BMW · Automotive real-time 3D
A one-to-one digital twin of the Shanghai Experience Center
An Unreal Engine 5 virtual experience center where visitors explore, paint and configure BMWs on desktop and in VR.
Taking a flagship venue online
BMW's Shanghai Experience Center is where people come to see, touch and understand the brand. As part of BMW's Metaverse initiative, the brief was to open that experience to anyone, anywhere: a virtual venue where visitors can explore the space, customize vehicles and interact with brand content without travelling to Shanghai.
The whole center, rebuilt one to one
We recreated the entire physical center as a 1:1 digital twin in Unreal Engine 5. Cinematic lighting, high-fidelity materials and modular layouts mirror the real building, so a virtual visit feels like the real thing and carries the same precision as the brand itself. The same environment runs on desktop and in VR.
Zones built to be played
Rather than a static showroom, the experience is organized into interactive zones with their own purpose, including a Blind Box Game, a car configurator and an Art Car Painting Area. Visitors design their own avatar, are welcomed by the AI virtual guide "Joy", and move through areas with day/night lighting cycles and interactive video spaces along the way.
Every visitor an art car designer
In the Art Car Painting Area, visitors turn a BMW into their own art car, on screen or with VR controllers. Artists get brushes and paint for complete freedom; everyone else can pick from stock patterns and assign their own colours. A custom painting system built on the car's livery template applies every stroke to the vehicle in real time.
Configuration inside the experience
A web-based car configurator is integrated directly into the 3D environment, so exploring a model and specifying it happen in the same place. Local data saving lets visitors come back and continue where they left off, which turns a one-off visit into an ongoing relationship with the brand.
Engineered for real-time performance
A modular blueprint system drives interaction, UI and mini-game logic, keeping each zone independent and easy to extend. The painting toolkit, avatar editor and AI guide were optimized for responsive, cross-platform performance, so the experience holds up on desktop hardware and in VR alike.
The result
A virtual experience center that combines entertainment, configuration and brand storytelling in one place. It extends a physical venue into an always-open digital one and gives BMW a blueprint for engaging customers in virtual worlds.