Overview
A virtual reality (VR) experience, created to help simulate rescuing citizens from burning houses and putting fires out. Created in Unity using the SteamVR plugin. Primarily made for the HTC Vive. All of the Unity work on this project was done by me in the span of three days. I had help researching as well as designing the level. All of the art was created by a friend or is from the Unity Asset Store.
Design
With a short amount of time to create this VR experience, I wanted to keep the scope small. I also wanted to make the problems feel like something a firefighter would have to deal with, while simultaneously gratifying it just a little bit in order to make the objectives more clear and more fun for the average user. Initially, I created a prototype in which the player had to put out the fires, and they could track their time. Since that part went much faster than expected, I decided to add a rescue scenario.
Putting Out Fires
Putting out fires is the first thing that comes to people’s minds when thinking about firefighters. It’s in the name after all. To put out a fire, one must aim the water at the roots, or the bottom of the fire. I created multiple fires around the house which players must put out by using the hose nozzle to shoot the bottom part of the fire.
Rescue Scenario
One of a firefighter’s jobs is to rescue people in danger. In this simulation, I put a dummy in the house. Players must pick up the dummy and move it out to the firetruck. Upon entering the house, the smoke is thick, and it is hard to see. However, since smoke rises in real life, I made the smoke thicker towards the ceiling, so players can see better if they crouch. Upon opening the door to the room containing the dummy, an explosion occurs. This is known as a backdraft and happens when air is suddenly introduced into a room in which a fire has depleted much of the oxygen. While it holds no consequences in the simulation, it is meant to spook the player so they will be mindful in the future. While holding the dummy a yellow zome appears in front of the firetruck indicating where to place it.
Working with Virtual Reality
For this project, I used Unity along with the SteamVR plugin. I have used this setup before in a game jam, so it did not take me too long to set up the basic scene. Since the first time I put a VR headset on I fell in love with it. VR is extremely immersive and there is so much potential for games and simulations to make use of it. I find that the most important part of designing a VR game is in making sure the interactions between a player and the world make sense and don’t break the immersion. Examples I used in this simulation are the buttons and the menu space. The menu space is supposed to mimic a simple Firehall. The buttons essentially act as the navigation of the menu, players can press them to quit or to load up the simulation. Using buttons like this makes the interactions feel more natural in VR, leading to a more immersive experience.
Robert Andersen Games 