Interaction systems
Contributed to the Unreal Engine systems that connect audience interaction to the artwork’s evolving visual response.
Case study · Dominic Harris Studio
Unseen
Interactive-system development and exhibition delivery for an Unreal Engine artwork.
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The brief
Make a complex interactive artwork dependable in a production setting.
My contribution to Unseen centred on the systems behind the artwork: developing interactive behaviour, refining visual response and helping prepare the application for exhibition delivery. The work balanced the audience experience with the reliability required of a long-running installation.
Contribution
Where I contributed
Visual behaviour
Refined the relationships between individual interactions and the wider visual composition, with an emphasis on consistency and clarity.
Runtime & delivery
Supported runtime refinement, build testing and exhibition delivery across the formats used by the artwork.
System refinement
Turning visual feedback into robust interaction behaviour.
Responsive interaction
Refined the timing and sequencing of interactive state changes so that visual feedback felt more coherent and deliberate.
Visual continuity
Improved how individual actions influence the surrounding composition, creating smoother transitions over extended interaction.
Animation & look development
Tuned movement, depth, lighting and transitions to improve the artwork’s visual clarity while preserving its interactive character.
Scenario-based validation
Reviewed builds against representative audience interactions and edge cases to identify visual issues before delivery.
Reliability & performance
Profiling, reproducing and reducing runtime instability.
Performance investigation
Profiled runtime behaviour and reproduced intermittent issues through controlled interaction tests, turning subjective reports into actionable development work.
Resource handling
Improved runtime resource handling to reduce avoidable pauses and support smoother operation during visually demanding moments.
Runtime optimisation
Contributed to targeted optimisation work across loading, animation and application configuration to protect responsiveness.
Release validation
Ran extended stability tests and repeatable test passes, checking for visual stutter, recovery and dependable operation before release.
Approach
Engineering for the artwork, the hardware and the environment.
Understand the live system
Trace the relationship between interaction, visual response and the environment where the artwork will run before changing behaviour.
Improve the critical path
Prioritise systems that affect visible interaction, smoothness and day-to-day operational reliability.
Validate in context
Test the build through realistic audience, longevity and delivery workflows—not only inside the editor.
Build, release & operational ownership
Taking responsibility beyond the editor.
Alongside feature and performance work, I contributed to the practical work needed to get Unseen running reliably in the field: release preparation, installation guidance, issue diagnosis and validation.
- Contributed to release preparation with a focus on repeatable installation and dependable startup.
- Helped investigate recovery and reliability behaviour in long-running application sessions.
- Supported build and configuration preparation for the artwork’s different presentation formats.
- Created and updated developer-facing installation and environment guidance.
- Used diagnostics and targeted reproduction steps to investigate issues across development, QA and deployed systems.
What this demonstrates
More than engine development.
This work brings together real-time application development, practical tooling, runtime considerations and deployment support—the overlap where interactive creative work has to function reliably beyond a development machine.