VR experience · Nature Room

VR Calming Guide

A Zen garden where a fox guide and a breathing orb invite calm, rather than impose it.

Watch the walkthrough

Context

University project

My part

Nature Room, built solo

Presented

February 2026

Built with

Unity & VFX Graph

Japanese Zen garden in VR with a petal breathing orb above a raked-sand circle

About the room

What it is

One of five rooms in Zen Rooms, a VR wellness experience made by four HCI students at Université Paris-Saclay. The Nature Room is a Japanese garden for breathing practice and slow, guided exploration.

The idea

Calm can’t be forced. Nothing in the garden starts by itself: the guide waits, the audio waits, and every next step begins with the user’s own choice.

What I did

I designed and built the Nature Room: the garden scene, the fox guide and its path, the breathing orb, the particle effects and the interaction logic.

Tools

Unity, VFX Graph, XR Interaction Toolkit, Animator, C#

The guided path

Follow the fox, at your own pace

When you enter the garden, a small fox greets you. It offers to guide you, but never moves until you agree. Each stop on its path is a quiet moment you choose to take.

01 Meet the guide

Walk close and the fox notices you. It asks if you’d like to calm down, and you answer by touching the fox statue.

02 Walk at its pace

The fox moves slowly between waypoints, stops just short of each statue, and turns to face you with a reflective question.

03 A mask takes shape

At the last statue, scattered particles drift together into a Kitsune mask, and the fox asks if you want to go on.

04 Light the incense

Touching the incense softens the effects around you and opens the next stage: the breathing orb.

Breathing orb made of cherry-blossom petals

The breathing orb

Breathe with the petals

A sphere of cherry-blossom petals floats above the raked sand. Step into its circle and the guided breathing starts. Breath, petals and voice move together in one loop.