Commentary
VR immersion expands in different directions: free roaming, projection mapping
Placing the guest within the virtual space without the need to encumber them with a head-mounted device brings operational and investment opportunities.
December 26, 2023 by Kevin Williams
Free roaming VR opportunities continue to emerge on the entertainment landscape, offering gamification through technology for traditional entertainment venues.
At the same time, innovators also seek to encapsulate guests in enclosures with video projection mapping to enhance the immersive experience.
Much of the innovation focuses on achieving immersion without the limitations of a head-mounted display.
Developers on the move
Creative Works, a longtime player in the immersive space, has focused on a format known as "Limitless VR" that allows as many as 16 players to free roam with physical obstacles designed to allow venue flexibility. A new format feature allows "bot" players to take empty slots during slow days at a facility that can insert AI bots. All games are supported by a player app to track their stats and scores.
One of the most important aspects of this free-roaming platform is it being "license fee" free — removing the added monthly license fees which are imposed on operators.
The company is also riding on the golf renaissance and the social entertainment vibe by building on its escape room experience with "Lucky Putt," incorporating into its own kiosks' control and digital caddy, supporting food and beverage ordering, and offering a strong gamified social golf element with automated scoring. The system has been rolled out at several venues.
Hero Zone, a Belgium based developer, has ventured into VR free-roaming content with releases such as "Dead Ahead" — the latest zombie blaster in a long roster of blasters. The system employs HTC Focus 3 standalone headsets via wireless support for eight players.
The "Megaverse VR" arena from Megaverse, a VR gaming platform, offers a flexible VR enclosure for operators of varying sizes dubbed the "world-first interactive virtual-reality theater" that can accommodate as many as 12 players. The company also launched its "Megaverse 2.0" platform with a flexible footprint to support from six to 12 players.
Amusement Products LLC serves the mixed reality landscape in North America with a gamification package for go-karting with its "PowerUp" platform, offering game targets on the physical raceway with slow-downs to avoid, and power-ups to collect while racing, bringing a gamified element and repeat business to a traditional attraction. The platform also supports LED light strips to the go-kart body, customizing the offering.
VRsenal has enhanced its claim in the sector with a holographic-style display and unique tracking system, offering a highly physical immersive experience that places the player in the heart of the action. The company is developing this unique concept with a proposed rollout for 2024.
Video projection mapping on the move
Mixed reality combines all these elements with video projection mapping to sidestep the inefficiency of the encumbrance of VR headsets.
Defined as "immersive enclosures," these systems have generated serious operator interest with the ability to wrap the players within a digital environment through projection enclosures and offer a more inclusive immersive experience.
The requirements of the attraction and amusement sector have shown up the limitations of VR headset application in this space. Placing the guest within the virtual space without the need to encumber them with a head-mounted device brings operational and investment opportunities.
This also fundamentally addresses the key aspect of attraction immersion, removing the isolation of headset usage when most of the audience are playing in groups.
Example platforms include Inowize, which has introduced its QBIX, a six-player enclosure. Recent updates to the platform include "Thieves of Glory," developed in partnership with Immersive Planet, a design company for entertainment concepts.
Inowize also introduced "Arkadia 2-Player," a VR kiosk recreation of the game experience previously achieved with the original "Arkadia" tethered enclosure. The kiosk system offers a platform to be applied in venues of all sizes. The operation has entered into an exclusive sales agency agreement for North America with the VR Collective.
Falcon's Creative Group, one of the leaders in promoting the concept of immersive enclosures, has introduced its "ON!X Theater" — a real-time interactive 4D theater experience developed internally by Falcon's licensing interactive shooting theater design.
NeoXperience has introduced an immersive offering targeting over-16-year-old players with the new "Nightmare 1347," a game presenting axe and object throwing at a projected screen enclosure. The ball throwing technology had been aimed at a younger audience but was now embracing the opportunity that social entertainment proffers.
Arcade Arena has also ventured into the projection mapped enclosure space, turning the walls into touchscreens with added interactive console as part of the room experience — which has been three years in the making and uses LiDAR depth sensing to track up to 10 players. There is no need for any wearables to get into one of the 10 games. The platform has been installed in a few US venues as a proof of concept.
Other new entrants to the immersive enclosure trend, also defined as "headset free experiences," include Fivestone Studios. Known for its media-based CGi work for attractions, the company has launched "Cosmic Escape Game" — a digital and physical interactive experience based on an escape game premise for up to eight players. Working in partnership with The Escape Game, the experience sees its first installation at their Opry Mills in Nashville, Tennessee, with plans for a full rollout across its 37 venues.
Soft Play has launched an immersive environment called the "GamePark," an enclosure with projection mapping that offers interactive entertainment, with the player wielding a wand to interact with the digital environment while fully immersing the players within the enclosed experience.
Meanwhile, FlashPads has introduced a game using its interactive floor platform, now in its own turnkey enclosure which also includes ticket dispensing.
It was interesting that many developers of these new systems would describe them as "VR-like experiences" — underlining the immersion being achieved without the limitations of head-mounted display application in commercial entertainment.
(Editor's note: Extracts from this blog are from recent coverage in The Stinger Report, published in collaboration with the LBX Collective and publisher, Kevin Williams, the leading interactive out-of-home entertainment news service covering the immersive frontier and beyond.)
About Kevin Williams
Along with advisory positions with other entrants into the market he is founder and publisher of the Stinger Report, “a-must-read” e-zine for those working or investing in the amusement, attractions and entertainment industry. He is a prolific writer and provides regular news columns for main trade publications. He also travels the globe as a keynote speaker, moderator and panelist at numerous industry conferences and events. Author of “The Out-of-Home Immersive Entertainment Frontier: Expanding Interactive Boundaries in Leisure Facilities,” the only book on this aspect of the market, with the second edition scheduled for a 2023 release.
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