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Humboldt and the Americas

Goethe-Institut · 2019

Commission
Open call or hackathon
Solution
Mixed realityVideo game
My contribution
Development
Status
Completed

Commission​

The Goethe-Institut mixed reality hackathon "Humboldt and the Americas" called for teams from Mexico, Colombia and Peru.

Press release · Selection document

Project​

Our team, "La Piragua", proposed an immersive game prototype based on the correspondence between Francisco José de Caldas and Alexander von Humboldt: a journey through a multiverse of places and moments of Humboldt's travels in the Americas, in which "Alex" moves through interactive scenarios with characters that take you from contemplation to measurement.

Prototype scene: Alexander von Humboldt, illustrated in period clothing, in front of volcanoes, tropical plants and fragments of manuscripts.

Solution​

We developed the prototype in Unity with the Microsoft Mixed Reality Toolkit and tested the VR environment with Samsung Gear VR glasses.

A person wearing a VR headset and holding a controller tests Killing Alex in front of a projection of the game.
The project in the Unity editor: the scene with Humboldt and a 3D Indigenous character, plus the character and material hierarchy.
Facial expression study of a 3D Indigenous character wearing a crown of yellow and blue feathers.
A team member tests the prototype with a VR headset and motion controller.

Documents:

Code: Humboldt learns to hurt himself

My contribution​

Development of the prototype in Unity.

Team​

Camilo Jimenez, Juan Camilo Fonnegra, Juan Carlos Arroyo Sosa, Gladys Viviana Gomez Rojas and Thomas Wagner. Modeling and rigging: Juan Camilo Salamanca.

Team La Piragua smiling around a table during the hackathon.