It’s a Festivus miracle! Greg Miller, a 3D modeler and developer based in San Jose, California, has created Jerry Seinfeld’s iconic apartment in the Unity game engine with Oculus Rift support. While the demo itself suffers some from the low resolution of the DK1, a static render displays terrific attention to detail.
I had a lot of fun looking around the kitchen at the time spent on individual items, as well as seeing the paused image on the TV (no spoilers!), and Jerry’s bicycle hanging in the hallway. Fellow Road to VR contributor Reverend Kyle enthused, “I really thought it was a novel demo. The detail in all of the boxes and the Superman on the shelf really did it for me.”
To learn more about the demo and to download it, visit Jerry’s Place VR. Road to VR was fortunate enough to catch up with developer Greg Miller for a few questions.
How much time have you invested so far in Jerry’s Place?
Miller: The demo took about 2 months, but I took a break in the middle to do some other stuff, like render a Lego scene using Blender’s new cycles engine.
What’s on the roadmap? Or do you consider it done at this point?
Miller: At this point, I consider Jerry’s Place to be done. However, if anyone donates more accurate 3D models or textures I’d be glad to update it before my Unity Pro Trial expires. I’d like to take a break and level-up and MAYA for a while, as I’d like a job doing 3D modeling. After I might tackle another show. I think the set to I Love Lucy might be fun, with a toggle button to turn black & white to color. Reminds me of the classic Calvin & Hobbes comic about the past being in black & white. Someone on Reddit linked me to the floor plans for The Office. Very tempted by that one…
You mentioned you were experienced in 3D modeling before starting Jerry’s Place, but how much Unity did you know?
Miller: This was my first major Unity project! So far I really like working with Unity, and look forward to my next project with it. Affording that pro license will be the main hurdle after my trial expires.
What roadblocks or snags did you hit, if any? Things you spent way more time on than you expected to?
Miller: The most difficult part was figuring out what items were in the background of the set. I was able to find and texture all but two of the VHS / NES games, for example, and I was able to find most of the original posters for high quality textures. I still have no idea what the poster over his bed is supposed to be, so I just had to use a blurry screen shot to texture that one. When I was able to identify an object, the next challenge became finding textures from the era. Battleship has changed it’s design a few times, but luckily someone on eBay was selling the same version seen in the show.
Greg includes progress shots of the project in a short video:
So far there’s no mode yet that allows you to slam money onto the counter and declare “I’m out! I’m out of the contest!”, but this author is holding out hope.