The latest phase in VR technology simulates skydiving and body suspension.
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Jump into the latest phase of VR rollout and since 2016 we’ve seen a number of design concepts that have put the player in the role of a parachutist, such as the VR simulator from Codemodeon Action Star: Parachute, or the Parachute Mindride Airflow concepts, as well as many other rudimentary projects.
21 years after JumpZone! crashed, and a new developer who hopes to be able to integrate his unique skydiving simulator into the operator mix is InnoTech with the VR-Icarus system. This is one of several modern interpretations of the latest phase of VR technology, combined with a sprung seating position and a mechanical lifting system to simulate the suspension of the player on a virtual parachute.
Again, we see an example of the attraction of the “actively immersive” experience that offers something that a large percentage of the audience will never experience.
The “active immersion” revolution
Creating a compelling and exciting experience defines the “active immersion” revolution in the industry. One of the first providers of an immersive, flying VR experience was Frontgrid with the virtual reality flight experience under the roof from 2017 called ParadropVR – Rize. After the first market launch and with around 10 installations worldwide, the company is actively working on a successor.
The new system called ParadropVR – Pod, due out this year, offers a more compact design that can accommodate a wider variety of venues. This is a system that no longer requires an operator and is accessible to the player through a touch screen kiosk.
At the same time, the new game experience called Discover has been improved. The game lets players fly through hoops, hover over mountain ranges and play and chat at the same time. You take part in a multiplayer competition and support joint online leagues via league rankings that are accessible at the venue, via smartphone and online.
The full body immersion experience
As the developer of the legendary Birdly platform, VR platform developer Somniacs has created an award-winning, immersive full-body experience. The system acts as a human-operated flight interface, but also incorporates motion effects along with wind to create the immersive experience that recreates the soaring sky and diving into the depths of the ocean.
The system was one of the first to offer a VR experience for the commercial entertainment landscape, which hit the market back in 2014. The system has found a home in entertainment, leisure and educational spaces and has teamed up with D3D Cinema to bring the system to life in museums and galleries sector – one of its most recent experiences is Jurassic Flight.
Somniacs launched the Birdly V2 Serial Edition, which offers a low-maintenance version of the popular platform and supports Swiss precision design. With over 50 units sold since market launch, one of the latest top-class installations for the unique system was shown at Area15 in Las Vegas. The operators of the platform were so impressed by the interest of their audience that they propose to build a special housing to cope with the growing crowds.
We are continuing this trend as we move on to larger dedicated VR attraction releases. The former creator and co-founder of the Operation consists of the creative team that was instrumental in making The Void, a free roam VR experience, and has unveiled his new venture called Jump, supported by the team from the new Operation Limitless Flight , and suggests an engaging experience.
Let’s go with the helmets
By putting on VR helmets (with elements of a Valve Index headset) and specially developed wingsuit clothing, guests can jump alone or with their friends. Thanks to a unique wind and suspension system, the players experience both the virtual representation and the physical effects in this realistic flight simulator.
In addition to the VR helmet, the company has also built in practical effects such as smell and wind, so that the buckled plane is completely immersed in the experience when “jumping” from a virtual cliff. It’s important to understand that Jump offers a new kind of active experience where the development team captures real-world locations, including popular base jumping and wingsuit locations, which are then converted into 3D models and rendered as virtual environments in which players can navigate real-time, not passive, 360-degree virtual viewing experiences.
The free fall experience
However, other developers have taken a brute force approach to create a free-fall experience. The leading indoor skydiving company is iFly with 80 wind tunnels worldwide, which is owned by the ProParks Attractions Group. And in 2018, the company installed its own VR experience, VR Skydiving, at selected locations. The system envisaged the adaptation of a modified flight helmet that contained a Samsung GearVR headset and enabled “flying over Hawaii, Dubai and California in VR” – passive 360-degree VR experiences.
The system is specially designed to mirror the movements of the users while hovering within the iFly skydiving system. The operation has updated the experience including adding “Ultimate VR” to their experience package.
Interest in extreme VR experiences has fueled a flurry of other skydiving operations trying to include a VR element in the packages on offer. One of the newest is the new VR-Bodyflying Xperience in the Munich jochen-schweizer-arena. The venue uses specially crafted content, including skydiving and base jumping – everything runs on the Oculus Quest2 headset mounted in the flight helmet.
The VR element is used as a supplement to the two-minute body-flying experience. The product and process are designed to be incorporated into the usual organization of body flying sessions offered in indoor skydiving wind tunnels around the world. The unique tunnel system used at the Munich locations is represented by Jochen Schweizer Projects Holding, which commissioned the local developer Interactive to create the VR experience.
Even India’s largest indoor center, Wefly Indoor Skydiving, has added a VR experience to its indoor skydiving system. This system uses Oculus VR headsets to deliver a rudimentary experience developed by local developers.
Red Bull storms forward
An unusual application of an extreme VR experience was created as the latest VR exhibition for the Swiss Museum of Transport in Lucerne. The free roaming experience called Red Bull The Edge, the VR backpack PC, is a virtual replica of an ascent to an altitude of 4,478 meters to the summit of the Matterhorn.
The VR experience uses a real climbing wall to depict the physical exertion of the last push to the top of the mountain, developed by Red Bull Switzerland in collaboration with the Musée des Transports and in collaboration with the X Studios agency.
The backpack PC, the HP Reverb G3 headset and the hand-tracked experience are a refined recreation of the excitement of mountaineering, including physical effects along with the virtual experience – with the user being able to capture their amusement upon reaching the (virtual) summit in a personalized one Selfie at the end of the experience.
This is the latest VR experience from Red Bull, which touts support for extreme activities, including VR experiences based on their Red Bull Air Race or the wingsuit VR installation from Red Bull and HP Omen. Or again in cooperation with the Verkehrshaus Luzern, with the exhibition “Experience the Edge” 2019, which Red Bull Stratos installed, and based on the Felix Baumgartner free fall 39km high in the stratosphere, sponsored by the energy drink company.
The newly created capsule and space jump use the recorded footage and are presented to guests in a heartbreaking VR experience. The system uses Oculus CV1 headsets with Ultraleap units mounted to track hand movements as guests take the big step into space.
The establishment of the highly active VR experience is also available as a VR fitness offer. Icaros offers a physical VR exercise platform and started its exercises in 2016 – a system that could operate with or without VR, but was able to deliver consumer and commercial gaming experiences that trained muscle groups like no other system.
However, not all location based entertainment guests expect their entertainment to be exercised, and new applications have been developed. In 2019, the company launched the Icaros R platform, which took the vulnerable player position of the original and remodeled the system as a motorcycle-style VR simulator.
Other developers rely on a motorsport-active experience approach, which we will examine in the second part of this two-part series.
(Editor’s note: Excerpts from this blog are from recent coverage in The Stinger Report, published by KWP and its director Kevin Williams, the leading interactive news service for out-of-home entertainment that covers the immersive frontier and beyond. )
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