Category: Uncategorised

Below are the items needed for my exhibition space:

List of Furniture and Decorations

• One table, 71 cm*68 cm*158 cm

• One chair

• One Lamp (I will provide my own)

• Some postcards

List of Hardware

• One monitor with a computer

• Keyboard and mouse

• VR Quest 3 from UAL or VR Quest Pro from me

List of Software

• Oculus

• Unreal Engine

The total required area is 1.6m by 1.6m

The gaming experience will be in a standing position

Only one chair will be provided for safety reasons. in case other people got hit by the player by accident, On the next page, I’ll provide front and side views along with detailed dimensions and annotations.

here is the top view of the exhibition space.

For the second page, I’ve included the space I’ve designed in Unreal Engine, showcasing the side view. It illustrates the dimensions of the table—71cm in height, 68cm in width, and 158cm in length

the second picture demonstrates the dimensions of the chair, including the length, width, and height. The player will start in a standing position where they will be able to orient themselves within the experience. After the experience, there will be a business card available if they wish to contact me or learn more about the experience.

Exhibition Purpose: The purpose of this exhibition is to show others how fashion and art can be experienced in the future. The implementation of immersive technology allows for the fusion of art and fashion in a unique way that complements each other. Not only am I focusing on the purchasing aspect, but I’m also seeking to push the aesthetic bounds of what’s possible. By going through this experience, users will be forced to think about how fashion will evolve with technology, from purchasing to runway shows, and everything else in-between.

Working at the VR Fashion Gallery gave me a growing experience, an opportunity to stretch my VR knowledge and experiment with techniques that could add to the fashion industry. The challenge of creating an immersive VR fashion gallery that would seamlessly transport users into a virtual world where the user could engage with a curated collection of virtual clothing, sculptures, and paintings without ever leaving the physical world. The proposed application is mainly designed for fashion houses and influential people in fashion, aiming to show them how VR could offer value to the industry.
What worked excellently?

As the VR clothing gallery was the main focus of the project, special attention was paid to ensuring it was easy to navigate and felt similar to real-life fashion spaces. To do this in the most effective way possible, I wanted to show realistic clothing that moved with cloth physics. I tried to use the stock clothing in Unreal, as well as some 3D models that I found online. However, I found that these items just flatly stayed attached to the model, so this led me to use Marvelous Designer, which offered realistic and amazing clothes. There were also features inside of Unreal that allowed me to integrate these assets and edit how much they moved.

As a VR experience, it was important for me to create something interactive and meaningful. These interactions should promote exploration of the environment, and be extremely intuitive for the user to pick up. This also involved high-level features, such as Metahuman, motion capture, and 3D scanning, which furthered the level of realism. To increase presence, I looked at the features of the metahumans, allowing users to change their face and height to better reflect them as a person.

Overcoming Challenges and Finding Solutions:

The significant challenge was to bring realism from the physics of the garments, which I overcame through the persistent use of tools such as Marvelous Designer, I watched several tutorials before I finally learned to use the software. This was something completely new for me, and I had to learn how to navigate and use the software.

I also faced a large amount of difficulty in the interactions, getting them to move smoothly, teleport a certain distance, and implementing some custom controls caused me several errors. Initially, I started from using the keyboard, navigating the scene with the arrow keys as a placeholder. When I began testing in VR, I noticed that the controls didn’t work, I previously thought VR would automatically be implemented since I developed using the VR kit. With this not in place, I looked at tutorials to implement controls and finally got smooth locomotion working.

As a VR user, I found the movement fairly comfortable. However, when testing with others I found they easily got motion sickness from the smooth mode, so I decided to implement teleport. I had a hard time getting the user to move around the environment efficiently as the cursor did not more than a few steps from the user’s body. Natalia helped me implement the navmesh bound which allowed the user to freely move around the environment.

Lighting became a large issue when I began testing in VR as well. There was a huge amount of unbuilt and unnecessary lighting which added a lot to the size of the game. I knew I needed to take a large portion of the lighting out, but I had a difficult time figuring out what to eliminate. I went through the environment and saw that many of the lights were redundant. I decided to raise the intensity of the lights that I kept. This helped keep the light count low, while also maintaining a well-lit and aesthetically pleasing environment. Starting out, I had over 2000 lights and by the end, I had just a little over 200. this increased my frame rate from 40 to 60.

