Gracia AI Powers First Photorealistic Digital Human in Live Theme Park Mixed Reality Experience using 4D Gaussian Splatting(4DGS) Technique
- Karan Bhatia
- 4 days ago
- 3 min read
Gracia AI, creating Gaussian splatting-based volumetric videos for XR and beyond, led by Georgii Vysotskii, Andrey Volodin, and the team, has enabled “Expedition ULUM: The Jurassic Awakening”, a family mixed-reality experience at PortAventura World, to reach a new level of its immersive experience by implementing a photorealistic digital human character, with a volumetric personage addition built using Gracia AI's 4D Gaussian Splatting (4DGS) technique, which reconstructs real performers as replayable, high-fidelity 3D video.
For visitors, this represents a unique experience not offered by any other theme park. While immersive and mixed-reality performances are gaining global traction, delivering photorealistic playback on standalone headsets in a live, open environment has remained largely unattainable.
The character, a “scientist” who greets guests at the start, is not a flat projection or pre-rendered animation, but a three-dimensional figure reconstructed from a real actor’s performance. Visible from any angle, he maintains a true-to-life scale, appearing naturally sized relative to each visitor. The ability to move within the space alongside the group further reinforces the sense of a real person sharing the environment.
Real-time 4DGS playback at this level of quality had not previously been achieved on standalone headsets in a public setting, where fast onboarding and consistent on-device performance are critical, according to Georgii Vysotskii, CEO and Co-Founder of Gracia.
What Visitors See:
Expedition ULUM: The Jurassic Awakening introduces a family-focused mixed-reality experience in a theme park setting, where small groups take on the role of explorers investigating aquatic dinosaur fossils in the cenotes of Yucatán.
The experience begins with a photorealistic volumetric “scientist,” portrayed by actor Paul Lavers, who introduces the mission and guides onboarding. Visitors then move freely through the space, interacting with the environment via standalone headsets.
A strong emphasis is placed on realism, with lifelike human motion, detailed textures, and natural physical elements. The experience is available in multiple languages and designed for visitors aged six and above.
4D Gaussian Splatting represents more than a technical upgrade, expanding storytelling and immersion capabilities within theme park experiences. The collaboration signals a step toward integrating such innovations more broadly across future attractions, according to Jordi Centelles, Head of Innovation and Digital Products at PortAventura Adventure Labs.
Production Process:
The “scientist” was captured in London using a 78-camera array, before being reconstructed as a 4D Gaussian Splatting (4DGS) asset and compressed into a production-ready format. Playback achieves near-lossless quality at roughly 850 MB per minute, significantly reduced from the tens of gigabytes typically required for volumetric video at this fidelity.
The experience runs on PICO 4 Ultra Enterprise headsets, blending physical and digital elements through video see-through. A proprietary Vulkan-based rendering pipeline enables real-time decoding and rendering on mobile hardware at 72+ fps, ensuring consistent performance across continuous guest sessions.
This deployment demonstrates how Gaussian Splatting can power immersive formats, delivering photorealistic human representations that blur the boundary between real performance and virtual environments.
Mixed Reality Future Adoption:
Global adoption of next-generation VR/XR headsets continues to accelerate, with tens of millions of devices already in circulation and projections pointing significantly higher in the coming years. The Expedition ULUM deployment demonstrates how volumetric video characters can be seamlessly integrated into real-world environments.
Applications extend across live events, museums, corporate training, sports broadcasting, and retail, where photorealistic human presence enhances engagement beyond traditional screens. Gracia’s 4D Gaussian Splatting technology is also being explored in advanced VFX pipelines, creative R&D at major tech companies, and experimental formats such as 4DGS-powered runway shows.
