In the previous article, we reported on the creation of the avatars for the VR Investors Day on June 08, 2021, where 6 presenters will present their companies to investors in a virtual reality environment.
In this article we show the creation of the virtual rooms for the VR Investors Day. These were created in collaboration with Montega AG and the private bank Donner & Reuschel.
Possibilities in Virtual Rooms
The VR Investors Day is based on our product NeXR Seminar. At this event, avatars are animated in real time using state-of-the-art motion capture technology and transferred to virtual rooms. The six entrepreneurs present their company almost like in reality. However, additional features can be integrated, which are either not possible in reality or can only be implemented at great expense.
At the VR Investors Day, presentations by the entrepreneurs are shown on a large screen in the virtual presentation room. These are integrated in a similar way to a PowerPoint presentation and can contain both graphics and videos. Due to the short presentation time, VR Investors Day does not use videos during the presentation.
The creation of the virtual environments
For the VR Business Day, we used a virtual space that had already been designed for a test of our product NeXR Seminar. When choosing the virtual world, we wanted it to be as far as possible not a standardized room, but to “take” the participants into a different situation. These situations can be vacations, adventure, luxury, but also bizarre environments or situations unattainable for most people, such as outer space. Since a virtual environment should fit the purpose of the event, the penthouse was chosen for the presentations.
For this, our game artists first built a few concepts in Blender. For the design, reference images from the previous research were used. It is important for rooms in VR to appear wide and open. This creates a pleasant atmosphere, but should not offer too much that it distracts from the purpose.
Originally, the penthouse was located in snowy New York. A cozy working atmosphere was to be a contrast to the cold environment of the city streets.
However, since the event was to be held in June, a location was chosen that was appropriate for the weather. So the penthouse was moved from New York to a warm environment on the Greek islands.
In the room itself, the colors were changed so that they are no longer so warm but rather fresh. This contributes to the feel-good factor during the VR Investors Day.
User Experience
To simulate the arrival of the VR Investors Day participants to the event, an open yacht was built. This virtual environment is used to register, so that the presenter can directly address the participants for questions. A keyboard appears in front of the participants with which they can enter their name.
In addition, the yacht serves the user experience. It simulates the journey to the event and provides the participants with a short orientation phase. They see that they are in front of a Greek island and have the azure blue sea in front of them. The bright colors create a pleasant atmosphere.
However, the yacht is not moving. It would be possible to animate the environment in such a way that the journey to the virtual presentation room would seem even more real. Due to the danger of motion sickness, this was explicitly omitted. This mainly occurs when only the environment moves, but the user stands or sits still.
This is because the participants would not have the best experience with a queasy stomach.
Conclusion
When developing virtual environments, care must be taken to ensure that all users have the best possible experience. In this case, these are not only the presenters but also the participants.
A virtual environment must always serve its purpose. It makes little sense, for example, if a serious event takes place in a bizarre environment. The environment in this case should give the participants a good feeling in which they feel comfortable. Environments that would trigger feelings of fear or being constricted would not be appropriate for an event of this format and would not serve the purpose.
In the upcoming article, we will go into the possibilities for interaction during the VR Investors Day and show what other possibilities there would be beyond that.
For more info on this event, as well as ways to participate in it virtually, click here.
In the upcoming blog post we will give you some information about the possibilities of communication and interaction during the VR Investors Day.
