This project began as my project submission for Oculus Launchpad. The inspiration for the experience came from caring for my mom for many years. She suffered from chronic pain and was extremely immobile. I wanted to create a virtual reality experience to address chronic pain and allow the user to visit another place in VR. Virtual Reality shows amazing promise for pain management. Patients using virtual reality for pain management have reported a 24 % drop in pain scores. Virtual reality offers users a way to explore the world without leaving their home.
As part of my process, I created sketches on paper and also in Tiltbrush as a 3D Design Tool. I created a design document to serve as a blueprint for the design direction. Many current experiences are only viewable in VR but not interactive. My research shows that the ability to interact with the environment and receive feedback from that interaction increases immersion for the viewer. The increased distraction can improve the pain management as long as the interactions are not difficult.
I originally created the models in Tiltbrush but due to model constraints I created low poly models in Gravity Sketch and Blender. The butterflies are imported from the Unity Asset Store. This project has been through several iterations. I have made modifications to respond to testing with users. I originally developed it for the Oculus Rift but converted it to a Quest 2 project in hopes of creating a more mobile project to reach more users.
Some of the changes I have made as a response to testing follow:
I changed the experience to one main butterfly house with an entry room to serve as an introduction to controller use and give some basic information about butterflies. I originally had a scene with butterflies flying in a snowy crystal forest and people found that confusing and creepy even thought they found the snow peaceful and cooling.
The experience is now the entry room for orientation and then the main butterfly house. I have including many object for interacting and audio response to improve immersion. The Butterfly House is intended to be a peaceful place to explore a beautiful garden. I added spheres with particle effects as interactable objects. The spheres can be thrown or left to float away.
I have done all of the work for this experience. Everything from research to design to development to optimization.