iMyth

Tag: Dreamscape Immersive

  • Is “Spaces” Going To Do It correctly?

    Is “Spaces” Going To Do It correctly?

    I was nutso when I first heard about The Void. When Dreamscape Immersive formed I really got excited. I thought The Void broke new ground but are wasting their time with immersive shoot-em-up experiences. Dreamscape Immersive launched into an impressive prototype with Alien Petting Zoo. These guys are creating immersive experiences and not just new shooting galleries. Regretfully I have not heard much from them since their initial trial run. There have been other attempts at creating immersive experiences such as Zero Latency. However, in my humble opinion, all have fallen short due to one factor or another. Now, please let me introduce “Spaces” the newest entry in the location based immersive experience arena. If the public is encouraged and with a bit of luck, these guys will make it. I think they are doing a lot of things correct. You can check out a video of their experience by following this link: Spaces: Terminator-Salvation.

    Similar to The Void, Spaces seems at first to be a Terminator themed Shoot-em-up. No big deal. However there are hints of other more important components. In much of the promotional material, the participants are interacting with physical props on physical sets. Physical immersion is essential for maintaining presence in immersive experiences. Participants are running around with props, they are using tools against physical sets and they seem to be interacting with the world with motion control devices. Now you are talking! Dreamscape immersive gave hints of these components. “Guys, what are you up to?”

    From the looks of the video and some of their promotional material, the participants seem to be equipped with HTC Vive Prop HMDs. They also appear to be decked out with 7 point tracking. 5 point is the minimum needed to track participant arms, legs, body position and orientation. However the seven point tracking tracks the elbows which solves a gnarly issue with effective motion capture. At the beginning of the experience, participants’ face are scanned and their likeness is used for their experience avatars. Fantastic. Even if the faces are not animated they will do a sufficient job of identifying the participants from each other in the middle of a high action environment. (I have to admit, Secrets of the Empire left me totally confused.) Getting back to the tracking. If these guys have some advance access to Steam tracking 2.0 then they not only have room scale access but they now have warehouse scale access and the potential for fully realized redirected walking. (I’m still waiting to get my hands on some Steam Tracking 2.0 lighthouses!) From what little review I have encountered, Spaces also employs other haptic devices such as wind, heat and smell. These are becoming standard expectations in any modern immersive experience. Different from The Void and Dreamscape Immersive, Spaces also integrates a scoring mechanic and video recording. These components are essential for experiences to take on lives outside of the actual physical attraction. This is starting to look super exciting!

    With all of this awesome sauce, what could go wrong? What could prevent Spaces from becoming a dominant player in the location-based immersive experience area? Throughput! A look at the promotional image on their website indicates they are looking for partners to open retail locations in public spaces such as malls. This may be a big mistake. Spaces is obviously run by a couple of Gen-Xers who haven’t come to the realization that the millennial folk don’t go to the malls! Traffic in malls is just not what it use to be. In order to make an operation like this profitable, they will need to have multiple immersive experiences going, each filled with multiple participants during all hours of operation. This may be attainable on the weekends. You can forget Tuesday morning around 11:00 am. Malls have very high rent and to keep the throughput sufficient to pay for the overhead costs may be too insurmountable. The solution to this very problem is what plagues the Void and Dreamscape Immersive as well.  I suppose this is a topic for future blog posts.

    I hope for the best for Spaces. I really believe they are stacking their deck with the correct equipment and the right attitude for make truly rewarding location-based immersive experiences. I just hope the realities of the economics don’t crush them into obscurity. Good luck Guys! I’m rooting for you!

     

  • Alien Zoo Opens to Positive Comments

    Alien Zoo Opens to Positive Comments

    Just last week, Dreamscape Immersive opened it Alien Zoo experience in Los Angeles. The opening was kind of quiet and it’s been somewhat hard to get information about the new location-based experience. Ian Hamilton of Upload VR was one of the lucky few to have gone through the experience. He writes about his experience in his article, Dreamscape’s Alien Zoo Creates A Sense Of Awe And Wonder.

    In the article he creates a compare and contrast to the Void’s Star Wars and Ghostbuster’s experience. He is very quick to note that the Void experiences few very much like shooter type video games where Alien Zoo feels somewhat different. Like The Void, Alien Zoo has the participant done backpack computers and Oculus headsets. They also put on foot and hand coverings. Withing the experience, the physical immersion is dramatically different. Participants can shake hands with each other, give each other high fives, exchange objects and even physically interact with denizens of the story world. The avatars do a very good job tracking the participants’ positions. Colliding with each other and objects in the scene are not a problem.

