VR Training Simulator
OVERVIEW
Role | 3D Environment Designer and Artist, Technical Artist |
Project Type | VR Training Simulation |
Platform | Mobile VR (Meta Quest) |
Contribution | 3D Asset Creation and Production. Technical Art, Optimisation |
Technologies | Blender, Substance Painter, Unreal Engine 4.23 |
Status | Completed & Deployed |
In early 2020, I participated in the design and development of a VR training simulation for AutoVRse. The project served as a demonstration of the company's skill and expertise in designing realistic and engaging immersive VR experiences for the enterprise sector.
The project was built and optimised for mobile VR devices, specifically the Meta Quest VR headset, ensuring design and technical specifications aligned with technical and optimisation standards for mobile VR hardware.
THE CHALLENGE
With mobile VR development being novel and unexplored in early 2020, the main challenge was to achieve realism and immersion with limited processing power on the mobile VR platform through engaging visuals and intuitive interaction design.
ROLE & FOCUS AREAS
I served as the lead 3D Environment Designer, Artist and Technical Artist handling spatial design, 2D/3D asset design, production and optimisation, animation, lighting and shader scripting and optimisation.
Concerning my role, I was tasked with pushing the boundaries of visual fidelity in mobile VR experiences through the level's design and its aesthetic.
SOLUTION & PROCESS
IDEATION
The objective was to devise and build a The training level follows a futuristic, sci-fi aesthetic, mainly inspired by the works of Jonathan Frederick.
Concerning the level's art direction, the approach was to create a stark visual contrast between more public facing side of the level and spaces that would have restricted access. Hence, the lobby's art direction would follow a more "cleaner" aesthetic and the training facility and the atrium are presented with a rustic, industrial aesthetic with a darker, desaturated colour palette.
The choice of using desaturated colours proved effective in the reduction of colour contrast in the experience, significantly reducing aliasing during runtime.
DESIGN
Unlike its predecessors, to enhance user engagement, the level's design experimented with varying elevations, with the lobby set at ground level and the rest of the facility built at a subterranean level.
As per the experience's design, the user will find themselves in the lobby space and will be guided into the training facility at the lower deck where will be instructed on how to interact with various elements of a virtual reality experience.
DEVELOPMENT
With the art and design approved, production and optimisation of the level's 2D and 3D assets were achieved using Blender for 3D modelling and Substance Painter for texturing works.
MODELLING AND TEXTURING SPECIFICATIONS
Due to the target platform and device being mobile VR and the Meta Quest VR headset, the level required heavy mesh and texture optimisation, with the level's total triangle count at 120,747 tris.
To reduce draw call count of each mesh, adjacent objects were grouped and merged together with a single material generated using the texture atlas workflow.
The texture atlases for Albedo, ORM (Occlusion/Roughness/Metallic) and Normal were generated using Substance Painter. Adhering to mobile VR optimisation standards, resolution did not exceed 4096 x 4096 pixels.
ENVIRONMENT LIGHTING
As required when developing VR experiences, the level was lit using baked lighting workflows. A separate UV map was generated and assigned to bake lightmaps.
SCENE STATISTICS FOR MOBILE VR DEPLOYMENT
The average mesh draw call count rests at 150 per frame, ensuring the scene is sufficiently optimised for mobile VR deployment to maintain a target frame rate of 72 FPS on the Meta Quest.
A simple shader setup for scene materials greatly reduced shader complexity to boost performance.
Similarly, through mesh optimisation, quad overdraw is minimized to ensure smooth performance and unnecessary GPU rendering costs.
Low lightmap density across the level reduces memory costs, significantly reducing the resolution of baked lightmap textures, minimising VRAM usage and disk storage size, ultimately boosting performance.
PROJECT OUTCOMES & NEXT STEPS
The project served as proof of the team's ability to craft complex, visually appealing and functional simulations for the enterprise sector, while pushing the boundaries of design and development of mobile VR applications.
Personally, the project elevated my skills as a spatial designer and technical artist for the development of XR applications while improving my soft skills as a team player and art and design lead.
