R&D: VR Scene Editor & Export System

Overview

This project was built around the idea of a Virtual Reality production tool that allows users to create 3D scenes in a digital space and export them. The work investigated scene editing, runtime workflows, scene serialisation, and reconstruction planning.

A major problem identified early in the project was the lack of tooling that allows an entire scene to be exported during runtime. That problem shaped the architecture, research direction, and system planning for the project. :contentReference[oaicite:0]{index=0}

The Problem

Building immersive scenes inside VR is useful on its own, but without scene persistence and export support, the workflow becomes limited.

The project focused on three connected goals: real-time scene creation, full scene export, and reliable scene reconstruction. This moved the work beyond interface design and into runtime systems and data flow design. :contentReference[oaicite:1]{index=1} :contentReference[oaicite:2]{index=2}

Approach

The system was planned as a combination of VR interaction design, modular asset management, export architecture, and user-focused workflow planning.

Interaction & UX

Immersive object manipulation through VR input
Ray-based and direct interaction thinking
Focus on comfort, learnability, and responsiveness
Spatial UI planning for headset use

Runtime Systems

Asset Bundle-driven content delivery
Scene data collection and serialisation
Export and import workflow planning
Validation, recovery, and fallback handling

Core Systems

The strongest part of the project was treating each feature as part of a wider system rather than a standalone function.

VR Interaction System

Designed around object selection, movement, rotation, scaling, and real-time feedback within a 3D workspace. The interaction planning also considered ray-based selection, direct-hand interaction, and comfort-aware usability. :contentReference[oaicite:3]{index=3}

Asset Management

Planned around Unity Asset Bundles to support modular content loading, runtime searchability, and selective loading or unloading for performance stability in VR. :contentReference[oaicite:4]{index=4}

Scene Export System

The central technical focus of the project. Scene data would be gathered, serialised, written to storage, and later reconstructed through a structured import process. :contentReference[oaicite:5]{index=5}

Error Handling & Recovery

Reliability was treated as part of the design. The system planning included file validation, corruption detection, fallback strategies, autosave behaviour, and user feedback for missing or invalid data. :contentReference[oaicite:6]{index=6} :contentReference[oaicite:7]{index=7}

Export Pipeline

A key part of the R&D work was mapping how live runtime state could be transformed into portable scene data and later rebuilt.

1

Collect

Gather scene data including transforms, object identity, hierarchy, component data, and environment settings.

2

Serialise

Convert runtime objects into structured export data, with support for deep scene description and future reconstruction.

3

Store

Save the output to a persistent location with validation, naming, logging, and resilience considerations.

4

Rebuild

Deserialize stored data, restore assets, rebuild hierarchy, resolve dependencies, and recover scene state.

            This layered export approach was one of the strongest parts of the project because it
            framed export as a full runtime system rather than a simple save feature. :contentReference[oaicite:8]{index=8}
          

Key Technical Decisions

Several choices were made to keep the system realistic for VR hardware and scalable as a technical workflow.

URP for headset performance

URP was selected as the most suitable render pipeline for Meta Quest-targeted work, balancing performance and visual quality. :contentReference[oaicite:9]{index=9}

Deep serialisation

Deep serialisation was favoured over shallow serialisation to preserve complex object state, hierarchy, and reconstruction fidelity. :contentReference[oaicite:10]{index=10}

Selective asset loading

Asset Bundles were used conceptually to support selective loading and unloading, helping reduce memory pressure in VR. :contentReference[oaicite:11]{index=11}

Layered export architecture

Separating collection, serialisation, format, and storage improved maintainability and made the pipeline easier to reason about. :contentReference[oaicite:12]{index=12}

Challenges

The project raised several real technical issues that are common in immersive tool development.

              These challenges pushed the project into genuine systems design territory rather than
              leaving it as a purely visual or academic prototype. :contentReference[oaicite:13]{index=13} :contentReference[oaicite:14]{index=14}
            

Outcome

The final result was a strong R&D foundation for a Unity-based VR production tool with export and persistence at its core.

The project demonstrated system planning across immersive interaction, runtime asset management, scene export logic, import architecture, recovery strategy, and UX design. It also gave me a stronger foundation in how technical workflows need to balance performance, usability, and reliability together.

What This Demonstrates

This project reflects the way I approach technical work: with systems thinking, user awareness, and a strong focus on stability and structure.