🔔Tips & Tricks

Wayfinding: Taxonomy > Virtual Reality Theatre > Tips & Tricks

Get Help from Online Programming Communities: Although all digital theatre requires some upskilling with hardware and software, Virtual Reality Theatre overlaps enough with videogame creation that it might appear more overwhelming. But, the community of computer programmers, game makers, and digital artists is large, so finding your way around is easier than you might expect. Clemence Debaig explained that there are many free or inexpensive tools with extensive documentation, and this is a great place to start learning:

… with like the mocap stuff like the hardcore tech like of mocap, it is very difficult to learn, because this is not very public domain; it is very film-led, and that is hidden in the studios. So, it's not that easy to actually learn. But then what you make with a small game engine base, you have a lot of documentation, and that's easier because you can find a lot of examples, and tutorials, and all of that.

When you find software or a device that looks intriguing, conducting a quick search for GitHub documentation, YouTube tutorials, Discord communities, or other documents can help you quickly upskill yourself and your team. Finding online communities to ask questions of is also very helpful – this is what OnBoardXR created for their theatre-focused fork of Mozilla Hubs. The group began as a network for potential theatre makers to gather (on Discord and over video chats) to create live, embodied, virtual performance works. Through three years of activity, a short festival format evolved with extensive technical documentation. In a paper on the subject, I noted that the combination of festival performance like fringe festivals, and software development cycles similar to Agile, worked well for artists joining OBXR to learn new skills and engage audiences in VR.

Develop Your Physicality: Software development is one part of VR Theatre, but physicality is, perhaps, equally important. Learning principles of embodiment can help virtual performers as they translate acting into a VR world - as noted in Martin's Medium article in the 'Puppetry or Full Presence?' section. Clemence Debaig has worked extensively with mocap as a choreographer, dancer, avatar performer, and academic. For her students to understand movement in mocap and animating the mocapped avatar, she teaches them basic movement principles. ‘I actually teach movement as part of it and getting people to understand movement before even thinking about working with mocap, you need to understand how the body moves’.

Surround Sound: Immersing the audience in an experience is not only about appearances, but ‘is really heavily reliant on good audio. … We've always known that audiences watch with their ears’. Bradley discussed audio with me, noting that sound and music mixing, good voice-over technique, and good microphone quality were all vital to audiences feeling the VR environment is more real: ‘if you weren't really being conscious of how it [sound] was being translated or mediated through a digital system, you were not really able to convey that performance or express that performance’. The word ‘audience’ comes from the Latin root word for ‘listening’, harking back not only to a rowdier, louder theatre crowd, but the importance of the voice in translating emotion and experience. More insights on audio theatre can be found in the Other Digital Theatre section.

Learn Bandwidth Limitations: Theatre makers typically want as many people as possible to see their work, but the engine or social space itself may have a limit on the number of participants without latency issues. ‘Though it has generated interest among the audience who are VR users, the technology is still in the nascent stage for organising a concert for a large audience. For example, VRChat allows only a maximum of 40 users in one room. So, even though multiple instances of concert rooms could be created to accommodate a large audience, the avatar of the performer could be present in only one room’. One way to expand the audience is to offer a hybrid of virtual and livestreaming viewing, as noted in the prior section on hybrid options.

Create a Metaphorical ‘Lobby’ to Cool Down: An immersive experience can be overwhelming, so more VR theatre makers are incorporating audience debriefs or post-show chats to help return to reality. Mackey writes: ‘Beginning a scene with instructions for a simple task to undertake – remembering all the names of people they meet, for example – can direct their attention much more effectively than a general directive to engage. With all this in mind, remember that embodied experience can be intense and including a debrief or “cool down” may help ease your players back into the real world’. When I attended Ferryman Collective’s English translation of Finding WiiLii, there were direct interactions with the live performers’ avatars, who shed their character avatars so we could know who they are; it was similar to a curtain call and a meet and greet at the stage door. It is important to remember that ‘a good VR social space can provide users with the ability to switch between realities, as well as a sense of safety, physical privacy, shared experience, and a sense of belonging’.