I’m very excited for mid-December to roll around here in Central Florida because that marks the opening of the Void/ILMX/Disney venture at Disney Springs called “Secrets of the Empire”
Folks who know me know I am extraordinarily bullish on the whole immersive experience market and the Void is definitely leading the charge. While they may not be the best they have definitely put the money into the much needed research and are developing a legitimate, rewarding experiential platform. Regretfully I have not been able to go to New Yourk or SLC to check out any of their installments. Secrets of the Empire(SOE) is their first installment to Central Florida. I’m hoping, because of its vacation destination status, Orlando will become a hub for immersive experiences. A friend of mine from the University of Utah recently had an opportunity to explore the SLC based company. He confirmed that the Void definitely has their fingers on the pulse of this progression. In other words, he though it was awesome.
Bryan Bishop from The Verge recently had an opportunity to check out a prototype of the experience in the Imagineering Campus at Glendale. He describes his experience in his article, Secrets of the Empire ready for prime-time. In a nutshell Bryan is a big fan of the experience and feels it is well qualified to carry to label of being a genuine Holodeck-esque experience. He mentions that the physical props and sets integrated with the physical haptics, (haptic chest feedback, smell, heat/cold), and awesome looking imagery contribute to a rewarding, immersive experience. All-in-all he thought it was a tremendous amount of fun! The amalgamation of all these sensory stimuli does an effective job creating a compelling sense of autonomy and agency.
What I thought was really interesting was how the experience adhered to the cannon of the Star Wars theme world. The events of Secrets of the Empire are canon in the larger universe, and while the narrative is fixed, it’s the nature of the medium that every individual who goes through will have their own unique experience based on what they do, how they react, and who they go in with. It creates a unique opportunity for replayability — even at $29.95 per ticket — with guests able to experience different elements or even take on different duties in certain scenes depending on how aggressively they choose to play. In other words, each experience of SOE is unique with the participant co-creating the story with the experience production team.
As per my past criticism about the Void’s tracking techniques and limitations, Bishop found the hand tracking to be inconsistent, with his virtual hands appearing smoothly at some moments, while remaining stubbornly nonexistent at others. In a portion of the experience that required him to hit a number of buttons in sequence in order to escape a room, the tracking between the physical and the digital seemed so misaligned that he was unable to solve the puzzle altogether. And while the visuals were quite good, the realm of photorealism yet had not yet been met.
Problems aside I am very excited to participate in this experience myself. I am very enthusiastic about this experience and the evolution of this new media. If quality experiences, such as this, keep coming out, then many of the noticeable problems will disappear and participant will focus exclusively on the opportunity for collaborative story telling.
