Lab Exercises Prototyping The Immersive Experience What is Virtual Reality? “VR applications immerse the user in a computer-generated environment that simulates reality through the use of interactive devices, which send and receive information and are worn as goggles, headsets, gloves, or body suits.” Lowood, Henry E (2025) In this assignment, I will be writing about how certain softwares can be utilized using visual language such as light, colour and sound to create 360 environments. The Cell Fracture Exercise In Blender In lab session one, I set up a 360 environment in blender, and experimented with a plugin called cell fracture. I then applied it to a basic sphere mesh using geometry nodes to create an exploding particle effect. One of the features of cell fracture that could be used in a 360 VR environment is the control of the direction of the explosion, and depending on where the user is standing during the cell fracture, they could see different particle effects at different angles. Potentially this control of explosion shape could direct a user’s view to a specific object or direction to further the narrative of the experience. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-JWWjJ8AtYM A particular issue I overcame included the size and range of the explosion being contained to a really overt circular shape, which looked inorganic and not very immersive, and the unexpected result could trigger VR sickness. I had to adjust the settings of the ‘from max’ value on the map range module in geometry nodes, to expand the range of the cell fracture; this made the distribution of the exploding particles look more natural for the user. UX Design Institute states on replicating real life expectations: “According to Leon Zhang writing for UX Collective, spatial interaction design in the VR world is how the world really functions. In other words, users don’t need to learn to sit on a chair or grab a sword; they already know from experience. UX designers just have to replicate that experience” C Vinney (2023) Therefore more organic reactions in objects, (which will be expected due to real life heuristic expectations), could help prevent VR sickness from unexpected visuals that don’t corroborate with real world knowledge and experiences, as well as creating a strong feeling of presence in the user, as well as trust. I also experimented with sculpting a tree in blender for my project, as i wanted to have ago with making something in the 360 environment, as well as playing with naturistic lighting and camera movement. https://youtu.be/dUl28zZbyb0 Music Visualiser Exercise During this set exercise, I followed a tutorial on how to make a 3D music visualiser. This could be interesting used in a 360 VR environment as it shows responsiveness to the sound used in the environment, and something like this could be used to create a musical VR experience (for example like beat saber), which represents the music itself in a physical moving form, utilising things like colour and light, to create a unique and interesting VR experience. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Emr4loczAAI Seeing the music moving in this way could also help people enter a flow state: “The mental state in which a person performing some activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and enjoyment in the process of the activity.” J. Yablonski (2025) Flow Laws of UX When used in a musical experience, seeing the physical visualiser of the music in a 360 environment could engage users by having them enter a flow state, and gain interest through the use of colours that could change and even glow depending on the type of music being played. FrameVR. io In this session we were asked to create a concept and narrative using FrameVR.io’s online VR environment, to tell a story or evoke a feeling. This space allows designers to externally import assets such as 3D models and images, and gives access to a range of 3D models already included with the software. Range of 3D assets readily available to use in Frame VR.io as well as player view and character The Muder Mystery Idea I drew up a storyboard idea for a murder mystery, in which i wanted to use hierarchy and heuristics in the form of visual language such as light, and colour, in order to create an immersive story which invites users to engage problem solving skills, however i realised this would be impractical as just an “experience”, and would really require coding and interactivity to be functional, and decided to create some other story boards for an immersive glade/nature scene. New Concept An article by medium states that VR: “Provides a world that is enjoyable to see, live in and interact with while eliminating dangerous or extraneous features or entities that might negatively impact the user experience.” N Dauchot (2018) The concept is a 360 nature scene with flowers, trees, and lots of ethereal colours, with the goal of giving the user a beautiful experience that will make them feel awe and wonder, as well as allowing them to explore the scene, to provide fun, and allow the user to engage in escapism from daily life, in a way that is aesthetically pleasing. Storyboards The plan was to have the user will start in the middle of a medium 360 environment, which encourages them to look around in all directions, and view the sky from a view point, giving an otherworldly, ethereal pretty nature experience; my concept, albeit crudely executed at this point in time, is inspired by the game “Fuji VR Gardening Experience”, a game which is based on another planet, rich in colour and unusual flora. B Lang. (2019) Fuji Review Fuji VR Gardening showing bright colours and ethereal beauty. B Lang. (2019) My Scene https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UEbhN4rIkPQ The prettiness of the environment could help to engage users more efficiently due to the design law “Aesthetic-Usability Effect” (Kurosu and Kashimura), making the person want to spend more time exploring the 360 environment because of its… Continue reading Lab Exercises