Following on from the fantastic support we received from ACEIT for our VR leadership training concept The VR Performance Institute, we were accepted onto Hi3, a similar programme from London South Bank University with delivery centres in Kent.
They have been providing more technical guidance as we work up the plan for the prototype along with access to their virtual production studio in Kent.
Last week we spent the day filming our central character, (an actor playing) the AI built by V-ARC (the company that our narrative / game is based around).
The filming was done in a volumetric capture studio, which generates animated 3D objects that can be brought into any digital environment.
We’re still playing with the options for how he is then deployed in the experience, including shrinking him down and have him standing on the table in mixed reality pass-through and using phones / tablets to do something similar in AR.
Our favourite solution, as it doesn’t rely on our audience having to do anything to initiate it, is a hologrammatic screen. We’ve been waiting for these to become affordable and interoperable for a while…and now finally they are, via Looking Glass.
Our main issue in fact with this project is the very speed of technological developments – when we first came up with the concept of putting people in charge of a nascent AI it was still an unknown quantity, whereas now the industry is at the centre of public conciousness and moving so rapidly we are in danger of whatever capabilities we give our platform looking outdated or irrelevant.
So we better get this prototype ready!