#360 vr

When you think “virtual reality,” what do you think of?  

For me—and here’s where I date myself as an old fogey to my younger followers—it’s The Matrix, Star Trek’s Holodeck, that room in Floop’s house in Spy Kids, and movies about the dangers of virtual reality becoming “too good” like 1999’s eXistenZ. It’s also those paper red-and-blue 3D glasses and sitting at the theatre like

So when Google Cardboard came out I was like

I got a Google Cardboard-compatible headset for $50, which I’m 100% sure will look hilariously outdated soon enough. It looks a lot like the one Stephen Colbert has been seen wearing:

...Except mine’s not fancy: I’m a Millennial who just graduated from my grad studies; having money’s a foreign concept to me.

But oh wow, guys.

THIS IS FRICKIN’ AWESOME.

The first Cardboard experience I had was a simple “tour” of Versailles where you can see a few 360° views of rooms. It felt so much like I was there, that I tried walking around and tripped over my desk chair. To save everyone (and their knees) the trouble: walking around doesn’t affect anything you’re seeing. It’s looking around, up, or down that does. In my headset’s case, you can “walk” by pressing a button on the side. I’m sure there must be better controllers for gaming, which leads me to the second experience I tried.

It was kind of like the satellite mode on Google Maps but immersive. After getting myself lost somewhere off the coast of France and temporarily panicking over being stuck over the open ocean, I flew around over a couple of cities. It felt like watching those epic sweeping shots in movies, like the scene in Dinosaur when the pterodactyl soars over canyons and rivers. Which may be why I started loudly singing the intro to Jurassic Park while “flying” through a canyon, leading my mom to let out a muttered snort of “Oh God” from the living room.

There’s a lot of stuff you can do with a VR set out there, especially considering Cardboard is still in its baby days. I took part in a Holi celebration in India (which I’ve always wanted to do—it looks so fun!) and watched a trippy ballet video by the Pacific Northwest Ballet.

But my favourite by far was a 360° video on YouTube of an ice cave near Whistler, BC. It had me gaping mesmerized with awe at the indescribably beautiful tones of blue ice “above” me while my mom kept going “No, no! Look DOWN! You get to see some rocks rolling by in the meltwater!”. I tried to watch the rocks, but kept gazing back up at the ice. I could stare it all day, especially since I get the upside of the beauty without actually feeling any of the cold! (Sorry, that’s an automatic consideration you think of when you’re Canadian :P).

In short, virtual reality looks like it‘s shaping up to be as cool (and inevitably weird) as we’d expect it to be. Which is nice, considering the sore disappointment at the continuing lack of flying cars, hoverboards, and jetpacks we were promised would be a thing by the year 2000.

8K Extreme Render Test Minecraft 360° VR

If you like my videos, please share them with your friends