Riders on roller coaster wearing Oculus Rift

Some riders got to wear an Oculus Rift, a virtual reality headset while ridng a roller coaster. The images projected into the headset showed something like the user riding a spaceship or a horse which would coincide with the coaster movements. It looks pretty cool.

Looks fun, and I'd love to try it. But I think I would prefer the real life coaster.

We'd have to be talking some Michael Bay (yes I know, but still) style animation and graphics to make me suspend my disbelief. The few images shown in the video just looked kind of lame.

I'm having trouble wrapping my brain around the idea of riding a virtual ride whilst riding an actual ride. Why?

What park is going to slow their operating times to do this full time?

I think what they were trying to do was get the best possible "feel" for roller coaster motion and then took that roller coaster movement they recorded and applied it to other possible titles for Oculus. That's how I was understanding it.

Upcharge for Oculus Rift. Lower capacity means longer lines which means increased sale of front of the line passes. Double win for the park. :)

Bunky666, that makes sense. Thanks.

Does anyone remember the old roller coaster specials in which this kind of thing was always brought up as the future of roller coasters. There for a while, every time you saw a show about coasters on TV, they had to mention it, usually in the last segment of the show. And every time it was mentioned, I looked to the sky, folded my hands together in prayer, and begged God to not let this idea take hold of the public's desires.

The idea looks cool enough, but really, who really wants to allow VR gear to get between you and a roller coaster? The experience of riding a coaster is already good enough that this is a step backwards, in my opinion. Of course it could immerse the rider into a theme that one could not get without the VR gear, like riding a dragon or taking a ride in a flying saucer, but to me it is just gimmicky and unnecessary. Roller coasters offer an experience that are already exciting just the way they are. This kind of technology just hides the actual experience instead of heightening it.

I just want an Oculus Rift so I can ride at least virtual coasters in the off season. Not the same thing, but I'll take what I can get.

I have to agree with Travis on this. I don't even like soundtracks on coasters, as I felt that they detracted from rather than enhanced the ride experience, and was glad when they removed the speakers from Bizarro SFNE and Bizarro SFGAD. Oculus Rift on Kingda Ka would be my worst nightmare!

I'll wait for Universal to remake Transformers in a few years, introducing....

Oculus Prime!

I wouldn't mind trying this on Millennium Force or Maverick. I think Oculus is cool, but I think it will just be a fad. Sony is making Project Morpheus for PS4 and Samsung is now coming out with a VR device.

See also, "You kids get off my lawn!"

slithernoggin said:

I'm having trouble wrapping my brain around the idea of riding a virtual ride whilst riding an actual ride. Why?

I think it spawns a little black hole somewhere every time someone does it.

I'd be throwing up in that little black hole. I don't think I could handle a virtual/augmented ride.

SF is working on a project using this technology for one of their parks and if everything goes well an announcement will be coming in March.

^"One of their parks"?

The first thought that comes to mind is the new Sally-brand Justice League rides...but those are going in to two parks. Hmmmmm.....

Josh said something that made me want to comment about this. How aould they get the movement that the riders actually feel to perfectly mimic the movements on the screen? It could probably be done somehow, but it sounds difficult enough that it probably would not be done. It actual movements do not go perfectly with what is seen, people will get sick.

I agree that synchronization would have to be perfect every single time, I would think. Not sure you could guarantee that happening.

I am not interested in this concept at all.

I want to see a ride where the virtual portion is a completely different ride than the actual coaster. I don't want to ride such a ride, but I think it would provide a decent economical boost to the surrounding area as it would create a lot of janitorial positions.