Volkswagen Group China Import

Released to the press and a crowd of VIPs in Zhuhai, the Hyper Reality Test Drive shows itself to be an experience befitting of the all-new, technology fuelled Touareg.

• Learning how to use Unreal Engine’s Animation Systems and to combine Montages, Sequences, Notifies & State machines.
• Implementing spline import/export features for Unreal Engine needed for car movement data.
• Creating a system to skip quickly between different sections of the experience to improve review time.

• Unreal Engine 4
• Visual Studio
• Perforce

• C++
• Blueprints

As a member of the Framestore VR Team, we developed the VW Touareg Hyper Reality Test Drive, unveiled on September 26th, 2018 in Zhuhai, China. Working for Volkswagen Group China Import, and with key technology partner and motion capture specialists Noitom, Framestore built on its aptitude for groundbreaking experiential content to develop the world’s first live VR test drive experience.

Seated as a passenger in the all-new Touareg on a real-life stunt track, and equipped with a bespoke customized Oculus VR headset, test drive guests are taken on an exhilarating high-velocity chase through other-worldly lands, as the vehicle comes under extraterrestrial fire – with only its in-built technology smarts to help it.

Through an artful interweaving of the physical and virtual, the experience offers users an immersive encounter with the new Touareg: combining real test drive physics with a world-class virtual view that, in the manner of the ultimate test drive, delivers on both functionality and thrill.

Framestore scripted the experience, plotting a hero’s journey across a four-act structure that shines a light on the Touareg’s advanced inbuilt technology. The creative studio’s Art Department supplied initial artwork for the experience’s characters and three stylized off-world environments.

Central to the script are the Touareg’s next level features, which offer a heroic escape from the narrative’s tumult of dangers. Strategically placed throughout the experience, the features create suspense and thrill and form critical 4D touchpoints between the virtual and physical worlds.

The physical experience covers acreage akin to a football pitch; the script was mapped, and 4D elements plotted to create action highlights. A custom trigger system ensures total synchronicity between in-game and real world, for all six vehicles running the test drive at any one time. The experience sound design – a bespoke soundtrack by Goldstein, engineered by GCVRS, as well as Mandarin and English voiceover – was overlaid in a complex arrangement reflecting the user’s movements within the 4D experience, with the flexibility to play in line with the content triggers.