    The article admits there are still problems with the experience especially with story near the end of the experience. However, he did not feel these distractions were deal-breakers. The new media format is still in its infancy and has far to grow.

    If you are in the Los Angeles area and have $20 burning a hole in  your pocket, make sure to check out this new attraction and be part of the evolution.

  • Dreamscape Immersive opens “Alien Zoo”

    Dreamscape Immersive opens “Alien Zoo”

    Yesterday, Dreamscape Immersive opened it’s first location-based immersive experience, “Alien Zoo”. It is open now through March 2. This project has been hidden up until now so no real information is available at this moment in time. Until I have an opportunity to experience it for myself, we’ll need to depend on the reports from fellow explorers.

    What I do know can be found on their website, http://www.dreamscapeimmersive.com/index.html. The participants can share their experience with up to six others and should take about 40 minutes. I don’t know if the layout will be an open sand box or if you will be confined to a specific platform. The concept art suggest the group will be bound to a motion controlled vehicle which will tilt and swivel in place as the platform guides the participants through the experience. Participants will be equipped with backpack computer and head mounted display, gloves and shoe coverings. These components tell me that Dreamscape Immersive is utilizing Vicon tracking technology to not only track HMDs but also hands and feet and most probably waist movement as well. This means participants will be able to see and observe their own avatars as well as observe and potentially interact with the avatars of other participants. Because of the Vicon tracking participants will be able to interact with props and sets and, potentially, interactors within the experience.  The interactors are teased as Megaraffes, giant brontosaurus-like giraffes, Frogcats, which should drive merchandising wild and the spider-like Sicari which will add a bit of interactive danger to the experience.

    As mentioned, this experience will be using Vicon tracking technology. This should deliver a truer one to one physical experience than the Void’s “Secrets of the Empire”. Instead of tracking head and gun position and partially tracking hands, Dreamscape Immersive should be able to lock on to a physically accurate interactive experience with everything in the environment. This sounds really interesting! Also of note, Dreamscape Immersive provides specially tracked wheel chairs for physically impaired participants. This sounds like a great way to include handicapped folks and have them integrate naturally with the experience. This is a very interesting approach to the throughput puzzle.

     

    I am very excited to test this new experience out! It will only be around for a few weeks and no doubt be replaced by another groovy interactive experience. Way to go gang!

     

     

  • Variety’s Location Based State of the Industry

    Variety’s Location Based State of the Industry

    Here is a quick synopsis of the the Variety article, Location Based VR.

    • The folks at Variety are very excited about the Void’s new Immersive Experience called “Curse of the Serpent’s Eye”, an immersive take on the Indiana Jones theme. It will premier next month and be the second installment after the Ghost Buster’s experience. Interesting enough The Void’s Co-Founder, James Jensen, identifies that the best immersive experiences are the ones with real, physical props. CEO, Cliff Plummer is very bullish on Immersive Experience being a draw back to Malls and Movie Theaters. He says, “The studios are looking for new revenue streams. We (the Void) have one, and it’s easy for them to relate to.” The Void has also been admitted to Disney’s Accelerator Start-ups.
    • 20th Century Fox President of innovation, Salil Mehta, agrees, “We believe that location-based VR will be the way that many people experience virtual reality for the first time. It’s an incredible opportunity for us to create industry-defining immersive experiences that can’t be replicated in your living room.”
    • FoxNext is developing an “Alien” immersive experience and has invested in on of The Void’s competitors, “Dreamscape Immersive“.
    • Lionsgate Interactive Ventures and Games president Peter Levin endorsed location-based VR wholeheartedly at the recent VRTL industry conference: “We are extremely bullish on it.”
    • Paramount unveiled an immersive experience supporting “Transformers: The Last Knight”.
    • Doug Griffin, from Nomadic, says, “We’ve heard over and over from film studios that location-based is becoming part of their strategy moving forward.”
    • It seems everyone is disappointed at the rate which VR has been accepted by the public. They see location based installment, similar to those in China, as being avenues which the average person can try out the newest VR experiences without having to plop down the money to get started in VR.
    • The Imax VR experience Center is taking a little bit of a different approach as it focuses more on individual pods for participants to experience instead of the complicated setups such as the Void. They have locations in Los Angeles and  New York will be opening soon in Toronto, Manchester and Shanghai. Imax is using these installments as a soft launch before embarking on a flood over 1000s of movie theaters.
    • Problems identified are throughput and the inevitability that home VR system will get better. Similarly there is the issue of price tag. Many of the experiences vary from $30 to $15 for a 15 minute experience. Nomadic’s Griffin thinks lower prices are key to taking location-based VR mainstream. “We want to bring this medium of entertainment to neighborhoods everywhere,” he says. “We don’t charge a price that is out of reach for those smaller neighborhoods and communities.”
    • Griffon also believes by creating Modular set pieces each location will need to go through very small down time shifting experiences.Nomadic’s Griffin thinks lower prices are key to taking location-based VR mainstream. “We want to bring this medium of entertainment to neighborhoods everywhere,” he says. “We don’t charge a price that is out of reach for those smaller neighborhoods and communities.”
    • Wisely, companies such as the Void realize that content is king and are creating pipelines for producing new experiences every 3 to six months. We’ll have to see how well that pans out 🙂 Smartly they are investigating the concept of creating persistent avatars and monetizing their product tie-ins with the avatars.
  • State of VR Arcades

