Time Machine VR

Partner studio: Puny Human

Concept

A VR experience placing players in a submersible in the prehistoric ocean, studying and cataloging large marine creatures. Developed with scientific consultation from the Canada Research Chair in Vertebrate Paleontology at McGill University, so creature design and behavior had to satisfy scientific review as well as art direction.

Requirement

The partner needed additional 3D modeling, material work and visual effects capacity on large interactive prehistoric creatures, plus modifications to existing assets. The work sat inside an early VR production where stereo rendering and close-range viewing leave little tolerance for effects that read acceptably on a flat screen — and where the science consultant's sign-off was a real gate, not a courtesy.

Approach

A small, senior pair worked on creature models and their accompanying material work, alongside targeted changes to existing large interactive creatures.

A custom giant-squid ink effect — internally called “Pseudomorph” — was built from a custom mesh, bespoke materials, morph targets and particle effects to produce a scientifically plausible ink cloud that holds up in stereo. A sci-fi monolith was built with mechanical gear animation, concealment behavior and glow particles, with custom lighting and collision handled through Unreal's Cascade particle system, reusing lighting techniques developed on the studio's own titles.

Tooling was Modo, Photoshop, After Effects and Unreal Engine.

Delivery scope

• 3D modeling (creature and hard-surface)
• Material authoring
• Visual effects (Cascade)
• Custom shader and morph-target work
• Animation modifications
• Lighting and collision setup
• In-engine integration

Results

• Released 19 May 2016 on Oculus Rift and HTC Vive; PlayStation VR 15 November 2016; Gear VR January 2017; plus a D-BOX motion-chair arcade version
• One of roughly 30 SteamVR titles to exceed $1M in revenue, at approximately $1.2M
• 6–10 person-months delivered, across 2 developers
• Creature assets passed scientific accuracy review
• Identified the inter-studio communication and file-sharing gaps that were closed before the next engagement, and directly informed the process changes credited on The Mage's Tale

Engine: Unreal Engine 4.