Moscow as Architectural Inspiration

The VRChat worlds by DrMorro are truly incredible. They're vast landscapes made of surreal mash-ups of various architecture styles and symbols that feels like you're walking through a waking dream. His Organism Trilogy (Organism, Epilogue 1, and Epilogue 2) is a true masterpiece of VR worldbuilding. And his latest Ritual is one of the biggest and most impressive single worlds on VRChat that feels walking through a fever dream, and probably the closest thing to Meow Wolf's style of immersive art. And his Raindance Immersive award-winning Olympia was his truly first vast world, and they've been getting bigger and bigger and more impressive ever since. He's got a keen ear for sound design and a sound track that will help set the eerie mood of his sometimes unsettling and liminal worlds. In short, the experience of spending 4-5 hours going through one of DrMorro's worlds is a completely unique and singular experience, as he's in a class of his own when it comes to VRChat world building. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4AfYsmHQB8 I have long wanted to conduct an interview with DrMorro doing a comprehensive retrospective of his works, but he's an anonymous Russian artist who doesn't speak English. He's only done one other interview with Russian Del'Arte Magazine, but otherwise he's a pretty mysterious and cryptic figure. I managed to got ahold of him through a mutual friend, and he suggested that we do a "19th-century-style written correspondence" where I would send questions over text chat over the course of a week. He would use an AI translator to translate what I said into Russian, and then he would then translate his Russian response back into English. For this podcast, I used the open source Boson AI Higgs Audio with Russian actor Yul Brynner's voice to bring DrMorro's personality to life, but the full transcript of our edited chat is down below if you prefer to read it as I had experienced it. You can support DrMorro's work through Boosty, and you can support the Voices of VR podcast through Patreon. Kent Bye: Alright! Can you go ahead and introduce yourself and what you do in the realm of VR? DrMorro: Hello! The name's DrMorro – or well, that's my alias, to be precise. That's the name I'm known by as the creator of all those strange worlds in VRChat. For now, that's my only real achievement in the VR sphere. Other than that, I'm a 2D and 3D artist, which is my main profession. Kent Bye: Awesome. Well, this is my first interview that I’ve done via text. Can you give a bit more context for why you prefer to do the interview in this way? DrMorro: Honestly, I'm a pretty closed-off person, and it's easier for me to write than to talk. It’s just a character trait. Especially since I can't even imagine communicating through a voice translator. When I write, I can at least somehow control the translation. I don't know spoken English, but I manage fine in writing. So, no conspiracy theories. It's just how I'm used to communicating. Though it's strange because by nature, I'm a staunch introvert and I make worlds about total solitude. In ORGANISM, how many entities did you even find there besides the hat-wearing figure? And then suddenly, this popularity falls on me, and constant communication becomes the norm. Aaaahhh! Kent Bye: Well, I very much appreciate you taking the time to do what you describe as a “19th-century-style written correspondence” with me over the next week or so. And it makes sense that you could have a little bit more control in how you can express yourself via written text through a translator. Alight. So I always like to hear what type of design disciplines folks are bringing into VR, and so can you provide a bit more context about your background and journey into working with VR? DrMorro: To put it briefly, my journey is that I essentially work in architectural visualization. But that's more of a day job to keep myself afloat and pay the bills. My main interest, of course, has always been computer games. Yeah, I'm from the era of cassette tapes for the ZX Spectrum and 3D Max running on DOS. For as long as I can remember, one of my biggest dreams has been to create my own games. However, a humanities-oriented mind has always been the main roadblock on that path. All those numbers and C++ would just stump me completely. So I gradually mastered 3D graphics, but purely as a tool. In parallel, I painted traditional art—graphics and paintings. Over time, my graphics tablet replaced the canvas. And when VR technology arrived, I realized that this was exactly the tool that was missing from 'static' paintings. After that, it was a technical matter as I had to choose the most accessible gaming platform in terms of its SDK, and VRChat turned out to be a perfect fit for such goals. I still view my worlds as paintings in which you can find yourself and wander. Yes, partly because of my style of storytelling and