I iterated several times, deciding to alter the plan and simplify certain aspects of the project. YouTube helped me understand a lot of the interactions I wanted to implement, I got to a functional point with tutorials, but ultimately the experience wasn’t perfect. To perfect this, I spent a weekend combing through the project to identify any errors or possible deficiencies. I found multiple minor issues and solved them via YouTube tutorials and the general knowledge I’ve acquired of Unreal.

Addressing Industry Concerns and Crafting Solutions:

During the creation of the project, I kept in mind some of the major issues discussed in the industry concerning the accessibility and applicability of VR technology, specifically in fashion.

With skepticism of VR in the fashion industry, I have tried to prove how relevant and full of potential VR is in the fashion landscape. With this concern in mind, I knew I had to create something which was extremely straight forward and easy to understand for the industry. The VR Fashion Gallery was very straightforward in terms of functionality and the task of educating the user. Its aim is to dispel the myth that VR is not capable of reshaping the way products are presented and sold in the fashion industry.

Conclusion: A Vision Realized and Future Prospects:

An interactive VR Fashion Gallery can be transformational within the fashion industry. The project expands on just the virtual experience and proposes real material solutions for industry challenges, by drawing on cutting-edge tools and design innovation. It explores how VR could be integrated into the industry with attention to detail and the specific needs of brands. I built this in a way where it could be used as an actual product offering to fashion houses that will want to tap into the immersive power of VR.

Not only focusing on interaction and beauty but also prioritizing ease of use for people who were not used to VR. As a fashion enthusiast, I’ve always kept in mind that this project is something I would like to commercialize. I feel it would add a lot to the shopping experience for me, as well as many others who are into the buying the latest collections from designer brands. I’ve tested this with friends as well as my Dad and his shareholders who encouraged me to continue working on this, as they feel it has commercial potential.

As I continue to polish this experience, I will begin to look for funding. I did a large amount of market research in China, where I found that while VR is a well-funded and growing industry, it has not yet permeated fashion in a way that allows consumers to comfortably shop. In addition to this, I found that the return rates for online shopping in China are extremely high, I feel that VR can reduce business expenses for fashion brands and increase customer satisfaction with items ordered.

In general, this project was extremely enlightening as I started with an idea and worked on it to fruition. I would love to thank my friends and tutors for helping me through this project. I was very nervous as I was using Unity for my entire school career, I was fairly nervous about using Unreal Engine and having to create an entire project around it. But this project gave me a huge amount of confidence in my ability to create something from scratch using new technology. I’ve even used a 3d scanner to create a realistic scan of my face in metahuman, as well as a 3d scan of a room which helped me organize assets inside of the Unreal scene. I feel an extreme of gratitude for myself and everyone who helped see this project through to the end, I’m excited to continue building upon this in the future.

Experience Design And Documentation

With pre-production finished, it was time to begin working on the experience itself. I wanted to start by creating the environment as a base for the experience, this allowed me to see how users would interact with it. The experience would borrow from the Burberry/Harrods web scene that had doors that opened to beautiful experiences, allowing users to shop inside of a store. I started with this, building a very basic and beautiful experience that acted as an introduction to the fashion gallery.

Users would enter the experience, and be met with the main menu, which acts as a training scenario for how VR works. There is a voice telling them the instructions on how to use the VR controls, as well as the purpose of the next scene. Upon learning this, the user can click the play button, which opens the doors into the fashion gallery.

When the user enters the fashion gallery, they see models walking around with weighted clothes. There are signs on the ceiling, showing the user how to properly navigate the scene. There are five parts inside the gallery: The future-realistic Clothing Section, the Made To Measure Section, the Metahuman Tailoring Section, the Sculpture Section, and the Art Piece Section.

