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FutuReality: A Journey into Tomorrow's Worlds

Date

06/2023 - 09/2023

Category

VR, Metaverse, Game Design, Unreal, Narrative Storytelling 

Designer

Introduction

"FutuReality: A Journey into Tomorrow's Worlds" is an VR digital exhibition that aims to lead users through an immersive exploration of future societal possibilities and challenges using virtual reality technology.

The significance of this project lies in its ability to blend education and entertainment seamlessly. We aspire to spark curiosity and contemplation about the future by providing a visually stunning and intellectually stimulating experience.

Tu Zhengyao

Exhibition

Scenario1: Military

Scenario2: Nature
Scenario3: AI
Scenario4: Disaster
Scenario5: Life

Research

With the renewed heated discussion of science fiction and the popularity of ChatGPT, "the future" seems to have become a question that we have to think about. So I also thought about the issue of “the future”.

I read Liu Cixin's fantasy novel "The Three-Body Problem". In his novels, he believes that people are romantic. Love and survival often blend together. This is a good guess for the future. And he believed that death was destined and instantaneous. Therefore, humans may suddenly disappear in the future. After reading his novels, I have more speculations about the future.

I also watched the "Love, Death & Robots" animation, as well as some other fantasy movies and TV series. I began to think about the relationship between robots and humans. It is difficult to determine whether such a relationship will be balanced in the future. Although we currently try to make robots work for us, will this still be the case in the future?

Brainstorming

So I hope to build a digital museum of the future. In order to determine the content of the exhibition hall, I brainstormed about "future".

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Concept

The thematic core of our exhibition revolves around the multifaceted aspects of future societies, addressing technological advancements, environmental sustainability, human evolution, and potential crises. It's a kaleidoscope of possibilities and challenges.

Our design philosophy involves marrying elements of speculative fiction with real-world trends. This fusion creates a captivating narrative that guides users through a dynamic exploration of futuristic scenarios, both plausible and imaginative.

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Moodboard

At the same time, I collage my emotional version of these themes. Mood boards help me have a more unified style when designing venues.

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Scene Design

In order to give players a better gaming experience and ensure the smoothness of the venue. I decided to use portals as connections between venues.

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Technical

After brainstorming, I identified a theme for each venue, for which I developed my technical directions and implemented them using visual programming.

VR device configuration

In order to allow players to control the game process through VR, I configured the input port of UE for VR. And some blueprints have been added to realize the most basic interactive actions of VR controllers, such as grabbing, lifting objects, etc.

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VR equipment enters the scene

Write UE5 debugging VR device blueprint

Niagara effect implementation

Since a large number of holographic elements are used in future scenes, the dynamics of Niagara particle effects have become a top priority. To complete the particle effects, I built multiple Niagara systems and wrote blueprints.

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Niagara particle animation variables

Niagara particle system connection

Niagara particle system construction

Niagara particle dynamic effects

Portal transition implementation

The portal that connects venues is also a part that cannot be ignored. At first, I just set up a simple venue switching setting without adding delays, fades and other effects. Later, after experiencing it, I felt that the scene switching was too abrupt, so I added some delay and fade-in effects. And combined with Niagara particle effects, the portal has a more sci-fi feel.

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Scene switching blueprint for collider

Portal visual construction

Scenario 1: Military Exhibition
After entering the Military Exhibition, the VR sensor in the player's hand will turn into a firearm and experience the impact of future firearms. Players can pick up various future firearms in the exhibition through VR equipment. They may be laser guns, holographic guns... However, if the player overuses the firearms and accidentally hits the explosive barrel, the exhibition will explode. This design is to allow players to have a deeper awareness through VR that military development will also cause future wars and even destroy our existing civilization.
Scenario 2: Nature Exhibition
Nature Exhibition aims to explore the relationship between organisms and humans in the future. Will all the organisms we have today only exist in the form of specimens or sculptures in the future? Are the creatures that are supposed to live on earth like us deprived of the right to exist? In the future, we may use mature holographic technology to introduce strange life. Will humans, the last living creatures on earth, feel lonely? All of this is waiting for players to explore in the VR Nature Exhibition.
Scenario 3: AI Exhibition
AI Exhibition is inspired by the game "Detroit: Become Human". Will AI be able to live in harmony with humans in the future? Will AI bring more severe challenges to mankind or will it develop more rapidly? Are we humans also AIs given consciousness by the previous creature? How will humans and AI get along? I think this is an unavoidable topic today and even in the future. Some of the AI ​​in the AI ​​Exhibition will be hostile, while some will be very friendly, depending on the player's judgment of the lighting and robot movements.
Scenario 4: Disaster Exhibition
After entering the Disaster Exhibition, players will no longer be able to see their VR sensors. We will become souls! Because of mankind's excessive use of nuclear weapons and wanton destruction of the environment, the earth has become a defective planet. After the catastrophe, there is no life left on the earth. Players can only watch the post-disaster world as souls. We can do nothing but see despair and feel infinite regret. But the feeling of helplessness is temporary. There is a timer in the museum. After the timer expires, players can return to other exhibitions to explore.
Scenario 5: Life Exhibition
Life Exhibition is inspired by the "Cyberpunk 2077" game and Liu Cixin's novel "The Three-Body Problem". What will people's lifestyles look like in the future? Will the rapid dissemination and reading of information change our lifestyle? Do humans still need sleep? Will Toilet become a relic of a bygone era? Fantasy is often the prerequisite for social development, and Life Exhibition aims to trigger players' fantasies and speculations by digitizing objects in life.
Reflection
What does the future hold? This is a question I often think about. In today's era of information explosion, there seem to be more and more dangerous hidden dangers in the future, and they are becoming increasingly difficult to detect. I often ask my friends: "What do you think the future will be like?" It is often like what is described in cyberpunk. It seems that the technology of the future will definitely inform the developed countries and be used by people. We often unconsciously believe that humans will still dominate the world in the future, but maybe the dinosaurs in the past thought so too. After I realized this, I found that there may be great variables in the future. COVID-19 is likely to be a warning from the earth to us. The future may still be under our control, and we may even have left the earth. I don’t want my works to have too much emotional bias. I hope players can have their own thoughts and reflections after playing my Exhibition.

What does the future hold? I can only speculate based on my own perspective and what I have seen in the past. So in the end I found that I couldn't predict the distant future. I can only say that I will most likely eat tomorrow, but maybe I will die suddenly. I hope more people will discover this fact.

I created a lot of future possibilities in this project. They are often polar opposites. The player will have the possibility that he thinks is the most likely, but he cannot deny the occurrence of other possibilities. Finally, I gave it to professors to play, and they also felt the fact in the game that they could not clearly see the future, and the only thing they could do was to do well in the present.
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