [Josef Spjut](/person/josef-spjut) [Peter Xenopoulos](/person/peter-xenopoulos) Mark Claypool (WPI) ## Publication Date Tuesday, September 30, 2025 ## Published in [2025 17th International Conference on Quality of Multimedia Experience (QoMEX)](https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/conhome/11219884/proceeding) ## Research Area [Computer Graphics](/research-area/computer-graphics) [Esports](/research-area/esports) [Human Computer Interaction](/research-area/human-computer-interaction) ## External Links [GitHub](https://github.com/Tokey/Lead-Rush) ## Copyright This material is posted here with permission of the IEEE. Internal or personal use of this material is permitted. However, permission to reprint/republish this material for advertising or promotional purposes or for creating new collective works for resale or redistribution must be obtained from the IEEE by writing to .