Introduction
A full-fledged theme-park VR experience, complete with an automated ride on Oculus Rift, following the journey of Togo — the dog who helped save the village of Nome from an epidemic by delivering life-saving serum across the Alaskan wilderness.
My contribution
I worked as a programmer and also helped with visual effects:
- Created and integrated a water splash effect using Maya Bifrost.
- Simulated ice-floor cracking and shattering using the Pull Down It plugin.
- Optimized Unity scenes involving massive terrains, shaders and particle effects.
- Implemented the player ride journey and environment.
Design challenges
The journey was set in the vast arctic lands of Alaska. These enormous terrains impacted performance and required careful optimization through occlusion culling to keep the ride smooth and immersive.