We had to create a VR mini-game, dedicated to snorkeling, the practice of swimming on or through a body of water while equipped with a diving mask.
We realized this project on Unreal Engine 4 for the Valve Index VR headset and set up 2 autonomous VR zones in the shop. As a location for the mini-game, we have chosen one of the most vibrant places in the world — The Great Barrier Reef and reproduced an undersea landscape using topographical maps.
CHALLENGES
In the making of the project, we tried to make a functionality intuitive and user-friendly even for inexperienced users. Apart from that, we paid attention to a few moments that would guarantee the comfortable usage of the application.
For many inexperienced users, VR causes motion-induced sickness or dizziness. It was important for us to minimize these effects.
SOLUTION
In snorkeling, the user stands in one place and holds in his hands a virtual underwater towing vehicle, navigating with his hands. This is a fairly large object, which is always within eyesight and its control does not cause dissonance between the vestibular system and vision.
Before submersion, the visitor puts on a virtual mask for snorkeling, which remains visible with peripheral vision. The presence of a motionless object relative to the player’s head essentially reduces the effect of motion-induced sickness.
Our client wanted only the users of the loyalty program to have access to VR and store employees to change some parameters in VR zones. That’s why we created a separate configuration file. In this file, employees can turn the apps on/off for each zone, enter a session limit in seconds, set the interval between sessions, and regulate movement speeds in each game. It is also possible to enter the minimum allowable interval between sessions for users to avoid the queue.
Visitors have to scan his card with a scanner, placed in each VR zone to access the app.
All visits are recorded in the database, so the client can track the popularity of the VR zone and the number of visitors on different days.
RESULT
Using Unreal Engine 4 we have created a VR mini-game, dedicated to snorkeling. Every day, the VR zone attracts more than 100 visitors who get unforgettable emotions while discovering the undersea of the Great Barrier Reef and swimming with whales.
