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Welcome

Note

Jerry's Place is a non-profit, just-for-fun project. This project and website are not affiliated with, and do not represent Castle Rock Entertainment, Columbia Pictures, Columbia TriStar or Sony Pictures Television. I thank the aforementioned parties in advance for understanding this is a fan project, for the fans!

Jerrys Place 2.0 Released!

I'm proud to annouce that JerrysPlaceVR is now available Oculus Rift CV1/DK2 and the HTC Vive. The lighting has also been updated on the DK1 version. While I was hard at work updating the graphics with baked lighting, VRPill of VRChat.com reached out to me through gmiller.net. I worked closely with him and Mr. Q. (also of VRChat) to get the lighting perfected, but even more exciting: getting JerrysPlace into VRChat! That means multiplayer support! VRPill also pushed me to get over 200 of the small items "pick-up-able" in VR! This required revisiting every model and providing bottom and backside textures - which where omitted in the orignal due to them being static scenery. JerrysPlaceVR is now more exciting than ever!

You can download the Stand Alone versions to the right, and if you have a Vive you can pick up objects in the apartment. (Not available in Oculus). If you wish to hang-out with others in Jerrys Apartment, you can find the Seinfeld room in VRChat.com, which also includes the ability to watch YouTube clips on the TV and play Jenga with friends!

About

I've been a fan of Seinfeld for a long time. After purchasing the Oculus rift I started imagining what my first project might be. I decided to pick a project that would gradually introduce me to Unity without being overly complex. I was not new to 3D modeling, however this would be my first project in Unity. I came up with the idea of recreating Jerry's apartment, in it's entirety for virtual reality. Television is virtual reality in some ways. We make believe that Jerry's place is actually a Manhattan studio and Monks Cafe is just down the street. We suspend the reality that his apartment is just a set in Hollywood, with tons of cameras and lighting dangling overhead. I thought it would be a novel virtual reality experience to take a place that only exists in Hollywood magic, and make it for the Oculus Rift as if it were real. Virtual Reality Virtual Reality.

Development

This project was made over the course of one month, by myself. I used Blender exclusively, and all the 3D models were created for this project. I did not download external models or reuse meshes from other projects. (With the exception of SuperMan) As I mentioned earlier, the engine used for this demo is the Unity game engine, which makes developing Virtual Reality compatible software extremely convenient.

I started by scouring the Internet for screen shots of Jerry's apartment but that didn't yield much. Eventually I resorted to screen-capping streaming episodes so I could get detailed images of the various items around the set. I tried to be faithful to the shows original props and it's era, but some things were near impossible to Google. I did a lot of research and tried to find images of the original products used in the show, and modeled around those dimensions, rather than relying solely on blurry screen shots. I found lots of good footage of the bathroom in the episode "The Barber," during the part that Newman enters Jerry's bathroom to find a hair sample. I feel like the main room and the bathroom are very well created, however I could only find one screen shot of Jerry's bedroom, at the end of "The Chicken Roaster." I used a blurry screen grab to texture the painting above his bed, and was able to recreate the bed, sheets and nightstands accurately. Unfortunately, due to the dimensions of the apartment it seems like it would be impossible to actually fit the bedroom the way the show depicts it. It came out cramped, but I'm happy with it.

If I recall correctly, there are about a dozen references to various episodes hidden throughout the apartment, see if you can find them all!

How you can help

Feel free to email me with any feedback, or help or questions!

One of the most important ways you can help is to download and re-host the project! In case my server get's hammered, it would be nice to have volunteer mirrors so when people Google they can find it!
 

Jerry's Place in action!

Note: the following video is from the first generation, DK1 build of JerrysPlace. The current build has completely overhauled graphics and models!
Thank you Pancho Joshi for your YouTube walkthrough!

Progress Video

I saved many renderings at the end of each work day, and compiled them into this video.

Screen Shots

This demo is best experienced in Virtual Reality, so I only selected four screens. I'll let you discover the details for yourself!
View of the bathroom from the hallway. Click for larger size. View from the far corner of the apartment. Click for larger size.
View of the kitchen shelves, sink and range. Click for larger size. View of the apartment from the kitchen. Click for larger size.

