Project Name : VXRLabs

Role : Lead Unity Developer

Platform : Unity Engine | Meta Quest

Tools : Blender, Unity, Photoshop

VXRLabs was envisioned as a direct competitor to existing virtual reality educational platforms like Engage, but with greater flexibility and developer control. While Engage offered a foundation for VR education, its limited development capabilities restricted the potential for more diverse and immersive content experiences. To overcome these limitations, we set out to build our own educational multiplayer platform—one that allowed us to design comprehensive, physics-driven interactions and deep, engaging experiences that no other educational VR platform was offering at the time.

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Our goal was to create a robust educational resource tailored for universities and schools, providing interactive 3D labs that could serve as cost-effective alternatives to traditional lab setups. What began as a project focused on chemistry labs soon expanded into a multi-disciplinary platform. VXRLabs grew to include a wide range of educational content, covering subjects such as mathematics, history, literature, and even virtual visits to temples and CTE (Career and Technical Education) learning environments.

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Additionally, we developed specialized labs for forensics, creative spaces for recording and reusing objects, and sandbox environments that enabled users to experiment and customize their learning experiences. By offering a suite of versatile tools and labs, VXRLabs aimed to revolutionize classroom learning by reducing material costs while providing students with hands-on, interactive lessons that extended far beyond the typical VR educational offerings of the time.

Pre-production began with identifying the right networking solution to support scalable, synchronous learning environments. After evaluating multiple options, I selected Photon PUN 2 for its strong Unity integration, reliable room-based architecture, and ability to support large groups across a wide range of devices.

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The first featured experience was a general biology tour, designed to demonstrate core functionality and educational value. Users could grab, rotate, and scale human organs in a museum-like environment, enhanced with informative descriptions and interactive zones. To boost engagement and learning retention, I added mini-games that turned anatomy review into a playful, challenge-based experience.

Using early sketches, I designed the initial demo room layout, prioritizing clean flow and intuitive interactivity. For avatars, I initially implemented robotic half-body models to streamline development by avoiding complex full-body rigs and networking overhead. These were later replaced with human avatars to enhance presence and emotional connection between users in the virtual environment.

The main menu system was scoped early, with functionality for joining rooms, creating sessions, using access codes, and adjusting settings. While this UI evolved over time, the foundation was built to prioritize clarity and accessibility for both students and instructors.

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What began as a solo project grew into a collaborative effort. I brought on additional developers as the project scaled, training them in Photon PUN 2 networking principles, prefab structure, and multiplayer best practices to ensure continuity, scalability, and shared technical vision.

Scalable UI & Personalized Experience System

A modular user interface was designed to categorize and display hundreds of VR experiences without performance loss.

• Integrated VictoryXR account systems for personalized access via secure REST APIs.

• Implemented lazy loading and dynamic UI population to maintain performance on standalone VR headsets.

• Experiences were grouped by institution, content type, and access level for streamlined navigation.

 

Educator-Friendly Demo System

Many educators were new to VR, so I built a frictionless demo flow:

• Created a demo mode with preloaded tours, skipping authentication and loading curated scenes automatically.

• Used Unity Addressables to load content on demand and reduce app size.

• Enabled quick, self-guided sessions to improve onboarding speed during live demos and conferences.

 

Unified Interaction Toolkit

To keep interactions consistent across a wide variety of scenes and developers:

• Developed a standardized toolkit for teleportation, grabbing, seating, and interaction triggers.

• Used ScriptableObjects and modular prefabs to ensure reusability across the project.

• Documented and enforced toolkit standards to maintain a consistent user experience.

 

Host Controls & Session Management

Large classroom sessions needed tools for moderation and control. I implemented:

• In-VR host panels for muting, kicking, locking objects, and controlling scene elements.

• Real-time authority control using Photon Fusion for smooth synchronization across clients.

• Dynamic property syncing to adjust user permissions mid-session without relaunching.

 

Performance & Network Optimization

To support large groups in rich environments on mobile hardware:

• Applied LOD systems, GPU instancing, and object pooling to manage draw calls.

• Optimized network traffic with custom serialization and region-based interest management.

• Used profiling tools to target 72+ FPS on Quest 2 and maintain multiplayer sync stability.