Submerged (AVP)

[Devilmaycare]

Check out Submerged if you have the ability too. It's a scripted immersive short by Edward Berger that Apple had made for the Vision Pro. It's about a WW2 sub that's sinking. To be honest, the story and acting are mid in it. Visually though it looks great and is a peak into what immersive video can be. It looks like and gives you the sense that you're in the sub. It's pretty cool in that regard. You can look around and see what you want to see, to an extent, over just watching the main focus point of the scene.

You can tell it's the early days too though and that the Creatives have to learn how to take advantage of the new format and break some old habits. It's "L’Arrivée d’un train en gare de La Ciotat" and not "Unstoppable". It'll take some time and experiments to develop a good film language for it. It's stuff like him using closeups a couple times in it. They don't work as well in immersive as they do in a normal film. It looks odd and breaks the immersion a little bit.

POV also works really well in immersive content and should be utilized more for them. Have the camera be the main character's eyes so that the experiences it as that person. This might sound funny until you watch one. The idea that just hit me is that a War of the Worlds adaptation might work really well here. The book was written from a first person POV so you could do the adaptation in the same manner. Work the stories more in that fashion.

Horror could really get interesting with it. When watching Submerged at one point I thought "image in Kubrick shot the Shinning like this!" Moving around that hotel immersively would have added a whole new level of creepiness to it.

 

[Chaplin]

Immersive virtual reality is fascinating, but there is really no market for it. The Vision Pro is much too pricy and the Meta Quest is much too bulky to become mainstream. I know Apple cancelled their 2nd gen Vision Pro to try to develop a cheaper model. We'll see how that goes.

I actually really love my Meta Quest 3, and some of the immersion is fantastic. They have one game on it that is possibly the best casual game I've ever played on any system, anywhere. It's called Walkabout Mini Golf, and it's breathtakingly good. 28 unique courses, some licensed (there is a Labyrinth and Meow Wolf course). Each course has an easy and hard version, and they are distinct versions of the course. Beat Sabre is super fun and their flagship app, and they do have Youtube that has 360 video, but it's not as immersive as what you are describing above.

But you're right, creators need to figure out how to take advantage of the new format, but with sagging demand and high costs, I'm not sure it will end up going anywhere.

 

[Devilmaycare]

Immersive virtual reality is fascinating, but there is really no market for it. The Vision Pro is much too pricy and the Meta Quest is much too bulky to become mainstream. I know Apple cancelled their 2nd gen Vision Pro to try to develop a cheaper model. We'll see how that goes.

I actually really love my Meta Quest 3, and some of the immersion is fantastic. They have one game on it that is possibly the best casual game I've ever played on any system, anywhere. It's called Walkabout Mini Golf, and it's breathtakingly good. 28 unique courses, some licensed (there is a Labyrinth and Meow Wolf course). Each course has an easy and hard version, and they are distinct versions of the course. Beat Sabre is super fun and their flagship app, and they do have Youtube that has 360 video, but it's not as immersive as what you are describing above.

But you're right, creators need to figure out how to take advantage of the new format, but with sagging demand and high costs, I'm not sure it will end up going anywhere.

Yeah, there's definitely a chicken and the egg problem along with the cost. Getting the headset down in bulk (AVP is as bad as Quest3) and price are going to be keys. It's so sweet though when it's done well.

I have a Quest too and the AVP blows it away in quality. With the Quest, things look really good but not quite as lifelike. Like I don't do well with heights. Using the Quest can slightly trigger it at times. The AVP has a demo of a woman highlining a fjord. I can not watch it. My palms are actually a little balmy right now just typing that.

As for the AVP2, the cancellation rumors weren't really true from what I've heard through some connections. Misinterpreted would be more accurate since they said no AVP2 in 2025. From what I've heard they're planning on doing a Vision model (not Pro) in 2025 that's a cheaper unit and don't have all of the bells and whistles of the Pro. Then come out with AVP2 in 2026. The goal is to cut down the bulk and weight. We'll see how it plays out.

And you're right about Beat Saber. It's the killer game for the Quest. I wish it would get released for the AVP too. Not going to happen though since it's MetaStudios owned. I might be able to do the PC version through PCVR but I'd have to get a PC for that. The game was actually on of the things I used to lose weight and exercise this last year. I have mine hacked and loaded up the Attack on Titan opening songs and they get you moving. About 15 minutes of game time has me sweating and burns about 150 calories. Fun way to do it.