Fire Response Training for Shell

OVERVIEW

The experience is a training simulation to educate Shell employees at LNG plants on the necessary mitigation and evacuation protocols in the event of a gas leak. The simulation was built as a standalone VR experience for the Oculus Quest headset in 2019.

THE CHALLENGE

As a training simulation for employees with little or no experience with VR technology, the UX needed to be as simple and intuitive as possible for users to learn the necessary protocols.

With standalone headsets relatively new to the market, the goal was to build a performative, intuitive and user-friendly experience that runs smoothly on mobile VR devices.

ROLES & FOCUS AREAS

I served as Lead XR Designer and Lead Production Artist, responsible for UI/UX design and supervising the implementation of an optimised 3D, immersive experience that adheres to target specifications for high performance on a mobile VR device.

SOLUTION & PROCESS

IDEATION

The goal was to create a sleek, engaging experience that effectively instructs personnel on mitigation measures during the event of a gas leak or fire.

DESIGN

The focal points of the concept design phase were effective delivery of information through interaction while balancing aesthetics with function. As the simulation was intended for a then relatively unknown and untested platform, it was crucial to filter redundant elements, leaving only what would serve the application’s purpose.

Following research on the design specifications of an LNG plant, tools such as Blender and SketchUp were employed to prototype a suitable layout.

The experience followed a minimalist approach to the scene’s layout, adding crucial elements where necessary. Naturally, segments of the experience were loaded progressively to avoid overloading the system’s memory.

DEVELOPMENT

Virtual assets were built using Blender and Substance Painter, while the simulation was built and programmed on Unreal Engine 4.

VIRTUAL ASSET OPTIMISATION FOR MOBILE VR

Production design and development of the virtual environment and its respective assets involved optimising the scene’s polygon count to not exceed the 100,000 triangle threshold. Hence, highly detailed meshes were reserved for elements such as the main facility.

Additionally, texture resolutions were capped at 4K in line with mobile VR standards, with average texture resolutions in the environment ranging between 1K and 2K.

SHADER OPTIMISATION FOR SMOOTH PERFORMANCE

The shader parameters of certain materials were adjusted to reduce the cost of rendering certain assets, such as translucent materials.

The above visual demonstrates the switching of the shader’s Blend Mode parameter from Translucent to Additive. This decision significantly reduced frame time, maintaining a steady 72 FPS frame rate on the Oculus Quest headset.

USE OF ANIMATION LIBRARIES FOR REDUCED PRODUCTION TIME

To save time on animating NPCs, free repositories like Mixamo were used to create the necessary animations for the simulation.

PROJECT OUTCOMES & NEXT STEPS

The simulation proved effective in instructing dedicated personnel in the necessary mitigation processes and protocols in case of a fire hazard, validating Virtual Reality's potential as a cost-effective tool for training.

The project’s design and development phase gave first-hand experience in designing and developing performant simulations for standalone VR devices and laid the foundation for best practices and standards for building high-fidelity VR experiences for the mobile platform.