HAPPY NEW YEAR
IT'S 2019 & WE ARE 3 YEARS OLD THIS YEAR!
What a year 2017 was for VR Here, we met so many new people who hadn’t yet tried virtual reality and welcomed back many of our regulars. Making subtle changes here and there we knew going into 2019 would require us to add even more immersive experiences. Fast forward to December and we had a special delivery from this truck that appeared at our door.
Yes that is a really big truck, what’s more impressive is it’s contents and honestly were we excited. Keeping it quiet on social media was the hardest part as we love to keep you all up to date, while writing this I realised the featured image for this post was what was in the truck so I changed it. After unwrapping our early Christmas presents we had to plug them in and get them fully working before we shared just what we had been up too. Again this was hard because it did take a day or two for everything to be ready, people ask me very often If I just play games when we don’t have customers: I must admit I don’t take full advantage, I test our experiences first so I know how to work them and that everyone has the best time possible. Back to the point though, we teased you a few times but finally posted the full truth. The left side of the VR Here building felt lonely, our four perfectly sized rooms donate most of the blueprint so it was time to add more – nope not more rooms but these.
Aren’t they pretty, these are the CX-1 Extreme Racing Car and RX-1 Bike. They are as cool as they look by the way, each machine has hydraulic platforms that move in sync with the experience. The best part is holding on tight as you hit a ramp at full speed, the movement simulators catching insane airtime which always goes down well with the riders. Personally I had tried the bike in 2017 at Bristol Immotion VR, I must admit I totally forgot that the bike had a wind machine built onto the front so it felt like the bike was actually moving forward and not just up and down.
IMMERSIVE ENTERTAINMENT
In 2019 we have many plans to expand what we offer, if your a follower of our social media pages you would have certainly read about a few of them. Let me start off with introducing special rates for streamers and content creators, although Virtual Reality is well known now but having one at home is still a hit or miss situation. I can tell you from personal experience that having a HMD ( Head Mounted Display) at home isn’t great, I mean it’s obviously amazing to be able to escape reality right there in your living room but to enjoy the activity to it’s maximum you need space. Space being the key word here as VR headsets are not out of price reach now, that’s why at VR Here we provide dedicated play spaces for each player and want to share our space with you. As of now we are still looking for content creators to come and test our equipment out so keep a look out for information on this throughout the coming months, if you are a streamer or content creator interested in adding VR to your channel then email us or get in touch via our Facebook page.
When it comes to immersive experiences, I feel that there are many that can still prove to be way off in terms of quality but so many that are truly amazing. Someone may offer you a go of VR in the future or already has and you have been left disappointed or for the most part left thinking ” is that it? This can happen with all HMD’s and not just a plastic shell that your smartphone plugs into. For a while I relayed to people I met that it’s best you try a PC powered headset and while this remains true in parts it’s not always the case – I know I’m getting off track here but it will make sense soon. There’s a rule here, someone offers you a roller coaster experience on ANY HMD it’s best to stay away, that’s if you haven’t had anytime within a headset. See if you aren’t moving in really life but your your vision is looping round tracks at over 50 MPH things can get real bad – hence why in big theme parks they have actual VR roller coaster, the nearest would be Galactic at Alton Towers.
That’s just one example because it’s the most common experience that people will say they first tried, simply put it: if your going to try VR then do it properly and make sure that the experiences you will try have been tested. It’s so easy to find poorly made games via Steam, this is why I said that it’s not just a mobile phone HMD that can give you a bad opinion of VR. Getting to the point now is our second plan for 2019, if the experience is well made and states it’s best seated then give it a go. This year we are adding seated experience for everyone to try, we have tested a few already and are excited to offer them soon. Initially, the seated experiences will only be limited until we are certain that everyone enjoys them and we can operate a smooth transition of inserting the right seats into our play spaces.
Don’t worry though we have more idea’s for VR Here, the only way to keep up to date is to follow us and read our blog posts as they become available. One thing is certain, we will be adding new experiences throughout 2019. We are committed to keeping immersive entertainment fresh, sometimes we will remove old experiences and add new ones so again this is a reason follow us. I’m going to test a new VR experience now so I will say goodbye and hopefully see you soon.
