Guidance on use
Our research infrastructure staff have a varied and rich background in all areas of immersive technologies, data processing, AI, software engineering, network protocol and design – all of which is available to you, ensuring you have the support you need to succeed.
We will be on site to facilitate the integration of your research into our project facility, helping you to identify and implement the most relevant equipment to suit your needs. This includes configuring hardware, network, and software resources, allowing you to make the most of the Reality Emulator’s computation powers and visualisation platform.
Depending on the content and data you have available, our technical experts will help you test and develop the most suitable workflow and pipeline for your project. This might involve finding the best way to convert your files while preserving the quantity and quality of your information store.
We can also advise you on the optimal approach to creating your 3D content, digital models, your virtual experience, simulation, and emulation.
If you need support with costings and applying for grants, we can advise a step-by-step approach and if helpful, connect you with suitable researchers and groups. Where you need to call on additional service suppliers, we can offer recommendations. And because experimentation is invariably a learning curve that will see you encounter the unexpected, we will be on hand to troubleshoot any problems that arise along the way.
Core competencies for the Reality Emulator
Below are the skills and competences you will need to build content for the Reality Emulator. If you do not have these skills, we can connect you with people who can provide this support, which can be costed into your project.
We welcome enquiries from people from multiple disciplines, backgrounds, professions and levels of interest. Whether you are an artist, social scientist, industry professional, STEM researcher, project administrator, project manager or otherwise, if you believe our facilities can support your work, we are interested in hearing from you.
These are the skills you will need in your team or we can help to cost in this support for your project:
A basic grasp of programming languages is helpful when writing instructions to develop your software, as your content might require the application of languages such as C# (for Unity), C++ (for Unreal Engine), or other languages for front-end or back-end development such as Java, Swift, HTML, SQL, Typescript and JavaScript. The concept of object-oriented programming is also important to develop/ program in a Game Engine.
It’s useful to understand what is involved in designing, creating, testing, deploying, and maintaining software, particularly with regards to web operating systems, mobile apps, video games and websites. Real world experience is always beneficial when it comes to applying these skills as it helps to embed the practical importance of UI/UX Development, using API, and adding 3rd party libraries. We can support you with this if it’s not something you’re already familiar with.
Some fundamental understanding of the immersive technology that underpins Extended Reality (XR) will serve your project well, specifically how the physical and digital world is merged through Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR) and Mixed Reality (MR).
Knowing how to use pre-existing Software Development Kits (SDKs) is important to customising and enhancing the functionality of your software to use our facilities. Again, we’re able to connect you with people who have this expertise if you don’t already. Common examples of SDKs include Mechdyne’s GetReal3D, Unreal’s nDisplay, Varjo Unity XR SDK.
In order to create the most optimal virtual environment that gives your users an interesting, useful and enjoyable experience, it will be important to research and respond to your users’ needs. It might be helpful to build into your project some practical fluency in topics like interaction design principles, usability, design thinking process, storytelling, Human Computer Interaction, and accessibility.
Creating a good prototype can be a useful step in designing your virtual environment – it allows you to test and showcase your work at the concept stage, and save you time, effort and money in the long run. To do so, it might be useful to get support in your project for modelling and animation tools such as Blender, Maya and Cinema4D.
Again, while you do not need to have a certified qualification in computer graphics, your project might benefit from experiential understanding of shader programming languages such as HLSL for Unity or Unreal Engine. These will enable you to customise the look and feel of your visuals, to ultimately achieve the most optimal results with your project.