Rising Bravery: A Pediatric Medical VR Experience

Taylor Boese (Drury University), Ross Turner (Drury University), Justin Basler (Drury University), Cody Lourenco (Drury University), Dr. Chris Branton (Drury University)

“Rising Bravery” is a medical virtual reality (MedVR) experience tailored to assist pediatric patients with pain management through deep immersion. Originally developed over eight years using TwinMotion and 3D Vista, the project required a transition to Unreal Engine to produce a standalone executable application for Meta Quest 3 headsets. The development team engineered this solution by blending pre-rendered 360-degree videos with interactive 3D VR environments, heavily utilizing the Stereo Panoramic Player plugin to manage complex level loading and scene transitions. To ensure the application met strict medical VR guidelines for children in hospital settings, the team disabled smooth locomotion and adrenaline boosts. Instead, the experience relies on hand tracking and gaze navigation within familiar locations during targeted 10 to 15-minute sessions. Development required significant technical problem-solving to stabilize the pipeline, including streamlining version control hierarchies after manual branch merges and resolving complex build dependencies and errors during Android APK generation. The team also focused on optimizing shader complexity and frame rates to maintain a high-fidelity experience on mobile XR hardware. The prototype was validated at the International Virtual Reality Healthcare Association (IVRHA) conference, where the team demonstrated the project and gathered critical feedback from healthcare professionals. This professional feedback reinforced the importance of creating calming environments that avoid sensory overload, highlighting the impactful intersection of game development and clinical VR therapy.