Here is a list of each section and its purpose. The sections are paired with audio clips that tells the user what the purpose of the area is, as well as how to interact with it.

https://emperiavr.com/project/harrods-x-burberry/

Future-Realistic Clothing Section:

The clothing is designed to look futuristic and showcase the possibilities of materials and cuts in the future. These are items that could be runway items in a few years and help to show the users how designers are trying to innovate fashion. In the future, this will be an AR section where users will be able to take these articles of clothing and put them on their real bodies. This would use some type of filter such as Snapchat or Instagram, to identify the person by body type and face recognition.

Made to Measure Section:

This section is for beginners, the users will be told how to interact with the items throughout the environment. They’ll be able to pick up the clothing items and put them onto a metahuman model, so they can visualize how these assets would look on their bodies. A widget will appear on the clothing, that allows thew user to view the item on-site or potentially purchase it.

Metahuman Tailoring Section:

This section is for VIP customers, and the audio will explain how users can get their body and face scanned to create custom clothing for their body size and shape, to be more precise. In the future, this could be used to try on different clothes in a virtual setting, then purchase those clothes knowing they perfectly fit their body. In this section, there are 3 examples of different metahumans, including one of myself. I created this with a 3D face scan, but others would be able to use a mobile application to create a model of their own face.

Sculpture Section:

This section adds to the artistic value of the experience, using sculptures from different artists to create a unified aesthetic for a beautiful art show. This differs from reality, as you’re able to pick up the items and closely examine them before purchasing them. You can see the intricate details of the item without damaging it or breaking the rules of the gallery. My research showed that fashion and art shows are closely connected, so this sculpture gallery adds an essential element to the fashion gallery experience.

Art Piece Section:

This is a section that showcases paintings and drawings in an extremely immersive way. Users are able to pick up the art pieces and place them in different areas and positions to see how they would potentially look in their homes. They’re also able to get a close up view, and artists are able to showcase their work safely without having to worry about shipping or potentially damaging their art pieces in galleries. In the future, this could be used by artists to sell their art to a wealthy clientele and build relationships with fashion brands/galleries.

The mechanics in a VR experience are the rules and interactions that define how players can interact and move with the virtual environment, and achieve goals. The purpose is to make the experience more immersive and entertaining, and most importantly, easy to use.

I implemented the walking mechanics in the second scene, except for the Main Menu. At first, it was very confusing, and I had to get rid of some global volume in the environment, which I used to filter the sky. In the Main Menu, the walking mechanic was deactivated as it was deemed unnecessary.

3D Interior Design and Documentation (Production: Development), -Metahuman & 3D Scanning

For the gallery itself, I wanted to do something that mirrored the fashion shows and art galleries I had been to. This meant, things needed to be minimalist, focusing on either monochromatic or duotones at the absolute most. After trying multiple colour patterns, I found that black and white looked the simplest, and also the most beautiful. This needed to be very simple because there were a lot of different ideas happening within one scene. If the colours were too busy, they could distract the users, making it difficult to navigate.

For the character design, I wanted to keep things simple, as I saw very early that using high-poly models could drastically slow down the experience. This meant the entire scene could not be metahumans, I had to find alternatives online. I used Mixamo and the Unreal Asset Store to find models which looked nice and fitting to the experience, without sacrificing a lot of power. I decided to use the basic Unreal mannequin and some models I found online for the fashion walk. The unreal skeletons would act as the audience since these models didn’t need to have clothing, they were just there to fill out the experience. The models needed to have clothing with weight on them and walk through the experience as if they were in a real fashion show.

Not satisfied with the animations I found online, I decided to use the motion capture room to create a custom catwalk animation. I used the Rokoko suit along with my friend who did the catwalk, I then took this animation and put it inside of Unreal on my two characters. I ensured those clothes were weighted so the animations would look more realistic and interesting to the user.

-Fashion Digital Assets

The clothing assets were found online, and I looked to model them after the Burberry experience, which had a collection of handbags and shows. Polycount wasn’t a huge concern for this aspect because the items were fairly small. I used a basic hat, which I changed the material on to make different versions, I also found a bag and jacket that I felt would go well on the model. These were paired with blueprints, allowing the user to pick them up and place them on the nearby metahuman.

