Nicklas Kenyon Mooers

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USVRS

Fall 2016 - Spring 2017

USVRS thumbnail

Above is a picture of me and my advisor/mentor, Steven Mygind Pedersen, who is giving me critique on the project.

Made using: Unity 5, Adobe Photoshop CC, Oculus Rift

Summary

USVRS is an attempt to rethink the virtual reality medium and explore the advantages the platform provides in evoking strong emotional and physical reactions.

Over the course of 6 months, I developed an art piece for the Oculus Rift that underwent several major changes. What started out as a 3D music visualizer using real-time mesh generation and audio-analysis, ended as a critical commentary that privileged real-time procedural audio generation. While the technology behind the 3D music visualizer was successful, conceptually the piece was not. After much consideration, I decided to use the VR medium to offer critical commentary on capitalism, marketing, and big business in the digital age. I researched the 56 top-valued companies in 2016 according to Forbes.com, and then brought their logos into a digital space.

While this piece has the themes and ideas that I have attached to it, I have designed it in such a way where it leaves plenty of room for user interpretation. It is my hope that it makes the viewer think, and creates a lasting impact both physically and mentally.

Download

Thank you for your interest in this project! Please follow these instructions to properly download and experience this art piece.

Please note: This project is built to be run on Windows using an Oculus Rift headset.

  1. Click here to download the zip file containing the executable and data folders.
  2. Unzip the file. Make sure to keep the data folder in the same location as the executable!
  3. Launch the Oculus software to prepare your Oculus Rift headset for play.
  4. Double click the “Nicklas Kenyon - USVRS.exe” executable to launch the project.
  5. Feel free to set the graphics settings in the Unity Launcher to Fantastic. This application is in no way designed to be performant, and actually benefits slightly from a lack of performant code and execution.