During my tenure at The Dream Corporation, I served as an Unreal Engine Developer, contributing to the development of the virtual reality experience layer for their OTHERWORLD arcades, strategically located in London, Birmingham, and potential future locations.
A significant portion of my efforts and focus centered on the seamless integration of Ready Player Me into the existing Unreal Engine Project. This undertaking demanded extensive development work, particularly in rebuilding the inverse kinematics systems to accommodate the new Ready Player Me framework. The challenge arose from the fact that the existing system was based on the Epic skeleton, and the prevailing method at the time did not support the new Mixamo-like skeleton introduced by Ready Player Me.
In essence, Ready Player Me serves as a dynamic character creator, allowing users to utilize and load custom characters in real-time. This integration proved crucial for enhancing the immersive experience of OTHERWORLD, particularly in a virtual reality setting. Features such as grips, full-body inverse kinematics (IK), and accurate player height became essential considerations. Ensuring consistency across all players in a multiplayer setting, each with their unique avatars, presented an additional layer of complexity.
In the overarching integration process, I drew inspiration from the mechanics of renowned virtual reality titles like Boneworks and Half-Life: Alyx, aiming to emulate a seamless and immersive virtual reality character experience.
Beyond Ready Player Me integration, my contributions to the company included the development of a health component system and the implementation of wave-based systems, setting the stage for upcoming additions to the virtual reality experiences offered by The Dream Corporation.