If there’s a bright center to the virtual reality universe, you’re about to get the chance to enter the experience that it’s farthest from.
Trials on Tatooine is one of the first commercial virtual reality experiences featuring the Star Wars universe. Lucasfilm’s venerable effects outfit Industrial Light and Magic built this game in its ILMxLab division with the hopes of bringing storytelling to new mediums. The software works with HTC and Valve’s Steam VR-powered HTC Vive, and it has players interacting with R2-D2, wielding a lightsaber, and avoiding stormtrooper fire (hint: stand still so you don’t accidentally wander into one of their stray shots).
Analysts at tech advisor Digi-Capital think the VR business could grow to $30 billion in spending by 2020, and a simulated binary sunset over the dunes of Tatooine is something that could push that market to grow at a rapid pace.
Check out the trailer for Star Wars: Trials on Tatooine below:
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This isn’t ILMxLab’s first attempt at VR. The company has messed around with the technology for months, and it is even pushing the boundaries of what is possible in augmented reality, which mixes together digital images with the real world.
With Industrial LIght and Magic pushing into new, unexplored fields, the company is looking for help from capable people who can help it understand these new technologies. To aid in that search, it launched a new video today that shows off what it’s working on while asking for qualified candidates to “join the Force.”
As part of the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco this week, ILMxLab is giving a talk about “bringing cinematic VR to life.” That panel begins at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, and it will appear online as a video-on-demand in a few months.
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