FirePlace

I’m a very visual person, and when I design, I like to imagine standing in the room, gallery, or event space to see exactly what the guest will experience. The problem? Outside of a clunky VR headset tethered to a monster PC (and limited to awkward teleporting), that’s nearly impossible—especially in a cost-effective way. So, I tried out every VR design tool and model viewer I could find. Some had features I liked, like material rendering and scale loading, but none of them could do the one simple thing I needed:

A) I wanted to design something
B) I wanted to visualize it at scale from my own perspective
C) I wanted to do it anywhere

In my research, I found that Disney Imagineers had a literal Holo-Deck to help design their theme parks—so, at least I knew it was possible! That’s when a happy accident from a friend at Pixar helped clarify things. They shared a new format they developed with Apple called .USDZ, which can be viewed natively in AR (augmented reality) on Apple devices. Cool! So we could look at designs through the iPad camera... but then it hit me: another Apple device running similar software just happens to strap to your face and provide a reality-bending experience like no other—the Apple Vision Pro. I’m an early adopter, a tinkerer—I love a bold, innovative swing, even if it’s not quite ready for primetime. Naturally, I had a Vision Pro (along with an Oculus and a Meta Quest Pro—yep, I’m that person). I had all the ingredients, but I didn’t know how to put it together. That’s when our tech and creative teams teamed up to develop FirePlace—just released in version 1.0—a first-of-its-kind tool for untethered, anywhere-scale walkthroughs of exhibits and architecture. By matching the power of the Vision Pro with the compression genius of USDZ (plus some other secret sauce), we tested and refined it for months until we had an incredibly simple way to visualize an experience before building it.

This new approach allows the FireWatch team around the world to collaborate in the same virtual space, and more importantly, it lets us communicate the entire experience to our clients effectively. We’re beyond excited to show and tell more about FirePlace soon!