The items on the model were from the asset store, these were stock models with no weight added onto them. With the help of Natalia, I was able to paint the weight on these clothing items, making them much more realistic and engaging. On one model, there was a simple skirt that bounced up and down as the model walked, on the other model, there was a skirt that blew in the wind behind the model.

For the experience, the brand mentioned earlier, DicksonLim.com, was supposed to provide some 3D clothing assets, including a blazer, waistcoats, pants, and iconic looks from red carpets all over the world. This wasn’t able to come in time, so instead, I opted to use assets I found online. In the future, I will implement these assets so users will be able to see excuse items.

I created blueprints for all the assets including sculptures, art drawings and clothes assets, this is quite time consuming. I keep play testing during the process, to ensure that all the items have interactions and grabable, i created notes for each items (name and description), however, becasue of the lack of space on my laptop and lagging during the VR mode. therefore, i made few examples showcase inside of the Made To Measure section.

For the sound design within my project, I selected the background music from one of my favourite tracks. This music choice helped me to establish the mood and ambience of the gallery space, with contemporary beats give an energetic vibe. I created introduction voices for each section, which play a crucial role in the project by giving players or users a clear introduction to the experience. I used a karaoke speaker to produce a robotic voice and enhanced the futuristic feel by adjusting the pitch for each section.

INTRO

In the post-production stage of game development, there are important factors to consider. These include improving gameplay mechanics, enhancing performance and graphics, fixing any bugs or problems, adding sound and music, refining visual elements, improving user interfaces, conducting quality testing, and ensuring compatibility on various platforms. Gathering feedback from playtesters is crucial to make necessary adjustments and enhance the overall gaming experience.

Final work distribution

Scene	Layout & Coding	Sound
– Main menu	Jason	Alan zhang
– Normal & Weird Room	Margarita &Jason	–
– skyscraper	Margarita	alanzhang
– day & night Clown scene	Jason & Margarita	alan zhang
– hallway scene	Margarita	–
– Credit scene	Jason	alanzhang

I

Adding Sound And Music

I would like to express my gratitude to Allen Zhang, the dedicated member of the Sound Art team who consistently attended our collaboration class. His continuous efforts to improve his work and provide timely updates on the sound elements greatly facilitated my project. In a horror game, sound plays a crucial role, and Allen’s contributions were instrumental in enhancing the overall experience.

GamePlay

Feedback From Playtest _Student

Getting feedback from playtesters is crucial for enhancing the experience of my VR horror game. By listening to their suggestions, I make necessary adjustments to make the game scarier and more immersive. Playtesters provide valuable insights on creating a chilling atmosphere and strategically timing the sounds to build suspense and fear. they are all got scared Their feedback helps me fine-tune the game, ensuring that players feel the desired level of horror and suspense at the perfect moments.

Feedback From Playtest _Tutor

Once again, I would like to express my gratitude, Herman, for your invaluable help. The tutorial and recordings you shared on Moodle were clear and immensely helpful. We are fortunate to have you as our teacher, guiding us through this project.

The feedback you provided after playtesting our game was extremely important. It allowed me to identify areas that needed improvement and make necessary adjustments. Your insights and guidance have played a significant role in shaping the overall quality and experience of the game. Thank you for your continued support and dedication to our learning.

Final Gameplay Video

Since I have not yet established my YouTube channel, the gameplay video that will be available differs from the video below. The one below is the recording we made specifically for the presentation.

Critical Appraisal

Art and Visuals:

Main menu

A well-designed main menu in a game is essential. The main menu is where players begin their game and find important information and guidance. One key aspect is teaching players how to use the game’s controls through induction. This helps them become familiar with the rules and navigate the game easily.

The main menu is also a great place to include cautionary messages, especially for VR games. These messages remind players about potential risks like motion sickness and the importance of taking breaks. By including these warnings, developers show that they care about player safety.

A well-designed main menu not only creates a smooth and user-friendly experience but also prioritizes player comfort and safety. It sets the tone for the game, providing essential information and precautions, and ultimately improves the overall gaming experience.

Here is the main menu I made for the game.

