Posted September 18, 2022 by phonepyaetun
#educational
Imagine owning your own private museum and being able to freely go through all the art pieces at your own pace supplemented with complete textual and audio information for each piece. The opportunity to explore at one's pace is believed to not only enrich the experience but also improve the visitor’s memory retention for it becomes much more personalised.
With the help of VR technology, specifically with the help of Quest 2 for this project, visitors can enrich their museum exploration experience and enhance their learning with the ability to inspect 3D models in details with fun and ease. The 3D models also feature virtual noticeboards that explain more about the object they are inspecting so that the students can obtain more insights about the object rather than merely looking around. Lastly, the background music also brings an exciting positive atmosphere to the exploration.
https://img.freepik.com/free-vector/woman-with-kid-museum-cheerful-mother-daught...
With the help of VR technology, the app is able to elevate the museum exploration experience by simulating a 3D environment from the ground-up with detailed 3D models side-by-side so that the visitor can freely and easily observe the art pieces and get a richer understanding of their background information and even relative sizes.
The virtual reality interface brings the technology side (via the Occulus Quest 2 Headset along with its controllers) and the experience side (mimicking people’s natural ability to walk/circle around objects and inspect them). This creates an affordance of a life-like and intuitive viewing experience as if you are in a real physical museum.
The application requires just a VR headset and controllers (Occulus Quest 2 for this project) to fully enjoy the museum exploration experience. The 3D models both the room and its 3d models (all in FBX format) are scaled to real-life sizes with detailed textures and shaders.
Occulus Quest 2
3D models all rendered in details with appropriate lighting
The application uses OVR Plugin and Oculus Integration package via Asset Store for the Occulus Device (Headset and controllers) for its navigation, locomotion and basic intereactio with the 3D environment.
Information panel/board explaining what the art piece is about.
Under the same engine, it also utilises collision trigger events when the VR hands interact with certain objects with different ways (e.g, flexing/pointing the right index finger and touching the button. This helps the user to toggle the information panel on and off.
All 3D models were extracted from the following Unity Store Asset Packs:
1. Showroom Environment
2. Museum VR Asset Pack Vol. III
In summary, each model represents an art piece that is either under Egyptian, Asian background or Greek/Roman. There is a total of 32 main models ranging from statues, paintings, showcase glassboxes and lamps.
Apart from the addition of scalable rooms with more 3D assets, the project can expand its features such as:
Music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uj9hqmywdgQ&ab_channel=Eternal
3D models:
Art models: https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/3d/environments/museum-vr-asset-pack-vol-iii-82997
Room models: https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/3d/environments/showroom-environment-73740