PLATFORM:
META QUEST 3, UNITY, VS CODE
LANGUAGE:
C#
YEAR
2025
EXPERIENCE:
3D VR
NiVRiya - VR Meditation App
About
NiVRiya is a VR-based guided meditation experience designed to reduce stress, anxiety, and emotional discomfort using immersive environments inspired by Sanatan Dharma and Sanskrit shlokas. Built for Meta Quest 3 using Unity and C#, the project combines environmental design, interaction systems, and user-centered research. I created three unique meditation environments, implemented interactive elements, optimized performance for standalone VR, and conducted user testing with statistical analysis to validate relaxation effects.
Challenges
Designing an interactive VR application that could simultaneously support meditation and free exploration while meeting the strict performance requirements of the Meta Quest headset. This required achieving a balance between visual fidelity, comfort-first interaction design, and aggressive optimization—reducing draw calls, managing GPU/CPU load, and ensuring consistent frame performance on standalone hardware without compromising immersion.
Results
The final application underwent structured user testing as part of my MSc thesis, where participants completed pre- and post-experience surveys measuring relaxation, stress levels, and emotional state. The results were visualized using a graph (change in Emotional and mental state scores), both showing a clear positive shift after using NiVRiya.
These visual trends confirmed that users consistently reported higher relaxation levels and reduced stress indicators after the VR session. The data supported the conclusion that immersive VR meditation and exploration experiences can meaningfully improve emotional well-being, validating the design decisions and technical optimizations implemented throughout the project.
