vROVPilot: Titanic
Introduction
An immersive real-time exploration experience that brings the Titanic’s bow to life as it rests on the ocean floor.
Built in Unreal Engine 5, this project invites players to descend into the depths and explore a highly detailed, photogrammetry-based reconstruction of the Titanic’s bow. Designed as both an educational and atmospheric experience, the project blends guided gameplay with unrestricted free exploration to capture the haunting beauty of the wreck.
Players pilot two Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs), Romeo and Juliet, through a series of scanning missions that introduce key points of interest on the wreck. Once the narrative-driven missions are complete, the experience opens into a free-fly mode with no time constraints, allowing users to explore the environment at their own pace.
My Role & Contributions
As Technical Artist and Developer, I was responsible for both the visual fidelity and the core interactive systems:
- Optimized high-resolution 3D scan data of the Titanic for real-time performance while preserving visual accuracy
- Created custom shaders to support underwater lighting, depth fog, particulate effects, and material realism
- Developed the full gameplay flow in Blueprints, including:
- Narrative structure and mission logic
- Player interactions and scanning mechanics
- ROV movement, controls, and camera behavior
- Onboarding tutorial and introduction sequence
- Implemented a physically simulated tether cable in C++, connecting each ROV to the surface command vessel
- Collaborated with expert ROV pilots to design a realistic control interface and toolset
- The result is a technically robust and visually immersive experience that faithfully recreates the extreme underwater conditions of the Titanic’s resting place—combining storytelling, simulation, and real-world data into a seamless interactive journey.