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The Microsoft/Facebook Partnership plays "Peek-A-Boo" (BladeRunner)

Zenbane
MVP
MVP

As a huge fan of the original BladeRunner film (1982) I was elated when I saw that a Bladerunner 2049 VR Experience had been released:
https://www.oculus.com/experiences/rift/1789924451050066/

Although I decided to take the advice of @Shadowmask72 and wait until I saw the new film before jumping in to the Bladerunner VR App. I'm glad I took that advice, because the overall experience of both Film & VR ended up being not only near perfect, but also enlightening.

During the film, I was particularly fond of the primary setting for Jared Leto's character:

piq0h5r7buj8.jpg

As soon as the film ended I left the theatre and raced home to enjoy the VR App. I was overly pleased to find that I could experience that exact scene with my Rift:

sz1r3cti78gd.jpg


Silly as it may sound, in that moment I was once again blown away by Virtual Reality. One minute I'm in a real life theatre watching a sequel to one of my favorite films of all time and imagining what it would be like to have a platform built over water in my home, and the next minute I'm in my home in virtual reality... walking over that same platform built over water. Dafuq?


This was the first time I experienced this particular sequence of events. I'm sure in 5-10 years (max) this kinda stuff will be commonplace. But this moment marked my introduction, and it certainly left a lasting impression. It was also in this moment that I felt somewhat enlightened to the idea of "Mixed Reality." Not the Microsoft butchering of the brand, but the true concept of mixing two distinct realities. Because that's exactly wtf I was feeling right then.


But aside from all that schoolgirl giddiness, there was something else I noticed during the BladeRunner VR experience...


It starts off with this imagery:

kap805sn31j0.jpg


And at the end of this VR Experience, I saw this during the Credits:

t35vl1nbfays.jpg


Oculus Studios working directly with Microsoft to create a VR experience? Could it be that the partnership is still alive and well (only less advertised)??


bnr5c8bq90gb.jpg


This certainly explains why, of all the other Film-VR Experiences released so far, this is my absolute favorite. It's not even a particularly good experience. Most of the user-interactions borrow from the investigative portion of the BatmanVR game:

https://www.oculus.com/experiences/rift/1480133245392512/


This is a more watered down version of Batman Arkham VR - but a key difference with BladeRunner VR is the NPC's. They look fantastic as played by real people. Normally when a VR experience uses real people, it's a 360 video with all sorts of grainy/choppiness involved. Whereas BladeRunner VR nails it proper! And it appears to be all thanks to the Microsoft Mixed Reality Capture Studio.


Regardless, I hope to see Microsoft and Oculus/Facebook team up to release even more inspiring content in the future.

7 REPLIES 7

Shadowmask72
Honored Visionary
Glad to be of assistance Zenator. Now imagine this combined with Air Car with free movement and more investigations.  I think VR heads would pay for this. I certainly would especially if it was similar to Observer without all the mental bits.


System Specs: MSI NVIDIA RTX 4090 , i5 13700K CPU, 32GB DDR 4 RAM, Win 11 64 Bit OS.

Shadowmask72
Honored Visionary
Actually Low-Fi is going to be the game I mentioned. It's set in the same universe as Technolust.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vkjC3nu7W3A


System Specs: MSI NVIDIA RTX 4090 , i5 13700K CPU, 32GB DDR 4 RAM, Win 11 64 Bit OS.

Zenbane
MVP
MVP
LowFi looks amazing. That's a first day purchase for me!

OmegaM4N
Expert Trustee
Love me some Bladerunner.
CV1/Vive-knuckles)/Dell Vr Visor/Go/Quest II/ PSVR.

pyroth309
Visionary

Zenbane said:

LowFi looks amazing. That's a first day purchase for me!


Same here, everytime I see it I get more impressed. 

Shadowmask72
Honored Visionary
Blair is launching the Kickstarter soon and a playable demo I believe. From the early build I played last year I think, this was already shaping-up to be a potential killer-app. Since then he's added some more bits. I will certainly back this to support him, as it's a worthy cause. We need more games like this and as you are probably aware, Technolust was pretty cool as well. At least he has a full-release under his belt which means he has every intention of finishing Low-Fi.


System Specs: MSI NVIDIA RTX 4090 , i5 13700K CPU, 32GB DDR 4 RAM, Win 11 64 Bit OS.

Morgrum
Expert Trustee
Looks great.
WAAAGH!