NAB
A new virtual reality location-based exhibit promises to
take visitors on a trip into space. The Infinite makes use of
exclusive video taken by astronauts aboard the International Space Station and
uses a battery of multisensory and interactive tools to make the experience as
real as possible.
Yet… ultimately the travelers will be grounded walking
around a 12,500 square-foot gallery.
The Infinite, which debuted in Montreal last month, is a
joint venture by PHI Studio and Felix & Paul Studios. It’s an extension
of Space Explorers: The ISS Experience, a documentary production, produced
by Felix & Paul Studios in association with TIME Studios and launched last
October 2020 on the Oculus Quest 2.
The project uses some of the 200 hours of footage recorded
over two years on a Z-Cam V1 Pro 360-degree camera by eight astronauts aboard
the ISS.
Transitioning from more static cinematic footage in VR, 90
simultaneous “users will be able to wander in a free-roaming environment”
through a full-scale 1:1 wireframe representation of the ISS within the
gallery.
“We just approached NASA and laid out a vision for what this
could be,” says Felix & Paul’s Paul Raphaël. “We always knew we wanted to
capture humans in space, but we also knew we had to earn our way there. So, we
started on smaller projects, like capturing astronaut training, and over time
built up enough goodwill to start talking about the logistics of Space Cameras
[the Z-Cams].”
As visitors roam, a mixture of 3DoF/6DoF VR, spatial audio,
and interactive hotspots act as “experience sweeteners” according to Epic
Games. Unreal Engine was integral to the build of the virtual
environment.
Pierre Blaizeau, head of technology at Felix & Paul,
explains: “One of the biggest challenges of this experience is a visitor’s
movement within the space. It’s not A to B. There are transitions between 6DoF
and stereoscopic content that have to go smoothly. There are interactive
elements that require precise tracking, and general things that just need to be
avoided for everything to feel seamless.”
Getting 150 people through the door every hour also means
there won’t be one ISS in the room; instead, several are required, all arranged
in a Tetris-like configuration within Unreal Engine for maximum occupancy. And
while the experience was created with free roaming at heart, there are still
beats the producers want people to hit. Trigger points, for instance, are scattered
throughout to make use of the exclusive footage.
The production makes uses of volumetric audio, captured
along with the video, and hand tracking needed for object activations.
The production promises the VR-nauts will “feel the
weightlessness of an astronaut,” although of course they are all on terra
firma.
To keep them from feeling unnerved by the experience the
makers say the floor is essential. “We feel grounded when there’s actual ground
beneath us, so we made sure to build that into Unreal,” says Raphaël. “The same
grid is inside the ISS, but it’s much bigger outside to bring people comfort.
It’s very stylized and still lets us show the stars below, so you have a good
balance between a necessary device and
Adults are charged $50 for an hour-long experience, 35
minutes of which is in VR. Then there’s a chance to following the astronauts
outside where they work on the space station. The goal is to give the viewer
something very few people on Earth have ever experienced — access to the
“Overview Effect.”
This is a shift in awareness that astronauts report when
they see Earth for the first time in space and could be the highlight of the
show.
The rest of the hour is padded with a specially commissioned
art exhibit by Ryoji Ikeda.
After Montreal, the exhibit travels to Houston, New York,
Boston, Chicago, Toronto, Vancouver, and Los Angeles.
It is the latest in a long series of marketing initiatives
by NASA as it seeks to build public enthusiasm for upcoming expensive missions
to the moon and Mars.
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