Demos for the Virtuix Omni VR Treadmill

While working as a technical designer for Virtuix in 2014, I developed demos to showcase the Omni at events such as E3, GDC, and SXSW. Since this Omni was not yet available for purchase, I had the opportunity to be one of the first people to design an experience for it.

At the time, most people expected the Omni to be used exclusively with First-Person Shooters, but I experimented with different options like a virtual tour where you take pictures, which are saved for you to view afterwards. I also tried an option for using the Omni in a non-VR experience, using only the front half of the treadmill and having the user controll a 3rd-Person character on a big screen.

Since this hardware was still in development, I also worked with the electrical and mechanical engineers to coordinate translating the output from the Omni to usable input for a game engine, and I made the first iteration of the SDK to allow other developers to make games for it.

During one of the projects I created, I turned an unusual bug into a core feature - I accidentally made a character controller where your speed on the Omni added upward velocity, meaning if you ran fast you could get up in the air and fly above the world.

Working for Virtuix also gave me my first opportunitity to contribute to the design of a FTUE for a hardware product. I also did some research and documentation as our team delved deeper into an understanding of Experience Design for Virtual Reality.