The application is a virtual presentation of the latest S 1000 RR model, a high speed motorcycle from the BMW Group. In its third generation, the new bike has significantly improved performance over its predecessors due to a series of highly innovative changes to its motor. The two scenes of the application illustrate these changes and showcase the overall aesthetic and technological beauty of the motorcycle.
S 1000 RR VR was first made public at the new model’s International Press Launch that took place between March 5th and March 14th, 2019 on the racing track in Estoril, Portugal. The constraints of a live demo showing the new engine features were fully overcome with virtual reality. In the main scene of the application, the player travels through an animated motor magnified 500 times, with key points highlighted with short texts. The immediate technical understanding gained through the VR experience had an amazing effect on the journalists. Many exclaimed afterwards “Now I get it!” One journalist told Numena afterwards that he always wanted to go inside his motorcycle’s engine. For drivers passionate about the S 1000 RR, the experience proved to be a dream come true, literally.
The application is exhibited at various expos and events across Europe where it helps people understand the unbelievable technical and design achievement that the S 1000 RR represents. The second scene showcases an explosion of 4,000 individual parts at unprecedented graphic quality. As people walk through this explosion, they are generally amazed by the otherwise invisible intricacy and beauty of the motorcycle’s insides. This intimate understanding and admiration creates an emotional connection that further underscores the value of the Double R.
Numena’s goal was to use VR to weave a small narrative around the S 1000 RR. Rather then throwing the player straight into the motor, they orchestrated a six minute long narrative. They gave secondary roles to animated rocks that dance to create a spatial enclosure for the main action to take place. They designed an entry fit for the main character: the motorcycle first materializes in the form of a rain of parts. The parts then arrange themselves together to create the motor, then the bike. Numena then pull the player into a mysterious tunnel to turn the scale transition into a slow realization, but not before disintegrating the bike again, part by part, into the wind vortex. This, and the technical feat required to render and animate 4,000 bike meshes in real time, is Numena’s contribution to virtual reality.
STUDIO: Numena