One of the most compelling aspects of spatial computing is the ability to share a virtual space with a friend that’s representative of your surroundings, even if you are miles apart. In our experiment, sharing the room geometry of one person’s environment with the other and leveraging microphone access to allow them to communicate meant they could feel like they really were present together rather than just playing in an environment totally out of context.

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We played with elements that reinforced asymmetric gameplay, like varied interactions and scaled perspectives; each player has a different POV, so the Creator is supersized as they lay out the route upon which the miniature Rider cruises. 

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In order to mitigate the motion sickness that some people experience in headset experiences, we leveraged the “cockpit effect” by creating a windowed boundary around the Rider’s viewpoint, as well as balancing the speed and scale of their movement.

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We opted for a ‘build-first’ approach - the idea that everything is a hypothesis until it is validated in device. Multiplayer functionality was incorporated by using Photon Fusion, an API that optimizes network communication between players to allow us to bring our dual-experience concept to life. We used full body tracking to give the virtual avatars the most life-like body movements possible, and we also upped the level of immersion by casting real-time shadows of the voxels and VFX onto the user’s physical environment for a more realistic effect.

Our experiment focussed on Riders being a two headset experience, but it could also evolve into a cross platform game between VR and mobile where the Creator can join and draw the track on their smartphone for maximum accessibility and asymmetric play.