A leading industry specialist by the name of Kevin Williams has been applying virtual reality to the amusement and attraction landscape. In his latest column about the Virtual Arena, he revealed that for the first time the HTC Focus 3 will be a part of the Out-of-Home entertainment sector which will undoubtedly mark an impressive new way to use virtual reality in the laser tag industry.
Laser tag has the potential to be at the center of the next phase of virtual reality’s evolution and development. What is needed is an approach that can incorporate safely all of the physical objects and obstructions that are found within a laser tag space. Backpack PC and free-roaming virtual reality have already been invested in majorly. One of the leading builders for laser tag arenas, Creative Works, was galvanized by the opportunity to safely incorporate real life objects into virtual reality.
The product of this hard work and effort is now known as the “Next Generation of Laser Tag”. Creative Works has launched Limitless VR, a multi-player virtual experience that uses all of the newest Standalone VR hardware can be played in real life laser tag areas without modifying any of the area. This is a huge leap in the industry.
By using already existent laser tag arena areas including any walls and/or any physical obstructions, the newest laser scanning technology to scan any physical obstructions into the game including the walls essentially marries the physical objects to the virtual reality environment.
Creative Works has also partnered up with LiDAR laser imaging specialists to take things to the next level and exactly recreate area elements so that players can interact with physical obstructions in real time safely within the game’s space through using 3-Dimensional laser scanning. Most free roaming virtual reality hardware has limitations that do not allow for inclusion of any physical obstructions or props in the laser tag arenas.
The HTC Vive Focus 3, a new standalone virtual reality headset, is also one of the biggest elements of the experience using Limitless VR and is also the first LBE system (location-based entertainment). The Vive Focus 3 is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon XR2 and is focused primarily towards the commercial business industry although it is now venturing into the commercial entertainment industry.
Right now we are looking at the possibility of up to 30 headsets at launch in the future but for now the reality is the ability for only 16 at a time. These headsets allow users to embrace an important part of laser tag, which is multi-player competition but that does not mean that the other aspects of a multi-player experience are not as important. HTC and Creative Works have been partnering up to be the first ones to launch this technology into the entertainment industry.
For the first time in this industry, users will be using the newest game interface in support of the HTC Vive Focus 3 virtual reality headset, and from StrikerVR, this experience will use “HD Haptics”, compacted gun systems, and incorporate haptic feedback tech from the arena.
Not only will users be experiencing the newest gun systems and virtual reality headsets, but they will also get to experience the thrill of no longer needing a backpack PC thanks to the Limitless VR platform. No longer will players be held back by the cumbersome backpacks. Laser tag arenas will now be virtual game spaces with elements that are changeable with just a click of a mouse.
Laser tag caters not only to the multiple player competitors and gamers but also to private hire events such as birthday parties making them very important in the entertainment industry. By targeting these group bookings with a versatile and new virtual reality platform that incorporates the familiar elements of other physical gameplays but with a more immersive take will bring in a lot of revenue. The arena and experience can be constantly changed by the operator without having to actually physically change the arena around and reconstruct it.
In 2018, at the Oculus Connect 5 event, the “Dead & Buried Arena” prototype was teased but subsequently dropped. Limitless VR will be the first experience to be able to actually incorporate physical object tracking that is highly detailed successfully compared to previous attempts made by other companies. To reach the full potential of virtual reality in a laser tag arena, detailed physical object tracking is essential for these multiple player experiences.
This marks the first of a new revolution of free roaming virtual reality systems that takes away the cumbersome backpack PC’s and employs more sophisticated virtual reality systems thanks to this new release by Creative Works. We expect great things from these companies and are excited to see what they come up with next.