Recently, a few friends and I ventured to London for the Star Wars VR experience, Secrets of the Empire. In teams of four, you’re equipped with the VR headset as you complete a mission disguised as stormtroopers to disrupt the empire. I’ve experienced a variety of VR, most notably an excellent one provided by Volkswagen. The Void VR experience was great fun, although it didn’t get off to a good start as my character started glitching before we had to start from the beginning. Its interesting to note that along with ILM an illusionist consultant was also on board with its development. Whilst my stormtrooper was glitching I had to remove my VR headset, and the spell was broken, it was fascinating to see behind the scenes of the set up. Corridors within the hangar space and full scale mannequins, representing some of the droids in the VR. The team were quick to get me a new back pack and headset before my friends and I ventured back to fight the dark side. Overall it was a fun experience with a group of friends blasting the hell out of Stormtroopers. Tomorrow is the last day in Shepherds Bush, before it heads off to Stratford City. Seek it out and feel the force!
Given time, VR is vastly improving in many areas and I plan to foresee this as an area to explore in my teaching to implement in our forthcoming course in Games, Animation and VFX. I’m also looking forward to checking out a new VR experience in Milton Keynes via https://vertigovr.co.uk
It was also great to see VFX in the recent Oscars awarded to the stunning work created in Blade Runner 2049. This brings me on to an excellent VFX festival I attended earlier this year….
