Inspiration
This location means a lot to one of the founders of Customer XR. He was very passionate about sharing the beauty of this location with the world, and we saw Immersive technology as the way to do so.
What it does
We took 360 video of 14 spots which are highlighted on the Innisfree website and collaborated with the staff at the garden to go into the location on days when they were closed. They guided us to the spots and helped us choose where to record. We then took this footage and paired it with spatial sound, navigation points and a UI that allows first time VR users and experienced vr users to use intuitive hand tracking controls to explore the garden.
How we built it
Using Unreal Engine 5, we imported the 360 footage and converted it to a format that would run on the quest in a consistent way. We created UI elements that were simple and self explanatory so that anyone can enjoy the experience. No videos contain movement, so that people do not feel motion sickness and instead feel like they are simply standing at a point in the garden and taking it all in un obstructed.
Challenges we ran into
We had to do a lot of conversions from the original video footage in order to get it running properly on the Quest. We also had a huge issue which was that the Innisfree Garden itself does not have wifi, so in order to show it to the folks there we needed to keep it as an offline experience. We realized the video footage was way to big to fit into the small size limit imposed on Quest apps that are uploaded to the store, so we have to develop a download manager system that installs the content after first opening the app. Once installed the footage can be played without internet connection on future uses. We created a small preview area for users to learn about the garden areas via audio descriptions while they wait for the one time download to finish.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
It was tough finding the right path to getting 360 content to play on the quest in our own standalone Unreal Engine application. We are proud that we were able to find the very specific pathway needed to do so, and are now able to bring in new content very easily. We are also proud of the UI system we built which was inspired by the quest home menu and the Apple vision pros UI elements.
What we learned
Capturing 360 video is the easy part, finding a way to share it in our own application is the hard part. We learned how to both stream, and download video content to a device and now we can confidently do the same for other experiential locations. We also learned a bit about what its like to work on a project for a client that has no immersive technology experience. This helped us with creating a truley accessible for all" experience
What's next for Innisfree Garden
We plan on recording Winter footage when the snow falls, and more spring footage once we get to that point in the year. We also plan to utilize our new Omni Directional microphone to record more spatial audio at the garden.
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