OceanXperience

OceanXperience puts guests in the shoes of one of OceanX’s scientists on the cusp of making never-before-seen discoveries. At the start of their experience, guests receive an RFID tag that keeps track of their progress. They can choose one of three mission paths that examine humpback whales, hammerhead sharks, or orcas, and as they move through the experience, their choices affect how the adventure unfolds. When a guest arrives at a new station, our interactives update to reflect the name, language, and mission activities of that guest to give them a memorable and personalized journey.

Once a guest chooses their mission path, they begin their journey at the Mission Control Mapping Table. There, they examine ocean data and scan areas of interest on the ocean floor. Once they’ve gathered enough information, they make a hypothesis that they’ll set out to prove in the missions to come. Depending on their choices, guests will take flight with an aerial drone or dive to the ocean’s floor with an underwater remote vehicle as they look for data to support their hypothesis. Guests use their discoveries to track down a pod of whales or orcas on the open ocean where they take part in a real-time tagging event. At the end of their journey, guests evaluate their hypotheses and recap their findings with an immersive experience powered by a HoloLens 2 headset.

To bring these interactives to life, we relied on our deep knowledge of the Unity game engine. Its flexible architecture was essential in creating so many different types of experiences. From graphic, UI-driven games, to immersive experiences that integrate physical props and controllers, we were able to stay agile and adapt to the requirements of each station. Unity’s powerful real-time rendering gave us just the punch we needed to make these experiences believable to guests and maintain the fantasy of the exhibit.