Light Relaxation (A Resting VR Experience)
Before entering the VR prototyping phase, I did some research on VR experiences where people lay down and/or relax. When I was making this in February 2017, there wasn't much out. Some of the biggest experiences now however, include The Shard's Slide in the UK, Oculus Relax VR, and Waterslide in topshop.
The pictures show snippets of the works. You can also click the links below for more info:
With not much out there, I went into prototyping phase to familiarize myself with building for VR while doing research on the best approach concept-wise. I specifically aimed for a mobile experience so people could take it with them anywhere and use it in their beds without being next to a giant VR set-up. It would also allow for more accessibility, since mobile VR only requires a smart phone and a google cardboard at the least.
Here was my first prototype working on my Samsung Galaxy Phone.
Seeing that my first scenery was very dark and not conducive to relaxation, I wanted to ramp up my production value and make things feel more calming, so I created this amazing scenery in Unreal Engine.
However, with the constraint of mobile, this scene was not usable. It required too much power from the phone. Doing further research though, I was able to discover that people enjoy laying down and looking into space. With that I pivoted to the environment below.
I introduced stars and particles to make the scenery colorful and engaging. In addition, I wanted to keep some of the interactive engagement that comes with VR. With that in mind, I introduced an interface where by looking at the cubes pictured above allowed you to control the gravity of the floating objects in the space.
The gif below gives a sample of it happening.
The virtual space was a bit messy, but with the white noise audio it was starting to touch on the laying down and relax vibe I was aiming for.
Showing it to my professors, they saw that I had the virtual body representing the person n the experience was in grass. They suggested that I have the person wearing it also lay physically in grass to elevate the connection of the virtual and physical space creating a mixed reality experience.
So I did!
Finally I did some further testing with people in the space listening to the audio.
The final documentation video is below.
