My Travels in the Magnificent Universe: The Boundary Between Real Blur and Virtual

After teleporting with a puff of blue smoke and teleporting to the vast and stunning reenactment of the Ministry of Magic, I realized I was on the elevator. Or something like one. It was before I rocked the hallways and rooms, and the characters spoke to me from paintings and posters, but seemed to fly and wander around the magical world simulation. Or maybe it was real. Or maybe it was both. When the characters appeared, cleaned, and the vast space filled with details, I thought, “Is it a screen? Or is it an animatronic?

I spent a lot of time with virtual technology. Headset It tries to mix reality Comes with high resolution display, Glasses that show things Create sounds that are in front of me or not there. At its best moment, Universal’s latest theme park, The magnificent universeLocated in the theme park Mecca in Orlando, Florida, I was also fooled by the mix of virtual and reality.

Universal’s latest theme park is a highly imaginative stake that has made the world’s ante more odd and immersive. The rides are more intense, the screens are everywhere, and theme parkland has been hoping for a full escape journey into bubble space for many years. Star Wars Galaxy Edge Disney Parks will be introducing all the Harry Potter parts of Universal that already exist, as well as the Hyper’s biggest surrealism installations. Like Meow Wolf. And VR and mixed reality.

Immersion, improvement

We came to preview the epic universe ahead of the opening with colleague Bridget Carrey on May 22nd. Because I was very interested in the fact that a full-scale, multi-billion dollar groundup rethinking of theme park formulas could take more of the immersive ideas into places where technology plays a bigger role.

I can’t say I have all the answers yet, but what struck me most after speeding up most of the major attractions and passing through the portal tunnels into each of the four self-contained subworlds of the park, was how these screens have improved. These robots are getting better. The line between virtual and real is thinner. The formula is even more delicate.

Again, the screens were everywhere and I was captivated by them. Many of the Epic Universe rides use no screen technology at all, including the incredibly fast Stardust Racer and the fast coasters like the Nintendo World’s Loba Kong Mine Cart Madness.

Perhaps the two shows I saw that were the most surprising. The impossible-trainable dragon in the way of training the Dragon-themed Bark Island, and Silk Arcanas in the Ministry of Magic in the Magic World.

Rather than abandoning spoilers, both shows are filled with dragons and magical creatures appearing on a massive scale in every direction. Sometimes they’re animatronics-based… I think. Sometimes they are dolls. Sometimes they are a great mechanical stage piece. And sometimes, they are part of the display that covers the set. The handoff between one effect and another felt like a magic trick and was cleverly choreographed. And there were many moments when I didn’t know where the handoff was. I just let go and enjoyed it for its magical show.

Theme parks as testbeds for new technology

Magic tricks continue outside of the vehicle too. A stunning robotic version of how to train a dragon’s teeth is waiting for guests to come and keep it. A little further apart, a baby dragon, darts – a walking robot – pads small feet and attracts a large crowd. Another dragon passes by, but this is a puppet show. It’s also supercharging. (The dragon also sticks its head out of the stable, but slowly wagging its tail at those sleeping.)

It is also the size of the world. Entering through the enclosed portal tunnel, you can drop your chin when you spot a massive, sometimes shocking spread of detail. My first entrance into the Mushroom Kingdom of Magic Ministries Paristoscape or Super Nintendo’s world, gave me a goofy smile and thought, “God, they did that.” Designing means there’s too much to incorporate that into.

I practice magic for fun. Magic as an art often thinks of the effect first, then inventing multiple techniques to get there. The theme park design feels the same. As long as you find it amazingly adorable, it doesn’t matter how you create an amazingly adorable dragon.

As a technology reviewer, I’m always looking at devices with certain features and using them to play magic. Theme parks can be selected here using the AR headset (Nintendo’s Mario Kurt: Bowser’s Challengefeatures a snap-on AR display visor that displays ghost video game characters on track), Bluetooth wearable (power-up band that taps a part of Nintendo’s world scenery and taps a part of the mini-game), infrared (you can play Wizard World Wand), and facial scunning (uses cameras instead of camera recognition.

