PLAYING WITH THE LIGHT

Videoworks is using game technology to help yacht owners and designers envision onboard lighting before the boat is built.

THE SAME GAMING technology that mesmerizes kids who don headsets to enter virtual worlds just became a new way for adults to design the lighting aboard yachts. ¶ Italy-based Videoworks, in partnership with California-based Eon Reality, has created a digital tool specific to onboard lighting design. Yacht owners and designers—who previously had static renderings of how lighting would look inside a new-build yacht- can now digitally enter interior spaces and, using a joystick, change the lighting to ensure that it will be spec’d and installed in a way that works best. ¶ “The texture, the materials—they are very real and impressive with these tools,” says Leo Megna, head of comfort and lighting projects at Videoworks. “After 10 seconds with the visor, you completely lose any perception of reality. It seems

To create the software, Videoworks collaborated with Eon Reality, which specializes in virtual and augmented reality.

like you are in the cabin, in the salon. It’s very realistic.” ¶ A demo video that Videoworks produced shows options such as seeing exactly how brightly, and in what position, reading lights will shine over a bed, as well as how even the dimmest light will look in a stateroom at night. Through the visor, users can see how lighting feels inside the space during the daytime, with natural light streaming through the windows, or at dusk, when mood lighting might be all that’s wanted. ¶ The idea is to give owners and designers the kind of pre-construction control of lighting choices that they currently have with things such as fabric and texture samples. ¶ “We have presented these tools to some designers, and we had very excited feedback,” Megna says. “These tools are very new, very powerful. The lights are an important architectural element. Thanks to these tools, the designers feel more confident that they have things more under control.” ¶ Going forward, Videoworks plans to collaborate with Eon Reality to make the tool usable for designing exterior yacht spaces and underwater lighting. The goal, he says, is to give owners “the possibility to play with the lights, and not only during the final commissioning.”

The software accounts for the diameter of light cones, color temperatures and more to create realistic representations.