Nalu: VR Experience for Palliative Care

Brief:

Nalu is a grant-funded project created by a sophomore team of seven. Made in 9 weeks during quarantine as part of an online class at the Savannah College of Art and Design, this game was one of 3 experiences that were created to appeal to different aspects and needs of palliative care patients. Working side by side with the local hospice centre, Nalu combines sound, visuals, and optional interactivity to create a calming experience catered to patients with limited mobility and elderly. The grant funding is for the permanent VR headsets to be given to the hospice centre to be used for years to come.

The Team:

Yasmin Alansari: 
Producer, Character/Material Artist, Level Designer, Rigger, Programmer

Gift Kerdlapee: 
Art Director, Prop/Environment/Material Artist, Environment Designer, Programmer

Conner Witte: 
Tech Lead, Lead Sound Designer, Programmer

Katie Howarth:
Prop/Environment/Material/Particle Artist, Environment Designer, Animator

Dante Cameron: 
Character Artist, Rigger, Animator, Website creator

Nadav Ben Haim:
Lead programmer, Video Editor, Game packaging

Maya Peleg: 
Character Artist, Playtester, Animator, Video Editor

VR Optimizations:

Custom Swim Shaders: Instead of having bones in our fish, we used custom swim shaders to displace the 3d model to appear like it is moving. This was used for the fish and the whale

Texture Atlases: Our 20 coral fish textures and masks were combined into a single texture atlas so that all 20 fish (which are on screen at the same time) would require less draw calls

Dither mask 'transparency': Instead of using transparent materials, we used dithers to achieve the effect. Streams of light from the surface, the water surface itself, the 'transparent' jellyfish, we used dither masks to create the transparent look with less processing power.

Model tri counts: Our models had optimized tri counts. The schooling fish were all under 268 tris or under, since they would appear on screen at nearly all times. 

Image plane backdrops: For the environment, we used a mix of image planes and 3d models since the player would be stationary.

Optimized rigs: For the rigs we did use, we weight painted in a special way to create the illusion of more in depth motion while having minimal bones. 

The Process:

A selection our concept art, color keys, animatic, and final assets. 

Nalu is still a work in progress, and our team plans to continue updating it over the summer, and potentially later. We hope to implement more interactivity, refine our current experience, and optimize the game. We are also currently  rendering a 360 degree video so that it will be available with cheaper options such as google cardboard. 

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