VIVE Origin is the home environment that comes preinstalled on all Cosmos headsets. A few months before Cosmos launched, HTC decided to overhaul the headset’s tutorial, and called on our team to design it. Since our Creative Labs team had already designed a gorgeous environment for Origin, we decided to leverage it for the tutorial, but added several new interactions on top of it to make the tutorial more engaging.

We added the “Vista Launcher” which allowed you to pick up and launch orbs to change the environment’s skybox. We also added an RC car that you control with the trigger and joysticks. And, since we had the functionality implemented already, we added a 3D pen to allow you to draw and decorate your space. Each of these tools was chosen to teach you about different buttons on the Cosmos controller, while also giving you something fun to do before and after launching other VR apps.

I was responsible for designing and tuning the RC car, as well as working with artists to improve the Vista Launcher VFX. I am particularly proud of the puddle system I built, which allows the RC car to splash water as it drives through puddles. Our team was also responsible for several seasonal updates for Origin. For the holiday season, we transformed it into a winter wonderland. I wrote an adjustable shader that allowed us to quickly cover the environment in snow. I also wrote a snowball making system, though we didn’t end up using it in the final product. We also did an update for the lunar new year, where we added intractable fireworks and floating lanterns you could release into the sky.

We had a number of other features planned for Origin, but as of now the updates are on a hiatus. Still it was a very fun project to work on and one I’m very proud of.