Chances are you’ve been enjoying location based entertainment (LBE) without realizing it: Chuck E. Cheese, theme parks and family fun centers. When VR first came out half a decade ago, headsets required a complex and expensive setup, something that most people didn’t have access to. These factors included supporting hardware like sensors and stands, a game-ready PC and plenty of space. Because of this limited access, location-based VR experiences popped up offering simple VR experiences as well as more complex and immersive VR experiences that include haptics, physical tracks and amusement-park style rides.
The barrier to accessing this technology has gotten significantly smaller thanks to iterations on hardware like the Oculus Quest and backend technology to optimize these experiences like echo3D. This combination of 3D virtual immersion along with physical hardware is also referred to as experiential entertainment. This niche of entertainment is so popular there is a VR Location Based Summit by SpringboardVR that happens annually.
Click this link https://go.echo3d.co/2o14 or scan this QR code to see this amusement park car in augmented reality.
Location-Based VR typically falls into 3 buckets:
1. VR Arcades
You’ve probably walked by these at your local shopping center where foot traffic is high. These are similar to cyber cafes where visitors can rent space for the full experience of using the headset and picking from select titles. They often use a mix of single and multi player experiences which makes it a practical option for solo visitors or groups to compete against each other. Ideally they seek out titles that offer both modes to maximize their offerings.
Two Bit Circus in Los Angeles is a mixed reality amusement park that has a VR Arcade that offers a variety of VR gaming experiences for individuals and groups. They offer Birdly, which is a single player hardware-assisted VR experience of being a bird flying over the city. Hyperdeck VR is a multiplayer turret-based combat game augmented by a tilting floor and realistic weather challenges. For those interested in puzzles and escape rooms, Reiko’s Fragments takes place in the 1960s where players wake up in an old office with a weapon, no bullets and no memories. Players have to seek guidance from a tormenting doll to piece together the story and find a way to escape. They also feature a free-roam setup called the Hologate which you can read about in the next section. They also offer VR Pods for a variety of sitting VR experiences like roller coasters and tanks.
2. Free-Roam VR
This requires a lot of space and a physical course or track that has to be coordinated with the virtual world the user is immersed in. There are also usually more physical components that are required for this to work like haptic vests, calibrated handheld hardware like guns, and suspended tracks that safely do cable management from above without interfering with the experience. These spaces can be as big as warehouses and are expensive to set up.
An example of this would be the Hologate. Players can roam within the physical arena and play multiple games that are easy to learn but difficult to master. This arena allows up to 4 players and is appropriate for players with any age and skill level. This is a fully immersive experience that includes haptics like vibrating vests and gloves as well as headsets. One of the more popular titles is Ghostbuster’s VR Academy. There are over 400 locations of Hologate globally.
3. VR Escape Rooms
These experiences are a mix between the other two in that they don’t require a lot of room to operate. These experiences are built around the user’s position so they can remain stationary and move within the VR experiences. These games can be played solo or with a group. Many escape room VR games have options for both which allow players to solve puzzles individually or with a team like they would in a physical escape room. These are more common than free-roam experiences due to the minimal amount of resources needed to make them happen.
One of the most acclaimed VR escape rooms is I Expect You To Die which is influenced by the 007 franchise and is a truly visual experience. The player, an elite secret agent, solves complex puzzles in order to survive deadly situations. There are seen operations that must be completed in order to win but the clues are well thought out and not obvious. This requires wit, creativity and keen observation skills. The franchise was such a hit they even releasde an I Expect You To Die 2 with even more challenges.
To read more, check these out:
echo3D (www.echo3D.co; Techstars 19’) is a cloud platform for 3D/AR/VR that provides tools and network infrastructure to help developers & companies quickly build and deploy 3D apps, games, and content.
