Neoscape | Epic Games | Safdie Architects
Unreal Engine | Interactive Developer
A recreation of Moshe Safdie’s original habitat 67 plans in the Unreal Engine. This project was used as an Epic Games feature piece to sell Unreal as an architectural visualization tool. Released as a demo project anyone can download it if they can run the proper version of Unreal Engine. In addition, an interactive experience was developed to go along with it that was streamed through web servers running the executable.
The Scope
This project was a large undertaking where I worked as the interactive developer alongside a talented team of artists and designers to bring Safdie’s original vision of his 1967 World’s Fair project to full realization in the Unreal Engine. The size of the site and the high standards of both Moshe and Epic pushed us as a team to the limits of what the software can do.
For most projects at Neoscape, we create a very tight experience designed bespoke for a small number of users to interact with. This was different, anyone anywhere could download this project. In addition, the streamed version on the web didn’t require the user to download Unreal Engine or even have a beefy computer, just an internet connection. This would be the most widespread project that I have ever worked on.
The final web experience no longer exists online as the servers only ran for 100 days. The following footage captures a walk-through of the experience running on a local machine.
Interactive Elements
An interview was taken between Epic Games and Moshe Safdie, so we had wonderful audio clips we could use throughout the experience, similar to audio logs in a video game. As you walked or flew through certain spaces glowing cassettes would alert the user that something could be learned there. Interacting with these cassettes would play a relevant interview clip of Safdie explaining design decisions and intent as you experience the project.
To show off Unreal Engine as a real-time rendering software, many visual elements are tweakable live in the project, without needing unreal engine knowledge. A visual panel would allow the user to change the time of day using date and time, change the type and density of cloud coverage, alter the wetness of materials, and more.
to simplify and speed up navigation, teleports were added so that a quick experience of all the most beautiful parts of the project could be had without having to learn any controls. Clicking buttons on a controller or using the number keys would send the users to key points of visual interest.