Our hoverboard experiments were of movement mechanics in VR space. Traversal across space is notoriously difficult in VR. Neither joystick travel or 'teleport' travel offer a 1:1 natural and familiar experience. This concept aims to provide a new solution by bringing the 'Back to the future' to life.
Our team used a Wii balance board and turned it into a skateboard that could be used to navigate virtual space. Using the data from the embedded sensors we were able to create a control schema that allowed us to navigate within a VR space.
Our team used a Wii balance board and turned it into a skateboard that could be used to navigate virtual space. Using the data from the embedded sensors we were able to create a control schema that allowed us to navigate within our VR world.
User Journey
Without the equipment for 6DoF tracking we weren't able to realize an important aspect of the initial concept, so an illustrated storyboard conveys a user journey where we can see how the board is tracked, allowing the user to step off and on again to engage in different ways to his surrounding, all while remaining in VR.
World Building
We needed a scene that would allow us to test our prototype and we ended up making a generative world so that the user could feel free to explore in any direction.
We used 8-octave perlin noise to generate terrain and adjusted the mapping parameters to provide an ideal surface to 'surf' through. Our palette and 0,0 universe center were aligned with the brand of Connected, creating 'Connected World', a Unity scene that we could use for prototyping in the future. The world is infinitely generated when a user flies through it by rendering and destroying tiles on an ongoing basis depending on the users position.