GenreOpen World ExplorationPlatformVirtual RealityRoleDevelopment, Assets, UXYear2019

A low poly, asian environment designed for exploration in VR. Wildlife roams around the area and behave realistically. Small details like the vegetation and sky are actually moving if you look closely. All together, this makes for an immersive experience. This project was not code heavy, so I found myself working all over the engine just tweaking assets and optimizing wherever I could. Making the environment as beautiful and smooth was my main goal.

Insights & Highlights

This project gave me a lot of creative freedom as it was loosely defined as a visual experience. My job was to fill it with life and make it immersive. I experimented with different assets and that’s how the animals, vegetation, and particles came to be. Putting the level together was a satisfying process and I’m proud of how the overall vision came out. My favorite has to be the baked lighting, it really makes the colors brilliant.

Issues & Challenges

This was the first environment of the Explore type projects, so there was lots of trial and error involved discovering the ideal balance between visuals and performance. Mind you, this had to run smoothly on a Quest 1 which has the hardware specs of a decent mobile phone, pushing over 70 FPS on two 1440p screens. I worked with my 3D Modeler to reduce the mesh topologies, implement occlusion culling, and optimize lighting. This project taught me a lot on how to optimize outside of code.