At ICI’s 1996 annual conference in Keele, the largest VR petrochemical plant construction in the world was demonstrated. The converted PDS model, running in real-time using both immersive and projection technologies, boasted the graphical equivalent of 200km of electrical cables, 21km of pipework, 2000 tonnes of steelwork and 1300 items of equipment (pumps, vessels, valves, etc.).

The final demonstrator focused on the potentially harmful build up of vapours in a confined petrochemical vessel, released by the chiseling action of an unprotected, unharnessed worker. At the 1997 conference, a shared immersive (headset-based) VR demonstration was staged, showing how two Fluor Daniel engineers could collaborate in the same virtual environment to disassemble and maintain a complex pump.