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IMAX Embraces Virtual Reality, To Open Six VR Theaters This Year (theverge.com)

Posted by msmash on from the virtual-reality-is-the-future? dept.

An anonymous reader writes: IMAX is getting into the virtual reality business. Tthe company has announced that it is teaming up with Google to build cinema-quality virtual reality video cameras. It is also planning to launch virtual reality "locations." The cinemas will be opened in shopping malls, much like traditional movie theatres. There are six reportedly planned for this year, including in Los Angeles and China. From the Verge report: IMAX chief executive Richard Gelfond told The WSJ that he imagined that the VR content would be tied to existing movie franchises, that they would last around 10 minutes and cost between $7 and $10. The idea, suggests Gelfond, is to create a VR experience that's better than what you can get at home -- the same way that a movie theater is better than your living room TV.

32 comments

  1. Wow by liqu1d · · Score: 4, Funny

    Up to a dollar per minute. Shall I lube up now?

    1. Re:Wow by charronia · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Might be interesting for people who want try out a VR experience once or twice without dropping a fortune on gear.

    2. Re: Wow by liqu1d · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I did consider that but reading the quote seems to suggest these won't be your everyday VR devices. Besides why pay to test VR when you could walk into a computer shop who'd let you test them for free in the hope of generating a sale.

    3. Re:Wow by SeaFox · · Score: 1

      Up to a dollar per minute. Shall I lube up now?

      Sounds like I need to call a 1-900 number to buy tickets.

    4. Re:Wow by mmell · · Score: 1

      Don't lube up unless instructed to do so. It'll decrease the intensity of the experience.

    5. Re: Wow by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      At $600+ plus for full units (not including the mid- or high-end computer), I doubt there will be many takers.

  2. Oh, I've been waiting for this! by jeffb+(2.718) · · Score: 4, Funny

    Now I can go stagger around and throw up in front of strangers, rather than in the privacy of my home!

    Oh, wait, there are already places for me to do that. They're called "bars".

    1. Re:Oh, I've been waiting for this! by HornWumpus · · Score: 1, Redundant

      Virtual titty bar. Including robotic silicon tits for motorboating and a RC truck full of week old anchovies to drive by when you're sitting in virtual gyno row.

      This post has a date stamp. Prior art for when someone tries to patent the business model.

      --
      John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
    2. Re:Oh, I've been waiting for this! by jeffmflanagan · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Room-scale VR does not cause any motion sickness. It's just seated VR that's a problem to some of us, because our inner-ears tell us that we're sitting still, but the world is moving around us.

      I have a Vive, and have experienced zero sickness while playing room-scale. It's just fast-moving sit-down games like Project Cars that cause a problem.

      There's a lot of potential to group room-scale VR in very large rooms. You can even add tracked props to allow touch.

    3. Re:Oh, I've been waiting for this! by HornWumpus · · Score: 3, Informative

      It's all down to content.

      Of course the headset can make you sick standing up. It can also make you fall on your ass. If it doesn't, it's because the content, more or less, keeps up pointed up.

      --
      John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
    4. Re:Oh, I've been waiting for this! by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1

      Room-scale VR does not cause any motion sickness.

      Oh, it certainly does. It's down to the content. If it looks like you are stood on a moving platform but your inner ear doesn't feel motion, or if the frame rate suddenly drops, it becomes a vomitorium.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    5. Re:Oh, I've been waiting for this! by jeffb+(2.718) · · Score: 1

      Room-scale VR does not cause any motion sickness. It's just seated VR that's a problem to some of us, because our inner-ears tell us that we're sitting still, but the world is moving around us.

      I beg to differ. One of my most memorable VR-sickness experiences was in a three-wall CAVE. Three walls or six doesn't seem to make much difference; once enough of your visual field disagrees with your inner ear, they start to fight, and the loser is always my stomach.

      The problem was that only one of us was tracked as the preferred viewpoint, so perspective and motion were off for the rest of us. Unless everything you're rendering is far enough away that parallax isn't a factor, I don't think there's much you can do about this. (And if everything is that far away in your virtual world, it greatly reduces opportunities for engagement.)

      If you want VR with near-field activity for multiple people, you're pretty much talking head-mounted displays. That, or some sort of volumetric display that doesn't really exist yet.

    6. Re:Oh, I've been waiting for this! by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      Room-scale VR does not cause any motion sickness.

      I general, I do not suffer from real motion sickness. But the first time I saw IMAX shot out of the side of a helicopter, as opposed to from beneath it, I had to close my eyes or urp.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  3. So much better than 3D by Opportunist · · Score: 2

    No more getting motion sickness after an hour, now all it takes is a minute!

