Nicolas is available for hire

Nicolas Muller

Verified Expert in Engineering

Virtual Reality Developer

Villeurbanne, France

Toptal member since April 12, 2022

Expertise

UI Development Virtual Reality C#Leap Motion Git Augmented Reality Game Development GIMP UX Development HTC Vive

Bio

Nicolas is a passionate virtual reality (VR) developer, which he discovered when the Oculus DK1 came out. He graduated from one of the most prestigious French engineering schools with a VR specialty. Nicolas completed his internship at EON Reality's R&D team. Since then, he got a PhD in the use of VR for training, developed a VR training application for Numix, and made the Invisible Hand. Nicolas is eager to offer the best user experience and make virtual worlds accessible to everyone.

Portfolio

Power Struggle Games | Self-employed

Unity, User Experience (UX), User Interface (UI), C#, Localization, 3D Games...

NUMIX | Freelance

Unity, Oculus Quest, Interactive UX, C#, Game-based Learning...

Toulouse Institute of Computer Science Research

Unity, C#, 3D Games, User Experience (UX), UX Research, HTC Vive, Oculus Rift...

Experience

Unity - 6 years
C# - 6 years
Virtual Reality (VR) - 4 years
User Interface (UI) - 4 years
Git Extensions - 4 years
Virtual Reality App Design - 4 years

Availability

Part-time

Preferred Environment

Unity, SteamVR, User Experience (UX), User Interface (UI), Git, C#, Unity3D

The most amazing...

...thing I've developed is my thesis project that convinced mechanical engineering teachers that VR learning could be used as a teaching tool.

Work Experience

Senior Unity Developer

2016 - 2022

Power Struggle Games | Self-employed

Made overall game design decisions, resulting in the game happening in a virtual office where players interact with their coworkers and world objects.
Developed game systems, including a first-person controller, object placement, cinematic systems, and subtitles.
Oversaw acquisition and integration of assets into the game, such as an office environment, non-player character (NPC) creation with Fuse, animations from Mixamo, "low-polyfication" of NPCs with blender, texture adaptations, and maps with Gimp.
Integrated the NPCs in the game, including an animation controller, inverse kinematics, navigation mesh, root motion, and behavior.
Localized the whole game after it was finished. Scripted the replacement of UI text by TMP components and the update of their references. Localized all static and dynamic texts using the Localization package.
Added a feedback system to the game with a Node.js back end to receive the feedback.
Optimized UI and game systems. Identified bottlenecks using Unity Profiler and Frame Debugger.
Oversaw the rendering process, including lighting, post-processing, and probes. Modified the physically-based rendering (PBR) standard shader to get a toon-like effect.

Technologies: Unity, User Experience (UX), User Interface (UI), C#, Localization, 3D Games, Blender, Gimp, Optimization, Git, Game Design, Physics, Unity3D, Unity3D Native Plugin Interface, Shaders, Visual Effects (VFX)

Unity Developer

2020 - 2020

NUMIX | Freelance

Communicated with the clients and participated in the elaboration of the design documents, particularly on VR interactions and the dynamics of the cherry picker.
Implemented the pedagogical scenario and the feedback systems that tell the learner what he did wrong, how to do better, and if he succeeded, which meant he was apt at securing a cherry picker.
Implemented the dynamics of the cherry picker that respected the documents given by the manufacturer.
Implemented the VR interactions, including buttons, teleportation, picking up items, the ground control panel for the cherry picker, removing a security pin, and hand animations corresponding to these interactions.
Integrated the animations and piloted the animator controllers of the NPCs, playing voice-acted lines synchronized with the animations.
Set up lighting, probes, emissive materials, and post-processing.

Technologies: Unity, Oculus Quest, Interactive UX, C#, Game-based Learning, Virtual Reality (VR), Git, Virtual Reality App Design, Physics, Unity3D, Visual Effects (VFX), Oculus Quest 2, Oculus

PhD Student

2015 - 2019

Toulouse Institute of Computer Science Research

Studied subjects on VR interactions, game-based learning, immersive virtual environments, and user experience evaluation.
Implemented most of the VR interactions described in the Leap Motion and Motion Controllers literature. Studied their performance and usability among novice users.
Designed and implemented a VR interaction framework for Motion Controllers with compatibilities for desktop (mouse or keyboard) and Leap Motion.
Optimized CAD models to allow for real-time rendering.
Designed and implemented a virtual workshop in which users can use machine tools.
Implemented several pedagogical scenarios that teach students the basics of machine processing and how to set up one of the machines.
Wrote several articles and a PhD thesis, "Interaction Metaphors for Training in Interactive Virtual Environments: Application to Meca 3D," focusing on human-computer interaction (HCI) and UX experience in virtual reality.

Technologies: Unity, C#, 3D Games, User Experience (UX), UX Research, HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, Leap Motion, Motion Control, Virtual Reality (VR), Virtual Reality App Design, Game-based Learning, BibTeX, LaTeX, Python, NumPy, R, Statistical Methods, Applied Research, Rapid Prototyping, Git, Human-computer Interaction (HCI), Physics, Unity3D, Oculus

Experience

The Invisible Hand

https://store.steampowered.com/app/628200/The_Invisible_Hand/

This desktop game is about trading. It involves a player incarnating a trader and living his everyday life in an office. I oversaw making the game world come to life and everything that involved using Unity while my colleague focused on the stock simulation and main UI.

Cherry Picker Security Training in VR

This VR training app is used to teach and validate the ability of an operator to secure a cherry picker from the ground in case the person in the pod becomes incapacitated. As the app's lead developer, I collaborated with the designers and 3D modelers to make the pedagogical scenario come to life.

Meca 3D

https://youtu.be/FT4lk-vI0WI

Users can learn procedures about using machine tools in this immersive learning environment. I developed this while working on my thesis as the lone developer and designer of the app. I used this application to study the performance and accessibility of the interaction methods I had developed.

Super Polygon

https://itch.io/jam/gmtk-2019/rate/462557

As one of the GMTK Game Jam winners, I was in charge of the "enemies," i.e., polygons that you could cut. I also worked on the controls and movements of the player character, i.e., the "bullet" that cut through enemies.

Education

2015 - 2019

PhD Degree in Computer Science

Toulouse Institute of Computer Science Research - Toulouse, France

2010 - 2015

Master's Degree in Computer Science

Nantes Central School | Centrale Nantes - Nantes, France

Skills

Libraries/APIs

NumPy

Tools

Git, Blender, BibTeX, LaTeX

Languages

C#, Python, R

Frameworks

Unity, Unity3D

Platforms

SteamVR, Oculus, Vuforia, Oculus Rift

Paradigms

Rapid Prototyping, Human-computer Interaction (HCI)

Other

User Interface (UI), Virtual Reality (VR), Leap Motion, Motion Control, Oculus Quest 2, Git Extensions, Localization, Virtual Reality App Design, Physics, Augmented Reality (AR), X Reality (XR), 3D Games, Gimp, Optimization, Oculus Quest, Interactive UX, Game-based Learning, 2D Games, UX Research, User Experience (UX), Human-machine Interface (HMI), HTC Vive, Statistical Methods, Applied Research, Game Design, VR Interfaces, Mobile Game Development, Unity3D Native Plugin Interface, Shaders, Visual Effects (VFX)

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