Shell V-Power VR Pitstop
 Experiential

WHAT IS IT?

A virtual reality game where players can experience what it's like to be part of the pitcrew during a motor-racing pit stop.

WHO WAS IT FOR?

Viva Australia wanted to celebrate the 50th year of partnership between Shell and the DJR Team Penske race team and asked us to ideate, develop and deliver the world's first Virtual Reality Pit Stop experience, launching as a 4-player game at the Adelaide 500 V8 Supercar event in March 2017.

The Shell V-Power VR Pit Stop experience was born.

Since then the game has been extended into Formula One, German Touring Cars (DTM) and the NASCAR series with our custom-built VR kits on the road, touring major race events across the world.

WHAT DID I DO?

I was working as Digital Lead at Traffik at the time, and was responsible for development of the entire suite of experiential technology, including all software and hardware.

You can see me at around the 53 sec mark on the video below, on camera after a 36 hour setup stint.

I was heavily involved from the early stages of ideation and pitch to Viva, all the way through to delivery and maintenance phases for the roll out. I worked closely with Red Cartel (my old studio) to develop the VR gameplay, and with Iapetus to develop the networking, and social sharing aspect of the software.  I also personally designed and built all the PCs and network hardware required for the activations, housing them securely in travel cases for ease of use on the road.

I also was the Onsite Technical Lead during the launch at the Clipsal 500 in Adelaide 2017, and in London UK for the launch of the Formula 1 game in 2018, as well as many other Australia events from 2017-2021.

Specifically we built the following:

  • Gameplay design and mechanisms.
  • 3d model and texture libraries.
  • Motion and audio capture.
  • Custom software for VR interactions.
  • Social video sharing system.
  • Player registration system.
  • Hardware specification, procurement and build.
  • Site installation and event support.
  • Backend CMS to manage all events including customised microsites, game reports & setup, and leaderboards.

The activation ran for about 5 years across Australia , UK and Europe and had over 44,000 players experience the thrill of our VR Pit Stops.

STATISTICS

  • Over 44,000 players.
  • 120 live events supported to date.
  • 4x separate VR games deployed (V8 Supercars, Formula One, DTM, NASCAR)
  • 16x complete game kits built and deployed in the UK, USA, Europe and Australia
  • 1-player and 4-player editions launched.
  • Local race events installed and supported including AGP (17,18,19,20,21), Bathurst 1000 (17,18,19,20,21), Townsville 400 (18,19,20), Newcastle 500 (18,19,20,21) plus several Shell corporate events.

GALLERIES

The builds

In-game screenshots

Screens and User Interfaces