Topic: Virtual Reality Roller Coaster

Hey guys! So I generally don't post about my exploits at work but today was too awesome. We participated in the Media Day for Six Flags Great Escape's new roller coaster, The New Revolution. It takes the park's 35 year old Screamin' Demon, adds Samsung Gear VR headsets, and puts you in a fighter jet fighting aliens in a crowded cityscape.

I had the option to ride it twice with the goggles, and absolutely loved it. My involvement today was shooting some b-roll of the coaster and managing an editing workstation; with a GoPro at the front of the train, newspaper writers and television anchors were filmed on the ride; I then grabbed the card and in a seven minute turnaround gave them a picture-in-picture video if them on the ride against prerecorded video of what they were seeing in the goggles.

Here's video from testing out the setup with footage filmed with me and my boss yesterday.

Any comments comparing this favorably to Independence Day: Resurgence will be met with hearty chuckles.

There are a couple I made today that have b-roll spliced into the video as well; as soon as I see a media outlet post one of those, or a video news story with it, I'll post that here as well. In the meantime, here's a local paper's writeup, with a link at the bottom to video with one of their writers.

http://poststar.com/news/local/great-es … e6d56.html

Last edited by Boter (2016-06-28 19:33:06)

Boter, formerly of TF.N as Boter and DarthArjuna. I like making movies and playing games, in one order or another.

Re: Virtual Reality Roller Coaster

This is the funnest thing I think I can imagine.

*gives up in life*

Teague Chrystie

I have a tendency to fix your typos.

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Re: Virtual Reality Roller Coaster

I really wanted an Oculus Rift before. This experience has split my thoughts on that - it made me want one more, but I also know that without the physical sensation of being tossed around at 45MPH it won't be *quite* the same.

Boter, formerly of TF.N as Boter and DarthArjuna. I like making movies and playing games, in one order or another.

Re: Virtual Reality Roller Coaster

Rad

The difficult second album Regan

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Re: Virtual Reality Roller Coaster

Very cool! Any reports of increased motion sickness with the headset on? I feel like my head would be spinning after that.

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Re: Virtual Reality Roller Coaster

Last edited by Tomahawk (2016-06-29 14:49:25)

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Re: Virtual Reality Roller Coaster

Sam F wrote:

Very cool! Any reports of increased motion sickness with the headset on? I feel like my head would be spinning after that.

Interesting question. I didn't notice any and nobody mentioned anything about it, and they were pretty candid about comparisons (noise level, early issues with headsets coming off or being uncomfortable since this coaster is the roughest to get the VR makeover). In the video you can catch a moment on my face that a recently-eaten breakfast wrap tries to make itself known (after the corkscrew), but a second run without the headset yielded the same effect.

The sensations are different - going up the slope feels like a vertical rise since that's what you see in the video, the corkscrew doesn't feel as corkscrewy, and the hard stop at the end feels like you're still moving forward slightly as in the VR you're still approaching the carrier. When you emerge from the hangar and you can see sun pouring around you, you actually feel it on the back of your neck. (It was a cloudy day.) It messes with perception in an amazing way but I don't think it's to a big negative effect. VR can and does screw with people but on a 90 second ride it's the sensation of the coaster that's the big factor, not VR motion sickness.

If I had to guess, I'd say there's a tradeoff - in VR you can't see the track ahead of you so you're not ready for it, but some people may feel it worse as they see the loops ahead of them. Also, the Gear VR doesn't have great peripheral vision so that helps keep some of the immersion, and motion sickness, down.

Last edited by Boter (2016-06-29 16:48:32)

Boter, formerly of TF.N as Boter and DarthArjuna. I like making movies and playing games, in one order or another.

Re: Virtual Reality Roller Coaster

A somewhat more full and vocal train from the day of, including, among others, a writer from the Glens Falls Post-Star.

Boter, formerly of TF.N as Boter and DarthArjuna. I like making movies and playing games, in one order or another.

Re: Virtual Reality Roller Coaster

God damn it I love this so much.

Is it just me, or is the ground in the sim higher than the real-world ground is, making every virtual pull-up-pull-up moment feel even more dicey?

...and if it is just me, then go back and tell them to make the ground in the sim higher, because they can and thusly must.

Teague Chrystie

I have a tendency to fix your typos.

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Re: Virtual Reality Roller Coaster

Not quite sure. I don't think so, but without the headset you can see the track comfortingly in front of you ready to pull you out of it. In the sim... heh heh.

Boter, formerly of TF.N as Boter and DarthArjuna. I like making movies and playing games, in one order or another.

Re: Virtual Reality Roller Coaster

Oh man I couldn't even imagine.

Your gun is knocked out before the first big drop, so aside from targets in the hangar there's nothing really to be scored on. (I'm thinking compared to the Men in Black ride at Universal Studios Florida.)

My boss and I spitballed the idea of a video souvenir of your ride that's similar to what we produced, like a photo but with video of you and what you were seeing. It'd take a lot of setup though - a video feed from the goggles, a pinhole camera set in front of you (easy for the rear two seats in each car, more of a pain for the front two), instantly synced and put together to buy on a flash drive or a Dropbox link or something. We determined it'd be a complicated setup and would require tooling from the ground up, but would be VERY cool, and would cost significantly more than an in-ride photo. But you know enough people would pay ten or even twenty bucks to make it worth it.

Another article, this one from the Albany Times-Union. And a different set of riders in their attached video, with a curse that got past the filters at the first small drop after the lift.

http://www.timesunion.com/business/arti … 330821.php

Boter, formerly of TF.N as Boter and DarthArjuna. I like making movies and playing games, in one order or another.