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At the SXSW film festival, I took a detour to the Game of Thrones exhibition at the Austin
Music Hall. Among all the memorabilia from this popular HBO show, I waited in line for
2 hours for the main attraction: A virtual reality experience that took me inside Castle
Black, the fortress that protects Westeros from the wildlings beyond the wall.
This was my first time wearing an Oculus Rift, a headset that uses gyros and accelerometers
to know exactly where I'm looking and change perspective accordingly. I didn't notice any
delay, so it's an incredibly immersive, convincing 3D experience, especially when they add headphones
and blow wind on me. The demo is called "Ascend the Wall," and it takes me on a rickety elevator
ride up 700 feet to the top of the white wall. When I tried to take a step forward, I was
immediately disoriented because the camera position isn't designed to move. Just turn.
This first version of the Oculus Rift display presents 720 video, not 1080 like the new
prototype. Which means, it's kinda like having a visible screen on top of the image. I imagine
4K would be much more realistic, but when you watch people clutch the edges of the cage
or scream, you know it's very convincing. That's a testament to how responsive the headset
is to your movements, and the power of good sound for selling an experience. It's funny,
once it was over, I was pretty sure I was facing the front of the cage, but I was completely
turned around. The Oculus Rift certainly transports you to other worlds. Once it becomes a consumer
product, it'll be really cool to see what kind of games are developed for it.
Thanks for watching, and if you'd like to be transported to SXSW, check out this over
the shoulder video I made at last year's film festival! Plus, as I travel to several film
festivals over the next month, follow me on Twitter on Instagram where I share a lot of
real-time updates.