Bringing Roman times to life

All roads lead to Rome! This also applies to the project that we have started together with Public Agency. And not just any Rome, we are talking about Rome all the way back to the days of the ancient Romans. Public Agency is an independent content production agency for film and video. Together with their producers, writers, directors and creatives, they know how to make your project come to life. Public Agency has asked us to help with a large VR project for a British museum. Public Agency delivered the images, we developed a lifelike VR experience!

In this instance

• Challenge
• Solution
• Facts & Figures

Ruins of a settlement from Roman times have been found in England. These have been restored to (almost) original condition. The event inspired a museum in England to recreate a lifelike VR experience from the discovery. Visitors can live this experience in the museum.

The VR experience shows the story of a prosperous family from Roman times. Public Agency translated this story into 5 videos shot in 5 different settings. Think of the time of the gladiators, myth, Greeks and Romans. Our team has processed these videos in a VR experience where you have a 360° view with the VR glasses. Walk through the gigantic museum and feel like a real Roman citizen!

However, we understand that you may not speak Latin, which can make the story a bit difficult to follow. That is why subtitles in seven languages and an additional subtitle for the hearing impaired have been created. The challenge for us in this project was to correctly display subtitles in a moving image. This experience should be pleasant for the user who walks around and looks around with a 360° view.

In addition, there was a challenge for our team in aligning the following four separate components; video, sound, voice-over and subtitles.

For this project we can be very clear. The solution? Testing, testing and you guessed it…more testing! Great precision is needed to make a VR experience feel lifelike.

The five films supplied by Public Agency are of high quality, which means that they have large files. In order not to slow down the app, we have chosen to program these videos as separate files on the VR headset.

However, this slowed down the movies by a few seconds. To get the four components (video, sound, voice-over and subtitles) right, testing had to be done down to the millisecond. In order to set the correct language, our team installed an aimer in the center of the vision. When users focus their vision on the right button in the home screen, they set the subtitles. These buttons disappear after you have made a language choice so that users can fully enjoy the VR experience.

Facts & Figures

Complete VR experience with 360 degree view
Subtitles in 7 languages + for the hearing impaired
Tested to the millisecond