Battle of San Lorenzo is a short first-person VR combat experience created for a live event and inspired by the historic battle fought in 1813 by General José de San Martín and the Regiment of Mounted Grenadiers.
The application was conceived as an intense two-minute experience in which the player faces waves of royalist soldiers near the Convent of San Lorenzo. The project combines historical atmosphere, close-range sword combat, enemy AI, defensive mechanics, and standalone VR interaction within a compact event format.
This project evolved from assets and historical research originally created for my larger Unreal Engine production about the Crossing of the Andes. I adapted that visual material into a new interactive application, redesigning the environments, characters, gameplay systems, and optimization requirements for real-time VR combat.
I was responsible for the complete development of the experience, including environment creation, historical asset production, character modeling, texturing, lighting, visual effects, animation blending, enemy behavior, combat programming, interaction systems, optimization, testing, and final deployment.
The scene takes place in a misty battlefield at the foot of the historic convent. Warm horizon lighting, dense vegetation, smoke, fire, and atmospheric fog were used to create a cinematic environment while maintaining a controlled viewing distance suitable for VR performance.
The player begins in the battlefield and equips a curved cavalry saber inspired by the weapons used during the period. The interaction system allows the weapon to be handled directly in VR and used for attacking, blocking, and parrying incoming strikes.
Royalist infantry soldiers emerge from the fog and advance toward the player. Their behavior is controlled through a custom enemy AI system that manages navigation, approach distance, movement speed, attack selection, defensive positioning, damage reactions, and death states.
The combat system includes physical sword collisions, directional attacks, defensive blocks, and close-range parries. When the player intercepts an enemy strike, the weapons can meet in a crossed defensive position before the combat continues with a counterattack.
Animation state blending was implemented to transition between idle, walking, running, attacking, retreating, receiving damage, and death actions. The base character animations were sourced from Mixamo and then integrated, configured, blended, and connected to the custom gameplay and AI systems.
Impact effects, blood particles, environmental smoke, fire, and audiovisual feedback were added to give greater weight and readability to each encounter. These effects were balanced to preserve performance and prevent the short experience from becoming visually confusing during attacks involving multiple enemies.
The final result is a compact historical VR combat experience that combines original visual production with custom sword mechanics, enemy AI, animation systems, and event-oriented interaction design.
Role: Solo VR Developer & Technical Artist
Project Type: Historical VR Combat Game and Live Event Experience
Setting: Battle of San Lorenzo, 1813
Experience Duration: Approximately two minutes
Development Areas: Experience design, environment creation, historical asset production, character modeling, texturing, lighting, animation blending, enemy AI, navigation, sword interaction, melee combat programming, blocking and parry mechanics, damage systems, visual effects, optimization, testing, and deployment
Animation Sources: Base character animations from Mixamo, integrated and adapted through custom animation controllers and gameplay logic
Key Features: First-person VR sword combat, enemy wave system, custom AI behavior, physical weapon collisions, directional attacks, blocking, parrying, damage reactions, animation blending, atmospheric fog, fire and smoke effects, and event-ready gameplay flow
Deliverables: Complete source project, original optimized assets, and functional VR build
Short description beneath the video
Battle of San Lorenzo is a two-minute historical VR combat experience created for a live event and inspired by the battle fought in 1813 by General José de San Martín and the Regiment of Mounted Grenadiers.
The player faces waves of royalist soldiers near the historic Convent of San Lorenzo, using a cavalry saber to attack, block, and parry incoming strikes.
The project evolved from visual material originally created for my Unreal Engine production about the Crossing of the Andes. Base character animations were sourced from Mixamo and integrated into custom animation, AI, and combat systems.
Role: Solo VR Developer & Technical Artist
Experience Duration: Approximately two minutes
Key Systems: Enemy AI, sword interaction, physical blocking, parrying, damage reactions, wave progression, and event-oriented gameplay