Menu
What's new
By:
Filters

The VR thread

Just a few details about Six Flags Great Adventure's Drop of Doom VR:
1. It's completely optional for anyone who wants to ride without the headsets.
2. Riders under 13 years of age are not permitted to ride with the headsets, although they might meet the minimum height requirement, due to the graphic video content.
3. Following the opening weekend (May 5-7), when season pass holders can preview the ride from 10:30am-3pm, Drop of Doom VR will operate only after 3pm.

In other virtual reality news, Six Flags St. Louis are updating the VR experience on Ninja from Rage of the Gargoyles to Galactic Attack.

Unfortunately both parks are holding their media events on the same day, so I'll be going to Great Adventure to let you all know how it is on a drop tower.
Of course I could have already experienced Galactic Attack when it opened last weekend at Six Flags New England, but Mind Eraser is bad enough as is and I'm not driving up there just to get my head bashed around.
Six Flags Great America also extended an invitation for their Drop of Doom VR media event next Friday, but I would rather wait a week to try it on Zumanjaro.
 
I've not experienced VR on a ride myself yet but I'm going to hazard a guess that out of all ride types, the one least suited to VR has to be a drop tower? The whole build up of anticipation for a drop tower comes from the fact you are taken up to a high point and dropped. If you stick a ****ty VR headset on then I'd assume, if anything, it's going to kill or at least lessen the very real anticipation of staring down at ground level from 400ft high.

Also, that VR looks absolutely ****. No ride has ever been improved with late 90's Playstation level graphics. It's like a tacky motion simulator level.
 
Actually, considering you use sight to judge distance, getting rid of it in favor of a pre-rendered setting could really screw with ones judgement of how far everything is and really make it that much more terrifying.

An example being that stupid gag of having a friend lay stomach down on the floor, close their eyes, and have someone else pick up their upper half using their arms. You wait a few seconds, tell them to imagine themselves floating/flying, and then just slightly drop them a bit. The sensation of being on the dropping bit is pure adrenaline and fear because you cant physically see how far you are dropping, so your mind thinks that 1 inch drop is more vast.

Pretty sure there is a psych term or something for it, but the loss of sight does screw with your inner perception of distance. I still think the whole thing is stupid, but hope your VR set sucks (read broke) and enjoy the thrill of the unknown void instead!

Edit: Has anyone actually done that gag/experiment with a friend before?
 
I don't understand VR on a drop tower, or any really. Admittedly I've only done Air/Galactica but I've done it twice and both times were awful. Maybe I've got a funny shaped head but the first time the headset sat so low I couldn't breathe through my nose and the second time it fell off and smacked me in the face.

I remember trying that flying/dropping trick as a kid...I never had the imagination to make it work!
 
Intricks said:
Actually, considering you use sight to judge distance, getting rid of it in favor of a pre-rendered setting could really screw with ones judgement of how far everything is and really make it that much more terrifying.
Click to expand...

I would agree if the VR was any good, but it's still stuck in the 90's and therefore it would probably destroy any anticipation for me. I don't see the point in having a 400ft drop tower if you're going to essentially be blinded by **** CGI. Fair play, it's optional... but it's also pointless.
 
They're going to the trouble of making the world's tallest drop tower ride, with unprecedented height to scare riders, and then they send them up blindfolded?

*sigh*

If there ever was a bigger waste of a record breaker, I've yet to hear about it. It's like buying the most expensive menu item at a five star restaurant, and running it through a blender. Yes, technically you're neither doing anything to neither the taste nor its nutritional value, but you sure are spoiling the point of purchasing such an expensive item to begin with.
 
Pokemaniac said:
If there ever was a bigger waste of a record breaker, I've yet to hear about it. It's like buying the most expensive menu item at a five star restaurant, and running it through a blender. Yes, technically you're neither doing anything to neither the taste nor its nutritional value, but you sure are spoiling the point of purchasing such an expensive item to begin with.
Click to expand...
People-ride-in-the-Red-Force-roller-coaster-during-the-inauguration-of-Ferrari-Land.jpg
 
Out of curiosity - has anyone actually seen a VR ride load time in under 2 minutes?
 
Hyde said:
Out of curiosity - has anyone actually seen a VR ride load time in under 2 minutes?
Click to expand...

I reckon I very almost have actually! I was impressed with the dispatch times for Batman Arkham Asylum at Parque Warner - I'd say they somehow managed to push out a train every 3 minutes? I mean, there's a small chance they might have managed 2 when I was there?

Granted this was mostly because they were only dedicating 3 rows to VR (although of course that's 12 guests). They also had a quite a few staff running it, and a room stuffed with headsets for cleaning. Waited about 40 minutes, with the normal queue being around 20, which was a hell of a lot better than I expected! The VR was really quite good too - there's a nice moment at the predrop when the joker pulls you down, although I don't think BTR clones are the best fit! Refreshingly different, and I'd want to do it a few times again.

I'll confess I initially despised the concept and still do for fully dedicated rides, but I think it could work permanently in a ground-up station where riders are given headsets before they actually board? Obviously they'd need to be flipped up somehow so people could still find their way to the train, but fitting them's the biggest time consumer.
 
That's actually a brilliant idea and a clever way to integrate a crucial missing social link.
 
Can't be arsed to dig out a link now, but Ocean Park is putting VR on their mine train. You know, that coaster with one of the best views in the world. Amazing.

To be fair, because of its location away from pretty much everything, it gets a pretty low ridership, so I guess it could direct more people that way.
 
I did VR for the first time this year and ignoring the technology failures it was quite good but I felt sick afterwards. The main issue is that I felt it just turned the coaster into what felt like a simulator.
 
Another coaster is getting VR... the Roller Coaster/Manhattan Express/Big Apple Coaster at New York New York is receiving VR. The VR will be themed around aliens and is being marketed as the world's longest VR experience on a roller coaster. It will be available to experience from the 7th February. There is more info in this article: https://lasvegasweekly.com/ae/2018/jan/17/roller-coaster-new-york-new-york-virtual-reality/
I think that this is a strange choice for a VR coaster, as from not having ridden, people's horror stories make this coaster sound very, very rough! VR would only make the ride more uncomfortable.
EDIT: You will also have to pay $20 for the privilege of riding with VR, which is $5 above the non-VR price of $15.
 
And here's the video you will be seeing on the ride


It's the same as the non-vr view but with aliens!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top