Nathan Thomas-Benke

I build VR training simulators

XR Developer at ARCS Aviation

Hey there, I'm Nathan, an XR developer with a master's in Virtual and Augmented Reality from Goldsmiths, University of London, and a bachelor's in Computer Science from the University of Wisconsin–Madison. That mix gave me a strong technical foundation and a specialization in a field I've wanted to work in for a long time.

I build hands-on, real-time 3D and XR applications in Unity with C#, shipping across Meta Quest, HTC VIVE, and Android and iOS tablets. I've had the chance to work for industry leaders: digital-twin visualizations at Sandia National Laboratories, interactive AR content at 3D Systems, and VR training at ARCS Aviation across DoD and U.S. government contracts.

My master's thesis explored real-time graphics remapping, retexturing real-world objects live from RealSense depth streams, and it's now growing into Lucid, one of my NTB Labs projects. Other work has been recognized nationally: BeatBoxVR won the Jury Prize at the Innovate UK Immersive Tech Awards, and I was a finalist and speaker at AWE EU with 4th Frontier, a small XR development group I'm part of.

My most recent project is NTB Labs.

A studio for software, tools, and creative work across a range of fields and interests.

It spans browser extensions, native apps, and real-time 3D. Problem-solving everyday life.

Sift

Available

Browser extension · Sorts Amazon search results by statistical merit, entirely on-device.

The live generator: a balanced board beside fairness controls

Catan Lab

Available

Web app · Strategic map generator for Catan that balances boards by player count and resource fairness.

Native Windows app

Confide

In development

Real-time 3D / Unity

Lucid

In development

Visit NTB Labs →

Selected Work

Professional · ARCS Aviation

2024 – Present

ARCS VR Trainer

XR Developer

A VR training platform for complex mechanical procedures.

Every organization loses operational knowledge to attrition. Best practices often aren't formally documented, leaving knowledge gaps that surface only after someone leaves. The goal of the project was to capture that knowledge by creating hands-on VR training that turns procedures into spatial, interactive experiences, with real-time feedback and visual guidance.

I joined as a developer and took over development as the project matured, eventually running it end to end, including the planning, reporting, and demoing around it.

In a pilot study at a military installation, all participating maintenance technicians scored higher after supplementing their existing training with the VR modules, and gave strong marks to both the training method and the software itself.

Unity · OpenXR · XR Interaction Toolkit · Meta Quest · HTC VIVE

Award-winning

2024

BeatBoxVR

Sound Designer · Programmer · 3D/Graphics · UI

Innovate UK Immersive Tech Awards 2024: Jury Prize Winner, Technical Innovation Finalist

A VR drumming experience with realistic kit audio and haptics.

I owned sound design and audio programming, built environment and graphics assets, and designed UI for a VR drumming experience: realistic kit audio, haptic feedback, and play-along and challenge modes, built with a five-person Goldsmiths team.

Unity · C# · VR · Ableton Live

GitHub

Thrustmaster HOTAS and custom Arduino controller setup

First-person view from the rocket battery

Third-person view of the custom howitzer

2023

Artillery Rocket Simulator

Sole Developer

A hardware-driven artillery and guided-rocket simulator.

I built a guided-rocket and howitzer artillery simulator end to end in Unity: ballistics, particle systems, and destructible targets, driven by a Thrustmaster HOTAS and a custom-wired Arduino controller.

Unity · Arduino · Custom Input Hardware

GitHub

Augmented Duelists battleground through Snapchat

Monster summoned onto the physical play space

2024

Augmented Duelists

UI Design · Project Management

An AR card battler played through Snapchat.

Physical cards come to life through Snapchat: scan a Snapcode to load the battleground, then duel with custom monster and action cards, models, and animations. I designed the UI system and ran project planning for the dev team.

Lens Studio · Snapchat AR

GitHub

Terrain permutation with adjusted land-to-water ratio

2023

Origin of Humanity

Sole Developer

A procedural civilization map generator.

Tune the land-to-water ratio and regenerate endless terrain permutations. I built the generation pipeline and UI in Unity; playable in the browser.

Unity · Procedural Generation

Play on itch.io

View all projects →

Experience

Nov 2024 – Present ARCS Aviation XR Developer. I've led development of VR maintenance-training simulations in Unity (OpenXR, XR Interaction Toolkit) for Meta Quest and HTC VIVE: interactive tools that build hands-on proficiency with complex mechanical procedures, in a full-scale training environment optimized for standalone headsets, with asset-pipeline work that keeps large scenes fast to load. I also directed and produced the ARCS VR Trainer showcase video, handling scripting, direction, and production.
Oct 2024 AWE EU, Vienna Start-Up Pitch Competition finalist and speaker with 4th Frontier. Presented BeatStudio, a rhythm-education platform grown out of the BeatBoxVR work, to an international audience of XR professionals.
Sep 2023 – Sep 2024 Goldsmiths, University of London MSc, Virtual and Augmented Reality (research pathway). Built XR experiences and games across multiple engines, with hands-on prototyping, UX design, and content creation. My thesis, Real-Time Graphics Remapping, combined shader computation and object reprojection to retexture real-world objects live from RealSense depth streams.
May 2024 Innovate UK Immersive Tech Awards BeatBoxVR, our five-person Goldsmiths VR drumming experience, won the Jury Prize and was a Technical Innovation finalist: realistic kit audio, haptic feedback, and a play-along system, demoed live at the showcase.
Jun–Aug 2023 Sandia National Laboratories Virtual Technologies and Engineering R&D Intern. Contributed digital-twin visualizations in Unity for multidisciplinary MATLAB/Simulink models, and helped standardize resources while researching ways to streamline the Unity development cycle for complex visualizations.
Sep 2019 – May 2023 University of Wisconsin–Madison BSc, Computer Science, with a certificate in Art Studio (4D Digital Art). Programmed across a wide range of languages while building media-production and 3D-modeling skills, and graduated with a 3.76 GPA.
Jun–Aug 2022 3D Systems Digital Learning Content Developer (AR) on the Global Customer Success team. Developed maintenance procedures with subject-matter experts for a specialized 3D printer, and turned them into an interactive AR instruction tool for healthcare and industrial end users and the support team.
Jun–Aug 2021 Quad/Graphics Software Development Intern on the Imaging Operations team. Debugged and developed software applications using a variety of programming languages, and worked in a daily Agile-Scrum process.