Problem Description

The “3P“ in Neulandt-3P stands for “portable precast plant” – that is, a portable plant producing prefabricated parts. The parts manufactured in this plant are wall elements made of concrete for the fast construction of affordable housing. These elements are produced in foldable, individually adaptable moulds and can be built directly on location or at least close to the project’s location thanks to the plant’s easy setup and removal processes. Short transport distances make the production less expensive and more environmentally friendly, while promoting local value creation at the same time.

More information is available at: https://www.neulandt.build/en

Now for the actual problem that even the mobility of the plant cannot solve: the presentation. The plant is a factory hall covering approximately 1,000 square metres, so it cannot be easily set up at a trade fair or on a potential customer’s premises – and not everyone is willing to make the effort of visiting the business location of Umdasch in Amstetten in order to examine the Neulandt-3P.

Implementation

In order to give potential customers the opportunity to experience the plant and the production process despite these circumstances, we have developed a Virtual Reality experience in Unity 3D – or to be precise, an application for the Oculus Quest. We decided in favour of this headset because it offers maximum freedom of movement and interaction in a three-dimensional space but requires no cable and external PC or laptop as the glasses are equipped with a computing unit of their own, and the position detection is carried out using four cameras integrated into the glasses. However, this type of mobility does not come with advantages only: the computing power of the Oculus Quest is comparable to that of a high-performance smartphone from the year 2018, which is why we have simplified the 3D models, textures, animations and sounds to such a degree that a smooth operation with 65 to 72 images per second is possible and the content is still communicated well at the same time. When it comes to the acoustic descriptions, we chose Microsoft Azures Text 2 Speech – a software that allowed us to generate realistic voice recordings without having to use a recording studio. This method made it possible to evaluate different versions of the text without high costs and time effort. Thanks to this VR solution, Umdasch is now in the fortunate position of fitting its 1,000-square metre hall into a backpack and presenting it at trade fairs and in potential customers’ businesses within five minutes only.