PH706 : Immersive Virtual Club
2020
In a context where the world is affected by Covid-19, social gatherings and other entertainment venues are shut down to ensure the safety of each other. Even if the restrictions are eased due to the decline of the number of spread, clubs and other larger gatherings won’t emerge back into our lives for a long while. The experience of clubbing, which for many is a way of freeing themselves from their weekly routines, is now inaccessible, just when routines are practically unavoidable and “every day suddenly feels the same”. Due to prolonged isolation, people long to escape.
Within this context, PH706 was born driven by escapism, and how it would allow people to get away to experience an alternative reality. The multi-coloured lights, vibrations of the bass, and almost hypnotic dance moves drove us towards the centre of the nightlife of all cities, raves.
Our neon-lit world of bots wants us to free ourselves and break our routine for a while.
Role: Director, Animator, Editor for the story. Testing, building, visual design for platform.
User Research
Motivation
People are forced to stay at home most of the time
Clubs and larger gatherings are not available
People wanting to socialise and rave
Behaviours
Zoom party - hosted by DJ
A small group of friends with Facetime/Zoom
VR chat
Needs
Somewhere allows social gathering
A large gathering at the same time allows more individual engagements
With background music/performance
Persona
Overall
People are forced to stay at home most of the time
Clubs and larger gatherings are not available
People wanting to socialise and rave
Goal
Get to know new people
Enjoy live music with groups
Personality
Outgoing
Enjoy music and raving
Technology level
Phone or laptop or both access
VR access (some uses)
Frustration
Too quiet and awkward, no one talks
I can’t meet new people
Hard to set up (complex software, hardware limitation)
Not immersive and easy to lost attention after shot pried
User Persona
Between the ages of 20-30
Love raving and social engagement
Who are forced to stay at home
Iterations
PH706 has had 5 iterations until now. Each experience responded to a step on the development of the project, in which we tested different elements of the experience - server options, different audio configurations, how space influences user behaviour, UI navigation and functionality and interactivity.
Video made with Unreal Engine, Substance Painter & Cinema4D (Octane Render)
Story
In a neon-lit dystopian world where humanoid robots known as Neo-bots are isolated and suspended in water tanks due to the spread of a new kind of virus that was causing them to malfunction.
In the year PH706, After four decades, the virus declines and Neobots break out of their glass tanks to reunite and celebrate their new-found freedom.
Experience
Users can enter the VR experience using their laptops or VR goggles. Users are first invited to enter the experience through our website with a video that narrates the story of the Neobots after which you enter an interactive party space called the PH706. Each room inside the experience consists of a different musical set created by us. Space makes use of positional audio to not only experience the music through navigation but also to communicate with other users inside the platform. So far my team and I have thrown up to 6 to 7 Virtual parties inside our platform and have received remarkable feedback.
Screen recording of the experience, platform made with 3js & A-Frame
Video made with Unreal Engine & Cinema 4D (Octane render)
Post party story
In this part of the experience, we want our audience to feel the freedom after isolation but also more importantly the connection with others. As some of us had experience of estrangement and distance with other people in the society because of the Covid-19. The last shot is where the biggest difference between onboarding and offboarding video. The idea is to create the feeling of we’re never separated from each other, and the emotion of unity. The offboarding video also changes the colour tune as it became a history, we add a layer of old film style to it.
Idea & Design
The idea of the story is based on the Covid-19 lockdown, as the virtual party happened during the lockdown in the UK. The story is used to empathise with people’s emotions during the lockdown, and help blend reality and the story. Therefore making the experience more immersive, and minimising the effect of the 2D screen.
Combined Santra’s idea of Neo City and the virtual world background of the story helped shape the city design. The use of neo lighting and complex metal-like texture helps the building look more futuristic. Inspired by the silicon dies of a processer, the floor used a dark glass material with a subtle diode underlayer to enhance the virtual world setting.
Most of the filming process was done in the Unreal Engine. However, the container scene was done in Cinema 4D. With motion-captured camera movement from UE to replicate the first-person view, then rendered with Cinema 4D with a better glass material output helped this scene to be more immersive.
