Development of a High-Fidelity Earthquake Simulation Environment for Virtual Production Based on Unreal Engine

Project partners: Royal College of Art, UNSW Sydney, Foster + Partners

XR Network+ is supporting a collaboration between researchers at the Royal College of Art (Principal Investigator: Dr Ali Asadipour), UNSW Sydney, and London-based architecture studio Foster + Partners, to develop highly-efficient earthquake simulators. 

Earthquakes pose serious threats to human life and societal infrastructure. High-precision simulations can reduce the damage caused by natural disasters, and are needed in fields such as emergency response training and education. However, current methods of simulating these natural disasters require heavy computing resources, and rarely operate in real-time. They also frequently fall short in their efficiency, interactivity, and visual fidelity. 

This project team’s previous research merged scientific physical simulation engines with game engines to test whether a combination of the two technologies could be used to create an improved earthquake simulation. These tests proved successful, with the resulting simulation delivering real-time performance alongside greater visual fidelity and interactivity. 

With support from XR Network+, the team will expand on their work by building an enhanced Unreal Engine-based earthquake simulation for virtual production. This simulation will use pre-existing Unreal Engine materials to allow the user to more easily incorporate the relevant terrains and buildings for their individual simulation – adding detail to the simulation while improving its user-friendliness. The team will also organise workshops in both the UK and Sydney, gathering insight from government, academia, emergency response units, the private sector and members of the public to feed back into the design, development, and evaluation of the platform. 

An improved model of earthquake simulation has the potential to inspire development in related simulation fields such as fire spread, flood modelling, extreme weather, and ageing infrastructure. Accurate simulators can also shape the decisions taken at the design stage of building and urban planning, ultimately minimising the impact of these natural disasters. 

This collaboration is one of seven projects supported by the XR Network+ Embedded R&D (round two) funding call, with grants of up to £60,000 awarded to researchers at UK universities to explore the transfer of knowledge between academia and industry in areas aligned with Virtual Production. 

Image credit to Yitong Sun.

Categories: Research, Technology