The Weather Channel has done it once again and used technology to present their viewers with an immersive experience that is both scary as it is interesting. The latest use of mixed reality (MR) technology comes in the form of a presentation from The Weather Channel showcasing the dangers of rising floodwaters earlier this week.
The short video, which you can see below, was uploaded to The Weather Channel’s YouTube channel and provides viewers with a brief explanation and demonstration of what could happen as hurricane Florence hits the Carolina coast. Though only just over two minutes in length, the video is an eye opening show of what can happen when raising floodwaters hit the main land and the use of high-quality 3D content really brings the story to life.
As reported by Inquirer, it can be very hard to imagine how your local neighborhood could look when under nine feet of water. This is why the MR experience was created to give viewers a look at the impact of a storm that they otherwise would not be able to. All of this was powered by the Unreal Engine, which is capable of delivering high quality scenes with little impact on resources making it the ideal development platform for The Weather Channel to use.
The video features Meteorologist Greg Postel who is standing in the middle of the floodwaters and as the explanation continues and the storm rages on, the danger becomes shockingly clear. With water up to 13 feet, Postel is under the water, which is full of it’s own dangers, with it nearly double his height. As cars and houses soon become submerged in the waters and are pushed around, everything becomes a danger in a matter of seconds.
Of course, this is not the first time The Weather Channel have used this technology to build an immersive presentation experience. They used MR technology back in June to show viewers the power of tornadoes following a bigger embrace of the technology back in April of this year.
You can see the video for yourself below and all more on The Weather Channel’s MR venture in the future, keep reading VRFocus.