Integrating Live Actors into At-Home VR Experiences

In this 2019 VRDC talk, Tender Claws’ designers talk about the process, challenges, and discoveries made while integrating a live-actor component into non-location based immersive theater VR experience.

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[RukaErika]

Kind of fun. That concept covered “The Uncanny” is sort of what the Vtuber space is now. Feels like it applies to Live streaming and para-social relationships like an audience at a rock concert . Or possibly also related to The Magic Circle concept.

[nicholascurran]

What if people begin to lose interest in non-live actor play? How far do you see players going with Nons between live actor moments, given the prioritization system?

If the LBE costs money to host, is this a subscription based service? How do you balance keeping players engaged and reducing cost of live actors? NPCs or even sound board roles will be a limited experience for players, will those need to be fleshed out over time to keep players guessing if they're live or not?

How do you balance out players changing the environment via boundary testing and the affect that has on other players experience in the shared space? There may be cases where a live actor is present, one bad player rots the bunch, so to speak, and now other players have "lost" out on their live actor experience, how will the prioritization system rectify this to avoid negative player experience?

[ZaMe_GaMe]

Don't you think that using live actors doesn't make sense, because they still don't have complete freedom of action, but only perform a number of prescribed scripts inside the scene, with the exception of the voice? In this case, is it more profitable to create flexible bots or set up a neural network that, based on the player's actions, will adjust and do everything the same as the actor, only faster? They will also be able to do voice acting.

[mikeb]

15:03 ... these aren't engaging responses... they're like a childrens show host. Glossing over everything or giving up... The self-defence responses should drop into boredom/anger, or ignoring the player... not gleeful sarcasm. Exit text shouldn't be a long patronising message, should be "later alligator"...