VR Gallery of VR & AR in the Football Business
A showcase, incorporating info booths, gives an insight into how XR can be applied in the football business. Based on direct experiences at the VR Show, London ,2017 and SoccerX, Manchester, 2017, this is about taking a report that was published in Inside World Football and AR.VR Journey by myself & then using VR to turn it into a fun, media and content driven app. All images and videos used are also originals taken by the author making this a unique journalistic experience.
The Prototype
The player arrives at the front a large gallery with informative banner headings. Gaze input leads the user inside to a large arena with large scale VR model of a stadium as an initial eye catcher. Exploration leads the player to experience inside the stadium to watch an eye catching video of VR design of stadiums. Similarly the user enters into a Tunnel Club to explore VR design of executive clubs and experience 360 degree videos within an Immersive Dome. A large scale holographic-like player draws the user into discover AR and holograms. Captivating images and text on “Golf on Mars” lead to another intriguing portrayal of VR & AR. An oversized video box that can be seen in most parts of the arena plays colorful images and text outlining further uses of 360 degree match videos and match analysis. The UI canvases prompts the user to click to look around and explore, outlines themes and guides the user to video boxes.
Walkthrough
Target Audience
Designed for anyone from starters upwards, the user interface is clear and the only experience required is to be able to gaze and click. Even then there are instructions for the first timer. All the audience needs to bring to the app is an open mind, a desire for knowledge and a motivation to explore a different way of presenting a media report. The application is driven by the football business but will be interesting for any football fans as well as business entrepreneurs. It is also a learning experience suitable for students and schools as it is a multi-sensory experience driven experience driven by content including videos, images, texts that are linked to interactive objects and spaces. The design was founded in experience as a class teacher, psychologist and a tutor for dyslexics knowing that recall can be aided by providing “interesting visual hooks” that link facts and knowledge. This makes the application a good marketing device as well as an educational one.
For example a player 3D outline was used as a memory key to link to information about holograms.
A 3d model of a stadium was set up on the arena floor so that users have to click on the stadium to enter into the middle of the stadium. Once there a “big screen” plays a video showing how an immersive dome was used in a collaborative process by Soluis to showcase their VR stadium designs to owners, planners, builders, managers, coaches and fans. Using VR to simulate a VR experience!
Producing a new VR 3D experience
Five different themes are represented in five different areas of the virtual arena.
- Golf on Mar … so why not football?
2.VR design of Stadiums (Ethiad Stadium) in an Immersive Dome
3.VR Design of the executive Tunnel Club (Spurs)… a collaborative process
4.Hololens, Holograms & AR … how can they be used in football.
5. 360 degrees match videos, match analysis and beyond.
This VR project aims to enthuse potential audiences to explore possible and actual VR applications in the football industry. The set minimizes any adverse effects to VR whilst graphics, sound effects and lighting are used to create an awesome experience. The emphasis is on ease of use and safety whilst creating intrigue, wonder and an immersive educational experience.
The Design Process
Design followed a pre-planned, structured and iterative process with multiple tests and re-tests using the Unity platform and various mobile phones and headsets. The process was kick started using brain storming and mind mapping techniques followed by some initial sketches of the scene, story-line and user interfaces. This led to the development of this prototype.
Sketches and inspiration
The inspiration came from a report that was published in Inside World Football written by the author and drew from a stock of photos and video clips taken at the VR Show and SoccerX Show. Low tech drawings were used to plan the scenes, story line and user interface to speed up this part of the design process.
The setting simulated the show floor itself with football colors, a grass colored base and football inspired objects and themes. A plain skybox was used to keep a clear, crisp, minimal appearance. The emphasis is on presenting content in a colorful visual way.
The 3D design of a stadium plus the maze arena and 3D player wer all acquired from Unity Assets Store (credits below). Bold Ariial font was used throughout with main colors being grass green (#0EE91EFF) and dark blue (#0A089FFF).
Process
The main scene started with the show room layout as an adaption of a maze provided by Unity.
The Tunnel Club was built using simple block cubes. The Video Box was developed using a Unity Live tutorial. Photos were enhanced and then put together into iPhoto slideshows using text as appropriate. All video clips are in the original form
The game logic including player movement was then developed using waypoints and scripts for ground raycasting. It was decided to apply user interfaces through text on the walls rather than floating canvases just to simulate a more real experience of attending a show.
More testing and re-testing incorporated end-user feedback. The end project was finally tested and retested for speed and functionality on an iPhone7.
User Testing and User Interface
Persona
User Testing for design, size and setting provided a good response. Users liked the showroom design and the clarity.
Testing of the user interface led to the starting point being changed to outside the gallery with a UI canvas to explain gaze input on google cardboard compatible devices.
Before…
After …
The labelling of the Tunnel Club was too small initially and so was enlarged.
Before …
After …
User testing of the game logic showed up some flaws in playing multiple videos in one scene. Hence the Tunnel Club and Stadium link to separate scenes where videos and info booths can be enjoyed before returning to the main scene.
The feedback for images and videos used in the scene was positive though the images are not as clear as the originals which were mainly HDR.
Conclusion and Future Developments
Building this VR app was an interesting experience and adventure into using VR to provide a media report on applications of VR! Handling large volume content of images and videos was a challenge but fun too.
Problems with playing multiple video players in the same scene and even game were encountered when using MacOS for development. It is anticipated that an upgrade to an external graphic processing unit and to the most recent version of Unity (2018.1) will help overcome most of these difficulties. it should then be possible to add 360 degree videos and panoramic images. Future development will be add more interactive animations to link to images & video information and themes.
Limitations of an iterative process became evident. At some point the circle of iteration has to end. There has to be cut off points and deadlines met. Hence an iterative process needs to be combined with structured modular design, each with their own deadlines. A contingency time factor needs to be added to the planning process and quite a large one at that as Unity is constantly changing bringing benefits with each version release. Customer expectations need to be managed with a degree of built in flexibility rather than absolute deadlines if possible as VR & AR are still in their infancy and so more akin to research and development projects. Prototypes are a good starting point and developers can maximize the product to meet a deadline but know that there is time for revision and further development before releasing a final product.
References
Link to articles :
Credits
* all available on Unity asset store
Soocer Stadium by T-Bull 2018–01–06Arena Maze & Player by Unity Technologies (VR Samples)