Thoughts & Comments

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Comments (73)

1 2 > [last]
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Specular says...
Nice idea for a VR. Only thing I wish was the computer model was the original classic Mac :)

Reference photos: http://www.pcmag.com/slideshow_viewer/0,3253,l=255510&a=255510&po=3,00.asp
5th March 2014 3:08am
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Stutterstepper says...
'twould be hilarious to be calmly exploring, and have Kramer spontaneously (randomly) burst in - in his trademark way.
3rd March 2014 5:19pm
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Digger says...
Hey Poncho, what's the deal with dropping the F bomb on your tour? Seinfeld never used expletives, so why should you?

Can we please raise our standards around here?
8th March 2014 7:31am
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Michael says...
I agree.
9th March 2014 8:39pm
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Greg Miller says...
You guys might want to post those comments on his video, not on my website!
10th March 2014 9:20am
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Greg Miller says...
You guys might want to post those comments on his video, not on my website!
10th March 2014 9:25am
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Ash Parajuli says...
Not sure if anyone else has mentioned this but in the actual show Jerry has a wardrobe room inside his bedroom. If you can remember the episode where the virgin chick organised his clothes wardrobe and it was located in his bedroom.

Ash
6th March 2014 2:06am
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Greg Miller says...
Wow, thank you! It was hard to find footage of his room. He also has different bed covers in that episode. Hmmm... now how can I make it fit? I've got some work to do..

Thanks!
6th March 2014 3:57am
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Bellywash says...
It was actually a long, shallow closet with doors that folded open. It was connected to the wall shared with the bathroom. You can see it in the episode titled "The Virgin"
9th March 2014 6:45pm
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Bill says...
So glad you guys mentioned this, lol. When I couldn't see the bedroom, I immediately wondered "Did he get the wardrobe?" Can't wait for this on the Vive
3rd July 2016 5:01pm
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Mary Davidson says...
I actually think they changed the set so the layout was not always the same. There was usually a bike hanging on the wall in the area off the main room- some sort of hall.
6th March 2014 5:01am
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Greg Miller says...
It's just the camera angle I rendered at. If you look at screen shot #1 you can see the bike!
6th March 2014 11:26am
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truth says...
For what this is you're getting way too much press. Others have worked much harder on much better Rift experiences.
Not that it's your fault... but know that it depresses other devs :P
9th March 2014 10:14am
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Greg Miller says...
I know, right?

It's because I chose an intersection of pop-culture and exciting new technology.

It appeals to two large demographics, instead of just one.
9th March 2014 2:23pm
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crabby says...
Crab mentality is a *****.
9th March 2014 2:41pm
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Ryan says...
What a dumb thing to say. He created something thats "buzz worthy." You didn't. If someone made a kim kardashian oculus rift game, it would be front page news. If someone made a beautiful amazing recreation of the city of Paris that was the most visually amazing creation ever made for OR...it would NOT be front page news. What gets media coverage isn't about quality, it's about the topic. This is an interesting cool story, even if it's not an amazing technical ... Read More
10th August 2014 3:26pm
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Oseeker says...
This demo Really awesome.
I'm a Friends fan. I would love to see a Friends set demo with Central Perk and Monica's and Joe's apartment.
4th May 2014 5:26am
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ryan says...
A friends fan??? Mad Friends will never have something like this because nobody who isn't insane could love Friends enough to create it...or live Friends enough to use it if it actually was created.
10th August 2014 3:19pm
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alex says...
Yesss!Smile
23rd November 2014 5:35am
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dude mcdude says...
You forgot Poppy's pee stain on the couch.
3rd March 2014 4:12pm
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GinsuVictim says...
The cushion was flipped...
4th March 2014 2:41pm
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pedro says...
What use is a refrigerator in Virtual Reality? An apartment in Virtual Reality has to be beautiful and gorgeous ... and not so practical...
18th April 2014 7:44am
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Newman says...
Add more to it! Maybe the rest of the apartment, Monk's, Kramer's apartment, Elaine's apartment, Newman's apartment, etc.