    State of VR Arcades

    I just bumped into an interesting article today written by Ian Sherr for CNET talking about his experiences with VR Arcades. VR Arcades are very similar to what iMyth is trying to create. The big difference is that the VR Arcade are positioning for smaller term, fast experiences where as iMyth is striving for longer episodic experiences. VR Arcades such as the IMAX VR Arcade have already made a presence in Los Angeles and are opening another facility in New York in the near future.  Companies such as Dreamscape Interactive will be joining in the competition in the very near future.

    The author goes on to describe his experience with Nomadic VR. I documented  Nomadic a couple of months ago. Nomadic is positioning itself to create Turn-key systems based on theatrical props and sets borrowed from the movie industry. They are looking for industry partners but only if your are big enough to register a blip on their screen :). Sherr believes that location based experiences such as IMAX, Dreamscape and Nomadic will be the big winners with the advent of the VR Arcade. SO far VR has failed to capture the dollars of the mass public. Could VR Arcades be the answer? I believe so!

    There are some cynics to be sure. Sean Kelley, an associate at investment and advisory company The Rain Group, said while his firm has made bets on entertainment and live events, it’s not yet convinced VR arcades are going to be a big draw. “The biggest issue with these VR arcades is not demand or content or whether the experience is cool, it’s throughput,” he said. There are already signs some arcade chains are failing, and part of that is because they just don’t make enough money, he added. “You have to put enough people through.” Throughput is very much a problem. I believe the answer to this is creating a higher end product with a far greater production value than be achieved in the home. In my opinion, “High-End” VR is better than no VR and people will be will to pay for experiences outside of the box.

  • IMAX VR Posting Initial Numbers

    IMAX VR Posting Initial Numbers

    This posting is really to help keep track of numbers which will be used to structure iMyth’s budget and business plan.

    From an article posted by Upload VR, IMAX LA VR Center Sees 15,000 Admissions Since January, we can get some initial understanding of the public response to immerse experiences.

    IMAX claims that it has 15,000 admissions in its immersive center at the Bridge in LA. what this number really relates to is the number of individual experiences sold not to unique visitors. That means with tickets selling between $7 to $10 for VR content, we can roughly guess that IMAX may have cleared $100,000 in ticket sales during its first few months of operation. Notably, that includes a soft launch at an IMAX VR location unconnected to a movie theater — future locations will be connected to theaters and might see more foot traffic as a result.

    IMAX will be competing directly against Dreamscape Immersive as they rush to create experiences based on Feature film releases. While iMyth is not immediatly aiming towards this market, it is interesting to see how things will develop.

  • Dreramscape’s Kevin Wall has ambitions of global domination

    Dreramscape’s Kevin Wall has ambitions of global domination

    Up until this point, there has not been much information about the LA startup, Dreamscape Interactive. The Dreamscape history was revealed slightly from a Forbe’s Article, Dreamscape’s Big Dreams for Immersive VR. The article explains a little of whom Kevin Wall and Walter Parkes are and what his ambitions are.

    One of the first, and most important of his accomplishments was partnering with Artanim, a Swiss research think tank focussing on motion and motion capture. Artanim burst onto the VR scene two years ago when they displayed their groundbreaking, immersive VR for the 2015 Siggraph. I may be a CGI snob but I have to admit the folks at Artanim have the real head start in the immersive experience game. The Void has spent millions but only gets to the point where Artanim starts.

