Zen World
Made with Heder Hayat | Year: 2018
Took charge of the VR User Interface and Interaction Design
Zen World VR is a virtual reality application for the Oculus Go made using Oculus SDK, Maya, and Unity, that I made with my brother, Heder Hayat, a 3D modeller and UX designer. The application is a "build-your-own-world" experience where the user can manipulate various parts of their environment. For our demo, we set the environment in a low-poly Japanese garden with the goal of creating a calming and therapeutic experience. This was our first project with VR, and it served as an exploration into user interactions and 3D design for future projects.
Tools: Oculus SDK, Unity, Maya, Photoshop
The 3D Environment
The setting of the application is a Japanese garden with a river flowing in the middle. There are ancient Japanese structures present, including a bridge and a house. All models are low-poly; as a result we were able to apply a minimal aesthetic to our scene and also rid our VR experience of any load times or lags.
The setting includes general assets like rocks, trees, grass etc. but our concept ideally extends that to multiple environments that a user would be able to choose from. The user can create/delete assets, scale them and move them around to a location of their choosing and in doing so, they can create their own version of the scene. We believe that this is a calming and fun experience for the user to be creative and build out their virtual worlds.
Modeling
All the structures in the app were modelled in Maya, with inspiration taken from other low-poly models found on the web. Materials and shades were applied to the models before they were exported for Unity. All lighting and other post-processing effects were applied in Unity.
User Functionality
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Users can toggle between MOVE, BUILD and DELETE mode by long pressing on either the left or right side of the touchpad
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In MOVE mode, players will be able to teleport depending where the line renderer is hitting the ground (same as foundations)
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In BUILD mode, players can build an assortment of meshes (rocks, grasses, and bamboos). Players can switch between the items by using a swiping motion across the touchpad by going left to right or vice versa.
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By pressing the trigger, an object is created at the position of the end of the line renderer. Holding and dragging while the trigger is down can scale the object.
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By highlighting a current graspable object (rocks, grasses, and bamboos) with the line renderer, the user can hold the trigger and drag the object to a new location.
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In DELETE mode, the user can delete objects that are highlighted by the line renderer.
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By clicking left or right side of the touchpad, the user can rotate the camera.
Controls on the Oculus Go controller:
Left to Right: Build, Move, Delete.
Additional Features
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Water is generated in the stream using procedural generated terrain. The water also animates!
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There are previews of objects before creating them in BUILD mode.
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User can walk across the bridge to explore the other side.
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Soothing music plays as you design your own garden!
See the app in action below: