Climate change VR

• Main Author: Mok, Grace Jie Qi
• Other Authors: Seah Hock Soon
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: Nanyang Technological University 2022
• Subjects: Engineering::Computer science and engineering
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/156406
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Climate change is a major concern in today’s world. There are existing Virtual Reality (VR) applications that highlight the impacts of climate change. However, one common aspect they are lacking in is that there is a lack of personal connection between players and climate change. Thus, to make up for the lack of personal connection, this final year project aims to make users actors in helping to reduce the extent of the impact of climate change on the game environment through minigames and tasks. The scope of the project is narrowed down to show the impact of climate change on forest fires. The project will focus on the development of a PC VR application, which requires the use of Oculus Quest 2 for testing the VR application. Unity and Visual Studio Code will also be used to develop the VR application. The VR application will have three phases, Introduction, Interaction, and Conclusion. Firstly, the Introduction phase will allow players to understand the setting of the game. Secondly, the Interaction phase of the game will contain the minigames and tasks for the user to interact and develop a personal connection with the environment. This phase is the most important part of the VR application as it is the motivation behind this application. Lastly, the Conclusion phase will summarise the players’ efforts in reducing the impact of climate change on the game environment and will mention what the players can do in their daily lives to combat climate change. During the development of the VR application, there were some problems encountered, and the process of resolving these problems were documented. Also, there are potential areas that require improvements for this VR application, and the improvements are discussed and elaborated on.