    Relying on Hollywood serendipity and a powerful rolodex, the Wall nabbed as CEO the Disney Chief Creative Officer behind the massive Shanghai Disneyland project, Bruce Vaughn, who had planned to take a well deserved sabbatical, until Wall interrupted him with Dreamscape’s ambitious plans. Along with other Disney Imagineers recruited for the effort, Vaughn’s job is to spearhead development of both the experiences and the venue, which is being designed by Yves Behar, who Forbes described as “the most influential designer in the world.”

    With this high powered team Wall and Parkes have enlisted a prime crop of heavy huitting investors including Westfields Malls, three movie studios, and Parkes’ former boss Steven Speilberg. Because of their strategic alliance with the multiple studios, the group claims to be movie agnostic. While they have given no clues on what their first experience will be, it will be fairly safe to assume the experiences will coincide with the release of major films. With their focus on the most recent feature film IPs, I believe there is still plenty of room capitalizing on the infinite number of theme worlds which have already proven themselves.

    The group plans on opening their first experience at landmark Century City Mall in Los Angeles this fall. When they’re sure the venue can be operated profitably, they’ll explode into hungry malls around the country.  I’ll have to admit, this is a solid plan. iMyth plans on doing the same.

    Dreamscape Immeresive really seems like they have a good plan with a strong team to boot. It looks like I’ll need to be making a trip to Los Angeles this Fall to check out the new iMyth competition.

  • Introducing Dreamscape Immersive

    Introducing Dreamscape Immersive

    I just discovered today there is a new player in town, Dreamscape Immersive. Dreamscape is a new Los Angeles-based startup for location-based virtual reality planning to open their first VR Multiplex in Los Angeles this coming September. The facility will use untehered VR headsets to allow consumers to move freely through a space and interact with real and virtual objects as well as with each other. This is very similar to the iMyth experience.

    Dreamscape has an impressive list of investors and supporters. Co-chairman Kevin Wall is an Emmy award winning producer. The company’s CEO is Bruce Vaughn, who until last year was Chief Creative Executive at Walt Disney Imagineering. Imagineering has been hinting at this new medium for the last ten years. Maybe Vaughn’s exodus signals Disney’s apathy or unwillingness to participate in this new field. Dreamscape has raised $11 million in funding in a round led by Bold Capital, with contributions from Warner Bros. 21st Century Fox, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), IMAX Corporation, Westfield Corporation, and Steven Spielberg. Advisors include star designer Yves Behar and legendary film music composer Hans Zimmer.

    Just as iMyth has its sights on shopping malls, the first location for a Dreamscape Multiplex will be the Westfield’s Century City Mall, which is undergoing remodeling and expansion. iMyth will need to establish its empire in central Florida.

    Dreamscape has said that its multiplex will be powered by technology from Swiss tech and arts foundation Artanim. These folks have probably been doing immersive experiences longer than anyone else. I first learned about them before Siggraph 2015.  Artanim co-founders CaeciliaCharbonnier and Sylvain Chagué will serve as co-CTOs of the company. Artanim had been a non-profit foundation in Switzerland. it will be interesting discovering their ambitions over the next few months.

    One interesting thing to note is that they will be using the Vicon tracking system mixed with the OCculus Rift. A basic installation of the Vican cameras probably starts around $160K. This is a hefty price to pay. However, the Vicon system can track multiple objects at the same time including multiple participants and props without additional cost. At this moment in time that inital tracking cost is a bit expensive. iMyth will probably stick with the Steam VR tracking system in the near future.

  • Mixed Reality Arcades

    Mixed Reality Arcades

    I just encountered an interesting article written last week while I was at GDC. The article was written by Sunny Dhillon of Tech Crunch who wrote, “Mixed Realty Arcades are the next big market Opportunity – but not for VCs”. The author is still ultimately bullish for VR Technology but is concerned about the lack of content and investment opportunities for non-megacompany investment opportunities.

    What really excites me about this article is he is very bullish on a  new media he calls, “Mixed Reality Arcades.” This is exactly what iMyth is trying to capitalize on. He describes a little about the Void in Utah which is , at the moment, one of the leaders in the Mixed Reality front. Interesting enough he compares these ventures to the old Disney-Quest in Orlando. While he loved the idea and concept of Disney-Quest, he believes that lack of variety hurt the operation. There were not enough new, fresh experiences. This is one of the major issues which iMyth addresses. So far the major players are The Void, Zero Latency, Nomadic Labs and Dreamscape Immersive. I have not yet gone through any of The Voids experiences. My review of the Zero Latency can be found here, “Zero Latency Review.” I do not know anything aboiut Nomadic Labs or Dreamscape Immersive yet.