partly because of my technical illiteracy. All these programmable events, triggers, animations - this is definitely not for my mind. Kent Bye: Ah! That makes sense that you would have at least some experience working with architecture, since your worlds have such an emphasis on vast spaces, and mashing up different architectural styles and contexts. How did you first encounter VRChat as a place to further develop your skills as a world builder? DrMorro: VRChat was one of many free apps I instantly installed on my VR headset as soon as I got it. There were other social apps too, but VRChat just blew me away right from the start. There are so many people, minimal censorship, and complete freedom of action. I ended up settling in a Russian-themed world called SLAV WORLD PADIK, and after getting to know its creator, I started slowly adding content to it. You can still find my graffiti on the walls there, made in the VR app "Kingspray," along with a few avatars I made. After that, I started thinking about creating my own worlds from scratch. Kent Bye: I would love to hear a little bit more about your design process for some of these epic worlds that you've been creating. Where do you typically begin with your world building process? Do you draw out a complete blueprint? Or do some concept art and painting? Do you build out one scene at a time, and then figure out how it all fits together? Do you start with a story or memory? I'd love to know where you begin. DrMorro: Well, the process is different for every world. Sometimes there's a clear concept from the start, other times it's born along the way. But overall, it's always pure chaos. And honestly, that's what I love most about it. The narrative unfolds in real-time; I literally live through it for a year, or however long it takes to build the world. Could I even handle such a project if it were all meticulously planned out upfront, leaving just the monotony of execution? But here, everything is completely unpredictable. A tiny detail can spawn an entire new branch of the story. And that branch, connecting to previous locations in the most bizarre way, can change everything, forcing me to go back to the beginning to smooth out the narrative lines. It's genuine magic—to be present at the birth of something new. I'm like some kind of AI mashing up a cat and an orange, and it's fantastic. But I wouldn't say the final world is a surprise to me. Of course, there are main storylines, thousands of scribbled sketches, and tons of new information gathered during development. So this is really one of those cases where the process is just as important as the result. Kent Bye: A quick follow-up on the timing, I know that some festivals like Venice Immersive require World Premiere or International Premiere status in order to be in competition. And I know that the curators Liz and Michel would have happily had some of your prior work in the main competition at Venice. But publishing it on VRChat ahead of the festival does not meet either one of their premiere requirements. But it sounds like you were driven by your own creative process, and similar to Valve where "It's done when it's done" and not driven by deadlines or aspirations to compete. I’ve seen quite a lot of work at both Raindance Immersive and Venice Immersive, and I can say that your world building is on a level beyond anyone else I've seen so far. But it doesn't seem like you're motivated to prove that out beyond the accolades you've already received from Raindance Immersive, or subject yourself to strict deadlines or the "crunch" that most game developers typically face. DrMorro: Yes, you're absolutely right. This is that one zone where I don't submit to any external rules. Usually, obligations tie your hands. Here, I only do what I want to do. A commercial approach would probably have buried these projects in their infancy. As for festivals—to be honest, no one presented me with any demands; they just offered me a chance to participate. And that's wonderful. To be completely honest, I'll add something else. It's not even that important to me how viewers will interpret my worlds, whether I've provided enough clues, or if the path through them is straightforward. In this, I'm a total egoist, someone who was also raised on those old games where there was no hand-holding for the player whatsoever. And this, by the way, has a fantastic side effect which is that some versions of the players' experiences and interpretations are worthy of their own book. I know that entire communities have formed just to explore and research my worlds. That is what I was truly striving for. Kent Bye: Because the process is so important to you, I'm curious to hear a little bit more about your 3D art technical pipeline, and process of iterating both inside and outside of VR. Do you prototype within VR art programs like Gravity Sketch or Tilt Brush / Open Brush? Or do you go straight to Blender or Maya,...