Wonderful You VR

Technical Lead & Lead Unity Developer

Wonderful You VR is an award-winning virtual reality experience narrated by Samantha Morton, taking audiences on a journey through the development of the human senses before birth.

Originally released for Oculus Rift and Samsung Gear VR, the experience was showcased internationally at festivals including SXSW, Venice and Beijing.

The Challenge

The project combined high-quality artwork, animation and visual effects with the demanding performance requirements of virtual reality.

While Oculus Rift provided relatively powerful hardware, Samsung Gear VR introduced significant limitations around rendering, memory and overall performance. Maintaining a comfortable VR experience while preserving the visual quality of the project required careful optimisation throughout development.

My Contribution

As Technical Lead, I was responsible for the overall Unity implementation and technical direction of the project.

I worked closely with artists and designers to bring the experience to life, creating bespoke shaders and visual effects that helped achieve the project's unique visual style while remaining performant on VR hardware.

A large part of development focused on profiling and optimisation, ensuring the experience maintained stable frame rates across both desktop and mobile VR devices.

I also developed a dedicated 360° video version of the experience for Samsung Gear VR, allowing the project to reach a wider audience while working within the constraints of mobile VR hardware.

Technologies

Unity • C# • Oculus Rift • Samsung Gear VR • Custom Shaders • Visual Effects • Performance Optimisation • 360° Video