Echoes of Natura
Immersive Ride Experience
2024 — Unreal Engine, Max, Motion-Base Platform, After Effects, Premiere Pro, Elevenlabs
Echoes of Natura is an immersive virtual ride experience linking Unreal Engine-created environments with physical sensations on a custom ride chair with an attached motion platform. The XYZ movement of the virtual ridecar is mapped to the motion platform using Max, allowing the rider to feel the movement the ridecar experiences in real time.
Collaborators: Bridget Daugherty, Adi Somaiah
BACKGROUND
The ride is located in the theme park of Natura, a high-tech city where humans and robots coexist in harmony with lush natural surroundings. Nestled by a lake and snow-capped mountains in a dense forest, the park blends cutting-edge technology with diverse landscapes like caves, beaches, and rolling hills. Story-driven attractions explore the relationship between humanity, robotics, and nature, encouraging creativity, innovation, and teamwork.
CHARACTERS
Dr. Biohm
The park's ambassador, she makes appearances at events in her lab, which is the central hub of the park and embodies the combination of science and the living world, showcasing the benefits of biotechnology for creating sustainable ecosystems.
The park's ambassador, she makes appearances at events in her lab, which is the central hub of the park and embodies the combination of science and the living world, showcasing the benefits of biotechnology for creating sustainable ecosystems.
Syn
A cyborg navigator who helps guests orient themselves in the park, locating and finding rides and attractions. They have an encyclopedic knowledge of the history of the park, and often work alongside Dr Biohm.
A cyborg navigator who helps guests orient themselves in the park, locating and finding rides and attractions. They have an encyclopedic knowledge of the history of the park, and often work alongside Dr Biohm.
Myco
A sentient fungus that has evolved to live in the park's environment. It has unique abilities for breaking down organic material and regenerating itself. It’s often responsible for causing “malfunctions” throughout the park, causing a sense of adventure and danger to audiences.
A sentient fungus that has evolved to live in the park's environment. It has unique abilities for breaking down organic material and regenerating itself. It’s often responsible for causing “malfunctions” throughout the park, causing a sense of adventure and danger to audiences.
Gaiatech
A former artificial pollinator created by Dr. Biohm in her old laboratory, before she relocated to her current lab. Myco had given it sentience through its spores, causing the project to be shut down and it to grow territorial. Since then, it’s grown to a massive size and merged with the terrain’s flora, wandering the remains of Dr. Biohm’s old lab and protecting its home against “intruders”.
A former artificial pollinator created by Dr. Biohm in her old laboratory, before she relocated to her current lab. Myco had given it sentience through its spores, causing the project to be shut down and it to grow territorial. Since then, it’s grown to a massive size and merged with the terrain’s flora, wandering the remains of Dr. Biohm’s old lab and protecting its home against “intruders”.
PREMISE
Guests are new hires in Dr Biohm’s excavation team, assisting her crew as they renovate the abandoned areas for the public. Riders will investigate a strange signal coming from the lab while being driven by Syn. Unbeknownst to guests, the signal is a distress call from Gaiatech, angry that the construction workers have trespassed on its home.
RIDE CONCEPT PITCH
COMPONENTS
This ride experience was created at the NYU Tandon @ the Yard Production Facility. Our team approached this project like a simulator attraction, where immersive visuals are on a front-facing screen while the “ride vehicle” matches the movements of the virtual camera. This physical setup seamlessly blended the physical and digital elements of our experience and fostered greater engagement and investment in our virtual world.
Projector Wall
The projector wall is the vehicle through which the audience is immersed in our Unreal Engine world. Located behind the Rear-projection screens are three Epson LS500 projectors, connected to a render node that is powered by an NVIDIA A6000 GPU, enabling NVIDIA Mosaic for ultra-wide-screen configurations.
Motion-base
The Motion-Base consists of a chair capable of XYZ movement. OSC data from the Unreal Engine camera attached to the virtual ridecar is transmitted to Max MSP, where it is translated into physical movements on the chair, which moves in synchronously with the ridecar, creating a more immersive and compelling experience.
Vive XR Controllers
These helped create an interactive final battle through Live Link XR in Unreal Engine. Riders use the controller to shoot a spore beam at Gaiatech, triggering real-time reactions onscreen. This adds engagement and a sense of accomplishment to the experience, often experienced in physical rides.
SCENE CONSTRUCTION
As part of a development team of three, one of my tasks was the collation of a visual identity and environment creation in Unreal Engine. The environments were an exercise in juxtaposition to create something that felt alien and yet not-intergalactic. We wanted rectangular, inorganic architecture in both the manmade and the natural environments, contrasted by the foliage growing off every surface. We continued the juxtaposition with biomes, combining snowy mountains with blooming deserts and tropical forests, all to create an environment that feels both grounded yet otherworldly, to add to the impressive atmosphere of the ride, like Natura has “achieved” the impossible.
The ride’s showscenes were broken down by action: what the story beats are, what the focal point is, and what can be added to make the experience impressive and beautiful. The storyboards also helped us realize what needed to be constructed, problems that needed to be worked around, and solutions/compromises that had to be made. For example, Syn’s destruction originally called for their figure falling apart, which proved too difficult to pull off, so it was replaced by a disintegration texture effect.