Virtual Reality Camp continued . . .
Campers attended workshops covering C# programming, the Unity game engine, 3D modeling using Blender and more. Additionally, campers pitched ideas and formed teams to create three complete VR experiences:
- "Last Stop" places players as conductors of a runaway train,
- "Escape" asks players to explore and escape from a futuristic cityscape, and
- "JaNinja" sees players as a half-janitor, half-ninja charged with defeating an army of garbage monsters.
The culmination was an exciting final showcase on June 27, where campers presented their work to family and friends. The skills developed during this camp prepare participants for future computer science and digital art studies.
The camp is a part of BeyondReality@UNO, an initiative to provide New Orleans artists, entrepreneurs and students access to cutting-edge virtual reality equipment and training. The camp was sponsored in part by the National Center for Advanced Manufacturing and NASA and was led by an interdisciplinary team of UNO faculty including Matt Tarr (Chemistry), Ben Samuel (Computer Science) and Dinah Maygarden (Earth and Environmental Sciences). Workshops were additionally taught by UNO aluma Lisa Gilmore-Montero '22 (Computer Science and Fine Arts), UNO undergraduate student Blake Jarvis (Computer Science) and Calder King (NOLA Game Dev).
