i3 - July/August 2017 - 17

"You've customized your car, you've seen the
vehicle in this video with beautiful lighting, and
now you should also be able to choose to drive
it somewhere. There's no reason that they
couldn't make a companion driving application
at whatever their favorite test track is. That's the
nice thing about using a game engine, when we
build an asset it doesn't need to just be a highquality piece of computer graphics like you
would make for a movie or a TV show. It can be
an actual virtual vehicle with steering, suspension and friction."

CRUISING IN VR

was used for the shoot. And the director, ensconced inside a customized
Mercedes ML that has a "Russian
Arm" gyro-stabilized camera that can
film the Blackbird from any angle,
was able to see the Unreal Enginegenerated vehicles through a monitor.
A PC running on a high-end consumer NVIDIA graphics card powered the set-up.
Russell says this combination of
real-time 3D rendering and a transforming vehicle has solved many
problems within the auto industry.
Any vehicle has numerous modifications for every market, which traditionally would require multiple shoots
for each territory. Now just one shoot
can be done, saving millions of dollars,
and then each variation of the vehicle
can be augmented digitally. It also
helps marketers create content early,
since new models aren't readily available until much closer to launch.
Libreri says this technology also
opens up new opportunities for car
brands. Epic also created a custom
configurator for Chevy's new Camaro
using the same high-end model that
was created for the commercial shoot.
Epic added the ability for Google
Tango-enabled devices to look at the
vehicle on a large TV screen from any
angle using mixed reality. And that's
just the beginning.
"The same car could be used in a
video game experience," Libreri adds.
C TA . t e c h / i 3

The Edge's
Magic Carpet
extension
recreated
in virtual reality
using Unreal
Engine 4.

From Top: Royal
Caribbean's
Innovation Lab
at Port Miami.
VR renderings
of the "Villa"
and the Cabanas
at night.

Celebrity Cruise Line, a division of Royal
Caribbean, recently showcased its new Edge
ship to media. But since the first of four new
ships is currently being built at the STX shipyard in France, the company used virtual reality
to offer press an opportunity to explore the vessel ahead of its Dec. 16, 2019 launch. Celebrity partnered with Mechdyne
Corp. to recreate the ship using Unreal Engine 4.
Royal Caribbean showcased its VR ship in its new Innovation Lab at Port
Miami, adjacent to its global headquarters. The 20,000 square foot, two-story
facility hosts the largest CAVE (cave automatic virtual environment) in the
world, which allows up to a 10 people to don 3D glasses and step into a giant
VR room. The floor, ceiling and three walls of the CAVE are made up of large
flat-panel displays. The 3D glasses bring the virtual environments - in this
case the different decks and venues on board the Edge ship - to life at scale.
Richard D. Fain, chairman and CEO of Royal Caribbean Cruises, says these
ships mark the first time that VR has been used throughout the entire design
and construction process. For more than a century, ships were designed using
pens, paper and blueprints. While 3D and VR were used in the recent past
for specific venues or elements of a vessel, now this cruise titan is making the
most of room-scale VR to democratize the creative process.
"In a normal design process, there are only a few people like the architects,
designers and a few executives that can draw lines," Fain explains. "Most
people cannot even look at a blueprint or a twodimensional drawing and have a real understanding of the 3D spacial relationships. One of
our most powerful weapons in the fight for
greater innovation is our people. They are imaginative, but they're also knowledgeable. And
they're also motivated to try and find new and
better ways to do things."
A typical cruise ship has between five to 10 million parts. With the Edge, Celebrity is changing
the concept of the veranda, allowing passengers to
extend the cabin through a sliding door system
that makes the room 23 percent larger. The ship
also includes a Magic Carpet extension, which
moves from deck to deck and transforms into different dining environments.
These new innovations came to life through the
video game engine, allowing for an early peek at
what will become a reality that Fain hopes will
evolve the cruise experience.
JULY/AUGUST 2017

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i3 - July/August 2017

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