November will see the debut of the first-ever standalone Virtual Reality Developers Conference, and today conference organizers are excited to share more information on one of the many exciting sessions talking place during the show.
One of the great strengths of VR is its ability to transport us to other places — and when those places are physically hazardous, VR allows us to safely visit and explore them in virtual space.
The area around the former Chernobyl nuclear power plant is one such place, and in his VRDC talk on “Exploring & Remembering the Chernobyl Disaster Using VR: ‘Chernobyl VR Project'” Wojciech Pazdur will break down how The Farm 51 captured Chernobyl and authentically reconstructed it for a virtual audience.
Pazdur is the head of The Farm 51, a Polish studio, and in his talk he’ll showcase the ways that The Farm 51 recreated parts of the radiated Exclusion Zone around Chernobyl in Unreal Engine 4 with the help of photogrammetry, laser scanners, drones, 360 spherical movies and photos.
They had to overcome a big number of technical, logistic, and design challenges, but there’s still more to be done because the project’s expansion assumes making a visualization of the future of this area, as well as it’s look from the past, before the catastrophe. This lecture will focus on atypical issues encountered during the development, and ideas for how to resolve remaining problems of creating a huge, interactive VR documentary.
It promises to be a remarkable presentation, so make sure to head over to the VRDC website now and register to attend the conference. There’s more, too: VRDC will feature a plethora of great VR/AR talks spanning games, entertainment, and beyond into subjects such as healthcare, journalism, travel, manufacturing, retail, live events, real estate, training, and so much more.
VRDC 2016 will take place November 2-3 at the Park Central Hotel in San Francisco. For more information on VRDC 2016, visit the show’s official website and subscribe to regular updates via Twitter and Facebook.
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