XR Demos
RISING TIDES
RISING TIDES
Client: NowHere Media - Internship
Location: Berlin - Remote
Year: 2025
Skill: Unity, VFX Graph, Shader Graph, Particle Systems, Passthrough Layer, Spatial Anchors, C# Scripting, Mixed Reality Development, Technical Art
Location: Berlin - Remote
Year: 2025
Skill: Unity, VFX Graph, Shader Graph, Particle Systems, Passthrough Layer, Spatial Anchors, C# Scripting, Mixed Reality Development, Technical Art
About the project:
Rising Tide is a mixed-reality experience immersing audiences in the lives of the Walande community in the Solomon Islands, whose home and heritage are threatened by climate change. Guided by a narrator and three real-world objects in an illuminated aquarium, viewers explore stories of memory, resilience, and climate injustice. Each object unlocks personal narratives—from elders recounting flooded ancestral lands to children envisioning their future—culminating in a reflection on global climate responsibility.
Rising Tide is a mixed-reality experience immersing audiences in the lives of the Walande community in the Solomon Islands, whose home and heritage are threatened by climate change. Guided by a narrator and three real-world objects in an illuminated aquarium, viewers explore stories of memory, resilience, and climate injustice. Each object unlocks personal narratives—from elders recounting flooded ancestral lands to children envisioning their future—culminating in a reflection on global climate responsibility.
My Role:
Intern Technical Artist – Developed core interactive elements and visual effects, including ripples, lighting, spatial anchors, and passthrough interactions. Collaborated with the developer team to transform creative concepts into immersive mixed-reality experiences.
Intern Technical Artist – Developed core interactive elements and visual effects, including ripples, lighting, spatial anchors, and passthrough interactions. Collaborated with the developer team to transform creative concepts into immersive mixed-reality experiences.
Spatial Anchor Demos
Spatial Anchor – Single Anchor Interaction – Single Anchor Interaction: Developed a system allowing users to place and rotate a 3D box on a physical surface using controllers. Enabled local storage of the anchor so that the object persisted across sessions. Users could delete and replace anchors, creating a flexible and interactive environment for mixed-reality storytelling.
About: Implemented functionality to place, rotate, and persist a cube on a physical surface using controllers. Anchors were stored locally, so the cube stayed in place across sessions.
Application: Spatial anchors establish stable and consistent placement of digital objects in physical space, forming the basis for persistence and continuity in XR experiences.
Spatial Anchor – Multi-Point Anchor Placement – Built an advanced prototype where users could mark anchors at two points of a physical box, triggering the appearance of visually distinct 3D objects. Implemented features for repositioning, local storage, and deletion, demonstrating precise control over spatially anchored objects. These demos showcased how spatial anchors could provide consistent, interactive placements in real-world spaces, enhancing immersion and narrative engagement
About: Developed a system for placing two anchors on a physical box, each triggering distinct virtual objects. Supported repositioning, local storage, and deletion for flexible testing.
Application: Multi-point anchors allow precise alignment between digital and physical elements, enabling more complex and interactive immersive setups.
Application: Multi-point anchors allow precise alignment between digital and physical elements, enabling more complex and interactive immersive setups.
Depth API Occlusion
Implemented both hard and soft occlusion using the Depth API on cube and plane objects. Leveraged real-world depth sensing to control visibility between virtual and physical elements, allowing digital objects to be accurately hidden behind real-world geometry. Experimented with depth-based blending and transitions to evaluate how different occlusion styles influenced immersion. This work ensured that virtual content appeared seamlessly integrated into physical environments by respecting spatial depth.
About: Implemented both hard and soft occlusion using the Depth API on cube and plane objects. Leveraged real-world depth sensing to control visibility between virtual and physical elements, ensuring digital objects respected spatial hierarchy.
Application: Depth-based occlusion is a core technique in XR for blending virtual and real content, enabling consistent depth perception and more natural integration of digital objects into physical environments.
Occlusion Shader
Developed a custom occlusion shader to manage how virtual objects interact visually with the physical environment. Incorporated dissolve effects based on distance, combined soft and hard occlusion, and experimented with shader techniques to ensure realistic depth perception. This work allowed objects to appear naturally integrated within the real-world aquarium setup, improving immersion.
About: Created a custom occlusion shader combining soft and hard edges with dissolve effects based on distance, ensuring objects visually integrated into the physical environment.
Application: Occlusion is key for realism in MR—making virtual objects correctly appear behind walls, inside physical props, or partially hidden by real-world elements. This is foundational for AR games, interior design tools, and immersive installations.
Lightning Control with ITimeControl
Designed and implemented a dynamic lightning system to enhance the immersive atmosphere of Scene 3. Using point lights, scripted their positions to jump randomly between predefined transforms, with variable intensity, duration, and intervals to simulate realistic lightning strikes. Integrated the system with Unity Timeline, ensuring the lightning effects synchronized with the scene’s sequence and remained consistent upon replay. This approach created a dramatic, unpredictable, and naturalistic lighting experience that elevated the emotional impact of the scene.
About: Built a dynamic lightning effect using point lights with randomized positions, intensity, and timing. Integrated the system with Unity Timeline for synchronization and replay consistency.
Application: Dynamic atmospheric effects like lightning are crucial in XR for storytelling—setting mood, building drama, and creating emotional impact in immersive environments. The same system can be adapted for fireflies, explosions, or stage lighting simulations.
Application: Dynamic atmospheric effects like lightning are crucial in XR for storytelling—setting mood, building drama, and creating emotional impact in immersive environments. The same system can be adapted for fireflies, explosions, or stage lighting simulations.
Canoe Up & Down Movement
About: Implemented a sinus-based boat movement script to simulate natural floating and tilting on water. Adjusted ranges for vertical movement and roll/pitch to create a subtle, realistic motion without requiring timeline integration.
About: Scripted sinus-based floating motion for a canoe, including vertical oscillation and subtle roll/pitch variations to simulate natural water buoyancy.
Application: Such physics-inspired motion is widely used in XR for vehicles, floating objects, or interactive props. It adds realism and avoids static “game-like” visuals, keeping immersive experiences dynamic and natural.
Application: Such physics-inspired motion is widely used in XR for vehicles, floating objects, or interactive props. It adds realism and avoids static “game-like” visuals, keeping immersive experiences dynamic and natural.
Ripple VFX
Designed and implemented interactive ripple effects on water surfaces using particle systems and sprite rendering. Explored VFX Graph and render textures to simulate realistic water responses to user interactions, enhancing the immersive feel of the scene.
Designed and implemented interactive ripple effects on water surfaces using particle systems and sprite rendering. Explored VFX Graph and render textures to simulate realistic water responses to user interactions, enhancing the immersive feel of the scene.
Passthrough Styling Exploration
About: Experimented with Oculus Passthrough Layer by applying stylization effects, including hand masking and custom scene treatments, to test how the real world could blend with virtual overlays.
Application: Passthrough styling expands creative expression in MR—allowing experiences like artistic filters, guided learning overlays, or stylized narrative environments where the real world is visually reinterpreted.
