Case Study - Complex Real world location brought to life in VR

Person in a VR headset in the virtual HS2 Old Oak Common concourse, beneath signs to platforms 1-14

RIA RISE Awards 2023 shortlisted project based on the optimisation and recreation in VR of a large and highly complex yet to be built major rail station.

The Idea.

To determine whether planned signage would work on the new HS2 Old Oak Common Station.

We were subcontracted by the WSP-led design team as our expertise in VR was needed for the implementation of the model and integration with external cloud based data capture software.

The key problem was the optimisation of the model to work within VR against data collection over 400 signs across 2,000 locations, all of which had to be placed by hand in the correct positions.

VR user in the virtual Old Oak Common station concourse with departure boards and simulated passengers

Wayfinding test session: a seated participant wears a VR headset while observers watch

The Creation.

The model was first optimised simply by removing elements that were unnecessary.

More advanced methods were then employed to reduce the number of meshes.

Finally advanced methods of optimisation were used to maximise frame rate and reduce lag and latency.

Finally textures and lighting were baked so that the maximum efficiency could be obtained to allow the tracking of all the bio metrics that were needed.

Find out more about our VR for construction and infrastructure projects.