The Void, the room-scale virtual reality design company behind that Ghostbusters experience at Madame Tussauds’ in New York and in Toronto last year, just revealed their new project: Star Wars: Secrets of the Empire. They’re working directly with Lucasfilm and ILM’s experimental projects division ILMxLAB to create a unique “hyper-reality” (read: room-scale virtual reality) experience that you can’t exactly just play at home.
The difference between your run-of-the-mill take-home virtual reality experience and The Void is that The Void designs their experiences around actually built-out physical spaces. The idea is that while you’re strapped into a VR rig, you’re fully ambulatory and able to walk around a physical space where you can touch things with your own hands and have them correspond to what you’re seeing in the digital space. It’s a novel, incredibly intricate way of imagining virtual reality, and possibly the closest thing we’ll come to having the “Danger Room”-esque experience illustrated by the X-Men and science fiction.
Their Star Wars experience will be located near Disney’s two stateside parks in Anaheim, California and Orlando, Florida. Space is at a premium in both of their parks proper, so The Void will be taking up space in the Downtown Disney districts adjacent to each property. And again, The Void requires a custom space that’s built out to match the virtual reality experience. It’s going to be an incredible feat to bring the two together, though if The Void’s work on that Ghostbusters experience is anything to go by, then it’s probably safe to say that the project is in the right hands.
Unfortunately, there aren’t too many details about what the experience might contain. Aside from the name, both The Void and Lucasfilm/ILMxLAB are staying mum on the topic. Thing is, I know I don’t need any more details. I’m already sold. Where can I line up?
(via Business Insider, image: ILMxLAB)
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