Ultra-realistic avatar shows life-like emotions

The EVR Studio specializes in photo-realistic avatars and would like to launch a dating sim for Oculus Rift and HTC Vive next year, based on the in-house technology. A brief VR experience gives an impressive idea of ​​what it can do.

The Seoul-based studio employs game developers, special effects professionals from Hollywood, photographers and writers. The goal of the company is to create life-like virtual people, to whom the user can build an emotional bond. The work of Dating Sim is “Project M”.

The Dream Dream, published at the beginning of September, is a short Tech Demo that is intended to demonstrate the emotional expressiveness of the in-house avatars. Starting the application, you can see a computer-animated young woman who, like an actress, shows a wide range of emotions in a short time sequence.

She smiles, amazed, looks questioningly, then shyly, then thoughtfully, and finally sadly to the ground, until her, seized by strong feelings, tears a tear over the cheek.

In the Virtual Reality, the acting is far more impressive than in a video, because you feel that the woman would be standing in front of you and look deep into the eyes. The fact that the illusion is almost perfect lies, besides the authentic facial expressions, on this eye contact.

It is the central element of the VR experience, which appeals to the user and gets into the emotional presence of the character. Strangely enough, the woman’s eyes do not seem dead and empty like other photoreal digital figures, but live and participatory.

The simulation of the young woman is not perfect. She moves and has an extremely life-like facial expression, but she can not react to her opposite, but looks in a fixed direction. If you stand aside, the eye contact breaks and the illusion is gone.

Project M: Dream is available for free on Steam for HTC Vive and Oculus Rift.