Early in 2020, the Lloyd’s Register Foundation Heritage & Education Centre released a free and engaging virtual reality game titled ‘Ship Surveyor Through the Ages.’ The bespoke experience transports players to a virtual world where you can become a ship surveyor aboard three historical and contemporary vessels: a 17th century Dutch galliot, a 19th century composite clipper and a modern cargo ship. The goal is to find three survey faults as quickly as possible. Hazards can include missing rivets, rotten planks, temporary fixes and damaged navigational equipment. At the end you are presented with your score on the leaderboard.
The experience also provides an overview of the historic role of a surveyor, as well as introductions to the important work of the Lloyd's Register Foundation and Lloyd's Register Group.
Since its release on both Steam and Viveport, the response has been phenomenal, with one player awarding a five star review stating:
"This experience is very fun and has brilliant graphics . I found it to be a great tool to teach me on what to look for when assessing a ship and at the same time making it fun."
The experience was developed in partnership with Lloyd's Register Group's Marine & Offshore surveyors and was designed by Volume Ai. As the Heritage & Education Centre look to engage with the general public, the experience is compatible with HTC Vive and Windows Mixed Reality systems; widening the experience's reach globally. Since 'Ship Surveyor Through The Ages' was launched, VR enthuisasts from Turkey, Japan and Russia had downloaded the experience.
This technology is just one aspect of our efforts to enhance our remote learning capabilities, as well as providing an engaging activitiy at our events, from conferences to workshop days.