Sometimes seams appear and become awkward. Face recognition can be slow and I don’t always love pairing it with wearables and scary theme park apps that don’t explain as much as what you need. But I love to see theme parks. Because they are self-contained spaces for exploring new technologies in a completely controlled way, making them a testbed that the real world can’t do that easily.

But where things feel the most seamless right now is where rides and shows meet the support of screen and blending technology. The battle for the most complicated charm of the epic universe, the Ministry of Magic Ride, stopped midway through the first ride with technical issues before reopening in a few minutes. It was to temporarily break the illusion before things came back and we were wiped out again.

The more pieces of an immersive experience, the more likely it is that things don’t go well. Disney’s most advanced Star Wars attractions, Increased resistanceit is known for shutting down periodically or for certain parts to not function completely. It is unclear what Universal’s track record will look like for these latest groundbreaking experiences.

Mixed Reality Emotions

My favorite moment at the Epic Universe was just a moment when all the devices were left behind and transported. It’s not easy on press preview days. It also constantly captures videos and photos and moves forward to incorporate the next attraction with fast-firing clips. I continued to try to be “there” more, take breaks as much as I could, make phone calls and wear them. Metarayban glasses Just look around and wander. Record it.

This park is made to lose yourself in these elaborate worlds and check out small details – Pikmin hiding on the shelves of the world of Super Nintendo, windows of witches’ Paris shops, jars of eyeballs and other pickled pieces, and abandoned wagons in the dark universe. Or a small performance from real people: an evil violinist who warns us of strange things and then leaves like crazy, or a proud dragon trainer on Berk Island.

It goes back to 2016I said I felt that my real-world immersive theatrical experience in New York was more similar to virtual reality than any of the headsets I wore that year. 2018I felt that way about how another theatre experience simulated AR, and in 2023, Meow Wolf It gave me the idea of ​​Metaverse. Deeper than a high-tech company can do.

Art and entertainment can sometimes model the future with real technology and other times magic tricks and a little theatre. At its finest moments, the epic universe made me feel like the mixed reality blend is more sophisticated than any headset. And when it comes to Mario Kart’s AR visor glasses, my favorite ride was just my favorite ride, using the world around me, and using reality in a nearly invisible way.

But the best thing I tried was also the ones I couldn’t take any photos or videos. With the exception of rides, you can record everything in the park and show yourself. That was a shame, but I don’t think recording it would help explain how you feel at the moment.

I’m used to it with experience with immersive technologies like VR and AR. Getting into the headset is completely different to the capture you see on the screen. Probably the same. I had to leave my device in my pocket or locker, take everything with my own eyes, and remember it like the best magic tricks I wanted to do later, or because the illusion created it for me. I thought about them later and wondered, “How did they do that?”

The Magnificent Universe: A Super-Rechargeable Escape from Reality

Just like the epic universe, it is also a theme park created in traditional modes. The “hub and spoke” design repeats the classic model dating back to Disneyland. I love it if the theme park can break the mold even further and become very experimental, but I don’t know if that will happen at the price of creating a theme park.

All the lands in the epic universe are based on extremely powerful intellectual property, known films, monsters and games. This excludes a celestial park with a relaxed steampunk Atlantis atmosphere filled with gardens, fountains and statues. But it also works like an immersive palate cleanser during deep dives, where to reset, and perhaps decompression. Epic feels like a supercharged, rebooted approach to escape reality and go elsewhere through the portal, sometimes somewhere within the portal.

And now, back again, I discovered that my memory of it has become stronger than my first experience. It feels more legendary, it’s probably the whole idea. I want to transport it. And yes, that’s the top of my list of next family vacations. It’s expensive, but the park is clearly a big thing to visit now and has won its prize.

Some mixed reality experiences with headsets are beginning to step up to ideas that get closer to being this transport. But Epic’s improved technology is a reminder of how better the blend has already become. AR visor technology from Mario Kart, already 4 years ago Since debuting in Japan in 2021I wondered what would come next. If the epic universe is any indication, we are just at the beginning of the blend.