A joint collaboration between the BBC and digital production studio Rewind, BBC Home: a VR Spacewalk is an award-winning project. It has won a Silver Lion award at the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity, a Webby Award, and others, including a recent nomination for VR Experience of the Year at the UK’s VR Bound Awards.
The idea for the VR spacewalk experience was sparked from a conversation the BBC’s Tom Burton had with British astronaut Tim Peake about his preparation to go to the International Space Station. Aligning with the BBC’s mission to both inform and entertain its audience, the BBC and Rewind worked to develop this 15-minute immersive experience that would help educate viewers on the training programs and interstellar experiences of real life astronauts.
Unreal Engine 4 allowed the project to be built entirely to scale (with the Earth at 1:1 size), giving viewers a breathtaking panorama within the headset’s field of view as they float 250 miles above the earth. UE4 handled the massive data sets required to recreate the Earth, ISS, and surrounding universe with accurate lighting and physical properties.
Thanks in part to Unreal Engine, this experience pushed the VR medium forward and raised the bar for what developers can achieve.
Read more about the project at Keef Sloan’s
BLOG.