Clown Scene_Day time

In the “Clown Scenes Day Time” scene of the game, I drew inspiration from Thorpe Park in London to create a chill and cosy vibe. I utilized the terrain to sculpt the shape of the hillside and incorporated an amusement park package from Taobao, customizing it with vibrant colours. Additionally, I added characters from Maximo to enhance the atmosphere of the scene.

Clown Scene_night time

In the clown scene, I created a chilling and eerie atmosphere by incorporating white and green-coloured lights. These lights added an unsettling vibe to the surroundings. For the background music, I carefully selected a track that enhanced the suspense and tension throughout the scene.

I incorporated three jump scares to intensify the horror experience. The first jump scare occurred when the player triggered a certain event, causing the clown to disappear with a sinister laugh. Then, unexpectedly, the clown appeared and crawled on the road, adding a startling moment. Another jump scare happened when the player reached a specific area, causing the carousel to start spinning with the clown suddenly appearing on it, only to disappear moments later.

To progress further, players had to walk a certain distance to a deserted room and choose one of the doors, leading to the next level. As the player moved past the carousel, the street lights on the side of the road would turn off and then turn on again, creating a sense of unease. During this moment, a clown would flash briefly, adding a quick scare. Finally, the swing in the scene would sway and emit eerie noises on its own, enhancing the unsettling atmosphere.

Overall, the clown scene aimed to deliver a terrifying and memorable experience, incorporating well-timed jump scares, atmospheric lighting, and haunting background music.

Player feedback after final presentation

Abhay, our playtester for the presentation, provided valuable feedback for our game (Thank you, Abhay!). Despite being aware of some of the jumpscares in advance, he still found the overall experience successful and engaging. However, there are also some problems we need to improve. Firstly, there was a humorous moment when he couldn’t reach the ladder in one scene. Additionally, in the 3 doors stage, there was an issue with the activation of lights or the visibility of an image. I’m unsure if Abhay was looking in the wrong spot or if there was a bug, but I will investigate and fix it before submitting the project.

The Sound

The collaboration with the Sound Art group students did not meet the expected level of cooperation. Unfortunately, they did not provide all the required sounds for our project, except for Alan Zhang who contributed to the clown scene and main menu scene.

Fortunately, after the final presentation, I received valuable feedback from both the teacher and fellow students who playtested our game. This feedback provided valuable insights on how to enhance these scenes, particularly considering the horror experience we aimed to deliver.

Taking the feedback into account, I made adjustments to the clown’s animation timing and changed the triggering location for the clown’s exit. I made these changes to make the game more immersive and realistic for players.

I’m grateful to Alan Zhang for providing the sounds, which saved me the time and effort of searching for them online.

Sources

Group

In this blog, we explore the exciting collaboration between We and Margarita, VR students, as we collaborate with Sound Art students to create a captivating VR game. We aim to develop an immersive experience that lasts 10-15 minutes, entirely in VR. The Sound Art students will play a crucial role by providing immersive sounds that enhance the gameplay, showcasing the incredible impact sound can have in a VR game.

There are seven people in our group:

• Jason Cui (BA Virtual Reality)
• Margarita (BA Virtual Reality)
• Hanrui Zhang (BA Sound Arts)
• Si ting Wang (BA Sound Arts)
• Ties Linssen(BA Sound Arts)
• Harvey Young (BA Sound Arts)
• Bohang Zhang (BA Sound Arts)

Conceptualization And Idea Generation

Game Design And Documentation

Game mechanics in a VR game are the rules and interactions that define how players can move, interact with the virtual environment, and achieve goals. the purpose is to make the game more immersive and entertaining most importantly easy to play.

• The walking mechanic was implemented automatically in all scenes except for the Main Menu. In the Main Menu, the walking mechanic was deactivated as it was deemed unnecessary. – All Scene

• The Raycast mechanic is a gameplay feature used in the game. It allows players to interact with specific elements by looking at them. In the game, this mechanic is utilized in the last stage of the clown scene (night), where players can activate objects (clowns) by simply directing their gaze at them. – Clown scene

• The active object mechanic is specifically designed to activate objects upon collision. One such example is the activation of clowns in the clown scene (night) and the Credits scene. – Clown Scene

• The grab object mechanic is associated with the parent mechanic for interactable elements in the game, It enables players to pick up and hold objects that have the interactable script implemented. -IN THE CLOWN SCENE, CREDIT SCENE.