You can also turn it into a full fledged video game with challenges like "RETRIEVE THE KENNY ROGER'S CHICKEN TO NEWMAN!"
3rd March 2014 9:43am
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garrettd says...
You should make jerrys tv play episodes of the show!
3rd March 2014 10:30am
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GinsuVictim says...
Elaine's video she made of herself dancing over the end of "Cry, Cry Again" would be better.
4th March 2014 2:43pm
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keegan says...
so, at what point can we get the TV in this bad boy rigged up to play episodes of seinfeld, so we can sit on Jerry's couch and watch seinfeld?

META-SEINFELD!
6th May 2014 4:02pm
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Amazed says...
Oh man this is awesome! I've always wanted to see how his apartment was laid out as the tv cameras always made the angles hard to figure out exactly. This is too awesome, thanks for making it and showing it to us! Any possibility on Kramer's apartment and the hall, or even other sitcom apartments/houses (like Frasier's apartment)? Again... outstanding, this made my day! I really like what you've done! Too awesome! :)
4th March 2014 8:51pm
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sbp says...
This would be awesome as a left for dead map.
5th March 2014 1:13am
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Karthik Rao says...
Fantastic work!
4th March 2014 9:45pm
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Jimmy Tango says...
If you realistically model George and Jerry and animate scenes from the show using the original audio, you just might break the Internet. Better yet - if you combined a microphone with the Oculus, you could have it so you could actually play the role of one of the characters. You could enter the scene and read the lines from the script, which would trigger the scene and the other characters would begin interacting with you. Imagine how many classic shows you could insert yourself into and how ... Read More
5th February 2015 1:49pm
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RayRift says...
That is phenomenally brilliant! I came here just hoping he's made it DK2 compatable, but damn, that's a great idea. Share this idea on Reddit or something man.
22nd February 2015 5:02pm
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drhouse says...
The idea of delivering lines in a VR environment was a big part of the novel Ready Player One, check it out, I recommend the audiobook version which won many awards, it's also being turned into a movie directed by Steven Spielberg next year.
3rd July 2016 8:15am
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Jason baird says...
It's on google cardboard now for android.
Ho To GOOGLE PLAYSTORE AND Search FOR jerry'S place. There is a cardboard and a dive version. The dive version works on cardboard too.
10th August 2015 6:16am
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Sean Foreman says...
Looks great. Nice work on your first project.
3rd March 2014 6:10am
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Dude Duderson says...
Tight.
1st March 2014 5:04am
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Matthew says...
Amazing Idea! I'd love to try that out. But I can not affort Vr gear, so Inwas wondering is there a version for simple use on a pc or are there plans to do so? I love the VR idea but since not everyone has them I thing sooo many Seinfeld fans would love to walk around in this appartment even of it is just on the screen and not VR.
24th April 2017 10:33pm
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PharmerLar says...
Please please please add Vive support!!! I love Seinfeld and would love to check this out on my Vive!!
25th May 2016 5:55pm
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Greg says...
It's coming very soon!
15th June 2016 11:41am
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Chris says...
I can't wait to use this on my Vive. Greg you are amazing.
21st June 2016 11:07am
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Don Droga says...
Desktop image version Pleaaaase/
4th March 2014 12:01pm
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cjlm says...
Does this work with Samsung Gear VR?
14th March 2017 7:03pm
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Art Vandelay says...
Would it be possible to make this into SteamVR environment?
5th January 2017 3:07am
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Greg says...
Yeah, but this version is better because you can pick stuff up and throw it around. Also there is an easter egg in this version that wouldn't work in Destinations.
13th January 2017 4:04pm
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ufoЗd says...
Really well done!
18th November 2016 3:18am
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Marco says...
Great work i actually felt presence brilliant lighting
3rd March 2014 3:47pm
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hakan says...
Since we have the 3d file, what's stopping to make the 3d print of the house. I checked on amazon but no such thing. I am sure many fans including me would buy it. Please make one.
4th March 2014 8:43am
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La Ron Haskins says...
Nice work. Wish I had an OR, I would download this. I use Unity3d for virtual reality too, but for android. Vulture Hunt 2, check it out.
3rd March 2014 11:56pm
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GinsuVictim says...
I really want to explore this without a Rift. Is that possible?
4th March 2014 2:47pm
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Greg says...
You can run the demo without an Oculus, but it will be split screen.

For some reason, it looks better in the oculus than with Unity's default camera. Not sure why, but I wanted to release it Oculus only for a while.
4th March 2014 3:03pm
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