Vertical Farm 360 is a project collaboration with LetUsEat.org and GrowItYork which maintain a vertical farm located in SPARK at York. Their goal is to promote the use and research of vertical farming in order to support local businesses
The project was combined with an AR 3D scan of the farm alongside a 360 video showing the space. All of these elements were used at The Great Yorkshire Show. The client wanted a variety of media to show at their stand and we had a short time to get as much done as possible.
When creating the virtual environment we wanted to keep the room and size as accurate as we could. We wanted to try and build from the 3D scan but we couldn't get the most accurate result. Therefore we used that as a skeleton to design the virtual environment.
The look we wanted to capture was the essence of the space. Making a low-fi grid-based look was useful in not only making the design as accurate to the space but also cosmetically appealing. Before coming to this conclusion we experimented with a variety of shaders but found the client enjoyed the grid-based style due to its uniformity with the surroundings.
Using colour for the plants and lights. These environmental tells and the teleportation pads were eye-grabbing to the user, allowing for simple navigation across the space.
Above are some comparison shots of the real vertical farm and the digital farm. We had limitations with the accuracy of assets but found ways to make it work. When building for headset performance was key so we made sure to use a set amount of assets in the scene.
Here are some photos of the event. We had a lot of interest from a variety of people. Younger age groups particularly took a shine to VR and found the educational content engaging through the use of info icons and images. The client was more than pleased with the final result.