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    1. Re:So much better than 3D by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1

      It seems to be based on a misconception anyway. Cinema screens are not better than my TV. They are bigger, but not better.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
  4. But seriously people, let's face it by Opportunist · · Score: 2

    Whether it's 3d, VR or as far as I care smellorama, as long as the movies are simply uninteresting, formulaic and bland, the characters one dimensional and the acting wooden, you can put as much icing as you want on the shitcake, it won't taste any better.

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    1. Re:But seriously people, let's face it by coolmoe2 · · Score: 1
      I wanted you to know that im stealing shitcake from you and making it a thing.

      I don't think I could have made a better post myself. Now days most movie producers would rather spend tons more money on effects then on writers that can... well write a decent story. I had an ex boss that used to call it "polishing a turd".

    2. Re:But seriously people, let's face it by Opportunist · · Score: 1

      Take what you want, but don't tell me how it tasted, ok?

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  5. Caveat emptor by PrimeNumber · · Score: 0

    Since this involves Google, be prepared to give up some type of personal information for the privilege of paying to refine their VR hardware.

  6. BYOVB by ThatsNotPudding · · Score: 1

    Bring Your Own Vomit Bucket

  7. Um, so... Problem? by EvilSS · · Score: 1, Flamebait

    I really hate to be "that guy" since I'm actually pretty excited for what VR can bring to entertainment but... A room full of people with VR headsets on who can't see the room around them. I am not looking forward to the first time some crazy decides to shoot one of these up. Or one of them has a major fire or other emergency.

    "Wow Bob, the surround sound is amazing. Those gunshots sound so real! Wait, why are their gunshots in Fried Green Tomatoes 2? Bob?.... Bob?"

    --
    I browse on +1 so AC's need not respond, I won't see it.
    1. Re:Um, so... Problem? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Sadly, just about everyone left at Slashdot is "that guy" these days. If anyone wants a negative spin on any technology, this is the place to go.

    2. Re:Um, so... Problem? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Sadly, just about everyone left at Slashdot is "that guy" these days. If anyone wants a negative spin on any technology, this is the place to go.

      It's getting as bad as DPReview, and that place can find a way to shit on literally anything.

    3. Re:Um, so... Problem? by EvilSS · · Score: 2

      Sadly, just about everyone left at Slashdot is "that guy" these days. If anyone wants a negative spin on any technology, this is the place to go.

      Yea I kind of hate that this was the first thing I thought of. I have to agree with you, it's become very anti-technology, anti-science, anti-society around lately.

      --
      I browse on +1 so AC's need not respond, I won't see it.
  8. Holodeck by friedmud · · Score: 1

    I really hope they don't do it from a single perspective with an ability to move around. I would definitely pay for 10 minutes of walking around inside of a movie within a 15 ft x 15 ft space. That would be truly awesome.

  9. cinema better than home? by Pax681 · · Score: 1

    I'd rather be at home with my projector or 50 inch TV to be honest.
    fuck all those noisy bastards in the cinema who talk clatter,block your view and generally fuck things up for the likes of me... someone who likes to sit and watch something without interruptions
    yeah yeah I'm a grumpy old shit... now get the fuck off my lawn! :P

    1. Re: cinema better than home? by The_Revelation · · Score: 1

      Yeah, its not even the otger people. There is something about the cinema screen that is too big. It makes the image really difficult to track with your eyes. Also, so many artefacts are added to fuck up the cam recorders that the quality of the image is rubbish. I constantly ask myself âoedo i watch for free at home, or pay a premium for an inferior product?â

  10. This will be the biggest thing since 3D movies! by JoeyRox · · Score: 1

    oops.

  11. [Citation needed.] by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    the same way that a movie theater is better than your living room TV.

    The same way people use their cell phones through the whole movie? The same way concessions and admission for two is approximately $50 US? The same way the volume is just too damn high?

    The movie theater is an awful place.

  12. trailers by kwoff · · Score: 1

    "he imagined that the VR content would be tied to existing movie franchises", "last around 10 minutes and cost between $7 and $10", with advertising giant Google's support. You'll be paying for trailers.

  13. I liked this part by fyngyrz · · Score: 1

    the same way that a movie theater is better than your living room TV.

    Like crying infants? Disease-ridden theatergoers? Uncomfortable seating? Deluges of bad ads? Bathroom half a football field away with no pause button? Like that?

    Nope. I'll stick with my awesome home theater, thanks.

    --
    I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
  14. "the same way that a movie theater is better..." by jjn1056 · · Score: 1

    "...than your living room TV."

    Which part is that, the part where I pay $20 for smelly nacho's or the part where I get to enjoy my movie in crappy seats surrounded by rude louts?

    I can't figure there is a single part of the movie theatre experience that I miss at all.

    --
    Peace, or Not?