Virtual Plant Cell

Client: The ARC Centre of Excellence in Plant Energy Biology.

Technology/platform: Built in Unity. Platforms: Gear VR, Google Daydream, Google Cardboard, Oculus Rift, HTC Vive

Virtual Plant Cell is an educational virtual reality resource created for the ARC Centre of Excellence in Plant Energy Biology (plantenergy.edu.au).

It's a unique virtual reality experience that lets you explore and interact with the submicroscopic inner world of a plant.

What you do in it

It launched for National Science Week in Australia in August 2017, and puts you inside a plant cell with jobs to do: helping the plant survive salty conditions by “firing” salt into its vacuole, hunting for strands of DNA, and removing damaged protein. It ran on Gear VR, Oculus Rift and HTC Vive, and the mobile “Surviving Salt” experience was later ported to Windows Mixed Reality.

Where it went

By 2018 the Virtual Plant Cell suite had taken audiences in the tens of thousands through the microscopic inner world of a plant, in classrooms and at events across Australia and around the world. It was a finalist for the 2018 Western Australian Premier’s Science Awards (engagement), and its schools version, Virtual Plant Cell: Classroom, was a TIGA finalist for Best Educational Game the same year.

A 360 video trailer is available below:

Here is some footage of the Oculus Rift version of the app in use:

3D Modelling and Animations: Peter Ryan
Development: Richard England, Adrian Scully, Jozef Pierlejewski, Dominic Manley
Project Management: Dominic Manley, AVRL
Graphic and Logo Design: Chris Brown
Music: Jim Kennedy, Audiosimian
Voice Over: Glenn Hall
Science from the ARC Centre of Excellence in Plant Energy Biology and La Trobe University.
Project led by Karina Price and the researchers of the ARC Centre of Excellence in Plant Energy Biology, www.plantenergy.edu.au