My 2018 metaverse experiment

Panden is an open-sky project for an app where you can meet up with anyone in a re-creation of a familiar living room. Create the perfect place for meeting up with old friends, express yourself in a safe environment and keep a permanent collection of curated memories at your fingertips.

Insights

Storyboarding

App UX Flow

Creating the World

To recreate my living room I measured it up then modelled it with Sketchup. I then matched the furniture using photos. I imported it into Unity where I made the textures, interactive objects (using the VRChat SDK) and live lighting.

Using Adobe Fuse I recreated myself and two housemates as realistic 3D avatars. After I'd created the models and exported them with armatures using Mixamo, I reduced the polygon count in Blender, then I reassigned the armature and textures in Unity

Conclusion

Considering how big of a buzzword 'metaverse' became, I must have been on to something! Though Meta and other player in this space have struggled with creating a realistic and satisfying experience with limited hardware. Hopefully in a few years the hardware and software will improve enough that I can pick this up again. Reach out to collaborate!