    The writer identifies three factors which would make Mixed Reality ventures unattractive to VCs but very interested the Mega-Corporations.

    The first of these factors is Intellectual Property. Only the largest of Mega-Corporations will be able to pay the hefty licensing fees associated with today’s most popular IP. While I believe this to be a valid point, we are taking iMyth in a different Direction. Just as iMyth’s name implies, we create immersive theme worlds. This means we create world which already have somewhat of a proven following. Of course this implies the most recent and popular theme worlds. However, which is more interesting, especially at iMyth’s beginning, is the myriad of pre-existing theme worlds which have already proven themselves and have demonstrated timeless shelf life. iMyth has already established theme worlds based on Lovecraft and the mythology of Santa Clause. Just as Disney built an empire on the shoulders of classic IP, so will iMyth.

    The next factor is Real Estate. This is a very important as the price of real estate can make or break an opperation. The only factor of any real importance is being located in areas of high traffic and exposure. However, I feel accessable locations will be just as important. Quite often areas of high traffic are challenging to access forcing visitors to participate only on special occasions. Imyth wishes to make the immersive experience a regular activity. iMyth’s theme worlds will be broken into multiple episodes. The average time of an iMyth experience is around twenty minutes. In order to experience a full length experience, participants will be invited to participate multiple times.

    The final factor is maintenance. This is a very real factor that has to be considered. Having multiple participant consistently moving through the experience will cause great wear and tear on the physical components. Not much can be done immediately in this area. However, as the medium develops, iMyth can work with manufactures to design its own take on the equipment which will be simple but sturdy variations of existing hardware. It is not iMyth’s intention to be in the component manufacturing business. However, if necessity demands that more sturdy, crowd proof solutions are required then that is an avenue that must be explored.

    I am very encouraged by the author’s optimistic view of the potential of Mixed Reality Arcades, or Immersive Experiences. However, with enough out of the box and practical thinking, I believe this can be turned into a very successful market.

  • Immersive Experience Market Heating Up

    Immersive Experience Market Heating Up

    I just read an article from the New York times, “With New Invention, VR’s Potential for Magic Gets Real“. It is an interesting article that gives a little background information about The Void, in Lindon Utah , and it gives a quick introduction of what else is going on in this new industry.

    The article goes on to expose some financial data that I have not seen elsewhere. The article claims The Void’s Ghostbuster Experience at Madame Tussauds New York has sold more than 43,000 tickets since July, which translates to nearly $900,000 in revenue. Up until this point, The Void has been funded by Ken Bretschneider who has already invested millions of his own into the endeavor; (Rumored $12-$15 Million). The Void is now working with the Raine Group, a merchant bank known for its investment in Vice and ties to the William Morris Endeavor talent agency, to raise expansion funding. There are also rumors about mall owners and theme park operators.

    The Void also sees itself as a new draw for dying malls, where anchor stores have been closing. Multiplexes, many of which are overbuilt, could convert auditoriums into stages. Film companies, eager for new ways to market movies and keep franchises alive between chapters, could turn to the Void as well.

    The competition in this arena is building as well. Last week, Imax said it planned to open six V.R. centers this year, some in partnership with AMC Theaters and Regal Entertainment, at a cost of up to $400,000 each, not including real estate. Last December, her in good old Orlando, Zero Latency opened its first installation. I have yet to encounter numbers associated with this arrangement.

    The competition in this new arena is building.  Last week, Imax said it planned to open six V.R. centers this year, some in partnership with AMC Theaters and Regal Entertainment, at a cost of up to $400,000 each, not including real estate. “Virtual reality is a complex ecosystem that’s in need of a jump-start, and we’re here to provide the spark,” said Rich Gelfond, Imax’s chief executive. Also announced last week was Dreamscape Immersive, which hopes to open its first center dedicated to virtual reality experiences in the fall. It has cobbled together $11 million in funding from companies like 21st Century Fox, Westfield Corporation and Warner Bros. Mr. Spielberg is also involved.

    The Void is fairly confident it will be able to stay a leader in this medium due to its three year lead exploring this new technology. I think they may have a point. This is a brand new medium in the realm of trans-media storytelling. All the rules are different and must be explored. The Void has a talented team of form VFX people and stage magicians. Luckily, iMyth is also endowed with talented individuals with considerable experience. With its first prototype, “The Courier”, iMyth now has a foundation with which it can start learning and mastering the nuances of this new field.