• The pop menu mechanic is present in all scenes except for the Main Menu. It is triggered by pressing the Y button on the left-hand controller. This mechanic has the ability to significantly alter the game’s progression by allowing the player to access other levels or return to the main menu.

Team Formation and Resource Planning

here is what we did to identify and acquire necessary resources, tools, and assets.

Welcome to myblog.arts. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!

Research Blog – Research And development Process

Purpose

The main purpose of this project is to create a VR Music project. Based on ideas, imagination and solid research, Using MetaHuman to make 3D characters, download assets & online models to create the VR environment.

Introduction

The music that I chose for this VR movie is called Nevermind by Dennis Lloyd, Nevermind” is a track Lloyd wrote while living in Bangkok, Thailand. He moved there to focus on writing music, and met his ex-girlfriend there, where they dated for a year and a half. Lloyd states that he wrote the track at the beginning of their relationship. The track starts with the chorus, with Lloyd asking his ex if he left, would she tell her friends and would they support her through it. But then decides against it: “Baby, never mind, never mind.” I believe the song is about man who wants to be loved but is scared of leaving her or him getting left by someone but she is playing the victim. Thus he states, ‘’ your friend hold your hands’’. The first verse is Lloyd admitting that he is “ready now” for a relationship, but just asks his lover to be honest with him about being just his. After the chorus again, the second verse is same as the first one, except he is asking if his lover wants to “see his fire” rather than be his lover, and then the chorus ends the song. The song is very upbeat and dancey and has been received with extremely positive reviews.

The lyrics of the song:

What if I left and it made no sense
And you tell your friends
And they hold your hands
Baby, nevermind, nevermind
Nevermind, nevermind-What if I left and it made no sense
And you tell your friends
And they hold your hands
Baby, nevermind, nevermind
Nevermind, nevermind-Alright, I’m ready now, ready now
I ain’t gonna, I ain’t gonna fall back down now
Alright, I’ll take it on, take it on me
Take it on me, hmm, babyAll I, I ever ask, ever ask
Are you gonna, are you gonna be my lover?
Tonight, and take it with, take it with me
Take it with me, hmmWhat if I left and it made no sense
And you tell your friends
And they hold your hands
Baby, nevermind, nevermind
Nevermind, nevermind.

My thoughts & ideas

my ideas is to create a scene that looks like where Lloyd live in Bangkok, Thailand. Where there will be a swimming pool, house, gym and other stuff. And there will be two characters one is Lloyd and another one is his ex girlfriend. And the scene will represent the time when they just met each other and started their relationship. The scene are made base on the story behind the lyrics.

Problems

First of all I use maya to create some furniture for the interior of his house, then I apply some texture on the top of the chairs and tables, however it takes a long time and also when I import it to unity the color does not appear on the furniture, thereforeI have to redo it on unity. Also from the start I was trying to use maya to put some light inside the room which can helps to show more clearly about the interior, but when I import to unity I can not find the light, because of the errors that on the top right corner I can not process the music and the animation of the two characters.

Then when I made everything I just realised I didn’t change the system to android, and it contains a lots of errors on my console, therefore I can not show my animation and sound.

Solutions

while doing research online and finding videos about how to animate the characters, I realise there are so many easier way to model a product, some of them can even just download it online and import it to unity which saves me a lot of time and in unity I found out the app called unity asset, and there are plenty of ideas that inspired me from 3D to 2D, ground to sky, people already made it which convenience other people but some of them have to pay for the product as it’s very complex but fancy! I got a lot of inspiration from the resources, and its really helpful, by modelling and import the resources mostly from Sketchfab and unity and some products I made in maya, it solve a lot of problems for me, right now the only problems for me is to add the VR camera and delete the main camera, but in order to link on the bar headset there still a little bit more stuff need to do, and I already watched the tutorial on YouTube which I will catch up on that later on.

These pictures are my latest process on my project, and there are still quite a few stuff that I have to change, i will keep improving and updated.