A game-changer for WhiteMoon Dreams

A leading independent game studio discovers better ways to evaluate 3D characters, creatures, textures, lighting, colors, and effects with Sony’s Spatial Reality Display.

The challenge

• Compete for eyeballs by drawing gamers into more compelling virtual worlds
• Improve creative decisions through a more comprehensive evaluation
• Speed creative development with real-time 3D evaluation

The solution

• Connect the studio’s existing 3D content creation in Unreal Engine software to the Sony Spatial Reality Display

The outcome

• Provides the most comprehensive evaluation tool the team has ever used
• Reveals in-game 3D shapes, textures, lighting, color, and effects as never before
• Provides real-time 3D evaluation that’s far faster and more revealing than 3D printed models

A new dimension in game development
Approaching Sony’s Spatial Reality Display for the first time, Chris Williams, Studio Art Director at WhiteMoon Dreams, wasn’t sure what to expect. “I figured, ‘Oh, it’s going to be VR without the headset.’ No. It’s even more amazing than that. You’re looking into a little world. The resolution is so crisp and it’s so easy to see, even from different viewing distances. Usually, we’ll make a 3D print of characters under development. This is much better, not to mention faster. It’s higher resolution, with full color, accurate texture, lighting, and materials. I can make changes on the fly and see the results immediately.”

More detail than ever before
“Because of the spatial difference and the parallax of the eyes, there’s so much more information than I’ve ever seen before,” says Williams. “I can see my brushstrokes. I can see how I laid the clay on. It’s just the most amazing thing. We do all this stuff in VR for a product that will be shipping in VR. But this is good for every single thing we do.

It’s all right there. The characters become like action figures. You just want to reach out and touch them.” “It’s not just characters,” says Sagar Patel, technical art director. “It’s visual effects, lighting, everything. You’re able to scrutinize a lot more as an artist and designer and you make better choices because of that.”

Dollhouses and bowling alleys
Creative Director Scott Campbell adds, “When we saw the demo that we made, the difference between 2D and 3D was huge. It actually looked like a dollhouse with action figures moving around and interacting. It looks so physically ‘there,’ it’s spooky.

We had a jet-pack mode, and the verticality was amazing. You’re moving the character around and the camera is moving up and down with you. That is not just interactive, but it’s so very 3D. And then we made a bowling alley.”

A view to the future
While WhiteMoon Dreams used Sony’s Spatial Reality Display as an evaluation tool, they also envisioned using it as an all-new vehicle for gameplay. Scott Campbell remarks, “As game developers, we can’t help but wonder what it would be like to play fully developed titles on the Spatial Reality Display.”

Looking forward in 3D
The Sony Spatial Reality Display enables viewers to see volumetric 3D without special glasses or VR goggles. The display works from computer-generated images, in the case of WhiteMoon Dreams, using a PC running Unreal Engine® software.3 The screen features a high-precision micro-optical lens to separate the left-eye and right-eye images. In addition, the display tracks eye movement down to the millisecond, pivoting the image in sync as the viewer tilts or moves the head up and down, left and right – even forward and back. The result is an overpowering sensation of a solid 3D object. Says Scott Campbell, “It really is a magic box.”

The last word belongs to the youngest evaluator. “I brought my five-year-old son in to look at it,” says Tyrone Howard, Senior Producer. “I remember him looking around it, standing up, and sitting back down. He couldn’t resist reaching in and trying to touch the figures on-screen.”