Holoverse

[jjuttp]

So today i paid a visit to Holoverse in Southport (behind Aus Fair) after seeing it in one of those tourist brochures in my hotel. Easiest thing to say would be i was blown away (i'm normally very sceptical of anything boasting VR or 3D.). So first off, you get the choice of 2 experiences: "experiences" and "False Eden: Part 1". With a limited budget, i chose to do just FE. When you get loaded into your gear, all it is is a belt with a white Mo-Cap ball on the front and your glasses and "wand" in a holster. The glasses surprised me as they not only chose active shutter 3D, but through that, it was also running in an anaglyph setting, combining the two. These also had the Mo-Cap balls on either side. Then there was the wand; this was almost literally a Wiimote with the bullshit cut off the bottom and a cross-guard on the top with the balls on either side of the guard. 

 

Once assigned to your booth, you "Tap-On" with the NFC chip on the wand, then stand on the feet on the ground and hold the wand out in front for calibration. Before going in, i was skeptical on how movement was done. Basically its about 85-90% On Rails, and as you jump from side to side, the screen will shift with you. The 3D use actually surprised me in the sense that with the sword attachment, you were able to really bring it up to your nose and get not a single spec of Ghosting. As for the Crossbow (best weapon), you were able to use the scope as you would normally, despite the entire thing being on the screen. The Staff is a useless weapon. I'll be the first to admit that the story is kinda weak, but for all you fat kids with Lightsabres, if you get over 200 points, you get a free slushie. Getting over 200 is harder than it sounds too (i got 214).

 

The only things i would change would be:

- Increase the FOV by about 5 degrees. The system gives you a certain FOV and blurs and de-renders (occasionally completely cutting off) your peripheral vision. Where its currently sits gets a little annoying in the earlier levels.

- Rendering. I don't know if its the processor trying to keep up or what, but in my jumping around, the environment was rendered about 10 degrees into my FOV.

- Height. The game will get chopped off at times because of the screen. the screens probably only 2m high, and everything on the screen is rendered in true height. So around mission 6, the hair of one of the holograms is chopped off as are most of the beasts heads (and in the case of flying frogs, the entire unit goes off screen). This gets questionable as you have a boss fight with a dragon.

-Sound. This ones just more of a nitpick than anything. But They only give you stereo Bluetooth headphones. So for you non sound people, if a tigers running at me, i don't hear it like that. You hear it as coming from the sides of both ears (also the voice mixing is bad).

-Also, just slow down the 3D shift. If i'm moving my weight from one leg to another, there's no need to completely shift the 3d render like Transformers.

 

 

If you're into whats basically VR, its worth the $35. It's $55 or so for 2 sessions, so you can do both.

 

 

[Redboost]

How long does the whole experience last? Would a 5 year old shit their pants or get vertigo playing the games? 

[jjuttp]

They say 35 minutes is the rough time or so. I didnt do experiences so i wouldnt be able to tell you if vertigo would set in. Also for a 5 year old i wouldnt recommend lost eden. Its a bit hard and theres large monsters getting all up in your face. Although LE doesnt have any height based things, i believe experiences has 2. Both i believe you can see in the video.

[Redboost]

Sweet, thanks for that, looks like I'll be doing this with only half the family then.....