Industrial Light & Magic explains why punching R2-D2 is crucial to VR

Creating a virtual reality experience isn’t like making other video games because you have to consider so many other details … like the sound R2-D2 makes when you slap him.

Industrial Light & Magic, the Hollywood special effects house responsible for the visuals in Star Wars and many other blockbusters, gave a presentation at the Game Developers Conference this week. It talked about the importance of making simulated environments interactive. ILMxLab, the company’s VR and AR division, has a new Star Wars “cinematic experiment” for HTC’s Vive head-mounted display. While making that game, the company discovered that it people loved banging on an old ship component or R2-D2. The demo would respond with a satisfying sound effect and rumbling from the controller.

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ILMxLab boss Rob Bredow said that his team would see people reach out and try to hit things like boxes, the Millennium Falcon, and R2-D2 during their tests. Nothing would happen. Bredow and his team realized that they should deliver something in those situations for the player.

“With a little bit of haptics and a simple sound effect, you give people a deep level of immersion,” he said. “When users discover this, they come away satisfied.”

Bedrow then showed a clip of someone using the HTC Vive’s motion controllers to slap R2-D2. His dome gave off a resounding thud, and it really looked like the controller was interacting with the digital character.

It’s these types of tricks that’ll convince people that VR is something different and special.