Do you remember virtual reality? It doesn’t seem that long ago that VR was the buzzword on everyone’s lips in tech, but recently you’d be forgiven for thinking it was just another sudden technology. That is not the case, but it is true that it is going through a kind of pause in the hype phase. That’s because we’re right now between major new hardware releases and Zuckerberg has scared people off by talking about creating the Metaverse, where we’ll be spending all of our time working and playing in VR, which is something people like to write about. about and nobody wants.
So perhaps it’s a tough time for DNA VR in London to reopen the doors of its Camden headquarters, which had to close due to the pandemic. First founded in London in 2016, DNA VR aims to combine the physical and the virtual and make VR an arcade experience, like a destination you’d like to go to with friends or colleagues. I went down, along with a couple of teenage VR fans, to check it out.
DNA VR is an arcade experience with three locations in London.
DNA VR in Camden is at the bottom of a flight of stairs that leads to a series of minimalist, windowless rooms. PCs with see-through side windows line shelves high on the walls, and in every room you’ll find VR headsets and associated gear ready to go.
For tech types, the PC spec is high, if not outright cutting-edge: I could see the visible Nvidia GeForce 2080 graphics card. The headsets are HTC Vive Pro with wireless packages, so it doesn’t have to be connected to PCs.
This is important for the first title we tested called plague of pirates, which is a “free roaming” game that allows you to interact in the same space with up to three other people. This makes the biggest difference compared to playing with your friends in VR from the comfort of your own home. While you might be able to move around, there’s little chance of literally bumping into whoever you’re playing. In this game, the ability to do this is a good thing.
In pirate plague, each of you takes on the role of a pirate, and one of you is the captain. You appear on the deck of a pirate ship, and are soon attacked by another approaching ship, followed by sea monsters (resembling the Sea Devils from Doctor Who). There’s a cannon on deck, along with cannonballs and lighters to light the cannons, which they can pick up and pass to each other. You have to load the cannons, turn them on and then aim them at the attacking ship. This works best when you’re working as a team, and we briefly had a good flow, with me as the Captain directing the others to load, power up and aim.
DNA VR uses HTC Vive Pro headset
Things fell apart a bit when the monsters appeared on the side and started throwing grenades over the edge, which you have to crouch down and throw over the side. You can also take a sword and attack the monsters trying to board. However, when a grenade explodes, your virtual hands become twisted, so you can’t load a cannon or wield a sword, slowing you down.
Next. we got into a horror game, called Hospital of Horror, which wasn’t particularly horrible but gave me one of the most vivid moments I’ve ever experienced in VR, where the floor falls off and you have to navigate a narrow wooden beam that’s left to avoid. I would have enjoyed seeming to walk on solid ground like I was about to fall to my doom.
As you play these games, the staff are monitoring you and can advise you if you’re stuck on a puzzle and can come in and fix any technical issues. There were a couple of these while we were playing. Once, one of us wasn’t the same height as everyone else within the game, but this wasn’t considered a problem, and when I crouched down to pick up cannonballs from the ground, my screen would occasionally ” bleached”. so he was advised to crouch down instead of leaning forward.
After this, we explore more conventional arcade experiences, where you stand in separate booths, even if you’re in the same game. I competed against the aforementioned teens in Synth Riders, where you have to hit balls and squirt them into the air to the beat of the beat. It’s similar to Beat Saber, which I had heard of but never played and thought was pretty excellent, only to find myself chubby last – it seems like the young outweigh the old in this one. The same thing happened in Skyfront, where you fly around a space shooting at yourself in a 3D laser tag.
While you are in the game, the staff will monitor your gameplay and give you hints and tips. they definitely are … [+]
My favorite game turned out to be Clash of Chefs, a cartoon-style game set in a food stall, where you have to work together to prepare meals for hungry customers against the clock.
After our time was up, I emerged back into the real world a bit out of breath. While I think it might struggle in the hot summer months, DNA VR will be a great choice when you want to do something with friends indoors, while the team building experience aspects make it a good choice for businesses. looking for something a little different.
As a technology, VR is good enough to make a place like this worthwhile, but it’s clear the technology has a long way to go to make it more appealing to the less dedicated. The resolution needs to be doubled, the latency needs to be reduced, the field of view needs to be expanded, and at the same time the hardware needs to become lighter. It is a series of complex and competitive technical demands that will make it a challenge to achieve.
VR is still in its infancy, and it’s similar to where 3D graphics were in the early 90’s in my opinion, but this is what makes it so exciting. He is at the beginning of his journey and I look forward to seeing how he evolves. In the meantime, places like DNA VR are worth checking out as a fun alternative to more conventional fare.